How The British Royal Family Engage With The General Public | Our History

The Prince of Wales jokes with a group of young people in an out-of-season holiday camp. This is the Haven camp in Caistron Sea, Norfolk, in March this year. The young people are all unemployed. There are over 400 staying here on a week-long course organised by the Prince's Trust to restore their confidence and to develop their job-hunting skills. The Prince has come here on a flying visit to meet some of the young people and to boost their morale. Well I just pray that this sort of experience and the sort of encouragement you may have received will enable you to face very often what may be a difficult future with a bit more confidence and a bit more hope and all I can say is look after yourselves and the very best of luck. The contrast between the position of the Prince and that of the youngsters he is addressing could not be more stark and it goes to the heart of a central problem for the monarchy today. What sort of relationship should it, the embodiment of class, have to a society which is supposedly becoming increasingly classless? On the one hand the monarchy stands for national unity above all class divisions and vested interests. On the other the monarchy is the supreme embodiment of privilege, of inherited wealth, of hierarchy and of inequality and it's resolving that paradox that is one of the fundamental problems of the modern monarchy. The monarchy itself has long been aware of this problem and Prince Charles is not the first member of his family to attempt to bridge the gap between crown and people. Before the war, conscious that society was becoming more democratic, his grandfather George VI set up the Duke of York camps. For the 14th year out of 15 his Royal Highness the Duke of York spends a night at his camp where under the industrial welfare movement 400 boys from the public schools and industrial centres are spending their holiday together in the comradeship of the open air. One of those who attended the camp in 1936 was Ron Hopcroft, then an apprentice with a gas light and coke company. And here we are suddenly mixing with boys from the colleges who are going to be our future bosses or masters and actually talking and mixing and playing with them and there's not much doubt that a better understanding between the two sections of society shall we say was achieved. The camps even had their own theme song. The Duke of York enjoyed taking part in the sing songs, although he didn't share all aspects of camp life. Yes in the centre of the layout of the camp there were two semi-marquees which were never used and when the Duke of York came on the Wednesday we suddenly realised that they were for him you see and of course when he went on the Thursday afternoon we sneaked out later on, ducked our heads under the cab to have a look in them and much to our surprise there was a four-poster bed with a canopy over the top of it with all the other wash and basin and wardrobe etc etc I'm expecting a hotel. It made us chuckle really when we then read in the paper next day that he enjoyed all the hardships of us other campers out there. Before the war few people voiced criticisms of the monarchy but by the time George VI's daughter Elizabeth came to the throne British society had changed dramatically. And an increasing desire for greater social equality left the monarchy looking distinctly out of step. This turned into a huge public issue in 1957. This 33 year old peer often expresses views unpopular with his fellow Tories but now he is under fire from inside and outside his own party. In an article in his journal The National and English Review he voices criticisms of the Queen and her court which roused the wrath of much of the national press. Grigg complained in his article that the Queen was isolated from her subjects and out of touch with contemporary Britain largely because she was surrounded by people who came exclusively from the upper classes. The trouble about the court is it's all drawn from one small section of this country. It should be drawn from every country of the Commonwealth and from every section of the community. Grigg didn't mince his words. He described the Queen's speaking manner as a pain in the neck and said her speeches conveyed the personality of a priggish school girl. I name this ship Empress of Britain. May God speed her and all who sail in her. Grigg's remarks aroused such hostility that he was even attacked in the street by an irate monarchist. That the Queen was thought to be out of touch with the mainstream of British society was hardly surprising. She and her sister Margaret never went to school because their father couldn't conceive of them mixing with ordinary children. So we find the Princess Elizabeth and her sister Margaret accompanied by their governesses enjoying a short trip upriver starting from Bolters Lock. It was not until she was 18 and allowed to join the volunteer army that the Queen had any contact with contemporaries who were not of her class. When the war ended a few weeks later she and Margaret had a rare experience of rubbing shoulders with ordinary people on the evening of VE day. My sister and I realised we couldn't see what the crowds were enjoying so we asked my parents if we could go out and see for ourselves. I remember we were terrified of being recognised so I pulled my uniform cap well down over my eyes. We cheered the King and Queen on the balcony and then walked miles through the streets. I think it was one of the most memorable nights of my life. But this was only a brief encounter with the outside world. By the 1950s the Queen had returned to a life which was almost totally separate from that of her subject but Grigg's criticisms proved to be a turning point. One very leading member of the Royal Household arranged that we should meet within 48 hours of the thing starting, the great riot starting and his first words to me when we met were this is the best thing that's happened to Buckingham Palace in my time. I mean we were both strong monarchists and we both felt that change was needed, not excessive change but significant change. To begin with the monarchy set about changing some of the social events which associated it with privilege and wealth. The practice of presenting debutantes to the Queen, upper class young girls coming out into society for the first time, was abruptly terminated and it was also decided to make the