Secrets Of The Royals - King And Queen - Royal Tradition - British Documentary

Shaped by centuries of British history, from state occasions to grand weddings, every aspect of their lives is governed by traditions. For the nation, they provide spectacular moments. Everything the royals do has symbolism, has significance. We take a look through the royal rule book from the very beginning. The traditions of birth. We have this tradition of royal women coming out of hospital, having just given birth, carrying the baby, having to look all happy. We examine the traditions of marriage. It was always a sort of belief that the prospective bride had to be a virgin. Diana obviously proved to be the ideal virgin. And those of grand state occasions. My Lords and members of the House of Commons, the Queen does not come to the Commons. The last time a monarch came to the Commons was Charles I, and he rode his horse into the Commons and tried to arrest five MPs. We meet the photographer who spent decades covering royal traditions. I was actually witnessing history in the making. No question about that. And we shine a light on the modern royals who are shaking up the system by doing things their way. I love that Meghan came out and really showed her post bump. We reveal the moment Obama got it horribly wrong. You can see Her Majesty sort of look at President Obama as if to say, Oh, my gosh, what are you doing? And the incredible letters from Princess Margaret to Parliament when she nearly caused a crisis by breaking tradition. She says, I'm particularly anxious that whatever may happen may not cause any embarrassment either to you personally or to the government. She knows everything is hanging on this. These are the secrets of the royal traditions. Royal traditions take center stage in our nation. Grand ceremonies with thousands of years of history form the very fabric of our society. These royal occasions, rich in pomp and ceremony, set us apart from the rest of the world. The Queen sees tradition, sees ceremony as absolutely vital to maintaining the strength of the monarchy. That, to me, is what makes the royal family the royal family, is the kind of protocols and traditions that they've had for centuries. When it comes to traditions, royal marriage is steeped in them. But as a result, monarchs can't always marry who they want. Prince Charles met Camilla when he was young and single. He was introduced to her through her flatmates. Camilla had been dating Andrew Parker Bowles, and then they split up in 1971. She then met Prince Charles. Apparently, she said, my great grandmother was the mistress of your great, great grandfather. So I think we have something in common. Romance blossomed. But as a royal... Whomever he married, who would be the next Queen of England, had to be a member of the nobility and had to be whiter than white. There was a sort of general belief that the heir to the throne should marry a virgin. The pressure for Prince Charles and really everybody else before him was huge. You know, there are all these, you know, ticking of the boxes. Charles's cousin and godmother, Patricia Mountbatten, said Charles never actually asked the Queen for full permission to marry Camilla. But if he had, I don't think it would have been allowed. Charles, no longer the young bachelor, under growing pressure to find the perfect bride. Enter the blue-blooded teenager, Lady Diana Spencer. She was young. She was from a good background, and it was insinuated that she hadn't had a lot of relationships before. There was pressure on him to get engaged and to get married because at 33, he really had to produce an heir. He'd only met Diana 12 times before they got engaged. So was it really about love? Or was he looking to fulfil his role as prince? Prince Philip did write a couple of notes saying, you've got to make up your mind, yes or no. You can't keep this girl hanging around. At three o'clock, Prince Charles and Lady Diana appeared for the first time in public. With the words of his father ringing in his ears, Charles bowed to tradition and quickly moved to close the deal. And I'm amazed that she's been brave enough to take me on. And I suppose in love. Of course. Whatever in love means. Particularly now, through the eyes of the 21st century, we watch that interview and just cringe because he either didn't love her or he didn't know how to tell her he loved her. In July 1981, the traditional fairy tale wedding played out in front of a global television audience of 750 million. But both, in fact, had reservations. A couple of days previously, Diana had had supper with her sisters and she said, I don't think I can do it. I don't think I can go through with it. And one of them said, bad luck Dutch. The nickname for Diana, bad luck Dutch. Your face is on the tea towel now. You've got to do it. And she already at that point thought that Charles had a mistress in Camilla Parker Bowles. And of course, she was right. Tradition, which brought the two of them together, was not enough to save the marriage, which ended in separation in 1992 and finally came to