Original subtitles

you

when you look back in history at royal

romances surprising as it may seem few

have happy-ever-after endings and in

many instances the idea of love and

marriage being inextricably linked is

not quite as common as you might at

first think

in fairy stories handsome kings and

princes regularly sweep fair maidens off

their feet transforming them into

princesses and queens and although a

rarer occurrence a royal princess can

create a prince out of the most

unpromising of characters

but in real life as most of us know the

course of true love never runs smoothly

and in the case of so many highly

publicized royal romances past and

present the pursuit of love can be even

more hazardous

the main reason for this is the

significance of the royal romance when

it comes to the line of succession as

every royal dynasty down through the

ages has relied upon a healthy supply of

legitimate heirs to consolidate its

right to rule the pressure this is put

upon monarchs and monarchs in waiting to

marry the most suitable Prince's or

princesses isn't always a recipe for

wedded bliss although there have been

occasions when prospective brides and

grooms met each other for the first time

on the way to the royal chapel and went

on to enjoy a long happy fulfilling

fruitful and faithful alliance

now should you be thinking that this all

sounds very contrived and calculating as

images of the chivalrous King Arthur in

full nightly attire astride a galloping

white charger in search of Queen

Guinevere spring to mind you do

sometimes have to delve a little deeper

when it comes to romance things aren't

always as straightforward as history

might at first glance suggest traveling

around Great Britain there are any

number of locations that claim to be

connected with the legendary king from

the mountains and valleys of Wales

over the mystical Bob min more to the

wild Cornish coast at Tintagel and Lands

End

but if you're looking for Camelot King

Arthur's legendary Court where he

presided over his magnificent round

table your journey could well bring you

to this Roman fort at Killian in Gwent

on one day and take you to the Great

Hall at Winchester the next

and to confuse matters still further the

graves of Arthur and Guinevere can be

found amongst the ruins at Glastonbury

Abbey or so the legend goes

the story of Arthur and Guinevere is

still the foundation for many books and

films with each new generation that

discovers this all-time great romance

telling their own version of royal love

and loss

upon realizing that King Arthur's most

influential advisor was a magician

called Merlin it's evident that this is

perhaps not the most fact-based of

romances but when the successful older

King spotted the beautiful young

Guinevere

he asked Merlin to make all the

arrangements for a royal marriage Merlin

was reluctant to do so as he could see

into the future and believed any union

between the pair was doomed even so when

pressed by the lovestruck Arthur further

against his better judgment Merlin

arranged the marriage which was

celebrated the length and breadth of the

land and one wedding gift was so well

received it's actually gone down in

history namely a certain rant table

given by the father of the bride where

Arthur's knights would all be given

their place all was well until one of

these Knights Sir Lancelot fell in love

with the Queen who was quite literally

swept off her feet by this knight in

shining armor

you

Merlin's words of warning proved to be

well-founded and King Arthur's Camelot

was shattered

Arthur was killed in battle by one of

his other night sir Mordred and legend

has it that he sleeps beneath Cadbury

castle in Somerset ready to return to

save the nation if it's ever in danger

again in fact whatever their differences

in life it's said that all of Arthur's

knights are also sleeping here in case

their services are ever needed

interestingly this Hill is just a short

distance from Glastonbury making the

graves amongst the abbey ruins rather

redundant nothing more than a good story

promoted by the monks to bring them

pilgrims and prosperity

placing all this historically is rather

tricky as any evidence of a king Arthur

belongs to the 5th century AD just after

the Romans left Britain but the popular

image we all have of Arthur and his

Queen is far more in keeping with the

12th century

this is because a Welsh bishop known as

Geoffrey of Monmouth in honor of the

lovely border town where he originated

wrote the history of the Kings of

Britain during the early eleven hundreds

and where factual evidence was missing

he allowed his imagination to recreate

the story this just goes to show how

careful we need to be with history and

when it comes to romance

there are many royal tales told that

have been subject to fanciful

interpretation over the years so after

the classic love story of Arthur and

Guinevere we'll move on to a more

