- 2 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:01For the royals, tradition is everything.
00:04Monarchy is about the past, the present and the future
00:07and 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.
00:33Not all royal jewels are the crown jewels. We know that this was a gift of love.
00:38And delve deep into rare royal records.
00:41Written in early January 1642. It'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 and 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.
01:10But 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,
01:28the 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.
01:51This time, the bloody origins of the royal tradition of honouring Britain's best.
01:57If you were distinguished in serving your king on the battlefield, then you could be conferred with a knighthood.
02:05The dangers of the royal tradition of being a court jester.
02:10If you enrage a Tudor monarch, your punishment is going to probably be physical.
02:14And the enduring royal custom that reveals an all-too-human side of the monarchy.
02:20Royalty and scandal go hand in jeweled hand.
02:29The royal calendar is packed with age-old traditional rituals and customs.
02:37Tradition and history are what makes the British monarchy special.
02:43And it really is, it's USP.
02:46I think Britain does pomp and circumstance better than any other country.
02:49And that's part of our attraction, certainly for a lot of tourists to come to this country.
02:57But there is one royal tradition that many of us dream may one day happen to us.
03:03And that's receiving an honour.
03:06There's about 2,000 honours handed out every year, broadly speaking in two honours lists.
03:12In the New Year's honours list and the birthday honours, which are published the night before the official birthday of
03:19the sovereign in June.
03:21And I got it for fashion and for performing arts and charity.
03:25But what I'm most proud of is that I'm an ambassador for Britain.
03:30The modern tradition of handing out honours to the British public has its roots in a much older custom.
03:36Second party, royal silence!
03:41Something that's still celebrated annually in the somewhat bewildering ritual known as the Garter Day procession.
03:48The Order of the Garter is your big daddy of orders and the oldest one tracking way back to the
03:5614th century.
03:58Established by Edward III in 1348, this most senior of knighthoods has its roots in the blood and guts of
04:06ancient battlefields.
04:08The Order is about rewarding your most loyal men, your leading knights, the individuals who are laying down their life
04:20and land for service to the king.
04:23Once awarded only to royalty and aristocracy, this most ancient of honours has evolved over time into the modern system
04:32we know today.
04:34If you move down through the centuries, you see other orders being established and created, which speak to an inclusivity.
04:51Probably the best example of this is in 1917, when you see George V establishing a new order.
05:05The First World War was raging and there had been many acts of gallantry and heroism.
05:11And people were really putting themselves on the line for the war effort and that needed recognition.
05:18Men of every class are serving and giving their lives for king and country.
05:26And therefore you have the establishment of the order of the British Empire.
05:33This inception of a new award to recognise people was really a moment of national patriotism, but it also helped
05:41remind people that the king was there.
05:44As head of the nation, he saw what was going on and he wanted to recognise the everyday person.
05:53There are five honours within the order of the British Empire.
05:57The top two are knighthoods or damehoods.
06:00And the remaining three honours are CBEs, OBEs and MBEs, short for commander, officer or member of the British Empire.
06:11The introduction of that honours system had a revolutionary effect in terms of binding hearts and minds to the royal
06:22machine.
06:23Although the honours system began as a way to keep noblemen loyal to the crown,
06:29these days the closest a member of the royal family gets to choosing most recipients is pinning the honour on
06:35their chest.
06:37I think there's a great misconception that when you're given an OBE, CBE, whatever, someone at the palace,
06:43well, probably the king or the queen, oh, they're doing a good job, let's award them this, that or the
06:47other.
06:48That doesn't happen. The awards come from Downing Street.
06:51Even the government's ability to bestow patronage has been limited in recent years
06:56because you now have the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
07:00They warn that somebody might be either limited risk, medium risk or very high risk.
07:06And if you're very high risk, you probably don't get the honour.
07:10The honours that make headlines today tend to be from the government sanctioned honours list.
07:17But there are some less reported honours that are still bestowed at the discretion of the monarchy.
07:24Certain honours are only in the gift of the sovereign.
07:28The Royal Victorian Order is one such thing,
07:31which is traditionally given to people who have served well and served closely, members of the royal family.
