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00:01For the royals, tradition is everything.
00:04Monarchy is about the past, the present, and the future,
00:08and tradition is absolutely central to that.
00:11Spectacular.
00:12All of the parading, the history, it's almost a fairytale thing.
00:16Sacred.
00:16If you were royal, you had been chosen by God and very British.
00:21Meeting the Queen is an experience that everyone will remember
00:26for the rest of their lives.
00:28Now we venture behind palace walls into the riches beyond.
00:32Not all royal jewels are the crown jewels.
00:35We know that this was a gift of love.
00:38And delve deep into rare royal records.
00:41Written in early January 1642.
00:44It's the equivalent of a live blog.
00:46This is right in the eye of the storm.
00:48To discover the untold secrets of Britain's most loved
00:52and mysterious royal traditions.
00:55He liked to show that he could control nature.
00:58It's a rich royal heritage steeped in war, intrigue, and scandal.
01:04In order to get your face on this wall, you had to be somebody.
01:08Perhaps even a royal mistress.
01:09But at its heart is a deep-seated duty to the nation.
01:14Queen Elizabeth II met more people than anybody else in history.
01:19No matter what the task.
01:21As I heard him, I thought,
01:23Oh, you're not going to like that, Charles, are you?
01:25This is how, for over a thousand years, the royals have shaped the history and traditions we know today.
01:33Tradition is what actually keeps them in power.
01:36It wouldn't be Britain if we didn't have these sorts of things.
01:40These are the secrets of the royal traditions.
01:50This time, the royal custom of keeping a spare on the sidelines.
01:55You are the perpetual understudy.
01:58Studying all the rituals, being part of all the traditions,
02:02knowing that you probably won't ascend to the top drop.
02:05The curious royal tradition that launched a much-loved classic.
02:10An orchestra of 50 people all on a boat.
02:13This huge water party going all the way up the Thames of this beautiful music.
02:18And how a decadent royal tradition nearly spelled disaster in Britain's darkest hour.
02:24Whilst all hell was breaking loose, Edward was commissioning
02:28yet another magnificent brooch for his darling wife, Wallace.
02:37On the 2nd of May, 2015, the then Duken Duchess of Cambridge
02:43announced the birth of their second child, Princess Charlotte.
02:47She was born into a centuries-old, unspoken royal tradition,
02:52alongside Princess Harry and Andrew and the late Princess Margaret.
02:57The tradition of an heir and a spare.
03:00The heir and the spare is an old turn of phrase
03:03that means that you have one who is preparing to take over
03:06and a spare who is there in case the heir dies.
03:09The importance of having a spare within the royal family can't be underestimated.
03:14Particularly in centuries gone by when you just didn't really know what life was going to throw at you.
03:18You needed that backup.
03:20You needed to know that the stability of the monarchy was there because you had another ruler.
03:26A baby as a backup plan may seem cynical, but it's a royal tradition founded on a thousand years of
03:33turbulent history.
03:36Until very recent times, death was never too far from the door.
03:42Whether in the battlefield or at home being struck by disease.
03:47The history of the British monarchy is littered with dead heirs.
03:51Which is why some of our most celebrated monarchs started life as spares.
03:57A lot of people don't realise that Henry VIII was actually the ultimate spare heir.
04:02He wasn't destined for the throne at the time of his birth.
04:05He had an elder brother, Arthur.
04:08Elizabeth I herself, one of our most glorious, successful queens.
04:14She, on paper, had very little chance of ever inheriting.
04:18But these are the exceptions.
04:20For the most part, spares live their lives in limbo.
04:24Forever waiting in the wings.
04:27It must be devastating to be the spare.
04:30You are the perpetual understudy.
04:32You are training for a job that it's not likely that you're going to get.
04:37Studying all the rituals.
04:39Being part of all the traditions.
04:40Knowing that you probably won't ascend to the top job.
04:45It's a tough gig.
04:47And that can become a real poison chalice.
04:51And we've seen it for Princess Margaret.
04:54We've seen it for Prince Andrew.
04:56And we've seen it more recently and very publicly for Prince Harry.
05:01Harry broke the silence around this hushed royal tradition.
05:06Saying out loud what had long been left unspoken.
05:09Harry has said that he felt he was plan B.
05:13He was there only.
05:15Something happened to William.
05:17And to make his point loud and clear, he called his autobiography spare.
05:24Harry certainly felt that William sat next to the Queen and the Queen Mother at dinners and he was sort
05:31of shoved down the table that William was made to feel special.
05:34Harry wrote that he was very put out that he only had a smaller bedroom given to him in Balmoral.
05:40Well, yeah, that's what happens.