traditional garden parties more democratic affairs. In future a far wider cross-section of society would be invited. Today three garden parties are held at Buckingham Palace every summer and over 8,000 people attend each one. Some of them will have been specially selected to meet the Queen and there's always a chance of a chat with other members of the Royal Family too. Whilst it may not be a very close encounter with royalty there's no doubt that garden party invitations are highly appreciated. Well I think it's an honour you know to go to the palace in the first place and the dress and the hats and the people it's just wonderful. I actually wondered what it was like to be stared at by all the peasants you know. In order to try and gain a greater insight into the lives of her subjects than the garden parties allow, the Queen has also introduced the practice of holding informal lunches. Joy Pinder, head teacher of Starbank Primary School in Birmingham, is one of those who have been invited to lunch at the palace. The Queen walked through the door preceded by her corgis and we were formally introduced. She went down the line that had gathered and the Duke followed her. Once he had passed I began to relax but almost immediately the Queen was walking back to speak to PD James and I who PD James was another guest on that occasion. What does that mean? We talked about teaching children to write and the Queen wanted to know whether children were still asked to write with their right hand and when I said they weren't she said how pleased she was about that because her father had been left-handed and made to write with his right hand and she did feel that being forced to do so had added to his stammer which was a nervous thing. She also talked about child rearing practices generally and while we were talking one of the corgis came and nipped her heels and she quickly looked around said did you see that did you see what did talk about biting the hand that feeds you. But perhaps the most radical innovation of all has been the walkabout introduced by the Queen in 1970. For the first time ever unselected members of the public could meet the monarch if they chose to. Gwyn Fitch was in Derby in May. Well today I've found out that the Queen is going to walk from the recreation centre by coming down a ramp and it's said that she will do a walkabout so hopefully with all the flowers that are along these barriers and my flowers she'll walk over and I've also managed to bring with me this time a photograph I took last year of Sandlingham Gardens so I'm just hoping that I'll get that opportunity to to hand them to her and tell her about my visit. The far greater accessibility of the monarchy in recent times can be seen from surveys which show that one in 12 people have met a member of the royal family many of them on walkabouts like this one. I wonder if you would accept this picture I took it of you of your gardens in Sandlingham about a year ago and I thought well you very rarely have the chance to see Sandlingham. I know that's what I thought and some flowers it's lovely to see you take your time to speak to me it's wonderful I can't believe it I made it wonderful. One of the monarchy's most important formal roles in British society is the handing out of honours. Historically the sovereign granted all the honours today the vast majority are decided not by the queen but by the prime minister. However the queen remains the symbolic fount of all honour and some of the orders including that of the garter are still in her personal gift. The highest honours in the country the order of merit the garter the thistle the orders of chivalry those are rewarded by the queen and she has a pervasive influence throughout that whole world of honours reward. Kentoon the retired miners leader from Derbyshire was at the palace in May to receive an MBE for his services to the coal mining industry. Recipients of the lower orders wait while the country's future knights receive their instruction. Some the stool will be there if you want to receive the accolade the way that I recommend you go down stop behind it as I am here take the handrail in your right hand the left foot on that side and just go down on the right knee so you stop and it's one two three very nice and easy and quite comfortable. At last it's the turn of the MBEs. Lord Chamberlain will read out your name please without labouring the point would you listen for it and would you act on it and using your surname as the cue continue along the red carpet until you're nice and central in front of the queen stop turn to face her ladies until curtsy gentlemen head bow nothing too theatrical and then move straight away forward the four or five faces that separate you from the desk is there any kneeling you're not going to kneel sir no there is some kneeling but it's all them not this time Mr Kenneth Toome for services to the mining community in South Derbyshire I think it's a wonderful opportunity for any person to be awarded an honour and come and be presented by the queen and look inside the palace itself that in itself must be marvellous it's been a wonderful experience with a wonderful day and it will rest in our minds for a very very long time 14 investitures are held every year and over 2000 people annually receive decorations but who gets what the honour system reflects the class system basically it reinforces the class system if for example you're a politician on the conservative back benches who's had 15 undistinguished years you'll get a knighthood if you're a busy sister in a an inner city hospital you probably won't get an award at all or if you do it'll be an award at the bottom rank of the honour system but criticisms of the honour system on the grounds of class are nothing new and the order of the british empire was introduced by king george v in 1917 specifically to make the honour this was a wartime measure to recognise the war effort of every class of society before 1917 honours had been almost exclusively aristocratic and then suddenly you've got the order of the british empire uh with its five classes and a medal as well and now this has grown to something like 250 000 recipients if you agree there should be an honour system at all then i think it's excellent that it shouldn't be confined just to the aristocracy the lowest rank of the obe is the bm the british empire medal and the the description of the bm really says all we need to know