accurately recorded era well at least

for the times and places of births

marriages and deaths if not for the more

secret matters of the heart

while Geoffrey of Monmouth was busy

writing about the kings of Britain's

past in the 12th century the royal

family of his time were equally as

fascinating as any of the stories he had

to tell

for most people

Richard the first the Lionheart is the

best known king of this particular

century with his connections to the

Robin Hood story there's a great deal of

romance surrounding him but his own

marriage to Berengar e'er of NAVAIR was

far from successful in part due to his

constant absences away on the Crusades

it's being suggested though that this

was not the reason for the lack of

offspring as some think that it was his

wife's brother Sancho who was the real

object of his affection and the royal

marriage was never actually consummated

it's therefore fair to say that Richard

the first is perhaps not to the best of

Kings to feature in this program despite

early indications to the contrary and it

is in fact Richards father Henry the

second who's more to offer the true

romantic in search of a king who knew

how to woo the ladies even as a young

man Henry of Anjou was a handsome hero

and a force to be reckoned with

his mother Matilda had been promised to

the throne of England after the death of

her father Henry the first who made the

Barons promise to accept her as his heir

when he died they renamed on the deal

and the crown passed to his nephew

Stephen this resulted in years of civil

war that was only resolved when young

Henry raised an army and King Stephen

agreed to name Matilda's son as his heir

Stephen died in 1154 and when Henry was

crowned king at Westminster Abbey the

handsome French born 21 year old brought

with him a queen his french wife Eleanor

of Aquitaine

it was an interesting match with the

bride being about 11 years older than

the groom and she'd previously been

married to the French sovereign Louie

the 7th Elinor claimed she had thought

to marry a king only to find she'd

married a monk and the charismatic

passionate when educated woman who'd

also been the most eligible heir s in

all of France sought an annulment from

the Pope which was granted on the

grounds of consanguinity that basically

means they were too closely related

ironically she was even more closely

related to Henry her second husband

and if rumors are to be believed she had

an affair with his father before him

which resulted in Geoffrey of Anjou

advising his son against marrying his

chosen bride it's possible that the

chemistry between Elinor and Henry was

electric in the early days but overall

the marriage was as stormy as both of

their personalities that Henry was

unfaithful to his queen is undisputed

and his choice of mistress was very to

say the least

the mother of his illegitimate son

Geoffrey who went on to become

Archbishop of York was described by a

medieval writer at Henry ii court as

being a baseborn

common harlot have stooped to all

uncleanliness

Henry also fathered illegitimate

children with a lease of France the

daughter of Eleanor's former husband

Louis the seventh and his second wife

Constance of Castile and if that wasn't

complicated enough

Henry was actually supposed to look

after her

a she was betrothed to his son richard

the lionheart

of Robin Hood faint mentioned earlier

over a period of 13 years

Eleanor provided Henry with five sons

and three daughters but by the time the

last child John was born the marriage

was in effect over

again this hardly sounds like a

first-rate romance but one of the major

factors in the deterioration of Eleanor

and Henry's marriage was a lady who we

know very little about generally

referred to as the fair Rosamund the

king was quite openly head-over-heels in

love with to discover more we need to

travel to the beautiful Gloucestershire

countryside where England meets Wales

their border regions known as the Welsh

Marches were controlled by the marcher

Lords often of Norman descent with

strong ties to the English kings and

henry ii met his fair Rosamund while

visiting her father a marcher Lord this

wonderful manor house the former

Cistercian Abbey in the Forest of Dean

was built on land granted by henry ii

and while records exist of later

monarchs staying at the abbey while

hunting in the royal forest there's been

speculation that Henry and Rosalind

might have met in secret here when the

king was in the district

nevertheless this royal love story is

most frequently associated with

Woodstock in Oxfordshire where the

magnificent Blenheim Palace stands today

long before the classical architecture

of Van bura dominated the scene henry

installed Rosamund in a lodge here

legend has it that Eleanor discovered

what become known as Fair Rosamund's boa

and the jealous Queen is alleged to have

poisoned her rival who died in 1176

although a good story this is unlikely

to be true as Eleanor was spending more