05:42You know, I'm a third child.
05:43I had a tiny bedroom and my middle sister had a bigger one.
05:46You know, that's how it goes, Harry.
05:50But there's one way in which the heir and spare are treated differently.
05:56The heir has to be kept safe.
05:59The spare, not so much.
06:01We have to wrap the heir in cotton wool because one day he will be king.
06:06So, according to tradition, while it's cotton wool for the heir, it's camouflage for the spare.
06:13Prince Harry served in the army for ten years, undertaking two tours of duty in Afghanistan.
06:20He joined the army and had a great time in the army and actually served with incredible distinction.
06:29But as soon as that finished, he didn't really know where to go in his life.
06:35And I think he would like a meaningful role in life rather than just living this sort of slightly bohemian
06:42life in California.
06:45Today, the responsibility of raising the next heir and the spare is in the hands of the Prince and Princess
06:52of Wales.
06:54And as with so many royal traditions, they're taking a new approach.
06:59I'm 100% sure that Kate and William do not treat their children as if they're unequal to each other.
07:06They don't treat the two younger kids as if they're spares.
07:11Yes, George is set apart. Yes, George's destiny is marked out.
07:14But I think they will go around the world and back to make sure that the two other children are
07:20not feeling inferior.
07:23But while some traditions may be fading into the past, in 2012, another ancient royal tradition was brought back from
07:31the past with a fanfare.
07:39On the 3rd of June, the Thames witnessed the return of a traditional royal river pageant, in honour of the
07:47late Queen's 60 years on the throne.
07:52I was very pleased to be part of the commentary team of the river pageant in 2012, but I was
07:57very pleased to actually be undercover and not on a boat.
08:00This was a fantastically long pageant. It seemed to stretch for miles. It took ages to go by.
08:08Over a thousand vessels, from historic steamers to a Maori war canoe, processed down the river in a spectacular, if
08:17slightly soggy, seven-mile-long display of pageantry.
08:22But the real star of the show was the Royal Row Barge, Gloriana.
08:28Gloriana, the specially commissioned Royal Barge, was a sight to see, now covered in this gold leaf and so grand
08:36and with the oarsmen propelling it through the water.
08:41Gloriana was a clue to the origins of this long-lost royal tradition.
08:47Throughout history, the royals have absolutely loved the Thames.
08:50It was much quicker and more comfortable to transport the royals, or anyone, by water, rather than sort of sludge
08:57through the mud on the road.
09:00Palace after palace popped up along the river's banks, from Hampton Court in the west, through central London, with the
09:08palaces of Whitehall and Westminster, to the Tower of London and Greenwich Palace in the east.
09:15So, they would move between palaces and their boats, and then it became part of the official entry into London.
09:22So, when there was a new queen who married into the royal family or a new king, the official entry
09:27to the capital would often be a water pageant.
09:30In 1533, the newly crowned Queen Anne Boleyn took her turn down the Thames.
09:37She has a great flair for the theatrical, so she has the heraldic crest of her late father-in-law,
09:45Henry VII, the Welsh dragon, incorporated into her water pageant with a mammoth mechanical dragon that belches fire over the
09:54river just before the royal flotilla comes past.
09:58There was no fire-breathing dragon in 2012, although if there were, the weather would have extinguished it.
10:06It was so unfortunate that it was a terrible day. I mean, torrential rain and really cold.
10:13It showed that Elizabeth II was very tough in adversity, and it showed that stoicism and that I will proceed
10:22because that's what's on the programme.
10:24But it was quite hard work for her as an elderly lady.
10:28Thanks to the great British tradition of soggy summers, it's no surprise the river pageant is one royal ritual that
10:36hasn't become a regular fixture.
10:38I think it's the definition of a damp squib, that river pageant.
10:44Coming up, the royal's most extravagant tradition.
10:48They're an excellent present if you don't quite know what to get someone who has everything.
10:53The tradition that takes its place at the royal breakfast table.
10:57You will see cornflakes, fake beans by royal appointment.
11:02And the tradition that forced the spare into the spotlight.
11:07He's not really equipped for the job, and suddenly he's thrust into this really big gig at a particularly dangerous
11:16time.
11:25For the royal family, ceremony and sparkle go hand in bejewelled hand.
11:31Tradition dictates that at every state dinner, every grand occasion, they raid the royal jewellery box.
11:39Royalty has always worked incredibly hard to create a sense of awe and majesty.
11:45You need gold everywhere, you want jewels, and it is very effective.
11:51It gives people exactly what they want, which is fantasy and escape.
11:59But behind the glitter lies a less public, more intimate royal tradition.