07:41Traditionally, the Royal Victoria Order is awarded to people who have dedicated their lives to helping keep the monarchy on
07:48track.
07:49And they have a lot of people to choose from.
07:52Because the royals are supported by the vast and largely hidden machine, otherwise known as the Royal Household.
08:02There are still pages of the back stairs, footmen, underbutlers, yeomen of the cellars, yeomen of the silver and china
08:10pantries,
08:10ladies-in-waiting, ladies of the bedchamber, mistress of the robes, and it goes on.
08:17The Royal Household is huge.
08:19Think of Buckingham Palace as a rather grand hotel with a very famous owner.
08:25And you're there.
08:28From Anglo-Saxon times, no monarch worth their salt was without a large royal retinue to do their bidding.
08:37Over the centuries, this collection of royal servants, advisers, and companions traditionally became known as the Royal Household.
08:47And by Tudor times, it was enormous.
08:52When Henry VIII and his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, go to the north in 1541, an ambassador says the process
08:59as they move between residences is so vast, it resembles more of an army than a royal household.
09:06Incredibly, one of the most sought-after roles within Henry's staff was the so-called groom of the stool.
09:13They would help him dress in the mornings, they would accompany him to the toilet if he needed them to
09:18be there.
09:18And what was unusual about this is that it was normally the aristocrats and the traditional courtiers who would fill
09:25these roles.
09:27Thankfully, that royal tradition no longer exists.
09:31But there are plenty of other everyday tasks our royal family never need to think about, thanks to their diligent
09:38army of staff.
09:40A lot of people think that the royals live like we do, as a man and wife in a marriage
09:47or brothers and sisters, forget all of that.
09:50It's nothing like that.
09:52They live in a very special world, which is very different.
09:58There are certain domestic skills, particularly, that royalty have done without and do without, and that's because they don't need
10:06to know them.
10:06Frankly, I'd love to not know how to clean a loo. I mean, wouldn't you?
10:10Royal privilege and life doesn't come cheap.
10:14At the last count, the running of the royal household costs taxpayers tens of millions of pounds a year.
10:21But there are signs that our modern royals are looking to break with tradition and live simpler lives.
10:29Of course, Kate, being middle class and being brought up in a normal household, she's able to bring that breath
10:37of fresh air into her world and William's world.
10:41And that's what William embraces, the normality of his family.
10:47Coming up, the year when not even royal tradition could rescue the monarchy.
10:53Charles and Diana were box office because nobody had seen anything like it before.
10:58The royal ritual rooted in make-believe.
11:02Chivalry was at the heart of royal tradition for many centuries.
11:06But actually, it was based on a myth and the royal tradition that shows the monarchy's charitable side.
11:14Royal patronage shows that they're human.
11:17They've got interests. They've got cultural depth themselves.
11:31Even in the 21st century, our royal family exists in a rarefied world of ancient traditions and rituals that often
11:40lends them an air of otherworldliness.
11:42Royals love symbolism. They really hark back to trying to connect the past with the present.
11:48They try to remind us of where they came from and why they still exist today.
11:52But historically, the royal mask has slipped at times, giving us a glimpse of an all-too-human side.
12:01There's a very long tradition of royal scandals going back to the medieval period.
12:05Royalty and scandal go hand in jewelled hand.
12:09If you look at the history of monarchy, crisis is something that does happen occasionally.
12:16The abdication crisis of the late 1930s, the madness of King George, or the loss of the American colonies.
12:24So you've got an institution which is very, very ancient, so it goes up and it goes down.
12:30Traditionally, almost every royal generation has had to weather some sort of scandal.
12:36But there was one year, above all others, when the sheer number of scandals almost sank the monarchy.
12:421992.
12:441992.
12:451992.
12:461992.
12:461992 was the Queen's annus horribilis.
12:49The worst year in the Queen's reign.
12:52The House of Windsor's perfect royal storm began at the start of that year with the separation of the Duke
12:59and Duchess of York.
13:01The Duchess of York took Princess Beatrice to school as usual this morning, refusing to let the press interest in
13:08her marriage interrupt her daughter's routine.
