Queen Mother's Harsh Nickname For Prince Philip Had A Deeper Meaning Than You Realized
If you watched the first season of The Crown, you probably already know that Prince Philip didn't exactly ease right into his new official role when Elizabeth was made Queen ahead of schedule. But new details seem to indicate that, if anything, the show downplayed Philip's prickly relationship with his in-laws. The Queen Mother had a particularly brutal nickname for her son-in-law. Before you judge her too harshly, Kinsey Schofield, founder of ToDiForDaily.com, a website about the British royal family, tells Nicki Swift that there was more going on psychologically than meets the eye.
Philip, who has strong German ties by birth, was viewed with suspicion by the royal household, according to a royal historian quoted in The Express. He was so disliked, the Queen Mother was said to refer to him as "The Hun." Ouch.
"Truth be told, the Queen Mother had an arsenal of cringe-worthy nicknames behind closed doors," Schofield clarifies, adding some contextual details about the family's dynamics and history that paint a more nuanced picture.
"When it comes to Prince Philip, their relationship drastically changed when King George VI suddenly died. The King called their family 'us four' and was devastated when Princess Elizabeth married Philip, not because they didn't like him, but because they loved the chemistry of their tight knit family and didn't want anything to change," Schofield explained.
Royals! They're (almost) just like us!
The Queen Mother had a hard time adjusting to the new dynamic
After the death of King George IV, changes to the royal family's dynamic got a lot more drastic.
Kinsey Schofield tells Nicki Swift that the Queen Mother was forced to move out of Buckingham Palace while Queen Elizabeth and Philip were forced to move in, which made nobody happy. "This sent the Queen Mother into sobs that embarrassed her so much, she later apologized to Queen Elizabeth," Schofield said.
Meanwhile, Philip was attempting other changes that rubbed the royals the wrong way. "He wanted his family to take his last name, there was push back from Queen Elizabeth's family, he found some of the palace staff's chores archaic," explained Schofield. "While Prince Philip took a lot of L's, he just wanted to feel included and he wanted to contribute and to some, his ambitions seemed more like a problem than a solution."
She added that the Queen Mother's Private Secretary Tommy Lascelles, who had worked with King George IV, didn't help matters. "They thought Prince Philip was somewhat of a troublemaker."
Most of all, Schofield thinks the Queen Mother simply had a hard time accepting her new position (not unlike Philip himself). "But in general it was hard for the Queen Mother to come to terms with her new reality. Ranking-wise, Queen Elizabeth and her consort (Prince Philip) took precedence over her now. This was simply a hard pill for her to swallow." Families, right?