12:06Kensington Palace has been a royal residence for over 300 years.
12:15Here, locked away inside its jewel room, are some of the royal family's most precious and personal treasures.
12:24Not all royal jewels are the crown jewels.
12:27Some of them are gifts to the royals themselves, such as this tiara, which is a stunning privately owned piece.
12:33It's almost 200 carats of diamonds.
12:36The pear-shaped stones in the middle, they swing when they move.
12:39And you can just imagine at a ball back in the 19th and 20th centuries, that they would have glinted
12:44in the candlelight.
12:46It's just exquisite.
12:49The tiara was a wedding gift given to Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Louise.
12:56She defied the tradition of marrying a foreign royal and fell in love with a commoner, albeit a rich one,
13:02with a Scottish estate.
13:04Eager to prove his worth and wealth, he gave his new bride a tiara that outshone even those of the
13:11Queen herself.
13:13So there's a real love story behind it.
13:16We know that this was a gift of love, and I think I would be impressed if I was given
13:20that on my wedding day.
13:22For the royals, gifting diamonds as a sparkling sign of love is a longstanding tradition.
13:29Diamonds are a girl's best friend.
13:31They're also royal's best friend.
13:33They're expensive, they showcase your wealth, and they're an excellent present if you don't quite know what to get someone
13:39who has everything.
13:41And giving your loved one a diamond is easy when you've got an empire at your fingertips.
13:50Take the legendary Koh-i-Noor diamond, taken from Imperial India and presented to Queen Victoria.
13:59Or the colossal Cullinan diamond, found in colonial South Africa, with estimates of its value in the region of half
14:07a billion pounds.
14:10The largest diamond ever found in the world, and they gave it to Edward VII.
14:19Eventually, the stone was cut into nine dazzling pieces.
14:23Some went to the crown jewels.
14:26Cullinan I is in the scepter.
14:28Cullinan II in the imperial state crown.
14:32Others, thanks to a rather convenient royal tradition, found their way into the family's private jewellery collection.
14:40Three and four were called Granny's Chips.
14:44The Queen once said to me,
14:46I didn't get much from my grandmother.
14:48I only got her jewellery.
14:50That was a pretty good gift.
14:53These hand-me-downs, set in a brooch, are the most valuable piece in the family jewellery box,
14:59with an estimated value of as much as £180 million.
15:05But the Queen didn't really think about its worth, because she was a very humble, very ordinary woman in lots
15:13of ways.
15:14And so, for her to wear massive diamonds and pearls and rubies, it was an everyday occurrence.
15:22It could have been glass, for all she knew.
15:26Most royal traditions are too costly for us normal mortals.
15:30But there is one we can taste every time we sit down to breakfast.
15:35You will see Kellogg's Corn Flakes by royal appointment.
15:40Yes, the royal household do use Kellogg's Corn Flakes.
15:44Heinz baked beans have the royal warrant,
15:47because Heinz produce goods for the royal household.
15:52The royal warrant's traditional crest and motto
15:55send a message that a product meets with royal approval.
16:00So, yes, the royal warrant means the royals buy it and the royals use it.
16:07They've been using royal warrant holder Partridge's Grocers in Kensington, London, for 31 years.
16:15This is, in fact, the royal coat of arms that the King has authorised,
16:19and that is the legend that we can have underneath it.
16:22We were granted it by Her Majesty the Queen,
16:25and we were very proud to have got it then.
16:28And then we were fortunate enough to have it granted by the King,
16:31and that means that we supply the monarch with a certain product or service,
16:37and in our case, it's speciality food.
16:40Partridge's is one of nearly 600 royal warrant holders,
16:44ranging from perfumiers to fishmongers, pest controllers to broadband suppliers,
16:50sole traders to multinationals.
16:53To earn a warrant, a business must supply the royal household
16:57with outstanding products or services for a minimum of five years.
17:03It's a big mark of approval for any company in this country, but even more so abroad.
17:10People will look and say,
17:12that company's got the royal warrant.
17:13That's where we're going.
17:15Having a royal warrant has attracted a lot of customers from overseas
17:19who are intrigued and fascinated by British traditions and British culture as well.
17:24So we have a large number of Japanese customers who come here,
17:28and we also export to Japan,
17:30and we're actually this year exporting Chelsea buns to Japan
17:33because they're quite fascinated by the whole concept of the Chelsea bun.
17:39Selling buns to Japan probably wasn't on King Henry II's mind
17:44when he issued the first royal seal of approval to a supplier nearly 900 years ago,
17:50beginning the tradition of granting royal support to business.
17:54It's really in the 19th century that you see nearly 2,000 royal warrants
17:59handed down by Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert
18:02to help augment British industry.
