The Queen Mother was pushed into an arranged marriage with the man she’d already turned down twice – but only after her true love was tricked into leaving the country to get him out of the way.
However, her marriage to Bertie, the Duke of York, turned out to be the royal success story of the 20th century. And Elizabeth went on to become a national treasure until her death at the age of 101 in 2001.
But when she and Bertie met for the first time she was deeply in love with somebody else – Bertie’s equerry, James Stuart.
‘James was an absolute heart-throb,’ recalled Elizabeth’s dresser Mabel Stringer years later. ‘They fell for each other in a big way. It was obvious when you saw them together that they were madly in love.’
This was confirmed by the distinguished courtier Lord Charteris: ‘He was the love of her life,’ he agreed.
But Stuart, a decorated First World War hero and son of the Earl of Moray, made the fatal error of introducing his girlfriend, then 20, to his royal boss.
Bertie fell instantly and madly in love with her – and within the space of a few months, he’d made up his mind up that this Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon should be his wife. He confessed his feelings to his busybody mother Queen Mary.
Elizabeth, the future Queen of King George VI. She had turned him down twice and finally agreed to marry him in 1923 when he asked for a third time
Queen Mary with her son Albert, who later became King George VI. He confessed to his mother that he had fallen in love with Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon seen here with her father Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and her mother, Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck, in the doorway of Glamis castle
‘That bitch Queen Mary – that cow – she ruined my life!’ blustered Stuart later to his friend Sir Anthony Nutting. ‘I was in love with the Queen Mother and she with me, but Queen Mary wanted her for the Duke of York.’
It wasn’t just Mary. As early as the spring of 1921, Bertie secretly proposed marriage to Elizabeth – even though she was then still Stuart’s girlfriend. Stuart got to hear of it, and though he’d been in the job for less than a year, he tendered his resignation as royal equerry.
Looking around for a job, he was approached with an offer to go into the oil business. As the younger son of Lord Moray, he would have to find his own fortune, and this seemed a good idea.
Meanwhile, Queen Mary had started her manoeuvres. On a visit to Elizabeth’s ancestral home Glamis Castle to inspect the set-up, she discovered her son’s intended – who’d not yet come of age – running the castle and acting as hostess to shoals of guests as her mother, Lady Strathmore, was unwell.
‘Queen Mary came away convinced that Elizabeth was the right girl,’ writes the distinguished historian Hugo Vickers in his biography of the Queen Mother*. ‘But she informed [her friend and Lady of the Bedchamber] Lady Airlie, “I shall say nothing to either of them. Mothers should never meddle in their children’s love affairs.”’
Cue hollow laughter – it was Mary’s meddling, and hers alone, that ensured Elizabeth’s true love was exiled to a foreign land thousands of miles away.
Sir Sidney Greville was a courtier whose sister Lady Eva Dugdale was Queen Mary’s lady-in-waiting. His family company, Pearson, was in the oil business in a big way, and he invited James Stuart to ‘go into the business as a learner at the production end in America, with a view to promotion to higher things [soon]’.
Stuart agreed, and went up to Glamis Castle to say his farewells to Elizabeth. Little did he know how cynically he’d been pushed around, like a pawn on a chessboard, to get him out of the way’ and that her fond ‘goodbye’ really did mean goodbye.
James Stuart – Bertie’s equerry – was madly in love with Elizabeth and she him, but Queen Mary had other plans
Queen Mary visited Glamis Castle to discover Elizabeth running the show while her mother was ill. ‘Queen Mary came away convinced that Elizabeth was the right girl,’ writes the distinguished historian Hugo Vickers in his biography of the Queen Mother*
Things moved up a notch when Elizabeth was chosen to be one of Bertie’s sister’s bridesmaids and looked so dazzling that Bertie proposed all over again
In fairness, Elizabeth didn’t know it either – she was being manipulated as well.
Stuart left England in January 1922 and soon found himself marooned in the oilfields of Oklahoma. ‘He did not come home until 1923 – by which time Elizabeth was engaged to the Duke,’ writes Mr Vickers.
Bertie was then invited by Elizabeth’s mother Lady Strathmore to a large house party, after which he wrote avidly to Queen Mary to say how wonderful Elizabeth was. Things moved up a notch when she was chosen to be a bridesmaid to Bertie’s sister Princess Mary, who was marrying Viscount Lascelles, heir to the Earl of Harewood.
She looked so dazzling in her bridesmaid’s finery that Bertie proposed all over again. Once again, she said no – and shot off to Scotland to get away from the pressure.
But even across the border she was not immune to the attentions of other, smitten, young men.
Christopher, Lord Glenconner, joined the queue of hopefuls, as did the future Duke of Richmond and Gordon. ‘The stream of admirers included Freddy Dalrymple-Hamilton, Arthur Penn and Bruce Ogilvy,’ added Mr Vickers.
These were followed by Lord Gage, known as ‘Grubby’, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, and Archie Clark Kerr, the future Lord Inverchapel, who was almost double her age. Some of them were gay, but in the style of the day were in need of an obliging wife so as not to blight their careers.
Elizabeth was only the youngest daughter of an obscure Scottish earl, but somehow with her sweet smile, unconventional clothes and fringed hairdo, she’d become the focus of London Society’s attention – she could have had the pick of anybody.
But Bertie wouldn’t let go. His mother’s machinations had got rid of his main rival, James Stuart, and now it was up to him to summon up the courage to propose a third time.
Elizabeth had become the focus of London Society’s attention – she could have had the pick of anybody
Bertie had popped the question for a third time and Elizabeth finally said yes – so a hasty public announcement was made before she changed her mind again. Here the couple walk through a cheering crowd during a visit to a factory in Edinburgh in 1923, shortly before their wedding
The bride and the bridegroom with their parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore, with King George V and Queen Mary in April 1923
The newlyweds, the Duke and Duchess of York, taking a walk on their honeymoon
But he dithered. Hoping to move things along, Queen Mary got her husband King George to send his private secretary up to Glamis to sound out what Bertie’s chances of success were. The man came away with ‘a stern rebuff’.
Elizabeth was in a state of confusion, some reports suggesting that rather than Bertie, with his stammer and volatile temperament, she had her eye on David, the Prince of Wales. They danced together a few times – but it came to nothing.
And so finally, in this long drawn-out process which suffered mainly from Bertie’s lack of resolve, the future king came to Elizabeth’s Hertfordshire home, St Paul’s, Walden Bury, in January 1923. During a walk in the woods he popped the question one more time.
This time, she said yes.
A hasty public announcement followed two days later. ‘It was that swift to make sure she didn’t change her mind,’ wrote a friend. But some people felt it was a mismatch which could not prosper, and which she would come to regret. The news was greeted in stony silence by Elizabeth’s sister Mary, Lady Elphinstone.
Their father Lord Strathmore was not exactly jubilant either: ‘He disapproved of royalty,’ wrote Mr Vickers.
Nevertheless – and who knows with what mixed feelings – Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married the Duke of York in a lavish Westminster Abbey ceremonial just three months later, in April 1923.
Neither knew then that one day he would be king, and she his queen.
But when the time came, together they rallied Britain through the Second World War with their mixture of humanity and dignity, and gave to the nation the finest possible gift – its greatest-ever monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
* Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, by Hugo Vickers (Hutchinson).