time away from Henry attending to her

lands in France with the royal couple

having in reality all but separated as

time passed

she took revenge on her philandering

husband by turning his son's especially

her favorite Richard against him which

eventually led to Henry's downfall and

death at the age of 56

it's been reported that when Henry had

no choice but to make peace with his son

Richard he secretly whispered may the

Lord never permit me to die until I have

taken Jew vengeance upon you the queen

of Aquitaine had over time proved to be

more than a match for her unfaithful

husband as she outlived both henry ii

and their son richard the first dying at

the incredible age of 82 her influence

as the dowager queen continued into the

13th century making Elinor a veritable

tigress to her sons Lionheart

down through the ages it's unusual to

find a queen with the wealth power

survival skills and sheer manipulative

cunning of eleanor of aquitaine and as

we move on 300 years to the time of King

Henry the eighth you can't help

wondering if this much married monarch

had found himself with a wife of

Eleanor's metal history might not have

had a very different Act come

you

when Richard the third of the Royal

House of York famously cried a horse a

horse a kingdom for a horse in the

version of events dramatized by the

great Bard of Avon William Shakespeare

he was engaged in the fearsome Battle of

Bosworth Field if popular legend is to

be believed in a fight to the death with

Henry Tudor of the House of Lancaster

the crown which Richard had worn into

battle fell from his head just before he

was killed

symbolically the krang was retrieved

from a bush and placed upon his

victorious opponents head ending the War

of the Roses fought between the Yorkists

and the Lancastrians for 30 years to

unite the two houses the newly crowned

King Henry the seventh went on to marry

Elizabeth of York as the first Tudor

King chose a rose emblem that combined

the white rose of Lancaster with the red

rose of York

as a new royal dynasty the line of

succession was extremely important but

it proved advantageous that Henry the

seventh had produced an heir and despair

because his eldest son Arthur died and

the title of Prince of Wales passed to

his second son Henry along with Arthur's

Widow Catherine of Aragon it was the old

King's dying wish that Henry the eighth

should marry the Spanish born Catherine

of Aragon and the wedding took place

just a fortnight before his coronation

at Westminster Abbey in 1509 catherine

was older than her bridegroom and a

special dispensation had to be given by

the Pope in Rome for the marriage to

take place even though Catherine

declared that due to their youth the

union with Arthur had never been

consummated at this time Henry was

nothing like the usual images we have of

him in older age being just 18 handsome

cultured and athletic Queen Catherine

without doubt adored him and although

aware that the king was often unfaithful

to her she remained constant to her

husband her whole life long it was an

arrangement that would probably have

suited both parties very well had it not

been for the fact that of the six

children born to them only one survived

the added misfortune of being a girl

the Tudor dynasty required certainty and

the last time the crown had been

destined for a female heir Matilda the

result had been Civil War when her

cousin Steven usurped her

as Katherine went beyond childbearing

age Henry turned to the Pope for an

annulment believing that the marriage

was cursed because his Queen had been

his brother's widow however as the

Vatican had allowed the union by virtue

of a special dispensation to get around

this in the first place they were hardly

going to agree with Henry which would

mean admitting that they'd got it wrong

never a man to accept no for an answer

Henry broke away from Rome made himself

head of a new Protestant Church of

England and granted himself a divorce so

that he could marry Anne Boleyn who was

already expecting his child

although Katherine always refused to

accept the divorce

despite being separated from her

daughter and forced to live without the

comforts she was used to in her heart

she believed Henry would return to her

when and child proved to be another girl

and efforts to produce a son were

fruitless the methods the desperate

Queen is alleged to have employed to

achieve this resulted in her being sent

to the Tower of London and executed for

high treason in 1536 a year that the

spurned Queen Catherine died

as we all know Henry went on to marry

again and with his next wife Jane

Seymour produced the son and heir the

Tudor King had so longed for it's

possible love would have blossomed

between them had she not died as a

result of the birth and the wives that

followed failed to capture the aging

Henry's heart when Henry the Eighth died

his only son succeeded him but the Tudor

line was anything but secure a scramble