18:06For the commercially-minded Queen Victoria and her consort Prince Albert,
18:11the tradition of granting royal warrants was a win-win.
18:15It worked both ways.
18:17It worked to consolidate the role and position of the royal family,
18:24but it also worked to encourage businesses,
18:27then these businesses prospered.
18:29Victoria and Albert were the original influencers,
18:32and that influence was global.
18:36Branding everything from soap to scissors with the royal warrant
18:40and shipping it to the empire's far-flung corners,
18:43they transformed this British tradition
18:45into the first truly international marketing campaign.
18:50Under Queen Victoria's reign, the empire was at its zenith.
18:54The sun never set on the British empire,
18:56so these products could be exported throughout the world,
18:59and it would really firm up Britain's foothold in the empire.
19:04For the royals, securing their position is the cornerstone of tradition,
19:09whether that's cementing their role on the world stage
19:11or maintaining their grip on the throne.
19:15Which is why having a spare, as well as an heir,
19:18is such a long-standing royal practice,
19:21despite its cost to the spare.
19:24Being a spare is so damaging because your only role is to be the spare.
19:29They know that they were brought into the world to be the spare
19:33in case their older brother or sister died or abdicated or refused the throne.
19:40Very occasionally, the spare does become the heir,
19:43and that's not easy either.
19:46King Edward VIII had been raised as the heir,
19:49but in 1936, he abandoned tradition for love,
19:55abdicating in order to marry an American divorcee.
19:59I have found it impossible to carry the head of burden of responsibility
20:04without the help and support of the very I love.
20:11Overnight, according to royal tradition,
20:14the king's younger brother, Bertie, went from spare to heir.
20:18And suddenly, this rather awkward second son is thrown into the limelight.
20:26When Edward announced that he was going to abdicate,
20:30Bertie rushed to his mother, Queen Mary,
20:34and he wept on her shoulders, saying,
20:38I'm only a naval officer.
20:40I know nothing about kingship.
20:44He's not really equipped for the job,
20:47not intellectually, not in terms of his personality,
20:52his absence of charisma.
20:53He's a bit of a geek.
20:55He's actually happiest at home with his kids and wife,
20:59and suddenly he's thrust into this really big gig
21:03at a particularly dangerous time.
21:12Fascism's on the march in Europe.
21:14We need our king to batten down the hatches,
21:18rally around ideas of Britishness,
21:19and we've got a man who doesn't really look like he's up to the gig
21:23because he didn't expect to acquire the gig.
21:27But on the 12th of May, 1937,
21:30tradition dictated that Bertie be crowned King George VI.
21:35You can see how awkward he looks.
21:37He's got the scepter and the crown,
21:38and he looks like it's cosplay.
21:40I mean, it looks like he's just pretending.
21:44Unprepared and under threat of war,
21:46things didn't look good for the spare turned heir.
21:51But actually, what saved George VI
21:53in his unexpected role as monarch was the war,
21:56because actually, in the war,
21:58he could face down the Nazis,
22:00he could wear his crown,
22:01he could stand by Churchill,
22:03and yes, the Luftwaffe made the ultimate error
22:06of bombing Buckingham Palace.
22:08Nothing rallied hearts and minds quite like it,
22:10so you end up getting the spare coming good
22:13because, in the face of a common enemy,
22:17the king grew wings.
22:19Coming up, the extravagant royal tradition
22:22that revealed a former king's true colours.
22:26Edward's actions in commissioning this brooch
22:29when Britain was on its knees,
22:31you know, symbolically, this was a betrayal.
22:35The troubling tradition of royal Ronans.
22:38He was greedy, vicious, and tyrannical.
22:41He ends up as the villain in the Robin Hood legend.
22:44And the popular tradition of pulling out all the stops.
22:49How do you win hearts and minds?
22:52You throw a great big party, a huge spectacle.
22:56The more lavish, the better.
23:03Britain's most iconic royal traditions
23:05are designed to dazzle.
23:07They're a show of wealth, power, and prestige.
23:10Each show needs a stage.
23:14And for centuries,
23:15the greatest royal stage of all
23:17was the River Thames.
23:20It's the ultimate platform on which to perform.
23:23If today we've got Wembley,
23:25then we had the Thames.
23:30In 2012, the river hosted the late Queen's Diamond Jubilee pageant.
23:37But the real golden age of this royal tradition
23:40was 300 years earlier,
23:42when the newly crowned George I
23:44took to the water to present himself as Britain's rightful king.
23:50If you look at George I,
23:52he's 54 when he arrives in England,
23:54and he hardly speaks any English.
