Characters / The Crown (2016): The British Royal Family: Older Generation

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The older generations of the British Royal Family featured in The Crown (2016). Beware of spoilers.

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Generation of King George VI

King George VI

His Majesty George VI, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India

Played By: Jared Harris

"I no longer am Albert Windsor. That person was murdered by his elder brother... when he abdicated."

King of the United Kingdom from 1936-1952, and Elizabeth's father. Known as 'Bertie' to his family throughout his life. A shy, modest and gentle man with a lingering stutter, he is forced to confront his own mortality upon being diagnosed with cancer, and his unexpectedly sudden death will propel Elizabeth into the role of the monarch that she is not fully prepared for.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Downplayed. Everyone in his family always called him "Bertie." However, this is because his birth name was Albert.
• Being Personal Isn't Professional: When Eden comes to suggest that as "Albert Windsor" he could ask his friend Winston Churchill to step down, the King replies he can no longer act as a private citizen and will not break his constitutional duty of staying politically neutral.
• Blood from the Mouth: He opens the series coughing up blood. He and his courtiers try and convince themselves that it's merely because of the cold weather and nothing more serious.
• The Chains of Commanding: His plans for a relatively normal life are scrapped after his brother's abdication, and the mounting stress of the kingship becomes a contributing factor to his early death.
• Decoy Protagonist: He is pretty much the central character in the first episode, but dies halfway through episode two. The series averts the usual "sudden twist" aspect of the trope by making it clear pretty much from the first scene of the series with the Incurable Cough of Death that he's not going to be around long (plus, well, anyone with a basic grasp of modern British history will have this figured out from the start), and the episode is all about his grappling with his mortality.
• The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: Only a selected few know about his "structural alterations," a malignant tumor, and then only Churchill calls it by its real name, cancer. His Majesty is not told the true nature of the illness until some months before it becomes fatal.
• Doting Grandparent: Is shown cuddling baby Anne in a home movie and playing with Charles at Sandringham.
• The Emperor: He was the last Emperor of India, reigning up until 1948 when the nation became an independent republic.
• Freak Out: When a valet has trouble adjusting his collar.
• The Good King: Is shown to be a kind and benevolent ruler, who always wanted what was best for his people, despite the toll it took on his health, and in turn is thoroughly adored by the British population.
• Good Parents: A genial and protective father to his daughters. One of the first things that comes to his mind when Edward VIII confirms the abdication is that it would crush them.
• Happily Married: He and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon were a perfect match, and on his daughter Elizabeth’s wedding day, he gifts her with a cine-film camera, noting that if her marriage is as happy as his has been, she’ll want to document every moment.
• The Hero: Explicitly according to Tommy Lascelles, and implicitly according to the rest of Britain.
• In Its Hour of Need: Fellow former military man Tommy Lascelles calls him a hero, and it was during the Second World War that Bertie’s sense of solidarity with the nation and dominions beyond was on full display. The King and Queen were under pressure to leave London for their own safety, but they refused — even after Buckingham Palace was bombed.
  Queen Elizabeth: The children will not leave unless I do. I shall not leave unless their father does, and the King will not leave the country in any circumstances, whatsoever.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Dies of lung cancer and begins the series coughing up blood.
• Must Have Nicotine: He was a heavy smoker and the habit was exacerbated by the stresses of being King. He was smoking up to 40 cigarettes a day towards the end of his life, resulting in the removal of one cancerous lung and an early death. He keeps smoking even after losing a lung.
• Not So Above It All: Exchanges some dirty limericks with his valet.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: Turns his daily red box upside down before opening it so he can be sure to see the most sensitive papers, which Cabinet officials place at the bottom. Elizabeth does the same with her red boxes.
• Papa Wolf: Protective of his daughters, particularly Elizabeth. Openly makes it clear to Philip, as George knows due to his increasingly failing health that the very young Elizabeth will be Queen much sooner than she realizes, that his job will be to always and without exception protect, love and support her, both as his wife and as his Monarch.
  King George: She is the job!
• Passed in Their Sleep: George VI's body is found when his servants bring him breakfast one morning.
• Plot-Triggering Death: His sudden death in the second episode, in 1952 and aged only 56, thrusts Elizabeth onto the throne sooner that expected.
• Posthumous Character: He dies in the second episode but his presence and influence is felt throughout the rest of the first season through flashbacks, and once in the second season in a WWII flashback.
• The Quiet One: He was a painfully shy person by nature and had a terrible stutter that needed significant therapy to keep under control and would avoid speaking if at all possible.
• Reluctant Ruler: He would have liked nothing more than to live quietly with his family and, since he was the second son, this was a reasonable expectation. However, as depicted in-series, Edward VIII was a selfish playboy and Nazi sympathiser, who earned the contempt of the establishment and in the end abdicated in disgrace. Bertie (as George VI) shouldered the duties of King-Emperor, the stress of which is often thought to have considerably hastened his death.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Contrast his self-effacing heroics with his self-interested elder brother the Duke of Windsor.
• Sophisticated as Hell: He's introduced getting dressed in his finery while swapping bawdy limericks with his equerry.
  King George: There was an old Countess of Bray. And you might think it odd when I say, that despite her high station, rank and education, she always spelled "Cunt" with a K!
• Spare to the Throne: As the second son of George V, Albert was not expected to inherit the throne and never wanted the crown, but the abdication of his brother Edward changed Albert's life dramatically.
• Speech Impediment: King George VI had an case of stuttering that everyone ignored except when Prince Philip, tired of Queen Elizabeth's Freudian Excuse to be perfect all of the time, briefly mocked it. His reward was a tennis racket hurled at his face.
• Stepford Smiler: Despite feeling deeply unhappy as King a lot of the time, he maintains a positive outlook. Never fully comfortable with public appearances, he has to steel himself with a cigarette and gentle encouragement from his wife before putting on a smile and heading out onto the balcony at Buckingham Palace to greet his adoring people.
• Stiff Upper Lip: He was never intended to be Monarch and most definitely didn't aspire to the throne^note There was even talk of finding a way to bypass him in favor of his younger brother Prince George. Nevertheless, he did his duty and won the love and respect of his peoples without ever letting the public see just how much he was suffering under the stress.
• That Man Is Dead: Eden goes to the King asking him to encourage Churchill to retire, not as the sovereign George VI, but as Churchill's friend Albert Windsor. While the King hints that Churchill's friend Albert Windsor would indeed encourage Churchill to retire, Albert Windsor died when he became George VI, and he cannot involve himself directly in politics. He then gently tells the ambitious Eden that his ambition is misplaced as he will become Prime Minister eventually.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: At least part of this comes from Margaret and Elizabeth's total adoration of him, but nobody will hear a bad word said about Bertie.