for power was far from dignified and it

was only when the crown finally reached

Henry's daughter Elizabeth the child of

Anne Boleyn that the stability of the

Tudor dynasty was assured

Elizabeth the first ruled for an

incredible 45 years it is a source of

great fascination not least because she

chose never to marry she was surrounded

by suitors yet steadfastly refused to

make the ultimate commitment to any of

them at that time if she'd married all

her wealth power and position would have

passed to her husband and she learnt

while she was still very young that she

was being targeted by men who coveted

her power

after Henry died the then Princess

Elizabeth became the ward of her

father's surviving wife Catherine Parr

interestingly when Henry had noticed

Catherine more for her compassion to

care for him as his health deteriorated

than for her sexual prowess

she'd been in love with Thomas Siebel

the brother of Henry's third wife Jane

but it would not have been wise for her

to say no to the king so not

surprisingly within months of Henry's

death Catherine and Thomas married

giving C more intimate access to

Elizabeth and their speculation that his

attentions towards the young

impressionable girl were not altogether

appropriate when Catherine died in

childbirth a year later without doubt

Thomas Seymour planned to marry the

future Queen Elizabeth but when this

didn't work out he changed tack and

tried to kidnap Elizabeth's half-brother

the boy King Edward the sixth

consequently Seymour was caught and sent

to the Tower of London on charges of

high treason where he was eventually

executed and legend has it that

Elizabeth was heard to comment today

died a man with much wit and not much

judgment

Elizabeth had perhaps had a lucky escape

and was evidently very cautious when she

came to the throne some have suggested

that as the love of her life Robert

Dudley Earl of Leicester was already

married the new queen vowed she'd have

no other husband also her cousin Mary

Queen of Scots had been turned into

nothing more than a pawn in an elaborate

and deadly political game as a result of

an unwise marriage to Lord Darnley and

when he was eventually murdered rather

than learning from her mistakes she made

another equally disastrous marriage

the consequence of this action was the

imprisonment of the Scottish Queen by

Elizabeth for almost twenty years when

she finally signed Mary's death warrant

as her Catholic cousin had become too

much of a threat alleged to be at the

heart of conspiracy after conspiracy

whether Elizabeth was a virgin in the

true sense of the word is impossible to

say even so that she loved passionately

is beyond question but like the

Elizabeth that would follow her

centuries later this Tudor Queen put

service to her people and her country

first and England prospered what

happened after her passing even she

couldn't control although ironically

Elizabeth named her cousin Mary Queen of

Scots only son heir to her throne

you

as any good history book will tell you

the Tudors were followed by the

Stewart's

and although James the first son of Mary

Queen of Scots United England and

Scotland both he and Charles the first

the son who followed him were clever men

who proved to be disastrous kings

Charles the first was a great believer

in the Divine Right of Kings and refused

to listen to Parliament until of course

it was too late

led by Oliver Cromwell the

parliamentarians launched a civil war

against the king and his Royalists

supporters which resulted in the

execution of Charles the first leaving

the nation subject to the puritanical

protection of Oliver Cromwell who even

outlawed Christmas

needless to say when the Commonwealth

and the Cromwell's control came to an

end in 1660 the people of Britain were

ready for some decadence and fun when

Charles the second returned from exile

in France to be restored to the throne

the Merrie Monarch as the handsome

Charles was known led by example

he's most famous for having a succession

of high-profile mistresses but his

favorite was without doubt the actress

nell gwyn

instead of turning the people of Britain

against him

Charles's popularity rose to new heights

for loving a commoner it's alleged that

on his deathbed the Kings last words

were let not poor Nellie starve and

Charles's successor his brother James

the second paid off Nell's mortgage all

her debts and granted her a substantial

pension which does add credence to the

tale

despite Charles the second producing a

plethora of illegitimate offspring he

lacked an heir apparent which is why his

brother succeeded him however this did

weaken the House of Stuart considerably

and after the demise of Charles the

seconds nieces the people of Britain

were told Queen Anne's dead and with her

so was the Stuart hold on the throne

and at last we come to a genuine royal

love story between a king and a queen

met each other for the first time at st.