13:10That shock split was quickly followed by news that another royal marriage was on the rocks.
13:17Shortly after, we heard that Anne was getting a divorce, so here we go, another of the Queen's children getting
13:22a divorce.
13:23And worse, the release of Andrew Morton's controversial biography on the Princess of Wales confirmed that the once fairytale marriage
13:32of Charles and Diana was also struggling.
13:36Suddenly, all over the papers were splashed. Diana tried to commit suicide. The marriage is over in all but name.
13:44A massive scandal.
13:45The Walesers were starting to fight in public. Their marriage is falling apart for us all to see.
13:53If the torrent of scandals wasn't enough, the monarchy faced another problem.
13:59The long-held tradition of the British press treating the royals with deference was on the wane.
14:06And in 1992, the tabloids smelled blood.
14:11The way that newspapers operate now is, I think, very different to how they operated in 1992.
14:17And scandal was preeminent for them.
14:21I'd say world-exclusive or royal-exclusive.
14:23In the early to mid-1990s, Charles and Diana were box office because nobody had seen anything like it before.
14:31That's good.
14:32Yeah, that's the one, isn't it?
14:33Yeah.
14:34My life's torture.
14:35The final royal scandal of the year came when the Sun newspaper published the transcript of a private phone conversation
14:43between Princess Diana and a male friend.
14:47By 1992, it was completely clear that the marriage was in terrible trouble.
14:54And I suppose, therefore, they felt they were justified in releasing these tapes, which were dynamite.
15:02Just when it seemed like the royal family couldn't take any more bad news, the very heart of the monarchy
15:11went up in flames.
15:16I was at Windsor Castle that day.
15:20What a sight.
15:21The beloved home of the sovereign, much of it, in flames.
15:25The late queen had a reputation for rarely showing emotion in public.
15:30But the sight of her beloved home going up in smoke broke that long-held tradition.
15:38I think the queen felt that it was an achievement to have survived that year.
15:48Before 1992, Britain was traditionally pro-monarchy.
15:53In the years after, the royal family's popularity took a major dive.
15:59But over the decade it took for their reputation to improve, they drew on another great royal tradition, knowing that
16:07time heals all.
16:11Because the tradition of monarchy is so profound in this country, it seems to be able to bounce back from
16:18crisis because we see it as something imminent and very profoundly rooted in our country.
16:27Traditionally, the way of steadying the royal ship in times of crisis has been to honour those closest and most
16:34supportive to the monarchy.
16:36All monarchs have bestowed honours to basically keep the barons on side.
16:43Because there are so many examples throughout history where the aristocracy have revolted and actually caused several monarchs to be
16:52deposed.
16:55The oldest honour is that of a knighthood.
17:00As with so much else with royal tradition, this had its roots on the battlefield in military service.
17:07If you were distinguished in serving your king on the battlefield, then you could be conferred with a knighthood.
17:16When William the Conqueror became King of England in 1066, he created the feudal system, gifting his supporters land to
17:25keep them loyal.
17:27Knights were crucial to defending this system.
17:31And becoming one was steeped in ritual.
17:35At its height in the medieval period, the conferring of knighthoods was quite an involved process, stretching over many hours.
17:47Firstly, they all had to have a bath and be cleansed.
17:51And then throughout the night, they would probably be in their armour, kneeling before an altar, and they would hold
17:56vigil throughout the night.
17:59Then the following day, they would actually go to the proper ceremony, where they would be tapped on their shoulder
18:05with a hand or with a sword.
18:08But being a knight wasn't just about defending the kingdom.
18:12There was a strict code of conduct that harked back to a legendary time that was, in fact, completely made
18:19up.
18:22Chivalry was at the heart of royal tradition for many centuries, but actually it was based on a myth.
18:29In the Middle Ages, most monarchies become fascinated by a past that they believed to have existed, but which almost
18:38certainly didn't, and that is the era of King Arthur and Camelot.
18:44They were myths, and yet they gave rise to this cult of chivalry that dominated royal tradition for centuries, and
18:53that can still be found in things like the honours system today.
18:59These days, receiving a knighthood certainly doesn't involve ceremonial bathing or armour.