a close in 1996 with divorce. The traditional way of doing things just didn't work. If Charles had been allowed to sort of pursue who he wanted and marry who he wanted, it would have saved Diana a lot of heartbreak and it would have saved the whole family a lot of heartbreak. Coming up, the very special christening gown passed down through every royal generation for over a century. The Honiton lace christening gown is. For the Queen, they're an important reminder of the link between God and the monarchy. The Queen is head of the Church of England. She's supreme governor of the Church of England. She believes in her role and believes in her role as being one for life. And for any royal, these traditions start from the minute you're born. The proud and now rested father was the first to arrive this morning. One wing of a hospital in West London has become synonymous with royal traditions when it comes to births. Prince George was born at the Lindo Wing, where his father was born and his uncle was born and so many other babies have been born. Kent Gavin covered every Lindo Wing photo call for over 35 years, starting with Prince William. Well, we went down there. Anything up to I think it's about two weeks prior because we weren't exactly sure of the date. Police had to put barriers up. And the roads were sealed off and we used to chain our step ladders so that they could not be moved. And you wrote your name on felt, Kent Gavin, Daily Mirror or whatever it was. Less than two days after arriving here, Prince, Princess and Baby Prince emerged to the cheers of the crowd. It was over in minutes, you know, everybody shouting and screaming, but of course it was front page pictures. Kate and William carried on the tradition of the photo call on the steps of the Lindo Wing whilst paying tribute to the past. We saw some lovely symbols that harked back to Charles and Diana. When Prince Louis was born, she wore that red dress and quite similar to what Diana chose, coming out with Prince Harry. So there are nods to what has gone before tradition wise. The Duchess looked somewhat tired, very happy in a beautiful red dress and high heels. I mean, we have this tradition now of women, royal women coming out of hospital, having just given birth, carrying the baby, having to look all happy because, of course, previous to this, women had home births. The Queen had all of her four children at home. So you wouldn't actually have seen a royal woman, a royal mother for some time in public. Newcomer to the family, Meghan, decided this was a custom she would sidestep. Meghan didn't want it at all. I mean, she's changed the whole book totally. I don't know whether she went and did it because of just changing tradition. She didn't want to have that frenzy. Like Meghan, Julie Montague married into the British aristocracy and she doesn't see the appeal either. Listen, I've had four children. I can't imagine having to give birth and then have hair and makeup done, put on a dress and a parody. The Sussexes chose a much calmer photocall with just one photographer in the comfort of Windsor Castle with a more natural feel. I love that Meghan came out and really showed her, you know, her post bump. Your stomach does not go right back in two days later. It takes a lot of time. So I think for women all around, it was a breath of fresh air to see her come out and look like that. Perhaps this modern tradition of showing the baby within days of being born can be traced back to a curious incident in the 17th century during the warming pan scandal. In 1680, there were wild rumours that James II and his wife, Mary of Medina, had not actually had a child. James II was hated because most of the country was Protestant and he was Catholic. His second wife, Mary of Medina, fell pregnant after not being able to have a child for a long time. Suspicion soared. They basically said that Mary of Medina had a fake bump and she gave birth, apparently, to a son. But immediately, everyone said, no, she did not. She gave birth to a stillborn child or a girl, and instead it was whipped away and a new baby was brought in in the warming pan. And this was a huge scandal. No one believed that the baby was real. And as a consequence, James has pushed off his throne. And there in came the tradition that every royal birth after that had to be witnessed by a senior member of the government to assent that the baby was truly royal. Thankfully, no such scandal with the more recent royal births. And when it comes to traditions, first on the royal baby to do list is the christening, where everything down to the gown has a story. So the Honiton lace christening gown is the most wonderful symbol of royal tradition when it comes to royal babies. It was the christening gown that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had made for their first child, Princess Victoria, for her baptism in 1841. Made of fine lace from Honiton in Devon, it was used as a christening gown for every king, queen and minor royal for one hundred and sixty three years, including our current queen for her christening in 