23:56He is way too German.
23:59His son also spends his first three decades,
24:01by the way, over in Hanover.
24:03So these guys are foreign.
24:05How do you win hearts and minds?
24:08You throw a great big party,
24:10a huge spectacle.
24:11The more lavish, the better.
24:15And what better way to party
24:16than to take to the Thames
24:18and tap into the time-honoured royal tradition
24:21of the water pageant.
24:24So he puts a lot of money into the water pageants.
24:27They haven't really seen ones this grand or over the top
24:29since Anne Boleyn's dragon back in 1533.
24:33But the king wasn't the only family member
24:36to spot the PR potential of a royal river pageant.
24:41George I and his son,
24:43the future George II,
24:44were not friends.
24:47They famously hated each other.
24:49So the future George II
24:51starts to put on grander water pageants than his father.
24:55They each try to recruit the best and the brightest
24:58to participate in their water pageant.
25:01And it was basically a ridiculous competition
25:03between a father and son.
25:06The royal tradition of river pageants
25:08had become a full-blown aquatic arms race.
25:12And on the 17th of July, 1717,
25:15George I brought out the big guns.
25:19Music.
25:21Specially composed by fellow German,
25:24George Friedrich Handel.
25:29Handel wrote this music for an orchestra of 50 people,
25:32which was vast.
25:33They were all on a boat
25:35and they went all the way up the River Thames to Chelsea.
25:39And so can you imagine being a spectator,
25:42looking at this huge water party
25:44going all the way up the Thames
25:45and this beautiful music,
25:46which must have been quite spectacular.
25:50Three centuries later,
25:51this music has become a much-loved classic.
25:55Handel's water music.
26:03And that's how we get this absolutely extraordinary music
26:06that was premiered at one of the water pageants
26:08in the Georgian period
26:09and it's still listened to and loved today.
26:13But this was more than a catchy number
26:15or a way to outshine his son.
26:18It was a carefully crafted piece of royal propaganda.
26:22Even though the king had been born in Hanover,
26:25Handel himself was German,
26:26he didn't want it to look like a foreign piece
26:30by a foreign royal family.
26:31So pieces were incorporated
26:33like an English hornpipe, a sailor's reel.
26:39They are using things that would have been traditional
26:42and familiar to what is at this point
26:44a seafaring nation
26:46to make the music seem like something
26:49that has come from a German source
26:51but has a British destination
26:53much like the royal family itself.
26:56As the king processed down the Thames,
26:59he was accompanied by the great, good and not so good
27:03from the upper echelons of British society.
27:07The royals and the aristocracy
27:09have been hobnobbing for centuries
27:12and it's a tradition that's still going strong today.
27:16The king has friends who are aristocrats,
27:20the Marquess of Salisbury, the Duke of Wellington.
27:23If you look at the queen's ladies-in-waiting, for example,
27:27most of them were from the aristocracy.
27:29Buckingham Palace is still staffed in the senior positions
27:32by many people from the aristocracy.
27:37Traditionally, the aristocracy have given the royals support.
27:40In return, the royals have given the aristocracy
27:43power and prestige.
27:45But in the Middle Ages,
27:47if either party failed to keep their side of the deal,
27:50things could get ugly fast.
27:58The aristocracy had the ability to break apart a country
28:01if they were not kept on site.
28:03You can see their ability to cause chaos in the 15th century
28:07when different great families back different sides
28:09in the Wars of the Roses.
28:11That splits the monarchy, it splits the nation.
28:14But this squabbling between bluebloods
28:17wasn't always bad news.
28:20In the 13th century, one such bust-up
28:23set in motion a chain of events
28:24that shaped the traditions that govern us today.
28:28King John or bad Prince John
28:30or John Lackland or John Softsword
28:33none of them complementary nicknames
28:35is a disaster as a king.
28:38So disastrous
28:39that he's immortalised as the evil king
28:41in the legend of Robin Hood.
28:44The unpopularity that John has in his lifetime
28:47is the reason he ends up as the villain
28:49in the Robin Hood legend.
28:50He was greedy, vicious, and tyrannical.
28:54In 1215, some of Britain's biggest bigwigs
28:58banded together and told John to tone it down
29:01or else.
29:03The barons of England and the church in England
29:06are so fed up with John as a leader
29:09that they force him in 1215
29:11to sign Magna Carta promising
29:13that he won't behave like a tyrant.
29:15The Great Charter, or Magna Carta in Latin,
29:19made it clear the king wasn't above the law.
29:23And the aristocracy won the right
29:25to fair treatment and a say over taxes.