• Universally Beloved Leader: Even on his daughter’s wedding day, the vast crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace chant “we want the King!” over and over, and a veritable wall of noise hits Bertie and the wedding party as he nervously heads out onto the Palace balcony to join the family and greet his people. Overall, he’s shown to be a genuinely gentle and compassionate man who loved his family and carried on with his job despite the toll it took on him. The fact that he both took over when his brother abdicated despite being very reluctant to do so and then subsequently reigned during the Second World War certainly helped with this.

Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother

^{Click here} to see her in Seasons 3-4

^{Click here} to see her in Season 5

Played By: Victoria Hamilton (Seasons 1&2), Marion Bailey (Seasons 3&4), Marcia Warren (Season 5&6)

"We taught you how to be a lady, a princess. What do you want? A degree? No one wants a bluestocking or college lecturer as sovereign. They want a Queen."

The Queen Mother. A source of strength and support to the late King, and therein the British Empire itself, on his death she finds herself without a role and with her traditional views of Britain and the monarchy increasingly under challenge.

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• '50s Hair: She starts the series with finger-waved 1930s hair but well into Season Two, her curls get bouncier and more pronounced, so that by Seasons 3 and 4, her hairdo starts to resemble her daughter HM The Queen a bit more.
• A Day in the Limelight: In "Pride and Joy," where she takes a solo trip to her native Scotland and spends time with local friends.
• Appeal to Tradition:
  • A big part of her character is used to show how there was a push and pull between a more democratic progressiveness and elitist tradition, all in the goal of keeping the monarchy relevant. Her speech regarding how the Royal Family must modernize, smells of both snobbery and this trope.
    Queen Mother: First the barons, then the merchants, now the journalists. That’s all we are now — marionettes.
  • In Series 5 episode “Annus Horribilis”, her daughter Elizabeth endures what she calls “the worst year of her life” and wants to recognise the fact in a public speech. The Queen Mother, by now over 90, is horrified and adamant that Elizabeth must maintain a granite-like stoicism. Prince Philip, overhearing every pushy word, bursts into the room like a guardian deity and immediately silences the Queen Mother, noting that Elizabeth has earned the right to express her emotions after such long, exemplary service.
• Behind Every Great Man: She was paramount and instrumental in supporting King George VI, and the Monarchy as whole, during his reign, and was so devoted, especially during the War, that the British population never lost its fighting spirit.
• Blue Blood: She was born Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon to an ancient aristocratic Scottish family, with a line going back to at least the 12th century. Her family seat of Glamis ^note  pronounced 'Glaah-ms' Castle is reputedly to be the most haunted in the world.
• Death Wail: When the King is discovered to have passed away during the night, she races to his bedroom wracked with sobs. Princess Margaret, overhearing her mother's agonised cries from the hallway, realises the worst has happened.
• Democracy Is Bad: Her speech in "Marionettes" starts lamenting the Magna Carta, which started England on the path towards a less autocratic government and her reaction to Lord Altrincham's opinions regarding the Royal Family suggests that she is not in favor of freedom of speech and expression.
• Drama Queen: She often does get rather dramatic and shrill — particularly where the Duke and Duchess of Windsor are concerned.
• Embarrassing Nickname: The Duke and Duchess of Windsor dismissively call her "Cookie" because they believed she looked more like a servant rather than the someone of noble blood.
• The Empress: She served as the final Empress of India, reigning up until 1948 when the nation became an independent republic.
• Female Misogynist: A fairly prevalent trait of hers. For starters, she sees no benefit in her daughters (even the future monarch) having any further level of education beyond what society and class had traditionally called for. She also has a habit of slut-shaming women, even women close to her — even her daughter and granddaughter are not immune, and she especially looks down on the Duchess of Windsor (though it's mutual) and Camilla Shand for not being chaste, as well as suggesting that Diana must necessarily "bend" in submission to the Crown (and the family) — or "break".
• The Gadfly: Between her Upper-Class Twit voice and the rather railroading opinions she expresses to Elizabeth and Margaret (often triggering anxieties), she can come across as vaguely manipulative.
• Genre Savvy: Nearing a century in age and having witnessed the careers of over a dozen Prime Ministers, she accurately predicts that the newly-elected and wildly popular Tony Blair's career is going to go the same way theirs did: down in flames. Sure enough, in the last episode Blair's approval ratings drop exponentially due to his association with the wildly unpopular Iraq War, with protesters waiting for him outside the Palace.
• Granny Classic: A regal example. She dotes on her grandchildren and is rather concerned that Philip is being too hard on Charles. In her later years, as seen in Series 5, she becomes the vaguely dotty, lovable gran she's fondly remembered for being.
• Happily Married: She is absolutely shattered by the death of King George VI, and vows never to forgive the Duke of Windsor for driving her beloved Bertie into an early grave.
• Historical Downgrade: Her real life counterpart was a British national hero for her role in providing moral support to the nation during the blitz, causing her to be named "the most dangerous woman in Europe" by Hitler. So far this hasn't quite been referenced, and she is depicted as a sweet, if slightly shrill, matriarch. This does reflect wider public opinion of her in her later years, however, as after the King's death and her subsequent stepping into the background, she tended to be regarded by the general public more as everyone's favourite slightly dotty grandmother with a fondness for a gin and Dubonnet.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: She's portrayed as a willing participant in the conspiracy to hide Katherine and Narissa Bowes-Lyon away in an asylum, when in fact there's no evidence she was involved or even knew they were still alive.
• I Did What I Had to Do: After Princess Margaret aggressively confronts her over the fact that her mentally-disabled Bowes-Lyon cousins were hushed up and institutionalised, she explains that it was completely necessary to preserve the family’s status and good-standing with the people. As she puts it, the very concept of one family having such vast hereditary power hangs by a thread, and so the situation was untenable.