1926 and Prince Charles in 1948. Here is the first picture of his royal highness, Prince Charles of Edinburgh, second in the line of succession, just four weeks old. Over 30 years later, he carried on the tradition with his own son. Granny was christened in this. Great, great, great. And I was the guy who was christened in this. Looks remarkably well, despite it. The Victorian gown, Prince Edward and Sophie Cantus Wessex's first born Lady Louise was wearing it. The queen noticed that it was looking quite fragile and she commissioned her dresser, Angela Kelly, to make an exact replica of it to be worn by future babies. And since 2004, the gown has been worn by every royal baby right up till Archie. As well as the gown, a big part of the christening experience is the all important pictures with the family. Kent Gavin was handpicked by the palace as the only photographer for Prince William's big day in 1982. On arrival at the palace, I was given a list of the running order to which I could expect the the photo to take place. And the first one was Diana and Charles. And the only thing was that William's crying his eyes out. But Diana had the solution to that on and off during the photo call. And that was to put a little finger in his mouth. About three minutes had taken place before that picture was taken because of William hollering and hooting. But then, as it was like military clockwork, the queen came out. Philip, Queen Mother, just sat down perfectly posed. It had all been organized and rehearsed for us. But it was it was William and it was stealing the show, obviously, because of his crying. Normally, we would have been present for those sort of pictures. This particular picture was the one that most of us ran on the front page. Many years later, William requested a copy of that picture, to which I sent him and he sent me a very nice letter in reply. That was the last picture on the actual running order. And I walked across to the queen. I said, excuse me, ma'am, but there is one very important picture missing. And that is the Queen Mother, the oldest and the youngest. And she went, goodness me, goodness me. How we missed that, how we missed that. And she called out, mother, mother. And she sat down there. Diana handed William over. And that magic, yes, wonderful picture. And of course, the queen was very grateful as well. She has a whole set of all of these pictures. Royal babies aren't just born into the Windsor family, but into an institution with hundreds of years of strict traditions. In the 1950s, a princess hellbent on breaking with tradition rocked the establishment when she fell in love with the wrong man. When Princess Margaret was a young woman, she fell hopelessly in love with a member of the household, the equerry to her father, Group Captain Peter Townsend. He'd been a war hero. He was handsome. He was charming, but he was divorced. In 1953, Townsend proposed to the 22 year old Margaret. But by law, as a member of the royal family under 25, Margaret needed the queen. The queen was forced to make very difficult decisions with her own sister. As head of the church, the queen felt she couldn't sanction the marriage. She asked Margaret to wait for two years as a 25. The matter would then be up to Parliament. They knew that there was every likelihood that if they bought time, they might be able to sabotage Margaret's relationship with Townsend. But years later, the tradition breaking couple are still together and the relationship becomes a constitutional issue. Kate Williams is at the National Archives with files relating to the case, which remained top secret for 50 years. Princess Margaret's 25th birthday really begins this panic and this crisis in government. This letter is amazing. It's written by Margaret on August the 15th from Balmoral about a week before she turns 25. She's writing to the prime minister and she says, I'm going to tell you any personal plans for the next few months. She says, I am particularly anxious that whatever may happen may not cause any embarrassment either to you personally or to the government. She knows everything is hanging on this. My birthday on August the 21st, it will encourage every sort of speculation about the possibility of my marrying group, Captain Peter Townsend. She says, I'm not going to see him over my birthday, but in October I should go to London. It is only by seeing him in this way that I feel I can properly decide whether I can marry him or not. The Queen knows I'm writing to you, but no one else does. This is a secret letter from Princess Margaret to the prime minister, saying this is what's going to happen with the threat of this possible marriage. This letter is from the cabinet secretary, Norman Brooke, and it's written the day after her birthday, and it is advising the prime minister on what to do next. And he's saying, I am quite clear that this is not a matter for the prime minister alone. And crucially, it's not just the British government. It has to be the other Commonwealth governments. They all have to be consulted and they all have to agree with the