What the Queen was like as a mother to her children
Queen Elizabeth first became a mother over 70 years ago, when she welcomed Prince Charles to the world in 1948.
Soon after came Princess Anne in 1950, just three years before the then-Princess Elizabeth was thrust into the position as the reigning monarch of Great Britain and head of the Commonwealth.
It was not for another decade that she had two more children - Prince Andrew in 1960 and their youngest child, Prince Edward in 1964.
Despite over 70 years of the royal children of the Monarch being in the spotlight, there is only a handful of information we know about their relationship with their mother.
Prince Charles
As the heir to the throne, the Prince of Wales has had an abundance of speculation and debate surrounding the strength of his relationship with his mother.
Since the Queen’s royal duties came much quicker than she anticipated, she was immediately thrown into the life of a Monarch when her first two children were incredibly young.
While there is no doubt Prince Charles was remarkably close to the Queen mother, it is suggested by royal insiders that he was not as close to his own mother.
Historian and advisor for The Crown, as well as the author of The Crown: The Official Companion, Robert Lacy, said the Queen thought it to be better to leave her children in the care of nannies and her mother, instead of carting them around the world.
She had been brought up in that style herself, after all, with her parents leaving her at home and entrusting her entire schooling to a governess and home tutors," he explained to Town & Country.
He was also quoted in his controversial 1994 autobiography as saying it was “inevitably the nursery staff” who taught him to play, witnessed his first steps and punished and rewarded him, as a mother would.
It was also addressed in a recent biography by Sammy Bedell-Smith that "When Elizabeth became Queen on the death of her father, her dedication to her duties meant even less time for her children.”
"She relied increasingly on her husband to make the major family decisions and she depended on the nannies to supervise the daily lives," the historian wrote, and added the Queen and Duke saw their children after breakfast and tea time but "in the manner of the upper class, neither of them were physically demonstrative."
It was Prince Charles’ grandmother who seemed to have more of a motherly nature towards her grandson, and royalists were given an insight into just how close they were when he delivered a heartfelt speech at the Queen Mother’s funeral in 2002.
"For me, she meant everything and I had dreaded, dreaded this moment along with, I know, countless others,” he wrote.
Somehow, I never thought it would come. She seemed gloriously unstoppable and, since I was a child, I adored her."
Princess Anne
Interestingly enough, the second eldest and only daughter to the Queen and Prince Philip, holds entirely different sentiments on her mother’s ability to parent.
"I simply don't believe there is any evidence whatsoever to suggest that she wasn't caring. It just beggars belief," Anne said during a sharp-tongued 2002 interview with the BBC to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee.
According to historian Lacy, Princess Anne had a close bond with her mother particularly in her teen years.
"Princess Anne and the Princes Andrew and Edward have all made public their disagreement with Charles in his criticism of the parenting they received. With her love of horses, Anne developed an especially close relationship with her mother during her teenage years, giving her advice about fashion and clothes," he said.
Lacy also noted the Queen’s favourite night of the week was “Mabel’s night off” - Mable being the nanny to both Prince Charles and his younger sister as kids.
"When nanny Mabel was off duty, Elizabeth could kneel beside the bath, bathe her babies, read to them and put them to bed herself," he wrote.
Prince Andrew
The royal was born 12 years after his eldest brother, and over eight years on the throne meant the Queen had become “warmer and more flexible,” Lacy wrote.
The Queen took a step back from some royal duties to play a hands on role in her third child’s life, as well as Prince Edward who would come four years after Andrew.
"Early in the 1960s, Her Majesty decided that she had done her duty by her country, and took the best part of eighteen months off work to produce and enjoy her ‘second family’, the young princes Andrew and Edward, born in 1960 and 1964 respectively," Lacy wrote.
Prince Edward
Prince Edward was the last of the royal clan to be welcomed in 1964.
In the late 1960’s, when Edward was a toddler, Andrew was a young child, and Prince Charles and Princess Anne were well into their early adult years - cameras were allowed into the royal family’s home for a BBC documentary.
It was one of the first times the world got to see the Queen as a “playful mother relaxing with her children.”
The program included footage of Queen Elizabeth holding her youngest son's hand while the family took a walk around the grounds of Windsor Castle.
The sovereign and her youngest child have maintained a close relationship over the years, with Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex, spending many weekends away with their Queen.
"Today Elizabeth II enjoys life as a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother," Lacy said.
"She clearly delights in the time she can spend with her family, and she seems to be anything but emotionally reserved.
"Would she have mothered her children differently if she had the chance? As one of her close friends has said, the Queen was rather scared of parenting when she started out—she’d not been taught it by her own mother. But as she grew into the job, her successive children helped remove her fears.”