29:29Magna Carta is one of the most important
29:32legal documents in British history,
29:35perhaps even in the history
29:36of the English-speaking world.
29:38Magna Carta established that even the boss
29:41has to play by the rules.
29:43Over time, this simple idea
29:46helped shape the tradition of democracy
29:48we know today.
29:50The development of parliament
29:51right through the Middle Ages
29:53was in large part down to the aristocracy
29:56as well as the monarch
29:58and what each of them would tolerate.
30:01So the aristocracy have played a massive role
30:04in the development of our democracy
30:06as we have it now over the centuries.
30:12Aristocracy and monarchy
30:13may not always have seen eye to eye.
30:16But being fabulously rich,
30:18there was one tradition they both agreed on.
30:21The best way to send a message
30:23was to set it in stone,
30:25especially if it was a message of love.
30:28Kings and consorts had always shown their affection,
30:32displayed their emotion,
30:33two pieces of jewelry,
30:35specially commissioned.
30:39But 85 years ago,
30:41as the Nazis bombed Britain,
30:43two royal treasures revealed
30:45very different sides to this tradition.
30:49One was commissioned by the abdicated
30:51King Edward VIII,
30:52the other by the spare who replaced him,
30:56his brother, George VI.
30:58The differences between the two brothers
31:00are on vivid display
31:01with what they commissioned
31:03during the Second World War.
31:04In June 1940,
31:07the former King Edward
31:08was living in Paris
31:09with his wife, Wallace Simpson,
31:12as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
31:15The great concern of George VI's government
31:18is that the ex-king
31:19will be captured by the Nazis
31:21and that they will proclaim him
31:23a puppet rival king to his brother.
31:26But the Duke had other ideas.
31:29He was fixated on the royal tradition
31:31of commissioning jewelry.
31:33Whilst all hell was breaking loose
31:37in Britain
31:38and around the world
31:40because of the Second World War,
31:42Britain were facing threat
31:43of invasion in 1940,
31:46Edward was sitting in France
31:48and commissioning Cartier's
31:50to produce yet another
31:52magnificent brooch
31:54for his darling wife, Wallace.
31:57The result was eye-catching
31:59and extravagant.
32:01A fantastical flamingo
32:04encrusted with over 200 rubies,
32:06emeralds, sapphires and diamonds.
32:09The brooch is studded with gemstones.
32:12They're really very pretty.
32:13There's a citrine in the beak
32:14and we know it must have cost
32:16quite a lot of money.
32:17It sold for £1.7 million in 1987.
32:24Creating lavish gifts
32:26might have been a royal custom,
32:27but with Nazi bombs
32:29ravaging the country
32:30the Duke once ruled
32:31and their forces advancing
32:33across France,
32:34it was one tradition too far
32:36for the British authorities.
32:38The British Embassy
32:40delivers a message
32:40from the Prime Minister
32:42and the King saying,
32:43you and your flamingo
32:44need to go to Portugal
32:46and get on a military ship
32:48that will carry you
32:49to the Caribbean
32:50because we are concerned
32:52that you will be captured
32:53by the Nazis
32:54and proclaimed a puppet king
32:56with all the bejeweled Cartier
32:57you could think of.
32:58You need to get on this ship.
33:02Eventually,
33:03the Duke and Duchess
33:04did as they were told.
33:05But the frivolous flamingo
33:08tainted the royal custom
33:09of gifting jewels,
33:11turning what was traditionally
33:12an act of love
33:14into an exercise
33:15in self-indulgence.
33:18Edward's actions
33:20in commissioning this brooch
33:21really spoke so much louder
33:23than words could
33:25about where his sympathies lay
33:27when Britain was on its knees.
33:29You know, symbolically,
33:31this was a betrayal.
33:32To commission
33:33what is artistically considered
33:35one of the great pieces
33:37Cartier produced
33:38in the 20th century
33:38at extortionate cost,
33:41at a time
33:41when his country
33:42was being pummeled
33:43nightly by bombs,
33:45his family were at risk,
33:47his country was bleeding
33:48and dying.
33:49Everything Edward does
33:51in 1940 confirms
33:53that he was
33:54a feckless,
33:56potentially fascist
33:57sympathizing playboy
33:59who had no sense
34:01or perhaps more accurately
34:02no interest
34:03in the suffering
34:04of his people.
34:06But while Wallis Simpson
34:08was flaunting her flamingo,
34:10back in Britain,
34:12another brooch,
34:13of sorts,
34:14had been commissioned
34:15by the Duke's brother,
34:17the spare,
34:17who became
34:18King George VI.