seemingly impossible task of gaining Commonwealth consensus. The government set harsh conditions for Margaret. They say to her that, yes, she can marry him. That's fine. But she must lose her title and she will lose her position on the civil list. So with absolutely no money or no status whatsoever, she really will be completely excluded. For Margaret, just 25, the cost of what she would lose by breaking with tradition was just too much. I would like it to be known that I have decided not to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend. For a princess, love is not straightforward in the 1950s. It becomes about politics, about religion and about society itself. These days, divorce is no longer a reason for royals not to marry. The ladies, however, are still full of traditions. And the Victorians are responsible for a fair few. Queen Victoria chose to wear a white wedding dress, a tradition that has passed down through the generations. Up until then, royals and indeed commoners generally tended to wear coloured dressings. And the couple chose to have a wedding cake, which had a topper on it with figurines of the bride and groom. There's a traditional role for the bouquet, too. Their eldest daughter set another tradition when she picked some myrtle from Osborne House for her wedding bouquet. And again, it's something we've seen with both William and Kate and Harry and Meghan. The Queen Mother started her own tradition when she put her wedding bouquet on the grave of the unknown soldier in Westminster Abbey. Obviously, she lost her brother in World War One. So she was probably thinking of him. Traditionally, the royals marry in abbeys and cathedrals like St Paul's or Westminster. Charles and Camilla were forced to choose a more humble venue. Both Charles and Camilla wanted to have a civil service at Windsor Castle, but they were slightly dismayed to find out that if they had been granted a wedding licence by the local council, that means anyone could get married, apply and get married at Windsor Castle for the next year. So they scrapped that. And it did mean that we had the heir to the throne getting married in a local registry office in Windsor with, you know, before him, Mr and Mrs Smith, and after him, you know, Joe Bloggs and Kathleen from down the road. There's one tradition the nation and the world looks forward to at any royal wedding. The wedding kiss, of course, is iconic nowadays. So many people will be surprised to know that, in fact, there's only been three royal couples who've kissed on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. There was Princess Diana and Prince Charles. You know, they were the ones that really started that tradition. By the time Fergie and Andrew got married, of course, the crowd were waiting for the kiss. And they played up to the crowd and put their hands to their ears. And then the kiss carried on. Coming up, how the Queen's traditional meetings with her prime ministers were not always ones she enjoyed. Famously, she liked John Major. She didn't care for Margaret Thatcher. How the traditional method of royal execution went horribly wrong. So her head falls out of his grasp, drops onto the floor, rolls along. I mean, it's just horrific. British history. For 67 years, she's been front and centre at any ceremonial event, from Trooping the Colour to state opening of Parliament. If the Queen were a stick of rock and you cut it through, you would read DUTY written on her insides. As head of state, it's the Queen who has to give final sign-off before any act of Parliament can become law. And every year since 1952, she's travelled to Westminster to read out the legislation of her government. Missing the event just twice, when she was pregnant with Prince Andrew and then Edward. State opening of Parliament, it's absolutely full of tradition. But each of the traditions means something. So, for example, the Queen does not come to the Commons. The Queen is not allowed in the Commons. She's only allowed in the House of Lords. The Commons is for the Commons, for the elected parliamentarians. And the Lords is for the appointed parliamentarians. My Lords, pray be seated. Black Rod, the messenger, walks down to the Commons. And the doors are shut in his face. He bangs three times on the doors. The Commons are summoned. MPs file into the Lords to hear the Queen give a speech outlining the agenda for the coming Parliament. Except for one MP, that is. One of the traditions is that an MP is held hostage at Buckingham Palace. In order to make sure that the Queen gets back, one of the members of Parliament is taken hostage the night before and is not returned to Parliament until Her Majesty is safely away from there. Probably usually an MP that the government don't like anyway. While the words are read out by the Queen, they're written by the government. My Lords and members of the House of Commons. When you're in government, the night before the state opening, you are invited to a buffet supper at Number 10. And then the speech is read out so that you know what's in it. There are no surprises. My