Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are now visiting Canada, a visit arranged after it became embarrassing to note that he had not been invited to our country in eight years.
The visit brings to mind the great love for this country exhibited by his grandmother. During the 1980s, the late Queen Mother was regularly in Canada, making several visits, capped off by her 1989 trip, celebrating the half-century since the historic 1939 visit she made with her husband, King George VI. The Canadian government asked for more visits, but Queen Elizabeth II decided that her mother’s overseas travelling days were over.
William Shawcross has just published an official biography of the woman, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The book is a veritable brick at almost 1,000 pages of what is best considered an annotated appointment diary. He plods on from plaque unveiling to flower show, giving as much attention to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, as he does to the Queen Mum’s annual lunch for the Eton Beagles. For a woman who lived one of the 20th century’s most interesting lives, the official biography captures all of the details but little of the drama.
There are some interesting bits about Canada, her favourite destination. Of the coast-to-coast visit on the eve of the Second World War — the first visit by a British sovereign to his Dominions — the Queen Mum said: “This has made us.”
She and King George VI left Britain for Canada and the United States with some trepidation, but returned triumphant. The trip demonstrated that the unexpected reign of her husband would not be an accidental one. King George, previously the Duke of York, had acceded to the throne only after his brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated in order to marry Mrs. Wallis Simpson.
“I also think it essential for [Queen Mary] to remain outside any controversy,” the then-Duchess of York wrote on the abdication controversy. Queen Mary, Edward VIII’s mother, was aghast that he would abdicate to marry the unsuitable Mrs. Simpson. “She must be above everything, and her calm and dignity will prove to the people the futility of the cheap Press.”
To be above everything with calm and dignity aptly describes how Elizabeth would conduct herself for 16 years as queen consort, and 50 years as Queen Mother. Shawcross has produced a dull tale of an adventurous life because she knew duty and discretion above all. Her private letters reveal a wife and subject, a sovereign and mother, a widow and grandmother to the nation, in which public duty and private virtue were twin parts of a coherent life. Faithfully going about one’s duty does not engage, as it were, the cheap press.
In contrast, the Prince of Wales has been fodder for scandalous tales of a rather less accomplished life. The saga of the Prince, Princess and Mistress of Wales brought the monarchy to the edge of ruin in the 1990s. Charles and Diana decided to do their worst in a scorched-earth battle: to tell the truth about each other. Candour can be fatal for those of shabby character. A woman of real character, the Queen Mother, is quoted on that matter as simply saying, “It is not a good idea to talk about your marriage.”
She had an excellent marriage, and is widely credited for being the indispensable support King George VI needed in his reign. Edward had abandoned his duty to be with the “woman I love”; George discharged his duty because of the woman who loved him.
It’s tempting to dismiss the Queen Mother’s long life as belonging to another era, and to excuse the self-indulgence of the Prince of Wales as a mere product of different times. But the Queen Mother died only seven years ago, and her daughter the Queen has admirably followed in her footsteps. The virtues never lose their value, even if they are not honoured by fickle fashion.
I remember being in Ottawa for the 1989 visit, and seeing the enthusiastic crowds turning out for the Queen Mum. Twenty years on, the current royal visit lacks that enthusiasm. That the heir apparent would be less of a draw than the old dowager is discouraging, but then it is apparent that he lacks so much of what she had.
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