34:20Britain was in the front line
34:22and to commemorate
34:24the exceptional bravery
34:25of ordinary men,
34:26women and children,
34:27civilians,
34:28those not fighting
34:30in the armed forces
34:31but nevertheless
34:32serving their country.
34:34George VI came up
34:36with the idea
34:36of a new medal,
34:38a new honour,
34:40a different kind of brooch,
34:42if you like,
34:43called the George Cross.
34:45Awarded for acts
34:47of bravery
34:47away from the front line,
34:49the medal highlighted
34:50the differences
34:51between the former heir
34:53and the spare.
34:54The contrast between
34:56the two kings
34:58could not have been
34:59greater.
35:01A narcissistic,
35:03self-absorbed
35:05Duke of Windsor
35:06and his brother
35:07who was standing
35:08shoulder to shoulder
35:09with the common man
35:11and woman in Britain
35:12to save the country
35:14from invasion.
35:15They got the right king
35:17in the end.
35:19Coming up,
35:20when tradition
35:21becomes obsession.
35:23He's divorcing
35:25and he's marrying
35:26and he's beheading
35:26left, right and centre
35:28because he's desperate
35:29for a male heir.
35:31And the royal tradition
35:33that gave us
35:33the greatest show on earth.
35:36It displayed the monarchy
35:38at its very best
35:39as standing
35:41for the best of British.
35:47According to tradition,
35:50the ideal royal family
35:51includes a monarch,
35:53an heir
35:54and a spare.
35:55A living plan B
35:57waiting in the wings
35:59should fate intervene.
36:03As William has said,
36:05we're incredibly grateful
36:06to all of you
36:07for your contribution
36:08to Heads Together.
36:08We wanted to invite you here
36:10to express our thanks
36:12in person
36:12for the success
36:13of the campaign.
36:15Today,
36:16Prince Harry
36:17is the latest
36:18in a long line
36:18of second sons
36:19raised in their sibling's shadow.
36:23500 years earlier,
36:25there was another
36:26red-haired spare
36:26whose story reveals
36:28what can happen
36:29when the plan B
36:30becomes king.
36:32Henry VIII
36:33is arguably
36:34one of our most famous kings,
36:36but he was never
36:36destined for the throne.
36:38With his elder brother,
36:40Arthur,
36:41first in line
36:41for the throne,
36:43Henry was free
36:44to enjoy the privileges
36:45of being a prince
36:46without the responsibilities
36:47of being an heir.
36:49It was said
36:50that he could drink
36:51anyone under the table.
36:53He was wonderful
36:55at dancing,
36:56but also wonderful
36:57at huntsing,
36:58and he thought
36:59perhaps he could just
37:00live the rest of his life
37:01having a good time.
37:04But when Arthur died
37:05in 1502,
37:07the spare suddenly
37:08became the heir.
37:10And seven years
37:11after that,
37:12Henry became king.
37:14He came to the throne,
37:16this pleasure-loving playboy,
37:18really,
37:19and he just spent
37:20his days hunting
37:21and in great entertainment,
37:24as it was said,
37:25leaving the more sober
37:27matter of state affairs
37:28to able ministers
37:30such as Cardinal Wolsey.
37:32And I think this all
37:33has its origins
37:33in the fact
37:34Henry was the spare,
37:36he was not the heir.
37:38Leaving the business of state
37:40to his ministers,
37:41Henry could get busy
37:43with the all-important tradition
37:44of producing an heir
37:46and a spare of his own.
37:48Henry seems to go
37:49totally mad.
37:50He's divorcing
37:51and he's marrying
37:52and he's beheading
37:53left, right and centre
37:54because he's desperate
37:55for a male heir.
37:57This was not an era
37:58of female power,
38:00so you had to have
38:01a male heir.
38:03But it seemed to be
38:05the one thing
38:05that kept eluding him.
38:07His long marriage
38:08to Catherine of Aragon
38:09produced numerous children
38:11or pregnancies,
38:12but only one surviving child,
38:14and that was a girl,
38:15the Princess Mary.
38:17For Henry,
38:18producing an heir
38:19and a spare
38:20wasn't simply a tradition.
38:21It was an obsession
38:23that would have
38:24far-reaching consequences.
38:26When Henry was so desperate
38:28for an heir
38:29that he needed
38:30to have his marriage
38:31to Catherine of Aragon
38:32annulled,
38:33and in order to do that,
38:35he made England separate
38:36from the rest
38:37of Roman Catholic Europe
38:38and brought in
38:40all of these
38:40turbulent changes,
38:42all of which
38:43had their origin
38:44in Henry's obsession
38:47with the need
38:48to have heirs
38:49and spares.