• I Was Quite a Looker: It was said that Margaret's birthday portrait looked like how her Mother looked in her youth. Margaret is not happy about this.
• It's All About Me: Her hysteria over any change the monarchy has to adapt to is less about the effect on her family and more about her own comfort with luxury and tradition.
• Lack of Empathy: Whilst she can be a cheerful, Granny Classic who is slightly dotty, loves a drink and a parlour-game, she also reveals a cold, unfeeling streak almost equal to a Social Darwinist whenever she feels that the monarchical status quo is under threat.
• My Beloved Smother: She never gets the notice that her daughters are grown and able to make their own decisions, trying to advise and control Elizabeth (who is a ruling monarch on top of being in her 30s and a wife and mother) and Margaret (over 21 and still trying to steer her to a "suitable" match).
• Never Mess with Granny: She is generally friendly and polite, and her sincere devotion to the welfare of the British people, despite how dated her tactics may be, is very much displayed, as she famously has been quoted "I'm not as nice, as people think I am," has often been demonstrated.
• Never My Fault: When confronted about how she and her husband didn't provide Elizabeth with a formal education (beyond lessons about court etiquette and the British Constitution), she shifts the blame to their advisors for not suggesting that the young princess be sent to school.
• Nice to the Waiter: For the most part she is unfailingly polite to most everyone, (with notable exceptions being the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and at times Philip and his family) and after his retirement, depended on Tommy Lascelles as both a confidant and friend. "Pride and Joy" sees her revelling in the fact that a man doesn't recognize her, allowing her the chance to befriend him on a more natural level, without her status as Queen complicating matters.
  Captain Terry: (after realizing the woman he's become friends with is the Queen Mother) Why on Earth didn't you say, Ma'am?
  Queen Mother: Because people always makes such a fuss, and stop being themselves. (Then motions to The Castle of Mey, with a slight chuckle) And you would have doubled the price.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: She was opposed to Elizabeth marrying Philip, and disparages his mother, Princess Alice, as "a Hun nun". While the pair are civil to each other, Elizabeth finds it surprising that Philip drunkenly celebrated her banishing the hated Duke of Windsor with her mother and Tommy Lascelles (whom Philip really dislikes). Conversely, the Queen Mother is enamoured with Tony Armstrong-Jones, mostly because he flirts with her, which annoys Margaret in the Season 3 premiere.
• One-Steve Limit: Also called Queen Elizabeth. A fact that amuses Queen Mary, also a "Queen", and confuses her nurse. In Real Life, this is why she styled herself as the Queen Mother after her husband's death.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Just barely. She passes away at the age of 101 about 50 days after her daughter, Princess Margaret, dies following a series of strokes.
• Parental Marriage Veto: Tried to invoke this on Elizabeth and Philip, which failed as she eventually married him anyway. She is much more successful and subtle in preventing Margaret's intention to marry Peter Townsend.
• Perpetual Smiler: In Season 3, she becomes more similar to the classic image of the Queen Mother as a smiley, jolly matriarch — a far cry from her somewhat shrill, whiny image in the first two seasons.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Most of her actions can be chalked up to a desire to protect the family image, but in doing so, she can be rather prejudiced, controlling of her grown children, meddlesome in the relationships of her daughter and grandson, sexist about the role of women, unsympathetic to her daughter's struggles as Queen, classist to the Thatchers, and worst of all, she had a hand in shutting her mentally-disabled nieces up in an institution. In Season 5, she declares Hong Kong "belongs" to the United Kingdom, revealing a not wholly unexpected imperialist streak.
• Queen Incognito: An initially unintentional example. While holidaying in Scotland, she spends time with the owner of a run-down castle she's interested in buying. As she is dressed simply and appropriately for the cold weather, he doesn't recognize her out of context, and she decides not to enlighten him so that their friendship can remain natural (and so she could save a few pounds on the purchase price of the castle).
• Ruling Couple: Wielded no power or prerogatives of her own, but she encouraged and upheld Bertie until he died. Her guidance and moral support is judged to have been invaluable to the King, and thus to the nation.
• Scatterbrained Senior: Shows signs of this in Series 5, by which time she is in her nineties and becoming somewhat forgetful, which is a source of irritation for the irascible Princess Margaret. In Series 6, when the royal family is shown their new website, she has to be told that "logging on" has nothing to do with timber.
• Spanner in the Works: She manages to scuttle the relationship between Margaret and Tony, and later between her grandson Charles and Camilla.
• Stepford Smiler: She's very concerned with putting forth a fairytale-like image of the Royal Family and cares for more frivolous pleasures. True to rumours, as the Queen Mother was stated to be almost emphatically unwilling to confront anything she found unpleasant. See Perpetual Smiler above.
• Technologically Blind Elders: "Dear Mrs. Kennedy" shows her furiously banging on the top of the tv despite Elizabeth's protestations that it will only make it worse when the signal gets messed up.
• Thrifty Scot: The owner of the Castle of Mey invokes this when the Queen Mother cites the price for the Castle as a reason for not sharing her identity.
  Captain Terry: Spoken like a true Scotswoman.
• You Are Fat:
  • The Duke and Duchess of Windsor make references to her being fat constantly, in spite of the fact that, as played by Victoria Hamilton, she is not as round as the Queen Mother turned out to be. This is partly out of spitefulness more than accuracy, however, as the Windsors and the Queen Mother famously detested each other quite viciously, and things tended to get personal quite quickly.
  • By Season 3 she has a more rotund appearance and when the family gathers to watch their documentary, while everyone pokes fun at their appearances and each other, she remarks about how many pounds the camera puts on. Margaret jokes about the camera capturing her "good side": her backside.

