We all have memories of childhood. Some are good, some are bad; but we definitely all have them. I’m sure that for most of us, many memories feature the school summer holidays. In my memories the colours of green and blue seem strangely vivid and bright and they all seem to feature being outside. It got us all thinking what Queen Liz’s childhood was like. Where did William and Harry play? What did the royals, the rich and famous play with? Did they all have designer toddler specific hummers like Brooklyn Beckham? Or were they (hopefully) a bit more like us?
So we started checking and it wasn’t as easy as we thought to find out what we wanted. We could find out where they went to school and such like but our big questions revolved around what their life was like.
We decided to start way back when to get some perspective on things. Surely Queen Elizabeth II would have a massively different childhood to Queen Elizabeth I? Our research seemed to point otherwise.
At first glance, despite being born some 390 years apart (1533 and 1926 respectively), both Queens seem to have a remarkably similar upbringing.
They were both educated privately and looked after by governesses (ladies Crawford and Bryan) rather than their parents.
Their teachers were some of the top people in their field including the provosts of Eton and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
They lived in palatial surroundings, yet were raised in times of severe financial hardship for the British people (Windsor Castle, Hampton Court and Buckingham Palace)
They also had all the fineries expected of their position including their own dressmakers and servants.
Tickets to Windsor Castle
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Despite this their lives as youngsters do seem to have been remarkably different. While Queen Elizabeth I spent her early life almost totally away from her parents (she stayed at Hatfield House, while King Henry VII was at Hampton Court). Our Queen however stayed with her parents and has stayed particularly fond of her childhood homes of Windsor and Balmoral. In fact while our Queen’s parents were away on Royal tours she stayed with her grandparents (the then King and Queen).
In today’s age of documentation and libraries, we can see records of Liz II’s live of horses and dogs, pillow fights and hide and seek. We can read of her love of history and language as well and her still used nickname of Lillibet.
There may be two key differences that allowed Lillibet to flourish. The first is the fact that she was not born to be Queen (only the Abdication of her uncle propelled her up the line of succession). The other is the presence of a (slightly more wayward) sister. Whereas Tudor Elizabeth has her sister beheaded, our Liz had Princess Margaret. a playfriend, companion and confidant all rolled into one.
Not that all was rosy for our Lillibet in her younger years, she was a teenager during the war years and even saved up her ration tokens to pay for her wedding dress. She finished the war years enrolling in the army at the age of 18.
Times seemed to have moved for her own children and grandchildren. Educated at a combination of Gordonstoun, Eton, Cambridge and St Andrews & Exeter University they seem to much closer to the common people than their esteemed predecessors. Princes’ William and Harry even attended Mrs. Jane Mynors' nursery school in their very young years.
In the end we found two key memories of childhood that perfectly show of the differences in the childhoods of previous monarchs and those groomed for the future.
On permanent exhibition at Windsor castle is Queen Mary’s dolls house. It was built in the 1920’s and designed by the famous architect Edward Lutyens at the royal academy. It is over 3 ft tall and all the objects actually work. There is actual beer in the beer bottles, the china really is Royal Doulton, the toilet actually flushes, the light bulbs work and the library books were actually written by Rudyard Kipling.
Fast forward 70 years to the 1990’s and one of the most famous photos of Princess Diana and her children was taken on the log flume at Thorpe Park. Now I know which one I would prefer to do.
Related Article: Where are all the Royal bones buried?
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id love to have a house like this and dress up and wear pearls, ooooo just think you could even get away with wearing massive wigs like dolly Parton. how exciting. i think id cover my self in those black beauty spots then when i was drunk get people to play dot to dot on me.
hmmmm to live like the others
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Posted by: joanna crook | 19/06/2008 at 11:02 AM