King Charles III apparently has a very different take on the Queen’s role as a mother than his siblings.
Queen Elizabeth became a mother more than 70 years ago.
Queen Elizabeth welcomed her first son Prince Charles in 1948. Next, she gave birth to Princess Anne in 1950. Just three years before Elizabeth was thrust into one of the most prominent positions in the world as the reigning monarch of Great Britain. After her first two Royal children, Queen Elizabeth waited more than a decade before having more. She and Prince Philip welcomed Prince Andrew in 1960 and Prince Edward in 1964.
Prince Charles: The relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles has been a source of much fascination and debate. Queen Elizabeth’s official royal duties fell on her while her children were still quite young. Elizabeth was part of a generation and class that routinely left the daily care of small children in the hands of their household staff.
Also read: Watch this hilarious video of Queen Elizabeth running to save a young Prince William.
This led to suggestions that Charles did not form a strong bond with his mother as he had with his nannies and his beloved grandmother. Prince Charles was very much close to his grandmother, the Queen Mother.
In 2013, some private letters revealed that she had tried to persuade her daughter and son-in-law to send young Charles to Eton. That is because it was closer to London, rather than send him to Gordonstoun School in Scotland, where he was eventually educated.
Princess Anne: Queen Elizabeth’s only daughter has publicly opposed the opinion that her mother was not as caring or involved as she perhaps should have been.
Princess Anne was quoted saying: “I simply don’t believe there is any evidence whatsoever to suggest that she wasn’t caring as much as it was needed. It just beggars belief”. With her love of horses, Princess Anne developed a close and warm relationship with her mother during her teenage years. She even used to give her fashion and beauty tips”.
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Prince Andrew: There is an almost 12-year gap between Queen Elizabeth and Duke’s first and third children. By the time Prince Andrew was born, Queen had been on the throne for eight years. As Lacy notes, “evidence suggests she became warmer and more flexible as time went by. She also stepped back from her Royal duties to spend more time with her young children”.
“Early in the 1960s, the Queen decided that she had done her duty to her country. Then she took the best part of 18 months off work to produce and enjoy her ‘second family”.
Prince Edward: Her Majesty’s youngest child was born just a few years later in 1964. “In the late 1960s, the Royal Family allowed cameras into their home for a BBC documentary. To our surprise, British people got to see their Queen as a playful mother relaxing with her children”, said Lacy. That program included footage of Queen Elizabeth sweetly holding her youngest son’s hand while the family took a walk around the grounds of Windsor Castle.
Queen Elizabeth indeed maintained a close relationship with her fourth child. On Queen Elizabeth’s birthday, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie told The Royal UK that, they continue to spend time with the Queen on most weekends. They also said that she was actively a part of her grandchildren’s lives.
Also read: Queen Elizabeth reveals why Princess Anne never went to university.
Would she have mothered her children differently if she had the chance? As one of her close friends has said, Elizabeth was rather scared of parenting when she started out. She’d not been taught it by her own mother. But as she grew into the job, her successive children helped remove all her fears.
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