The Duke of Windsor

His Royal Highness The Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor

^{Click here} to see him in Season 3

Played By: Alex Jennings (Seasons 1, 2 & 5), Sir Derek Jacobi (Season 3), Adam Buchanan (Season 5, young David)

"I will always be half King, my tragedy is that I have no kingdom. You have it. And you must protect it."

The former King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne in 1936 in order to marry his twice-divorced lover, the former Mrs Wallis Simpson. This act caused a crisis which threatened the monarchy, forced his reluctant younger brother to take the throne, and had effects which continue to ripple through British society. Reduced to glorified exiles as a result, he is bitter towards the Windsors for insults and mistreatment both real and perceived, an enmity which several in the family and British establishment alike are more than willing to return.

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• Abdicate the Throne: He infamously abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry his twice-divorced lover, Wallis Simpson, causing a constitutional crisis. The memory of this crisis still haunts the House of Windsor and the dereliction of sacred duty was seen as utterly shocking by the British public, as in the history of the British monarchy, he is the only monarch to have voluntarily abdicated his throne (Richard The Second and Mary of Scotland were forced to abdicate, James II was deemed to have abdicated after going into exile in France).
• Accent Slip-Up: You can tell he's picked up some Americanisms from his wife. He pronounces “past” and “bath” with a flat a, for example.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Despite his Nazi ties and numerous flaws, his death is treated sympathetically. The fact he admits to said flaws helps.
• Artistic License – History: The ending of "Vergangenheit" is played as if the Duke is banished from Britain forever and remains forever estranged from his family from that point on. In fact, he returned to Britain frequently and saw his extended family again even after the release of the Marburg Papers.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's all charm and obsequiousness to his niece and relatives in person, but shares bitchy gossip and snide nicknames about them with his wife in private. In a variation, said niece and relatives are well aware that he does this, which is one reason why they dislike him so much.
• Black Sheep: After the abdication crisis, where he puts his own person before the crown, he is effectively banished and becomes persona non grata for most of the family.
• Casting Gag: Sir Derek Jacobi played Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Gordon Lang in The King's Speech, one of Edward VIII’s harshest critics during the Abdication Crisis.
• The Charmer: He's very charismatic and still has a lot of influence among the British public even after his abdication.
• Coattail-Riding Relative: Though his attempts to use his niece's position to his advantage never seem to work out as she, and the rest of his family, preempt and squash every scheme.
• Cool Uncle:
  • Downplayed, while he despises most of his family, he does give Elizabeth some very useful advice, apologizes for the burden that has been placed on her shoulders, and close to his dying day she tells him in spite of everything, he was her favorite uncle.
  • It turns out Charles has been writing to and confiding in him, the younger man looking up to him for the individual he dared to be and for fighting for his true love.
• A Death in the Limelight: As seen in the Series 3 episode "Dangling Man". Charles visits the exiled Duke of Windsor in his Paris chateau, only to find him terminally ill.
• The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: "Structural alterations". Lung cancer, like his late brother and successor George VI before him.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For all his flaws, his love for Wallis is completely genuine and it's shown a few times that he still cares very much about his family and hates the rift that has formed between them and regrets how his actions negatively affected them.
• Evil Prince: Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, orchestrated a plot with the Nazis that would give the Germans free reign in Europe in exchange for reinstating him as King, usurping his brother.
• Evil Uncle: At first Downplayed, but it's still clear that most of his family still blame him for the abdication and indirectly causing George VI's early death. Fully played-straight when Elizabeth finds out about his collaborations with the Nazis.
• Face Death with Dignity: Demands that he be hauled from his deathbed for a visit with the Queen, sat in a chair, properly dressed in a suit and tie and with his IV lines removed; Truth in Television. When Elizabeth gently chides him for going to such lengths, he promptly (and correctly) replies she would have done the same thing.
• First-Name Basis: Ironically with Sydney Johnson, who by all the British etiquette David inculcated him with should have been on a Last-Name Basis based on his role as the Duke's valet. It seems to have been based on affection and closeness.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He can be particularly vicious about Elizabeth behind her back, but it's implied to be because she now holds the position — and the power — that he gave up. In a particularly sad irony, Elizabeth is often shown to be one of the few members of his extended family who is willing to show kindness and forgiveness towards him (at least, until she learns the full extent of his connections with the Nazis).
• Guilty Pleasures: Soap, of all things.
  Duke of Windsor: Having had a naval background, I don't much care for fussy things or smells. But I do like a good well-milled soap.
• Happily Married: He and Wallis still deeply love one another and the Duke makes clear that he doesn't regret abdicating for her.
• Hidden Depths: Is shown crying while playing the bagpipes after Elizabeth's coronation, hinting at some regret at the abdication if not the circumstances it occurred under.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: He was far from the only upper-class person in Britain in the 1930s interested in Hitler and the Nazis, who easily exploited this simply by treating Wallis well. He was a decent (even while complaining) governor of the Bahamas during the war, the only time he had something to do, and however hard people have tried, the historical verdict still remains that the Duke of Windsor was weak, frightened, and self-interested — but not a treacherous Nazi collaborator hoping for a defeated Britain. In addition, he was at least briefly self-aware enough to apologize to Tommy, years before the Abdication, namely "I suppose the fact of the matter is that I'm quite the wrong sort of person to be Prince of Wales."
  Tommy Lascelles: Which was so pathetically true that it almost melted me.
• Hypocrite: On several occasions, scenes of the Duke's family members experiencing some kind of grief or loss, or offering him some hospitality (even if grudgingly), are contrasted with a voiceover of one of his bitchy letters to Wallis in which he denounces them as awful, selfish, cold and unfeeling. In general, he's all charm (or smarm) and obsequiousness to their faces, but vicious, waspish and spiteful behind their backs.
• I'm Standing Right Here: When Queen Mary calls Bertie the perfect son, his expression practically shouts this.
• Incurable Cough of Death: A lifelong smoker, in his final months he suffers from hideous bloody coughing fits.
• I Regret Nothing: David misses his homeland and his throne, but when pressed, says he would do it again for Wallis.
• It's All About Me: Or all about "me and Wallis" at least; he's incapable of letting go of his bitterness and resentment for how his extended family treat him over a decision that was entirely within his own power and which caused them no small amount of upheaval and grief as well.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • He's not entirely wrong to feel resentment at his treatment at the hands of the Royal Family and the British establishment at times, nor that their treatment of him and his wife can be a bit unnecessarily cruel. However, it just never seems to register that they also have a point and it's largely due to his own selfish actions that he gets treated the way he does. He also gives genuinely good advice to Elizabeth on a couple of occasions, although it's usually out of self-serving reasons that he'll benefit from in some way.
  • As selfish as his decision to abdicate is, he has a valid point that having a King who actively doesn't want the role wouldn't be good for anyone, especially not during a time of war.
• Jerkass Realization:
  • An understated example: he seems genuinely regretful when he realizes Elizabeth doesn't hate him for the same reasons as her family and that she wanted nothing to do with her royal position. While still treating her and the family with disdain, he gives Elizabeth a genuine apology and is much more helpful in private conversation afterwards.
  • He's also left visibly shaken when, after being confronted with the true depths he went to with regards to his fondness for the Nazis, Elizabeth coldly asks how he can possibly forgive himself.
• Kick the Dog: He gets some real villain moments:
  • He declares he wants his mother to die when she becomes very ill because, if she recovers, a second trip would be unbearable.
  • He and Wallis laugh over Elizabeth's bad press. Considering she's their own niece, and certainly does nothing to warrant such gleeful hand-wringing, this smacks of precursor's schadenfreude on his part.