19:04And while chivalry isn't dead, our modern knights are far less likely to have gone into battle, unless it's in
19:12a sporting arena.
19:15The way in which the royal family have democratised the honours system speaks to the evolution of the monarchy.
19:26The modern honours system is the monarchy's way of recognising good works across the nation.
19:33Another royal tradition of giving back is their involvement in charities.
19:41I think one of the most important day-to-day functions, really, of the royal family is their support and
19:49patronage of charities.
19:50That brings prestige, and that brings publicity, and publicity brings money.
19:56There we are. Aha!
20:00The royal tradition of providing patronage to charities was started by King George II.
20:09In 1751, he granted a royal charter to the Society of Antiquaries, a group dedicated to the study and knowledge
20:17of antiquities and history.
20:21Today, the royal family supports more than 1,000 UK charities, and they've even started their own foundations in areas
20:30they're passionate about.
20:33The King started the Prince's Trust, now the King's Trust, with some of his naval pension, and he decided he
20:38wanted to help young people, he wanted to give them a step up.
20:42So that has gone from strength to strength over the years, and helped well over a million young people.
20:47Hello, young people from the Trust! Give it away!
20:51The King has personally founded more than a dozen charities over the years, and he's patron to hundreds more.
20:59And the next generation of royals is also very much involved in charity work.
21:04But they're doing it a little differently.
21:09We've seen with William and Catherine a slight change in tradition in that they have a much smaller portfolio of
21:18charities, because they have taken the view that it's all about impact.
21:23With William and Kate, it's dozens of patronages rather than hundreds of patronages.
21:30And the evidence and the way things are going now is to focus on a fewer number of charities and
21:36do more work on those charities.
21:39But this royal tradition of supporting a worthy cause doesn't just benefit the charity.
21:46Royal patronages also work for the royal family, because it shows that they're human.
21:50They've got interests, they've got hobbies, they've got cultural depth themselves.
21:57Still to come, the very public break with royal tradition that led to a constitutional crisis.
22:05The breakdown of the marriage makes any modern scandal look like a Sunday school outing.
22:11The Queen Mother's lifelong beliefs forged by war.
22:16She lived the reality of the First World War, and she understood the need for charity.
22:22And the traditional court position that was the key to a king's happiness.
22:29His party piece was that he was able to jump, whistle and fart all on the king's command.
22:43The royal tradition of duty and service sees senior members of the monarchy carry out more than 2,000 public
22:50engagements every year.
22:53And that takes a huge support team.
22:58Most people only see it from the outside, but if you are a member of the royal household, you get
23:04to see the workings of it.
23:05You see all the cogs and all the smoke and mirrors, which makes everything happen to give you a grand
23:14performance.
23:16Some traditional positions unique to the royal household, such as piper to the sovereign or keeper of the privy purse,
23:24still exist today.
23:27But other roles, once deemed crucial to the smooth running of the monarchy, have long since disappeared.
23:36Including one that by today's standards seems laughable.
23:42Jesters or court clowns or fools, as they were sometimes known, were a major part of life at early modern
23:49and medieval courts.
23:50We have this image, when you think of a royal banquet, there is this jester prancing around and generally being
23:57hilarious.
23:58But it was an official court position.
24:02Jesters received a salary, and they were highly trusted individuals.
24:09A clue to the traditional importance of a royal jester can be found at Hampton Court Palace.
24:17This is a very important painting at the palace. It's called The Family of Henry VIII.
24:24It shows the king with his dead wife, Jane Seymour, who died actually eight years earlier.
24:30His son, Edward, and his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth.
24:34But a really unusual part of the painting is the inclusion of Will Summer, Henry VIII's famous jester or fool.
24:46Jesters were highly respected because they didn't tell lies.
24:50They didn't flatter the king. He could trust their words.
24:54So Henry really respected them, and that's why he displayed them alongside his family here in this painting.
25:02By the time Henry VIII commissioned this portrait,
25:06court jesters had been a great British royal tradition for well over four centuries.
25:12Some of them becoming almost household names for their unique talents.
25:18One name that stands out, that insists on a titter, is Roland La Farta.