James's Palace six hours before they

were married in 1761 the bridegroom was

King George the third of the Royal House

of Hanover and his bride was princess

charlotte of mecklenburg-strelitz it

seems the couple had similar tastes

sharing a love of the countryside and

the king often known as farmer George

was fascinated by anything to do with

agriculture

the happy pair produced a huge family

consisting of 15 children and despite

almost every King to have gone before

him keeping a fine collection of

mistresses this deeply religious George

remained faithful to Queen Charlotte

throughout their marriage

but if you're expecting a happy ending

you're going to be sadly disappointed in

1788 the King's behavior became very

strange and many believed him to be mad

a later episode found him addressing a

mighty oak tree as the King of Prussia

and eventually his eldest son the future

George the fourth took over as Prince

Regent in 1811

you

what it now appears he was suffering

from was the physical illness porphyria

which manifested itself as madness and

as her husband faded before her eyes

the once gracious Queen Charlotte became

increasingly depressed and actually died

two years before George the third did

now although when it came to womanizing

as Prince Regent and King George the

fourth was notorious whether or not he

ever actually found love is difficult to

say ironically his younger brother

William who succeeded him because George

the fourth had produced no legitimate

heir fared rather better in love albeit

his liaisons were equally as scandalous

William the fourth was King for just six

days short of seven years and already 61

when he came to the throne the naval man

known for his colorful language and the

forthright lack of tact

despite the nickname silly-billy

endeared himself to the great British

people being far more down-to-earth than

his older brother

and when it came to the ladies like

charles ii william had a very public

affair with an actress which lasted for

22 years as depicted in this cartoon by

the political satirist of the day James

gillray resulted in 10 illegitimate

children but there is another love story

which involves William while still Duke

of Clarence that is far less well-known

and we've traveled to the beautiful

County of Gloucestershire once again to

visit the Magnificent Berkeley Castle no

stranger to royal scandal this is where

the unfortunate King Edward ii was

murdered way back in the 14th century

and throughout history this has been one

ancestral seat with more than its fair

share of colorful characters and it was

a very interesting Countess of Barclay

who's thought to have attracted the Duke

of Clarence his attention back in the

early 1800s Mary Cole was a butcher's

daughter from Gloucester rose

considerably above her station in life

to marry Frederick Augustus the 5th Earl

of Barclay in 1796 however a number of

their children were born well before

this date but it was claimed that an

earlier wedding had taken place

generating considerable legal wrangling

over the validity and there were even

suggestions that the parish records in

Barkley's church of saint mary were

tampered with when the old died in 1810

while questions over which children were

legitimate were being asked Mary was

evidently a very attractive widow

this was at the time when the Prince of

Wales became Prince Regent and a few

years later the future George the

fourths only legitimate heir Princess

Charlotte died in childbirth it also

coincided with a period of financial

trouble for William and with no heir

apparent the race was on amongst all the

sons of George the third to come up with

a healthy legitimate offspring to carry

on the line of succession William left

the actress Dorothea Jordan with whom

he'd had 10 children and started the

search for a wealthy suitable wife the

Countess of Berkeley had produced 12

children who was obviously fertile and

it's highly likely that the lovely Mary

was as down-to-earth as the Duke of

Clarence was and it's probable they

would have done very well together but

he is the irony although William had

enjoyed a blissful existence with his

actress mistress not to mention the

bedroom antics of his brother the Prince

Regent it was felt the Countess of

Berkeley would bring the monarchy into

disrepute because of the legitimacy

issues connected with her children so

the future King William the fourth

married a suitable Princess Adelaide of

sacks men young young but the two

daughters the union produced died in

infancy and the throne passed to

William's

18-year old niece Victoria daughter of

his younger brother the Duke of Kent

when he died in 1837

although the most commonly perceived

image we have of Queen Victoria is that

of a stern elderly lady dressed from

head to toe in black when she came to

the throne she was a lovely young girl

and immediately thoughts turned to

finding a suitable bridegroom the

preference for Victoria's first cousin

Prince Albert of saxe-coburg-gotha was

confirmed when the couple met for a

second time in 1839 having first

encountered each other three years

earlier evidently the new Queen approved

of Albert describing him as so sensible

so kind so good and so amiable with the

added bonus of the most pleasing and

delightful exterior and appearance you

could possibly see in fact the couple

were married at st. James's Palace on

the 10th of February 1840 after Victoria

had proposed to Albert as protocol

demanded of a reigning monarch

despite its undoubted convenience this

was a royal marriage based on love

making it as this program has

demonstrated something of a rarity nine

children were born to the happy couple

between 1840 and 1857 as family values

were restored to the nation after the

long run of wild living princes and

kings today many of us associate this

period of history with Christmas and we

owe some of our best to love seasonal

traditions to the gifts bestowed by the

German born Prince Albert upon his wife

and family the most famous of these has

to be the Christmas tree which Albert

arranged as a special surprise for

centuries

the Germans had decorated trees in a

midwinter festival covering the bare

branches of mighty oaks with brightly

coloured rags to encourage the tree