• Love Ruins the Realm: Zigzagged. His firm intention to marry the twice-divorced Wallis precipitated the consitutional crisis of 1936, but the realm came through better out of it, as the abdication removed Edward from the throne in favour of George VI, who was unquestionably a Superior Successor.
• Mr. Exposition: As the former Edward VIII, he explains (with sarcasm, on occasion) the significance of each step of Elizabeth’s coronation ceremony for the benefit of his American and French guests but also for the viewers, most of whom are unlikely to be familiar with the intricacies of the ancient ceremony.
• My God, What Have I Done?: For all his snideness about his family and the institution, the weight of his decision to abdicate the throne clearly weighs on him. He's also left looking very shaken when Elizabeth confronts him about his connections to and dealings with the Nazis.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Does so, about King George VI, much to the anger of Tommy Lascelles.
• Nice to the Waiter: As a contrast to all of the people he's either snide to, embittered about, or both, he's very genial with his valet Sydney Johnson. Even while the Duke remains a touch patronizing and insensitive, Sydney has nothing but respect and loyalty for him.
• The Nicknamer: He has unflattering nicknames for his entire family, and flattering ones for Wallis.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: The Abdication, full stop, whatever he tries. His Nazi affiliations are a close second.
• Only Known By His Nickname: His family and Wallis call him "David" ^note last of his many given names, not Edward.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: When he gets riled up and his charm begins to slip, he has a tendency to lash out at the people around him until he goes too far and completely undercuts himself:
  • In "Coronation Day," he's infuriated when it's made clear that his wife won't be invited to the coronation in a transparent attempt to prevent him from attending as well. He makes some points about the hypocrisy and cruelty of the situation in a way that those he's attacking can't really argue with... until he makes the mistake of referring to the late King George VI as "weak." Tommy Lascelles immediately smacks that down, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has tried to be a mediating and neutral figure throughout the meeting, makes it clear that that was a step too far.
    Tommy Lascelles: Nothing weak about the late King, sir. I'm sure I speak for everyone present when I call him a hero.
    Archbishop of Canterbury: [Firmly] Hear, hear.
  • In "Vergangenheit," he delivers a bitter retort when Elizabeth refuses his request for royal engagements, and implicitly refuses to allow him to rehabilitate his public image, and denounces the "inhumanity" of her and her family towards him and his wife. It quickly becomes apparent that this was a very bad choice of words on his part, coming as it does on the heels of Elizabeth learning precisely how chummy with the Nazis he and Wallis got, and she proceeds to give it back to him with both barrels, making it abundantly clear that forgiveness is not forthcoming and if he knows what's good for him he'll not be showing his face in her presence any time soon. The look on his face makes it clear he knows just how deeply he's trodden in it this time, and he quickly scurries away.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Gives Elizabeth genuine good advice when she asks him for it.
  • He quickly gives Elizabeth an apology for indirectly forcing her into her current role when she spells out why she's owed it.
  • He also genuinely loves Wallis and is a caring husband.
  • He takes young Bahamian Sydney Johnson into his employ as a valet at a time when British society was far less integrated.
  • He's very polite to his valet Sydney Johnson.
• Posthumous Character: Alex Jennings returns to his role as the Duke for the Series 5 episode "Mou Mou", set in the mid-1940s and depicting his relationship with his valet, Sydney Johnson. This becomes an important plot point years later when Sydney takes a job with Mohamed Al-Fayed and uses the knowledge he gleaned from the Duke to help Al-Fayed present himself as the Quintessential British Gentleman.
• Remittance Man: The Duke of Windsor is an unusually high-ranking version of this. His brother explicitly promises him an allowance if he'll stay out of Britain. The real Duke even used to relentlessly pester the King to increase his allowance by calling multiple times a day until George simply stopped accepted his calls.
• The Resenter: He's very bitter and unhappy at how he's been basically disowned by his family and he and his wife treated with open disdain due to his abdication.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Would like to be one of these after growing bored with the 24-Hour Party People at Villa Windsor. A Moral Event Horizon makes this impossible. Though it's played with, since he quails a bit at the thought of anything which might actually require him to do some proper work; he'd like something fairly glamourous and showy, but which doesn't require him to actually do much. In essence, he'd like to be a Royal Who Actually Does Something (As Long As It's Very Easy And Makes Him Look Good).
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Complains of the "pusillanimity" of the Royal Family in denying an invitation to Elizabeth's coronation to his wife.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He's always immaculately turned out and embraces colour, as opposed to the typically somber tones of London.
  Duke of Windsor: No matter the fashion, a well-cut suit in a beautiful fabric will take you anywhere."^note  Truth in Television: the Duke of Windsor was very much a style icon in Real Life.
• Short-Lived Leadership: He was king for only 326 days in 1936, having the shortest reign of all British monarchs (in the bottom 10 when including also the English rulers before 1707) and didn't even get a coronation. ^note In 1934, his father George V correctly predicted in a letter to PM Stanley Baldwin that "After I'm dead the boy will ruin himself in twelve months."
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With George VI. Bertie gave his life for his country despite being awkward and unprepared, while charming David ran away from self-interest. Perhaps it's more accurate that their fear drove them in different directions as David knew he wasn't suited to the task while Bertie felt the same but stepped up anyway.
• This Is Unforgivable!: In the episode "Vergangenheit" Elizabeth was willing to forgive him even after she learns of some of his Nazi sympathies, but when the full extent of his collusion with Adolf Hitler — tantamount to treason — and his lack of remorse is revealed to her, she has no hesitation giving him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech and declaring him Persona Non Grata. The episode ends with a montage of Real Life photographs of the Duke and Duchess visiting with Hitler and the Nazis.^note From 1937. So while historically accurate and a historical millstone, not actually treacherous — the "betrayal" at that point was that he shouldn't have been making grand unauthorized "state" visits as though he were still King. The episode does allude to some rather unsavoury communications he had with the Nazis via intermediaries in the early days of the war, but while definitely callous and ill-advised — among other things, he dismissively brushed off the suffering his former subjects were experiencing during the height of the Blitz — he never actually crossed the line into treason.
• Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Series 2 episode "Vergangenheit" tackles the Duke’s relationship with the Nazis, after the unearthing of the so-called Marburg Files. In its telling, the Duke is nothing short of a treacherous Nazi sympathizer, whose loathing for his former kingdom extended so far as to encourage the Germans to bomb it into suing for peace.
• The Un-Favourite: Compared to Bertie, after the abdication, his mother Queen Mary treats him with suspicious, chilly disapproval.
• Unreliable Narrator: In-Universe. Tends to exaggerate his family's more unsavoury traits in his letters to Wallis. On at least one occasion, his description of his arrival in England and being greeted by crowds of admirers is contrasted with the reality, in which everyone else carries on with their business not paying him the slightest bit of attention except for one person who shouts a greeting to him. Similarly, his bitter denunciations of his family's cruelty and spite towards him (with according nasty names) have a tendency to occur after we've just seen one of them actually try to be nice to him.
• Voiceover Letter: Sends one or two of these to Wallis whenever he visits London.
• White-Dwarf Starlet: In his youth he was incredibly popular, due to his blond good looks and charismatic skills as a ‘salesman’ for brand-Britain touring all across the Empire. In fact, the hysteria surrounding David in The Jazz Age at the height of his popularity even rivalled and presaged Diana's decades later ^note  almost astoundingly, crowds would clamour to touch his flesh, believing it to be imbued with some innate ‘power’ in a throwback to the kings many generations back, who were believed to cure ill with their ‘King’s Touch’. However, the Abdication absolutely destroyed his public image overnight. He fails to realize this, even years later, as he believes he can simply waltz back into a cushy ambassadorial role, despite the tepid welcome he receives from his former subjects — and the downright hostile one from his family, the senior clergy, and former staff.