government will legislate in the interests of everyone in our country. Like all traditions, the ceremonies acted out in Parliament are a reminder of an uneasy past between the monarchy and government. You go back to the 1640s during the time of the Civil War and Charles I's interference with Parliament. He interfered all the time and Parliament didn't like being interfered with, which is why they chopped his head off. Historically, axe was the traditional method to get rid of a king or queen. And 60 years before Charles I, his grandmother, Mary Queen of Scots, had one of the most grisly executions of all. You'd think as a royal that if you had to be executed, it would be done in a very official and perfect way, but not for Mary Queen of Scots. So clumsy. First go, he just bashes the back of her head and she's heard to groan. The second go, the head's still attached. Finally, at the third go, he gets the head off. He holds up the head to shout, God save the Queen, by the hair. But Mary is wearing a wig, so her head falls out of his grasp, drops onto the floor, rolls along. I mean, it's just horrific. The spectators in this public execution are shocked and horrified. What a dreadful, horrible public execution for this woman who had been known as one of the most beautiful queens in the world. Thankfully, the monarchy is on a more stable footing these days. And as head of state, the Queen carries out her duty by regularly checking in with her Prime Minister. The Queen traditionally meets with the Prime Minister weekly for an audience, tends to be on a Wednesday. They meet for between half an hour and an hour. The idea is that the monarch is briefed on what's happened in Cabinet from the Prime Minister's viewpoint. The Queen's had a business-like relationship with her Prime Ministers, but there's some that she's liked more than others. She was very fond of Harold Wilson. She was very fond of Jim Callaghan. Famously, she liked John Major. She quite liked David Cameron. She didn't care for Margaret Thatcher. Margaret was hugely deferential. She adored the monarchy and would be almost kind of crawling, which illustrates a strong personality, doesn't it? And Margaret Thatcher may also have run the Queen the wrong way when, in 1982, she took the salute from the armed forces, a role usually reserved for the Queen. Margaret wouldn't have done anything... The bow is important for the royal family because it tells people what to do. With the Queen, you would say, Your Majesty, followed by ma'am, and, yes, it's ma'am as in ham, not ma'am as in farm. And with any other member of the royal family, it would be Your Royal Highness, followed by sir or ma'am. If you're a British subject lucky enough to meet the Queen, you're expected to bow if you're a man, and curtsy if you're a woman. Now, for men, it is not a bow from the waist, like you would do at the end of a stage show. Now, for ladies, you would do a curtsy. You keep your hands by the side, a straight back, one foot behind the other, and just a gentle bob at the knees. You don't need to do a terribly deep grand court curtsy, like Theresa May or Margaret Thatcher did. Totally fine 80 to 100 years ago, but today, just a small curtsy will do. We need to show the monarchy some respect, so when Her Majesty has finished interacting with us, if we are the ones leaving the conversation, we don't show our back. We don't just go, yeah, bye, and walk off like so. Instead, you take a few steps backwards before turning and walking away, trying not to show your back. Sometimes, even world leaders get protocol wrong, as President Obama demonstrated when he spoke over the national anthem during an embarrassing moment in 2011. Your Majesty, the Queen. So President Obama has asked everyone to stand up. So far, so good. He says the words, Her Majesty, the Queen. That's all he needs to say. Remember, it's a toast, not a speech. And then, just in that slight pause... The vitality of the special relationship. The musicians start playing God Save the Queen. You can see Her Majesty sort of look at President Obama. To this blessed plot, this earth, this realm. And then Her Majesty herself breaks protocol. She actually interrupts the national anthem... To the Queen. ..and says, oh, that was very kind, thank you. So she deliberately breaks with the etiquette in order to be more well-mannered. For the monarchy, a break with protocol is rare, but occasionally it attracts people who are rule-breakers keen on shaking up the system. Princess Diana was kind of the ultimate royal rule-breaker, really, because she dragged the royal family kicking and screaming into the 20th century. She definitely helped transform the monarchy, and I think the royal family we've got today, especially through our boys, is very much through her influence. The Broderick Ward of the Middlesex Hospital is the only specially designed AIDS ward in Britain. It was how she engaged in her charity work which was perhaps the biggest departure. She was really the first royal we saw in public hugging, hugging children, putting children on her lap. When we