38:52300 years later,
38:54unlike her influential ancestor,
38:56Queen Victoria
38:57had no trouble
38:58producing multiple
38:59potential heirs.
39:01She once remarked
39:03that she spent
39:03the first decade
39:04of her married life
39:05lying on her backside
39:07producing heirs
39:09and spares
39:09for king and country.
39:11You know,
39:12she had nine children.
39:14But somehow,
39:16between giving birth
39:17and governing,
39:18the Queen still found time
39:20to nurture her other baby,
39:21championing British industry.
39:24The bond between
39:26monarchy and business
39:27began back in the Middle Ages
39:28with the first royal warrant.
39:30But Victoria and Albert
39:32took this tradition
39:34and turbocharged it.
39:36Victoria and Albert
39:37really did become
39:38the face of British industry
39:40and British goods.
39:41They wanted to not only
39:43be the leader in the world,
39:44but also to have the world
39:46acknowledge that Britain
39:48is the best at these things.
39:50And so,
39:51the enterprising duo
39:53decided to gather
39:54the world's finest innovations
39:56and industries
39:57under one roof
39:58and hold the 1851
40:00Great Exhibition.
40:02Over 100,000 inventions,
40:06objects and creations
40:08were put on display
40:10for the British public
40:11to come and view.
40:12Inside a vast iron and glass palace,
40:16three times the length
40:17of St Paul's Cathedral,
40:19visitors marveled
40:20at exhibits that included
40:22guns, telescopes,
40:24and the latest photographic technology,
40:27kitchen appliances
40:28and farm machinery,
40:30a giant pink glass fountain,
40:33stuffed kittens drinking tea,
40:35a leech-powered
40:37weather-predicting machine,
40:39and the Koh-i-Noor diamond.
40:42Not surprisingly,
40:43the public couldn't get enough.
40:46It was visited
40:48by over 6 million people.
40:51Victoria herself
40:51went 14 times.
40:54And it wasn't just
40:55the weird and wonderful exhibits
40:57that left a mark
40:58on the public imagination.
41:00You also had
41:01the introduction
41:02of public toilets.
41:04And so,
41:05the notion of paying
41:06a penny
41:07to use these public toilets
41:09and the idea
41:10of spending a penny,
41:12you know,
41:13originated with this.
41:15And all those pennies
41:16soon added up.
41:18The Great Exhibition
41:20actually made
41:20a huge profit in money,
41:23£186,000,
41:24which is astronomical back then.
41:26And that money
41:27was put towards
41:28purchasing
41:29a huge estate
41:31in South Kensington.
41:32And on that site,
41:34lots of amazing buildings
41:35that we know to this day
41:36were built,
41:37such as the Victoria
41:38and Albert Museum
41:40and the Natural History Museum.
41:43It was such a boost,
41:45not just to commerce
41:47and industry
41:48and science
41:49and engineering
41:50and the arts,
41:51but it also displayed
41:53the monarchy
41:54at its very best,
41:56as standing
41:57for the best of British.
42:00From championing business
42:02to promoting stability
42:05and democracy
42:08to fantasy.
42:10Royal traditions
42:11remain
42:11because they give us
42:13what we want.
42:15Yes, they are really wealthy.
42:17Yes, they are incredibly privileged,
42:19but they also know
42:20how to give people
42:21what they want,
42:22which is a little bit
42:23of fantasy.
42:24We need our ceremonies.
42:26We need our tradition.
42:27That's what defines us
42:29as a nation.
42:30Its traditions,
42:32its shared history,
42:33a common language,
42:35a common monarch.
42:37That's the key
42:38to the success
42:39of the British monarchy.
42:42Next time,
42:44how a royal tradition
42:45became a lifelong passion.
42:47You could see her eyes sparkling,
42:50and I think she never felt
42:52more at home
42:53than amongst
42:53Commonwealth leaders.
42:55The glamorous ritual
42:56of royal trendsetting.
42:58The royal family,
42:59and in particular
43:00royal women,
43:01have always been
43:02huge fashion plates.
43:04And how tradition
43:05turned a prince
43:06into a divine being.
43:08Prince Philip
43:08was revered
43:10as a god
43:10in part of Vanuatu.
43:18Can Alexis Conran
43:19and the team
43:20arm us with
43:21the right info
43:21to avoid being
43:22caught out
43:23by weight loss scams
43:24brand new tomorrow
43:25at seven?
43:25Next tonight,
43:26how did Jane Andrews,
43:27an assistant
43:28to the Duchess of York,
43:29end up in the dock
43:30for murder?
43:31Brand new crime of passion
43:32after the break.
43:33the king. for
43:35the king. and
43:39the king. the
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