Majesty Review: December 2011 and it's Kate all… by Royalty_Now

Madresfield Court Would’ve Been Royal Hideaway

An interesting “what if?” is presented by the Telegraph’s Neil Tweedie. What would have happened, he postulates, if London had fallen to the Nazis? Where would the Royal Family go if Hitler came knocking?

Had the mustached menace hopped from Calais into London, the King, Queen, and little Princesses would’ve been spirited away to Madresfield Court, inspiration for Brideshead Revisited.

Learning from the invasions of Norway and the Netherlands, the British government made plans to spread out across the countryside and continue the fight should London be captured by the Germans. Even the BBC was to be relocated should the Nazi invasion prove successful.

The Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret had already left London and were hidden away in Windsor Castle at the insistence of their parents. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, however, remained steadfast in Buckingham Palace. Even when the Palace itself was felled by a bomb landing within the quadrangle, the royals kept calm and carried on.

“It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face,” said the Queen, referring to the damage wrought by Nazi air raids in the city.

Had those bombs overpowered the capitol or if the parachuted German airborne division loomed, Their Majesties would have been spirited out of harm’s way to Madresfield as a last resort.

Worcestershire Archaeology Service volunteer Mick Wilks says Madresfield was chosen specifically because “the house [...] was on the route to Liverpool”. If worse came to worse, the royals could set sail for Canada from the port city and live to see another day. But would London?

( BRITISH ELECTRIC ) reel 1

HM King George VI tours South Africa with his consort, Queen Elizabeth and their daughters Elizabeth and Margaret (courtesy of British Pathé).

1947 ROYAL TOUR

It has been reported that Paul Burrell is about to speak out on the Queen Mother’s relationship with Diana, Princess of Wales.

Burrell, the Princess’ former butler, was said to have been disappointed that Diana was barely mentioned in William Shawcross’ official biography ‘Queen Elizabeth: The Queen Mother’.

A so-called ‘insider’ said: “To be fair, if anyone knows what really went on between Diana and the Queen Mother, it’s Paul. The Shawcross book may just force him finally to tell it how it was, as he can’t stand the idea of Diana being ignored in such a way.”

Steve Dennis, however, says otherwise.

Dennis, the ghost writer for Paul Burrell’s books “Remembering Diana” and “A Royal Duty”, has set the record straight.

“FYI, Paul Burrell’s not spilling the beans at all. Don’t so readily trust everything you read,” Dennis told me via Twitter. “I’m his media advisor. Trust me, these articles are inventions.”

So will Burrell be coming out with another yarn to earn a buck, or is he staying silent like Steve Dennis claims? I guess time will tell…

Steve Dennis is also the author of the book Britney: Inside the Dream and has been an on-air contributor on the Fox News Channel.