about the honour system it actually says that the bm is for those people who by rank don't qualify for a higher award what an absurd thing to say that we're giving you an honour but i'm afraid your rank in society doesn't qualify you for anything higher but the honour system itself is only a reflection critics argue of the class structure in society which they believe is underpinned by the very existence of the monarchy the effect of having a monarchy or a crown presiding over our society is to make us very hierarchical everybody's got their place god bless the squire and his relations and keep us in our proper stations if you're a plain mister there's a gentleman above you and a squire above and a squire is a knight above a knight is a baronet above a baronet has and scrapes to the crown so it is a hierarchical society and while the public face of the monarchy has changed inside the royal household itself still exist the social distinctions of another era if queen victoria came back today she would see that basically the court is essentially the same as it was in her day the faces have changed but the names remain the same it's all the various earls of westmoreland and northumberland and dukes of norfolk and so on so the composition is very much what it's always been the same aristocratic families have served as courtiers for centuries one of these is the earlies the earl of early is lord chamberlain the head of the royal household his wife virginia is a lady of the bedchamber his father the 12th earl was lord chamberlain to the queen mother for nearly three decades and his grandmother the countess of early spent 50 years as lady-in-waiting to queen mary the professional staff in the palace also tend to be drawn almost exclusively from the upper classes the professional staff who basically run the monarchy are recruited from a fairly narrow social band and it's really by word of mouth the royal household are the oldest old boys network in the world you have to be invited to join by the queen and it's interesting that it's basically friends of a friend um sir robert fellows who's presently the queen's private secretary is the brother-in-law to the princess of wales also related to the duchess of york and his father was the land agent to the queen so it's all very tightly linked but not everyone who works for the royals is part of this inner circle there's a strict hierarchy within the palace which operates its very own class system we've definitely got a class distinction within the households of the royal family at the very top you could call it the aristocracy if you like of the royal household that is the members then you've got a sort of a middle class area which may well be described or is the officials and then of course you've got the downstairs area the working class if you like which is called the staff the three classes are completely separate they do not socialize in any way they don't eat together the lower orders have to address the upper ones as sir or madam the whole thing is very very class based very much like it was in victorian times but those familiar with court circles say the queen is oblivious to all such class distinctions i remember once talking to a particularly grand duke about a subject and he said what you must remember is that i may be a duke and you may not be a duke but in the eyes of the queen we are both subjects and i may be a slightly grander subject than you are but that makes very very little difference indeed in the eyes of the queen we're all servants but even between members of the royal family themselves elaborate formalities are observed according to their respective stations some years ago when i was butler to the very pleasant duke and duchess of kent we had a dinner just for princess margaret and lord snowden and it went on rather late till three o'clock in the morning and i was summoned to bring the car up and all the rest of it and when they arrived in the hall to say goodnight to each other there was the duchess of kent curtsying to princess margaret there was lord snowden bowing his head to say goodnight to the duke of kent all at three o'clock in the morning that's only me there it really wasn't quite necessary but there again that was a training for them within their own family and these formalities continue today when prince edward wants to go see his father you'll have to make and when they meet together they will he will perform a neck bow to him similarly with prince charles when he wants to go see the queen he'll have to make an appointment and he always bows when when he meets her this is a very formal world and as princess diana found when she was courting prince charles she had to call him sir throughout their romance and even after the engagement she had to ask formally to be able to call him by his first name it is this strict adherence to hierarchy and its remoteness from ordinary life that has been blamed for the royal family's apparent inability to absorb commoners if you look at that family it is obviously a very difficult family to marry into lord snowden mark phillips fergie and as far as we can see diana all those marriages have come to grief why is it it becomes increasingly clear that the house of windsor treats the people who marry into it were not born royal or in margaret thatcher's favorite phrase one of us it treats them as second-class citizens and it's no wonder that the marriages come to grief but while in many respects it might be good for the monarchy to become less distant and more ordinary some of the queen's subjects would not welcome such a change if one is going to have a royal power it's got to be different there's no point in the world if they're going to be different then they must to some extent stay remote and mysterious and leave you wondering a bit always what is going on behind those palace walls and given that i don't think that they can or should come down too far that pedestal mixed too much with masses nevertheless during the queen's reign british society has changed and it's argued that the the main importance of the monarchy today is as a symbol so it's crucial we should get that symbolism right the chief problem of the monarchy is that it still embodies the privileged society we once were rather than the classless society we now aspire to be the question of royal privilege has focused in particular on the size of the queen's fortune and on the cost of the monarchy as a whole