Princess Marina

Her Royal Highness Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent

Played By: Clare Holman

The widow of the Queen's late uncle George, the Duke of Kent, and Prince Philip's first cousin. Like Philip, a member of the Greek royal family who married in — in 1934.

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• '50s Hair: She sports a short, elegant 50s 'side-flip'.
• Coattail-Riding Relative: Absolutely viewed as such by Princess Margaret, which says more about Margaret considering that Marina is both also a princess in her native Greece and Margaret's aunt.
  Margaret: Marina? She'd do well to remember her place. As a low-ranking member of your husband's refugee family, she's lucky to be here at all.
• Fallen Princess: Played with. Despite still being a British royal duchess and one of The Proud Elite, Marina was also an exile from Greece who received no government money for years after her husband was killed, essentially being an Impoverished Patrician for quite some time. This likely explains Margaret's condescending summation of her.
• Feuding Families: The relatives are utterly furious with the constant noise coming from the renovations Princess Margaret organises for her apartments at Kensington Palace — so much so that the slightly frazzled Marina is compelled to complain to the Queen herself about it.
• Gorgeous Greek: Invoked — she and her sisters Olga and Elizabeth were known as the “Greek Legends” and Marina in particular was known for her sense of style and vampish, on-point 1930s looks.
• Hero of Another Story: She makes only a brief appearance in-series, but Marina lived a remarkable life. Born and raised in her parents' glamorous Athens palace, she escaped to Paris when the Greek monarchy was overthrown in 1924 before marrying the Queen’s uncle and becoming Duchess of Kent, later serving as a civil nurse during the Second World War under the pseudonym ‘Sister Kay’. After the Duke died in an air crash, she continued to represent the Crown for the rest of her life — to this day, colleges and hospitals from Berkshire to Botswana still bear her name.
• The Proud Elite: Exceptionally proud of her lineage, Marina was a grandchild of the Romanovs on both sides, meaning she had not just Royal Blood but imperial. Which also meant she was fully royal on all sides — unlike the Queen and Margaret — and makes it all the more ironic (or perhaps explains why) Margaret chose to insult her this way.^* As it happens, one of Elizabeth's most famous and iconic tiaras — the one with interlocking circles that Claire Foy is meant to be wearing in her former profile picture — belonged to Marina's grandmother, and is known as the "Grand Duchess Vladimir".
• Speak Truth To Power: She's Prince Philip's cousin and the Queen's aunt, and so has no compunction about animatedly complaining about Princess Margaret's unreasonably loud building work to the Queen herself, fearing no reproach, when most people would find it unthinkable to even bring the matter up. Though as the Queen herself acknowledges, she's got a pretty valid point in this case.

The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester

Their Royal Highnesses The Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and The Duchess of Gloucester

Played By: Michael Thomas and Penny Downie

The third son of King George V and Queen Mary, and brother to George VI. He and his wife, Alice, are therefore uncle and aunt to Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.

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• Ascended Extra: They appear in the background during some Royal Family gatherings, but the Series 3 opener gives them a little more screen time, when the family gather to celebrate his birthday.
• The Big Guy: Of the royal princely brothers — compared to the short, elfin David and slim, athletic Bertie, Henry was a broadly-built, imposing man.
• Blue Blood: She was born Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott, and was the daughter of Scotland’s largest land-owner, the Duke of Buccleuch.^note  unobviously pronounced "Buh-cloo"
• Birthday Episode: The family celebrate the Duke's birthday at Buckingham Palace, though the levity is short-lived when the Queen announces the death of Winston Churchill, having just received the call.
• Convenience Store Gift Shopping: His birthday reveals the Royal Family’s Real Life propensity to give each other humorous, as opposed to valuable, presents when Princess Margaret gifts him with a loo-brush.
• Feuding Families: Like poor Princess Marina above, they too are being driven mad by the constant noise coming from the renovations Princess Margaret organises for her apartments at Kensington Palace. When Margaret hazards a guess at the identity of the complainer, she is equally dismissive of her other aunt.
  Margaret: Alice? That cantankerous old bat.
• The Generic Guy: Like an Old Married Couple, Alice jokes that Henry would have made the perfect spy, as "nobody could ever remember having met you". He retorts that it's "better than having nightmares having met you!" to Alice, to much laughter. He was often called "the Forgotten Duke" as so much attention was placed on his brothers, due to David's abdication and Bertie's subsequent ascent to the throne.
• Last of His Kind: Having once been one of five brothers, at the time of Series 3's opening episode "Olding", the Duke is the only son of George V and Queen Mary still alive and welcome at Court. He outlived the Duke of Windsor, so he truly was the last.
• Long-Lived: Alice was born in 1901 and died in 2004 — an amazing 102 years — outliving even the Queen Mother! She became the oldest British royal ever.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • In Real Life, he was called "Harry" by his wife and family, but despite living and dying years before the current Prince Harry was even born, in-series, he's only referred to as "Henry".
  • Similarly, his wife Alice isn't mentioned by name at all when she appears, possibly to avoid any remote confusion with Philip's mother later in Season 3.
  • In a tragic Real Life way, the eldest son of the Duke and Duchess was handsome, intelligent, athletic and considered to be quite a Prince Charming. He died in a plane crash in 1972. His name was William, and as he was a grandson of George V he was a Prince of the Realm (his full title being 'HRH Prince William of Gloucester'); Charles admired his older cousin and looked up to him, and named his son William after him.
• Rank Up: Although she was only a princess by marriage, not birth, upon Henry's death in 1974, her niece the Queen granted Alice permission to use the title and style of a suo jure (blood) princess like Marina above, and she became 'HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester' instead of adopting 'HRH The Dowager Duchess of Gloucester', or even using "Princess Henry". This was (in part) to distinguish her from her son Prince Richard's wife Birgitte, the new Duchess of Gloucester. Alice remains the only person in modern British history to have received the honour of actually becoming a princess.
• Spare to the Throne: Following his brother David's abdication and the accession of his next oldest brother as George VI, the Duke of Gloucester was effectively retired from active duty as the next adult heir, though he continued to serve as a personal aide-de-camp to the new King.

Generation of King George V

King George V

His Majesty George V, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India

Played By: Richard Dillane

King of the United Kingdom from 1910 to 1936, and the Queen's grandfather. He appears in a Flashback to 1917 in the Series 5 episode "Ipatiev House", which details the murder of his cousins, the Romanovs of Russia.