25:23Roland La Farta, I think, if you don't want to give it a French gloss.
25:29His party piece was that he was able to jump, whistle and fart all at the same time, all on
25:37the king's command.
25:43Flatulence aside, it wasn't just their ability to entertain that earned jesters a unique position in the royal court.
25:51Most fools in the Tudor court were probably people who had either learning difficulties or disabilities in some way.
26:00And as such, they were very respected because their words were thought to be unfiltered and to come straight from
26:08God.
26:08Without question, the jesters get away with a lot more than an ordinary courtier would.
26:14There's the comedian's privilege of saying slightly outrageous things, but you'll always have to read the room.
26:21Henry VIII's favourite jester, Will Summers, had a free reign to say things to the king that others would never
26:28dare to.
26:30He could really push the envelope with the jokes that he made and Henry would let him get away with
26:37things that he would not let anybody else get away with making fun of.
26:42But free speech could be something of a problem when it came to staying on the right side of a
26:46mercurial monarch.
26:49The problem is if you enrage a Tudor monarch, especially a thuggish one like Henry VIII, your punishment is going
26:55to probably be physical.
26:56We know that Henry VIII on one occasion got very angry with Will Summers and actually hit him so hard
27:03that he apparently fell through several rooms and down a flight of stairs.
27:08Summers never made the same mistake again and remained as the king's jester for well over a decade.
27:16After Henry VIII dies in 1547, Summers is left with a really cushy retirement package which includes a set of
27:24rooms, no rent and bed and board sorted for the rest of his life at Hampton Court.
27:31The tradition of court jesters began to phase out during the 17th century and royal entertainment became less slapstick and
27:40more intellectual.
27:43Ironically though, the loss of the one person capable of speaking the truth to the monarch coincided with the rise
27:50of royal scandals going public.
27:53A tradition our modern royal family knows only too well.
27:58The royal family can't live in a normal sort of level time.
28:04They live with tremendous highs and almighty lows.
28:09In recent memory, a number of major royal scandals have played out in the tabloids.
28:15But they had nothing on the constitutional crisis caused by one royal couple at the beginning of the 19th century.
28:24The breakdown of the marriage between King George IV and Caroline of Brunswick makes any modern scandal look like a
28:33Sunday school outing.
28:34In 1795, George, then the Prince of Wales, was forced into an arranged marriage with a German princess.
28:45And from the start, it was an unmitigated disaster.
28:50I don't think it's an understatement to say that George IV and Queen Caroline were one of the worst royal
28:55matches in history.
28:57On their wedding night, he turned up totally drunk and he passed out by the fire grate and that was
29:04that.
29:05But from this point forward, they never liked each other.
29:09What began as dislike became an open loathing that lasted for decades.
29:16And just like the royal scandals of the 20th century, each party broke with tradition and began to publicly sling
29:24mud.
29:26Not only did Caroline and George hate each other privately, their dirty linen was effectively strewn across London.
29:34Because they had different journalists who campaigned for their perspective king or queen.
29:40They almost seemed to be performing to see who could show they hated the other one more.
29:45George made many comments about Caroline's poor body odour.
29:50She made many comments about his poor personality and even worse soul.
29:54Just a year after they married, the couple separated.
29:58In the years that followed, Caroline split her time between Montague House in Greenwich and Italy.
30:05And rumours began to circulate about her behaviour.
30:09During this period of time, cartoonists were having a field day.
30:13They were drawing these crazy satirical prints, lampooning each party.
30:19Everybody had something to say on the marriage between George and Caroline.
30:25It was a really unfortunate affair.
30:27In 1820, George tried to use Parliament to get the marriage dissolved.
30:33But public opinion was so strongly against him that his bid failed and Caroline remained his wife.
30:42After more than 26 years, the whole unsavoury affair finally came to a head on the day of George IV's
30:50coronation.
30:51The tradition within the British monarchy was if a king is married, by the time he is crowned, then he
30:59will be crowned monarch and his wife will be crowned consort.
31:05George IV banned his wife from actually being crowned alongside him.
31:10Caroline turns up unannounced.
31:12The doors to the abbey are closed in her face.
31:15She's hammering on the door to get in.
