My jewellery box and I
...and its pearls look ‘unhappy’– they should be earrings instead! Queen’s amazing TV revelations about her royal gems Crown’s so heavy she can’t bend neck to read speeches...
ThEY may be worth millions, but as she examines the Crown Jewels the Queen could be any woman looking fondly at her jewellery box.
Among the precious rubies and emeralds, diamonds and pearls that illuminate the history of our nation, she has her favourites and those that are, quite frankly, a bit of a pain to wear.
One is the ‘unwieldy’ Imperial State Crown, which the Queen confides is so heavy that in order not to ‘break my neck’ she has to bring her speeches up to her face to read them.
In a remarkably warm and chatty interview, she also reveals how, during her Coronation at Westminster Abbey in 1953, with her elaborate gown got stuck on the carpet pile and for a moment she wasn’t able to move.
The 91-year-old Queen’s candid and often arch comments come in an hour-long programme entitled The Coronation. She is at her sparkling best, relaxed and full of gems of information about the treasures that are hers to show off. The programme is the fruit of a collaboration between the BBC and The Royal Collection Trust, guardian of more than a million antiques and works of art on behalf of the nation, which tells the stories of some of its greatest treasures in a series of programmes over the next few weeks.
Unusually, to mark the 65th anniversary in June of her Coronation, the Queen agreed to appear on camera at Buckingham Palace with a selection of her Crown Jewels. The treasures were brought from the Tower of London to be filmed as she reminisced with royal commentator Alastair Bruce.
Faced with her diamond encrusted Imperial State Crown, which she wore at the end of her Coronation and until recently used for most State Openings of Parliament, the Queen has an almost comically hostile expression as she unexpectedly pulls it towards her.
Explaining how the crown was remodelled after George VI’s Coronation, she says: ‘ You see, it’s much smaller isn’t it?’
Mr Bruce notes that it was ‘huge’ when her father was crowned.
The Queen replies: ‘Yes. Very unwieldy.’ She adds: ‘Fortunately my father and I have about the same sort of shaped head. But once you put it on it stays. I mean it just remains on.’ Asked if she has to keep her head very still while wearing the 2lb 5oz crown, the Queen replies: ‘ Yes. And you can’t look down to read the speech, you have to take the speech up. Because if you did your neck would break, it [the crown] would fall off.’
Laughing, she adds: ‘So there are some disadvantages to crowns, but otherwise they’re quite important things.’
The Queen, who was 27 when she was crowned, is also shown nonchalantly flicking four pearls hanging underneath the arches of the crown. Two of the pearls are said to have belonged to Mary Queen of Scots and to have been bought by Elizabeth I.
The Queen says with a sad laugh: ‘They were meant to be Queen Elizabeth’s earrings. But they don’t look very happy now.
‘Most pearls like to be sort of living creatures so they’ve just been out, hanging out here for years, it’s rather sad. So they don’t look very happy.’ Mr Bruce responds: ‘Quite dead.’ She replies: ‘Well, I’m afraid so. I mean, the trouble is that pearls are sort of live things [flicks them] and they need… warming.’
The documentary also features the St Edward’s Crown, which was placed on her head at the moment of coronation.
In footage of the Coronation, the Queen is seen inside the Abbey in her coronation dress, embroidered in silk with pearls, and gold and silver bullion thread. Reflecting, she laughs: ‘Well I remember one moment when I was going against the pile of the carpet and I couldn’t move at all. Yes, they hadn’t thought of that.’
The programme also shows home movie footage of the family group at Buckingham Palace. The Queen muses: ‘ What did I do with the sceptre then? It’s gone. Somebody picked [it] up and took it out.’
÷The Coronation is on BBC One on Sunday at 8pm.
‘Some disadvantages to crowns’