\u201cGary\u201d was how Prince William knew his grandmother as a youngster, apparently confusing the word with \u201cGranny\u201d, while the Queen\u2019s great-grandchildren Prince George and Princess Charlotte know the Queen affectionately as \u201cGan-Gan\u201d. As for \u201cCabbage\u2019, this was the fond nickname used by her husband Prince Philip<\/a> \u2013 which might come from the French term of endearment, \u201cmon petit chou\u201d, translated to \u201cmy little cabbage\u201d.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As matriarch of \u201cThe Firm\u201d (the insider name for the royal family), now in her 10th decade and the oldest monarch in British history, it\u2019s perhaps easy to forget that Elizabeth assumed the throne in 1952 at the age of just 25, the mother of two young children. Thrust into royal duties, she faced the immediate challenge of balancing the work of monarchy with the demands of motherhood, a battle which has been present throughout her reign.<\/p>\n Just 18 months after her accession in 1952, Elizabeth II was called upon to tour 13 countries, including Australia, over six months, without Charles, age five, and Anne, age three. The young children were famously greeted with handshakes upon the return of their parents, and though she dispensed with some of the more formal royal traditions \u2013 the children were not required to bow or curtsey to their mother \u2013 their childhoods were marked by absence.<\/p>\n The prince and princess were largely raised in their younger years by governesses and other household staff, in the same way that Elizabeth and Margaret<\/a> had been by \u201cCrawfie\u201d, in keeping with the manner of many upper-class families of the time. The children were required to understand that travel and time were part of the monarch\u2019s commitment to rule.<\/p>\n It was a decade after Anne that the Queen gave birth to her third child, Prince Andrew, in 1960. Prince Edward followed in 1964, making the two sons the first children to be born to a reigning monarch since Queen Victoria<\/a>. Ten years after her accession, many noted a difference in the Queen\u2019s relationship with her two younger sons. Royal historian Robert Lacey suggests the Queen became \u201cwarmer and flexible\u201d, able to step back a little from her duties.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Both Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip<\/a> agreed that their children should not be hampered, as they saw it, by the social and educational constraints of homeschooling, which had previously been the norm for royals. Yet Charles\u2019s education was far from straightforward. Prince Philip wished Charles to be sent to Gordonstoun school in Scotland, hoping to make his son in his own image. The Queen Mother (who favoured Eton, close to Charles\u2019s Windsor home) wrote to the Queen in 1961, saying, \u201cit is miles and miles away, he might as well be at school abroad. He would be terribly cut off and lonely up in the far north.\u201d<\/p>\n The Queen Mother\u2019s fears for her sensitive grandson were not unfounded. Two years after the Queen\u2019s \u201cannus horribilis<\/i><\/a>\u201d of 1992 (which saw the marriages of three of her children break down amid tabloid scandal, as well as a fire at Windsor Castle) an authorised biography of Prince Charles dealt perhaps the harshest blow to the Queen\u2019s reputation as a mother.<\/p>\n The 1994 account, written by Jonathan Dimbleby, described the bullying and \u201ccrushing loneliness\u201d Charles experienced at school, and a childhood characterized by long periods of his mother\u2019s absence. Charles was said to feel \u201cemotionally estranged\u201d from his parents and yearning for affection that, in his view, they were \u201cunable or unwilling to offer\u201d. The book declared Charles\u2019s bonds of affection to be much stronger with his nanny Mabel Anderson and detailed how the Queen would spend short windows of allotted time with her son in the morning before his daily walk and before bedtime. Historian Piers Brendon has suggested that in contrast to the \u201ctremendously affectionate, and very welcoming and warm\u201d Queen Mother, with whom Charles had a close relationship, Elizabeth II was \u201ca very distant mother\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yet in a 2002 BBC documentary, Princess Anne said: \u201cWe understood what the limitations were in time and the responsibilities placed on her as monarch, in the things she had to do and the travels she had to make.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I don\u2019t believe that any of us, for a second, thought she didn\u2019t care for us in exactly the same way as any other mother did. I just think it\u2019s extraordinary that anybody could construe that that might not be true.\u201d<\/p>\n If the Queen\u2019s reputation as a mother has been characterized as distant by some, there was a more palpable fondness for her eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. From the birth of her first grandchild \u2013 Peter Phillips, the son of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips, born in 1977 \u2013 the Queen took on a new persona; the dutiful grandmother who inspired by example.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always been very close to my grandmother, and we speak often,\u201d Peter Phillips told The Telegraph<\/i> in 2016. \u201cShe has been an inspirational person throughout my life.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2018, Princess Beatrice told of how her grandmother \u201cgoes out into the community with a genuine curiosity as to how she can be a force for good in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n Though duty evidently came first, there was also an enduring sense of fun that she shared with those close to her. Many royal sources have recounted how the Queen was an excellent mimic, and particularly fond of impersonating former prime ministers<\/a> and US presidents she had known through the years (some favourite impressions were reported to be Ren\u00e9 from TV show \u2019Allo \u2019Allo!<\/i> and Labour politician Tony Benn). One royal aide, Angela Kelly, shared how the Queen has \u201ca wicked [mischievous] of humour\u201d.<\/p>\n The Queen proved herself an adept grandmother in the 21st-century online world too, no more evident than when she joined her grandson Prince Harry in 2016, recording a sassy comedy video message to US president and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama in order to promote the Invictus Games.<\/p>\n At Christmas, even as her descendants started their own families, the Queen remained at the centre of the royals\u2019 festive celebrations, bringing together the whole family at her Sandringham residence. At 6pm sharp, the tradition was for adults to exchange cheap joke gifts and Prince Harry could clearly get away with a little extra cheekiness towards his grandmother. On one such occasion he gave the Queen a showercap with the slogan: \u2018Ain\u2019t life a bitch\u2019.<\/p>\nWas Elizabeth II a mother when she came to the throne?<\/h2>\n
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\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>What were Queen Elizabeth\u2019s relationships with her children like?<\/h2>\n
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What was Queen Elizabeth II like as a grandmother?<\/h2>\n
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