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• Betrayal by Inaction: "Ipatiev House" shows him receiving a letter from Prime Minister Lloyd George, requesting that he approve a request to rescue his Romanov cousins from Bolshevik-occupied Russia. Passing the letter to Queen Mary for her approval, it fast becomes clear that he turns down the request due to concerns the Queen raises over the same thing happening to their family if George helped rescue the autocratic Tsar and seen-as-pro-German Tsarina.
• Boring, but Practical: Philip praises George V as such with one of his backhanded but genuine compliments, and his Season 5 scenes show that delegating some matters to his wife is an effective form of self-preservation in the end.
• Cavalry Refusal: Despite being very close to his cousin, whom he called "Nicky", George isn't prepared to risk the public backlash that sheltering his Romanov cousins could result in, and unknowingly abandons Nicky and his family to their murder.
• Contrast Montage: Cheerful scenes of King George and his family enjoying breakfast and then a pheasant shoot are intercut with scenes in Russia which graphically detail the fate of his first cousin Tsar Nicholas II and his family, who are executed by a gang of Bolshevik guards.
• The Emperor: He served as Emperor of India up until his death in 1936, and was the first monarch to tour India as King-Emperor, accompanied by his wife, Queen Mary.
• Everyone Is Related: George V was the first cousin of Tsar Nicholas II and was related to almost every other European dynasty of the era (Kaiser Wilhelm II was also his cousin) as eight of the children of his grandmother Queen Victoria went on to marry into other royal families. He was also related to his wife, as both were descendants of George III.
• Historical Downgrade: George V is remembered as a solid, dutiful king, who steered the nation through one crisis after another, though his portrayal in-series is mostly focussed on his eccentricities, his delegation of governmental matters to his wife, and his Betrayal by Inaction of his Romanov cousins.
• Meaningful Rename: He is technically the first Windsor, as he changed the family name from the bulky "Wettin von Saxe-Coburg and Gotha" during the First World War to appease anti-German sentiment.
• Parrot Pet Position: To juxtapose the frivolity of his life compared to his cousin Nicholas's, George appears with a pet parrot whimsically perched on his shoulder while he has breakfast. The parrot (in Real Life, an African Grey rather than a macaw) was called Charlotte, and having her at meals was quite real.
• Posthumous Character: King George V died in 1936 and is talked about sparsely from time to time. He finally appears via flashback in the Season 5 episode "Ipatiev House", occurring in 1917-18.
• Single-Issue Wonk: As per Real Life, George V is obsessed with stamp-collecting and makes an Innocently Insensitive remark about how the First World War is resulting in a number of new ink colours entering the market.
• Skewed Priorities: In Season 3, Philip laments that during WWI, while other monarchs were dazzling the world, George was deadly dull and obsessed with sticking stamps in his album^note  Considering the Kaiser was horrifying the world, the Tsar was abdicating, being imprisoned, and later murdered, and most other monarchies were neutral and trying not to get involved — the only one who could be said to be doing anything "dazzling" was the heroic Albert, King of the Belgians, and that was only necessitated by the fact Germany had invaded his country — and furthermore George visited troops in France and was severely injured when he was thrown from a horse, suffering repercussions for the rest of his life — it's really questionable what Philip is talking about in this case of Artistic License – History; only slightly justified in that it all happened before he was born. The famous quote "for seventeen years, he did nothing at all but kill animals and stick in stamps" comes from George's official biographer and refers to when he was Duke of York (and later Prince of Wales), long before the First World War, something he’s shown doing in Season 5.
• Slave to PR: Wartime PR isn't the same thing as ordinary PR, but George changed his family's name and those of all of his and his wife's British relatives in order to appear "less German", and refused the Romanovs asylum for fear of provoking the public enough to lose his own throne, or worse.
• Strong Family Resemblance: George V and his first cousin Tsar Nicholas II looked very much alike, which is noted by the Queen in "Ipatiev House", and care is taken with the actors cast to emphasise this.

Queen Mary

Her Majesty Queen Mary

^{Click here} to see her in 1917

Played By: Dame Eileen Atkins (Seasons 1&2), Candida Benson (Season 5)

"The Crown must win. Must always win."

Elizabeth and Margaret's grandmother, and George VI's mother, born Victoria Mary of Teck ^note  although her father was a German nobleman, she was born and raised in Britain; her mother was a grand-daughter of George III, making her a minor member of the British royal family in her own right. As the wife of George V, she was Queen consort and Empress of India from 1910 to 1936, after which she became Queen dowager ^note  Unlike her daughter-in-law, who was styled as The Queen Mother, because she had the same name as her daughter. She is ailing by the time the series starts, but nevertheless possesses great reserves of strength and support.

