Why the queen mother remains the definitive icon of the monarchy (20 years after her death)

Adored by her subjects, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the mother of the current queen, has long been the most popular member of the royal family, surpassing even Lady Diana in opinion polls. The British considered her the “ideal grandmother”. So she was there Queen Mother, the name that everyone gave her and that had made us forget hers. Confidant of her daughters, Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, and a great friend of her grandchildren, she was a pillar of the monarchical institution. But why the queen mother was such an icon?

Because he showed courage

Hitler he considered her “the most dangerous woman in Europe”. During the Second World War, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, wife of George VI, was unwilling to bow to the Nazi enemy. In the spring of 1940, after the French defeat, the United Kingdom was the target of constant bombing. However, the queen consort refused to leave the country to secure herself in America, as she suggested, or even at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. “The children won’t go without me, I won’t go without the King, and the King will never go,” she said. Not wanting to give in to her fear, she was active in the field, visiting the most disadvantaged and helping in the makeshift hospitals she had set up in one of her residences. It is also said that during that time she took shooting lessons and kept a pistol under her pillow to shoot Hitler in case he entered her bedroom.

Because he had an incredible style

Flounces, laces and giant hats … the style of queen mother it can be summarized in these three sartorial fashions, with the addition of a strong taste for pastel or bright colors.

Because it was fun

She was the first to smile in official photos, when protocol dictated that the royal family grit their teeth. Despite the difficulties, the queen mother she had an infinitely cheerful nature, which made her so charming. Her joviality was often due to the martini she drank like milk. The Queen Mother had a penchant for alcoholic beverages. Sometimes her lunch consisted of a few glasses of ‘Dubonnet and gin’. A defect that the British were more than willing to forgive them.

Because he lived the history of the country

Born in 1900 and died in 2002, just months before her 102nd birthday, the queen mother it has lived a whole century, also seeing the opening of the new millennium. She was the wife of a king, then the mother of a queen, she has had a place in the front row in history during all these decades, meeting all the most illustrious characters that there are: she has seen the abdication of Edward VIII, the coronation of George VI and then that of Elizabeth II. You saw her die there Queen Mary, Wallis Simpson, but also his youngest daughter, Margaret, just weeks before his own death. One of the most difficult trials of her in the role of her queen mother was certainly the tragedy that surrounded Lady Diana. There queen mother she was very involved in this story, as it was she who pushed Prince Charles to marry the young Spencer, granddaughter of her best friend and lady-in-waiting, Lady Fermoy. There queen mother he placed high hopes on Diana, and never accepted the turn of events.