31:17The crowds watching this are perplexed, to say the least.
31:21And it leads to a thousand satires, comedians' jokes, newspaper articles.
31:27Queen Caroline died less than three weeks after her public humiliation.
31:33Despite finally ridding himself of the wife he despised,
31:37the whole sordid affair proved to be something King George IV's reputation would never recover from.
31:44When George IV dies unlamented in 1830, the Times gives him a scorching obituary in which they politely but firmly
31:53say good riddance.
31:57It took another generation and a woman on the throne to finally restore the royal family's tarnished reputation.
32:06What's extraordinary is the transformation that takes place under Victoria.
32:12You have an entire rethink of how monarchy can serve the country as opposed to the other way round.
32:22One of the ways Queen Victoria successfully reconnected with the public was through the patronage of charities.
32:29And it's a royal tradition that each successive generation has continued.
32:36Where philanthropic monarchy really works is when the royal in question clearly believes in the organisation that they're the titular
32:46head of.
32:48Traditionally, a royal's choice of charities is influenced by their own interests or key issues of the time.
32:55For the late Queen Mother, it was both.
32:58The Queen Mother's devotion to military charities is something that springs from her experiences before she married into the royal
33:06family.
33:07The Queen Mother's brother had lost his life in the First World War and her family home in Glam's Castle
33:14had been turned into a makeshift hospital ward.
33:19And she was directly involved in helping to nurse and look after wounded soldiers.
33:24The Queen Mother's experiences at Glam's during the First World War meant that she never forgot the sacrifice British soldiers
33:32made for the nation.
33:34She had an encyclopedic memory of any man who had lived at Glam's and served his country during the First
33:42World War.
33:42Long after her marriage, she could spot someone in the crowd if they had been a patient at Glam's during
33:48the war and she would make a point of going over and talking to them.
33:51Until her death, the Queen Mum was closely involved with military charities, supporting both veterans and families affected by a
34:00loss on the battlefield.
34:01One of the few times she became very emotional in public was at the ceremony at the Cenotaph on Remembrance
34:08Day.
34:09She very much wanted her daughters, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren to continue that legacy.
34:17Today, the late Queen Mother's legacy lives on in royal tradition with her grandson, King Charles III, now patron to
34:25a range of armed forces and veterans' charities.
34:28This is what we like to see in royal patrons, that the royal family are willing to show up to
34:34events, that they're speaking with real heart and passion.
34:43Still to come, what happens when our traditional honours system goes awry?
34:48Why there have been some notorious mis-honours in the past.
34:53And why our royals traditionally love a furry friend.
34:58They're the ultimate companion for somebody with a strange life.
35:11Receiving an honour is not only a great royal tradition, it's also, for most people, a life-defining experience.
35:20It was the most extraordinary moment to open the letter and find out that I'd been awarded an OBE.
35:28It really does mean a great deal.
35:31Today, the vast majority of honours go to ordinary people who have done something extraordinary in service of the country.
35:39And they usually have no idea they've been nominated.
35:45When I first saw the letter, I thought I was in trouble, because it's a strictly private confidential cabinet office,
35:51and I thought, what have I done?
35:52I got one Saturday morning, I think from Downing Street, to say that the Prime Minister had it in mind
35:58to recommend me for an OBE.
36:00There was like a form you had to fill in, and I'd filled in that form within like half an
36:05hour, which was affirmative.
36:09Traditionally, there are 30 investiture ceremonies held every year, usually at Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle.
36:17And although today's ceremony is far swifter than in the past, there are still echoes of age-old history in
36:24the process.
36:26Modern day ceremonies have been honed down, so you're assigned a certain number of minutes with the member of the
36:33royal family who is conferring the honour, and you must curtsy or bow accordingly.
36:40It was a very wonderful thing on that day just to be at a marvellous ceremony in this amazing setting,
36:47presided over by the late queen.
36:50And for two minutes, she seemed entirely focused on me.
36:55And then you are given the honour, you give a curtsy, and then you go away.
37:01So it's quite a brief ceremony today, but it's still incredibly special.
37:07You're made very aware of the centuries of history as you're conferred with your honour.
