The Queen tipped an entire inkpot over her head during a French lesson tantrum, former governess reveals
IT’S hard to imagine The Queen ever losing her temper – but when she was growing up, Her Majesty was known to throw a tantrum or two.
According to Her Majesty’s former governess, The Queen particularly hated her French lessons as a child and was known to “have a temper” which she usually “kept under control”.
In her 1950 book The Little Princesses: The Story of the Queen’s Childhood by Her Nanny Crawfie serialised in the Mail, Marion Crawford recalled how Princess Margaret “was often naughty” while Lilibet would “rebel against authority in her own determined manner.
Recalling one particular incident at the family’s home in Windsor, the former governess wrote: “One target for her fury was a certain Mademoiselle who came to teach her French – chiefly by making her write out endless columns of verbs.”
After hearing an unusual noise coming from the schoolroom one day, Marion described how she stumbled upon the strange – and frankly hilarious – scene.
She continued: “Lilibet, goaded by her boredom to violent measures, had picked up a big ornamental silver inkpot and, without saying anything, tipped it over her own head.”
In her defence, the thought of having to write out French verbs (past participles and all) for hours on end would drive us to do the exact same thing.
“There she sat, with ink trickling down her face and dyeing her golden curls blue,” Marion wrote. “Sadly, I never did learn the full story: Mademoiselle was past explaining and left soon afterwards.”
Originally published in 1950, Marion’s book was reissued in 2012 for The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee – the governess worked for the Royal Family from 1933 until 1949.
Although the author was once a close friend of the Queen Mother, the Royal cut off all contact with her after the book was published.
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