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• Actually Pretty Funny: Queen Mary smirks at some of her son the Duke of Windsor's bitchy remarks about the Queen Mother and Prince Philip, while verbally chastising him.
• Based on a Great Big Lie: The analogy about Queen Mary’s love-life that Elizabeth attempts with Charles on the eve of his wedding to Diana is nonsense. Making it worse is that the Queen knew her grandmother — and thus the facts of her life — quite well. None of them apply to the Charles/Diana/Camilla triangle.
  • Her first fiancé Prince Albert Victor (known as “Eddy”) was not Prince Charming; he was a mild-mannered Manchild, and it was a completely Arranged Marriage where the clever and sensible May (as Mary was known) was meant to be able to "handle him" in exchange for the fantastic social position as future Queen. She was devastated when he died not because she loved him but because she was again left with nothing. (She had no choices left, basically. A very deconstructed Love Triangle.)
  • Princess May was considered attractive (and moreso, intelligent and sensible). People were happy she was British, and felt very sorry and concerned for her when Eddy died a month before their wedding, but calling her "gorgeous" and "popular" to draw some kind of Diana parallels is a major stretch.
  • Eddy’s brother George may have been dull, shy and a massive Control Freak and poor communicator, but he was a far better husband and more compatible with May than Eddy. Moreover, he still could have married anyone (and the pressure was on him, not her, as Elizabeth's muddled tale implies). That he and May eventually decided to get married despite the very-public awkwardness of the situation actually shows it was to some degree Marry for Love, certainly more than her intended marriage would have been.^* Confirmed in a letter George wrote decades later, approx. "And people say that I only married you because I felt sorry for you. Shows what the world knows."
• Cool Old Lady: She suffers no fools, but can also be quite charming. She expresses to Elizabeth the importance of her position as Queen, explaining that God intended the monarchy's most important role as being to provide stability and security to the country and to act as an archetype and example by which her subjects can strive to live their lives. That said, she isn't above sharing a sly joke with her young nurse, at the same time giving her a quick lesson on royal succession.
• The Empress: Mary served as Empress of India as the consort of Emperor George V and thoroughly fell in love with the nation and its people, declaring "When I die, 'India' will be found written on my heart."
• Food Porn: She inquires about the food her nephew Prince Ernst August of Hanover enjoyed at Lord Mountbatten's table, and positively salivates to hear him describe it. (Amusingly, the food in question is all German.)
  Queen Mary: The food is normally quite good at Broadlands.
  Ernst August: Outstanding!
  Queen Mary: Especially the duck, from memory, with oranges.
  Ernst August: Rum-soaked raisins...
  Queen Mary: Oh! A Prussian recipe.
  Ernst August: (in German) Spaetzle, too. Crispy, with cheese and breadcrumbs.
  Queen Mary: (in German) Delicious!
• Grande Dame: Multiple authors have not called her "the formidable Queen Mary" for nothing. She coaches Elizabeth on her new duties and responsibilities as sovereign, and has a few choice words with her eldest son David on his abdication and choice of wife.
• Gratuitous German: Engages in some of this with "meine liebe Ernst", her German nephew.
• Hates Small Talk: Makes Elizabeth promise not to ask about her health, which at that point is quite fragile.
  Queen Mary: Forget death by lung disease. It's death by bad conversation.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Typically seen with a glass of amber liquid in stressful moments.
• I Was Quite a Looker: A very odd Historical Beauty Upgrade in-show. Elizabeth noted her to be a Princess Classic who stole the hearts of the populace before she was married. See Based on a Great Big Lie.
• Marriage Before Romance: Her marriage to the future George V was partly this, but as Elizabeth tells Charles, the two did end up falling in love along the way.
• Meaningful Look: To Elizabeth, when bowing to her for the first time. It's as if she's channeling the determination Elizabeth needs directly into her with her eyes.
• Mentor Archetype: In a way. Before dying, she gives Elizabeth valuable advice which is to shape her reign. She emphasizes impartiality at all times, even advising against smiling, lest it reveal the monarch’s opinion and impresses upon her granddaughter, as the quote above indicates, that the Crown must trump all else.
• Must Have Nicotine: Does not have many scenes that don't include a cigarette. Even sneaks cigarettes behind her nurse's back as she's dying of lung disease.
• My God, What Have I Done?: During the flashback scenes in "Ipatiev House", she has this expression upon learning about the execution of the Romanovs after advising her husband not to let them be evacuated from Russia on a British warship.
• Never Mess with Granny: Prince Ernst August looks genuinely terrified to admit to her that he drank champagne the day after her son's funeral.
• Never Say That Again: Strongly advises son David not to speak his wife's name (the scandalous Wallis Simpson) in her presence.
• Outdated Outfit: Queen Mary retains a wardrobe and overall styling more in line with the 1910s, as opposed to the 1950s.
• Outliving One's Offspring: She outlived three sons before she died.
• Parental Favoritism: For George VI, and she doesn't particularly care if his older brother knows it.
• Patriotic Fervor: She’s quick to admonish a doubtful Elizabeth when she relays Philip’s concerns over public perception of monarchical power:
  Queen Mary: Yes, but (Philip) represents a royal family of carpetbaggers and parvenus, that goes back what? Ninety years? What would he know of Alfred the Great, the Rod of Equity and Mercy, Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror or Henry the Eighth? It's the Church of England, dear, not the Church of Denmark or Greece. Next question.^note We should note that her invocation as regards Denmark is unfair. The Danish monarchy is about as old as the British one; depending on whether you date the English/British monarchy from the ascendancy of the House of Wessex (c. 802), the unification of England under Æthelstan (927), or the Conquest (1066), and whether you date the Danish monarchy from the reign of the semi-legendary Harthacanut I (fl. c. 900 if he existed), the probabably-historical Gorm the Old (c. 936), or the definitely historical first Christian king Harald I Bluetooth (c.958), either monarchy might be older than the other (though either way, both date from approximately the 10th century, give or take a century). And unlike their British cousins, Denmark's royals were never interrupted. Meanwhile, the Church of Denmark broke from Rome at about the same time as the Church of England (1536 for Denmark vs. 1534 for England). Philip's bloodline is also ancient, the House of Oldenburg (of which his house is a prominent cadet branch) tracing itself to an 11th-century German count whose descendants had married into the royal houses of Denmark and Sweden by the 16th century. (Also, a Danish Oldenburg would have succeeded to the British throne had any of Queen Anne’s children survived her, as her husband was a junior Danish prince. However, all of them died before she succeeded to the throne, necessitating the Act of Settlement 1701 to settle the succession on the House of Hanover.) As to Greece, however, she's exactly on point as to the monarchy. (The question of the Church of Greece is more complicated—the particular institution called the "Church of Greece" only dates to the 19th century, but as a practical matter the establishment of that church was mostly a rearrangement of the organisational hierarchy of the Eastern Orthodox Church within the lands held by the Kingdom of Greece, removing the Greek eparchies from the direct chain of command of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople but decidedly keeping them in communion with him. The Eastern Orthodox Church identifies itself with the state church of The Roman Empire and is unquestionably a continuation of the state church of The Byzantine Empire, and is thus even older than the Churches of England and Denmark.)
• Pose of Supplication: When Elizabeth returns home to mourn the death of her father, Phillip must walk behind her (as "The Crown takes precedence" ) Margaret curtsies, The Queen Mother even curtsies. However, it's not until Elizabeth sees Queen Mary that the weight of The Crown, and the realisation that she is the Sovereign sets in. Queen Mary's pronounced curtsy, and the intense look between the two Queens is meant to portray the sudden, dramatic change in dynamic. Elizabeth has curtsied to her grandmother Queen Mary her entire life, as her rank deserves. Now Queen Mary deferring to her own young granddaughter emphasises that Elizabeth is THE Queen, while Queen Mary is just A Queen.
• Settle for Sibling: She was engaged to her husband's brother Eddy, but he died. Afterwards she married her fiance's younger brother George, the next heir to the throne. Worked out well for her, as George was actually a major upgrade from her Arranged Marriage with Eddy.
• Slave to PR: Not normally, but in 1917 she is so concerned with the country possibly revolting against the monarchy if the unpopular Tsar and Tsarina are brought to the UK, she advises her husband to refuse them asylum.
• Stealth Insult: When the Duke of Windsor visits her before George VI's funeral, she calls Bertie the perfect son, cementing David's status as The Unfavorite right in front of him.
• Widow's Weeds: Although she's mourning her son, not her husband, when she goes to bow to the new Queen for the first time in full widow regalia.
• Women Are Wiser: Invoked by her husband George, who says her judgment is "unfailingly better" than his.