37:18Today, the traditional honours lists are strictly vetted to make sure only the truly deserving get a gong.
37:25Because in the past, there have been some questionable nominees.
37:31There have been some notorious mis-honours in the past.
37:37The fascist leader Mussolini being one.
37:42The Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe being another.
37:47And the Eastern European dictator Ceausescu being a third example.
37:54All three individuals were ultimately stripped of their honours.
37:58And even today, the traditional prestige of these royal awards means that's seen as a badge of shame.
38:06When the royal family strips someone of an honour that they've granted, they are sending an incredibly strong and powerful
38:14political message of disapproval.
38:18Thankfully, far fewer people have had their honours removed than received them.
38:24And while being awarded one is the ultimate accolade for most people, tradition has shown you don't have to be
38:31a human to be revered by the royals.
38:36Pets, and particularly dogs, are integral to the royal family.
38:42Close inspection of a mural at Kensington Palace suggests the tradition of royal pets goes back at least as far
38:49as George I.
38:53Dogs were very much an aristocratic pet and almost an accessory.
38:57We have evidence of that in the king's staircase where we see multiple dogs.
39:01And it just goes to show that they were companions, but also really part of the fabric of court life.
39:07But it was Queen Victoria who really developed the royal passion for dogs.
39:13She was born at Kensington Palace, and it was here she met her first love.
39:20This is where she spent her formative years, and it's where she received her first dog in 1833.
39:27Dash was a lovely little spaniel, and she was a really lonely young princess, so he became a fast friend.
39:36When Dash died, he was buried in the grounds of Windsor Castle.
39:41But even as Queen, Victoria's obsession with dogs continued.
39:46She even entered the first ever Crufts.
39:50Victoria was a dog lover through and through.
39:52It was something she took with her for the rest of her life.
39:55She had collies, she had Pomeranians, she even introduced Dachshunds to the UK.
40:04Traditionally, each royal has a favoured breed.
40:08For King Charles, it's a Jack Russell.
40:11Princess Anne loves an English bull terrier.
40:15And their mother was rarely seen without a specific short-legged canine.
40:21Much to the disquiet of many people around her, actually, the late Queen was surrounded by her corgis, and she
40:28loved them all.
40:29But they didn't really love people quite so much, including Philip, I think.
40:35They used to drive him mad.
40:40Prince Philip once said to the Queen, why do you have so many dogs?
40:45And she said, but darling, they give me love unconditionally.
40:51That was the attraction of corgis.
40:53She loved the character of the corgi, and they did give her love.
40:59They didn't know that she was different from anybody else, and it was almost a sort of moment of sanity
41:05and calm for her that was always there.
41:09And it could be that the Queen's corgis also provided something that no human companion ever could.
41:17You know, I think the one reason that the late Queen loved her dogs is because these creatures can't talk.
41:25I honestly do think it's something about that close companionship that's safe, absolutely safe.
41:31I think they're the ultimate companion for somebody with a strange life.
41:42From acknowledging ancient loyalties to publicly honoring modern achievements,
41:49recognizing and supporting others less fortunate to revealing their own all-too-human side,
41:56the royal family and their traditions echo through the ages
42:01to make them as relatable to the nation today as they were a thousand years ago.
42:09We judge them as a nation using the yardstick of history, of tradition, of culture,
42:18because they're symbolic of the best of British.
42:28Next time, the royal custom of keeping a spare on the sidelines.
42:33You are the perpetual understudy, knowing that you probably won't ascend to the top job.
42:40The curious royal tradition that launched a much-loved classic.
42:44People all on a boat going all the way up the Thames with this beautiful music.
42:49And how a decadent royal tradition nearly spelled disaster in Britain's darkest hour.
42:56The British Embassy says you and your flamingo need to get on a boat to the Caribbean.
43:08And you can catch up with the Royals with Reverend Richard Cole's new next Saturday at 2.45pm
43:13and stream today's episode now on 5pm.
43:16When she doesn't have to speak publicly, does she let her outfits do the talking?
43:20Kate A Life in 10 Dresses is brand new next.
43:23.
43:24The End
43:26.
Comments