did the HIV-AIDS campaign, we were tackling serious misunderstanding and prejudice. We had a disease that was rampant, that was killing people in a horrible way, and for which there was no cure. She came, she sat on the bed to somebody who was dying of AIDS, she held their hand, and it made a difference. It really did. But this break with tradition came to cost. By opening up more to the press and the public, she grew more vulnerable to the darker side of... A couple of weeks ago, and I got into a taxi, and two patrol officers pulled up at the lights. One got off at the back of the bike, undid the cab door, and she fell into the well of the cab, and he said to this person, ''Raise your head, I've got a mortgage to pay.'' She was in tears when she related that story to me. I just felt for her. Behind the scenes, the monarchy wasn't happy with the change Diana was bringing. She was viewed by many within the institution as someone who was shaking things up too much. She wanted something a bit more safe, a bit more homespun, and she said, ''No, these are the things that need attention, ''these are the things that need to be talked about.'' It wasn't just how the royal family operated that Diana changed. She also changed the traditional way in which royals dress. Designer Jacques Asaguri played a vital role in moving Diana away from traditional royal dress and transforming her into one of the biggest fashion icons on the planet. I was always, always excited to see her step out in my dresses. There was just something about her wearing my dresses, you know, the Princess of Wales. And also the process leading up to her wearing that dress was always so friendly, so comfortable and exciting. This is one of the first times that she kind of went a little bit modern. It was, I'd say, probably about four inches above the knee, which for a princess was very, very short. Red was one of her strong favourites. As you notice, it had a little opening down the front. She wanted to actually wear it to there. Another famous dress Diana wore during an important night in 1995, where she smashed a vengeful fist through every conceivable royal protocol. It was the night of the bombshell Panorama interview in which she made a series of startling claims, including, ''There were three of us in this marriage.'' She called me, actually, two, three nights before the interview was going to go live, and she says, ''I need a dress. I've done an interview. ''I haven't said anything wrong, ''and I'd like to wear something really stunning and sexy.'' And I took three black dresses from the shop, because, you know, the royals are not usually able to wear black unless it's for mourning. But, of course, now she could wear any colour she wanted. We unzipped them out of the bag, and straightaway she said, ''That one.'' And she wore this attending. And, again, the decollete on here was very low for the time. Her birthday was coming up in July, and that's where we come to the birthday dress here. She was meant to be wearing another dress for the Tate centenary, but I think, as a thank you to me, she actually wore this dress. This was Diana on her 36th birthday. It was really a time of her breaking away from her past, really, the traditions, the royal protocol, and moving on with life as she really wanted to live it. And, sadly, that was the last time she was seen in public with, you know, a full evening gown. ''Dear Jacques, I was quite overcome on opening the parcel. ''I'm absolutely thrilled to have been given such a beautiful dress ''for my birthday. ''Thank you more than I can possibly say ''for making this day particularly special. ''Lots of love, Diana.'' Coming up... Having to move over to this country, marry into the royal family, there's a lot of rules and, really, regulations that she has to follow. It must be a real shock for Meghan, because she was this independent Hollywood actress doing what she wanted, essentially, and now something as innocuous as her closing a car door headlines around the world. She's closed her own door. Oh, my God. Meghan was criticised for one of the most minor things I've ever heard about, like having a messy bun. I mean, honestly, please find something else, because I actually thought that messy bun was really cool. Meghan shouldn't have worn black nail varnish. I mean, honestly, there is no protocol on what colour nail varnish. If anyone's criticising Meghan for not wearing tights, let me tell you something. Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, didn't wear tights. I was at an event as minister where she came to do an opening and she turned up actually looking scruffy, which is a no-no, because the people who are there, they come to see the magic and the style and the grace of royalty. Kate, who stuck to the traditions rulebook, received the opposite criticism from Meghan when she was labelled robotic. I get to see them privately, the royals and drinks receptions, and she's actually got a wicked sense of humour, but I don't think Kate feels that she can ever kind of let that show publicly, because that's what she does.