Elizabeth by Sarah Bradford

Author:Sarah Bradford [Bradford, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, 1926-, Queens -- Great Britain -- Biography, Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth II, 1952--
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Published: 1997-07-02T19:00:00+00:00

same, but Elizabeth now offered a compromise. On 8 February i960 she issued a statement in Council:

Now therefore I declare my Will and Pleasure . . . while I and my children will continue to be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor my descendants, other than descendants enjoying the style, title or attributes of Royal Highness and the titular dignity of Prince or Princess, and female descendants who marry and their descendants, shall bear the name Mountbatten-Windsor . . .

It concluded:

The Queen has always wanted, without changing the name of the Royal House established by her grandfather, to associate the name of her husband with her own and his descendants. The Queen has had this in mind for a long time and it is close to her heart. . .

The Mountbatten-Windsor name change episode is clouded in confusion. On 27 January i960 Rab Butler, acting as Deputy Prime Minister as Macmillan was absent on his 'winds of change' tour of southern Africa, telegraphed the Prime Minister reporting a conversation he had had with Elizabeth:

I have this weekend apprehended what was on foot at the Palace. The Lord Chancellor rang me in Gloucestershire on Saturday afternoon and from the parables I was able to understand that a change of name was envisaged for the children . . . today the situation was made clear by a talk with the Queen . . . She clearly indicated that the 1952 decisions [re keeping the family name of Windsor] had been reached, and that she accepted them, but she did not indicate that she accepted them in spirit. She stressed that Prince Philip did not know of the present decision, on which she absolutely set her heart. 23

Macmillan had been at Sandringham to see the Queen after Christmas and discussed the subject with her then (although he had not seen fit to tell Butler anything about it). According to his biographer, Alastair Home, Macmillan 'liked to make a good story' out of meeting the Duke of Gloucester there: 'greatly disturbed. "Thank Heavens you've come, Prime Minister. The Queen's in a terrible state; there's a fellow called Jones in the billiard room who wants to marry her sister, and Prince Philip's in the library wanting to change the

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