spirits to return and to make the leaves

grow again

eventually with the arrival of

Christianity this practice was moved to

Christmas with a fir tree substituted

for the oak thanks to its triangular

shape representing the Father Son and

Holy Ghost further adornments were added

when the priest Martin Luther used

candles on a fir tree for a special

Christmas Eve service and when Prince

Albert presented his family with a

beautifully decorated tree it was an act

of love and very romantic indeed when

news of the Royal Christmas tree reached

the people of Britain the next year

everybody wanted one and since

Victoria's reign no traditional

Christmas would be considered complete

without a festively decorated tree where

the royal family led the rest of the

nation was bound to follow and another

of Prince Albert's loving gifts to Queen

Victoria further encouraged a great

British summer tradition the concept of

a seaside holiday had been popular since

Georgian times and Prince Albert was

instrumental in creating the Magnificent

Osborne house on the Isle of Wight as a

royal seaside retreat for his

hard-working wife

you

the Isle of Wight became a popular

destination for holiday makers but the

royal retreat remained extremely private

and even today you can still find

evidence of how Victoria and Albert

accompanied by their children enjoyed

the pleasures of the Isle of Wight

the nearest village to Osborne is

whipping them and the Magnificent Church

of st. Mildred was wearing the royal

family worshipped when they were in

residence

also the row of arms houses opposite the

church were built on Queen Victoria's

instructions for the retired royal

servants from the Osborn estate making

this a surprising find along an

incredibly quiet single track country

lane for Victorian visitors to the Isle

of Wight the advent of steam and the

creation of the railway provided a most

popular means of transport and Queen

Victoria herself travelled by train

around the island part of the railway

system has been restored by the Isle of

Wight steam railway society and with

their prized collection of Victorian

railway carriages their headquarters at

Haven Street is a delightful destination

however you won't find any steam engine

stopping at whippin them despite the

fact that the station building still

stands

this was actually Queen Victoria and the

Royal Family's own private station in

the 19th century and a short walk along

the peaceful footpath will uncover

traces of the old platform where once

upon a time not all that long ago a

happily married royal couple alighted

from a stylish carriage to hide from the

world and enjoy a seaside holiday with

their children

you

with the strict demands of protocol it

must have been a strain at times for

Prince Albert to be head of the

household when his wife was the queen

yet there are plenty of memorials to

Prince Albert in his own right with the

most grand built upon the orders of

Victoria if proof were needed that the

Queen adored her husband when this

promising royal love story came to a

tragically abrupt end with Albert's

death in 1861 at the age of 42

Victoria wore funeral black for the rest

of her life

for 13 years Victoria went into deep

mourning and refused to appear in public

retreating to was born and the other

home Prince Albert had rebuilt for her

at Balmoral in Scotland whenever she

could in fact so complete was Victoria's

withdrawal from her people that there

was even talk of the abolition of the

monarchy

but there was one man who is thought to

have been instrumental in restoring

Queen Victoria to her Waiting public a

Scottish servant by the name of John

bran much has been written on the

subject and it's alleged that there was

even a secret marriage between this

mismatched couple with satirist sat the

day referring to the Queen as mrs. bran

whatever the true facts Queen Victoria

had a passionate love affair with

Scotland and even the Prime Minister's

that served her were forced to travel

north of the border on occasion to seek

an audience with her Majesty lagged out

her favorite was Benjamin Disraeli

who she much preferred to his main rival

William Gladstone who she loathed

although there's no suggestion of

impropriety here it does go to

illustrate how Queen Victoria developed

strong attachments to certain people

relying on them both personally and

professionally nevertheless it was a

lock of John Brown's hair that she

allegedly requested her doctor place in

her coffin when she died in 1901 the

secret of whatever happened between the

Queen and John bran was buried with her

Queen Victoria's fondness for her

favourites and lack of amusement with

those who displeased her is legendary

and even her own children were not

exempt from her wrath

the Prince of Wales her eldest son

Bertie was constantly out of favour with

his mother in part because she blamed

him for the early death of his father

her beloved Prince Albert and when he

came to the Prince of Wales his feelings

for his mother a lifetime facing her

disapproval perhaps fueled his wild

behavior rather than curbed it in fact

when she died one of the first things

the 59 year old did was give Osborne

house to the nation supposedly as a

memorial to his mother however it's been

suggested that the new king Edward the

seventh was thrilled to get rid of the

house where he'd been so dominated King

Edward the seventh is perhaps best known

for keeping a succession of glamorous

mistresses and whether or not he was

truly in love with any woman is very

hard to judge no doubt the most eminent

psychiatrist of the day Sigmund Freud

would have had much to say on the

subject but although the King may have

struggled with love he certainly

inspired others namely his people his

mistresses and most of all his wife

Queen Alexandra

whatever her husband's well-publicized

misdemeanors the elegant and dignified

Danish princess he'd had the good sense

to marry stood resolutely at his side

taking consolation in the fact that she

believed the king always loved her best

moving into the early 20th century one

of the most famous royal romances of all

times resulted in a marriage but also

threatened the monarchy and brought

about the abdication of King Edward the

eighth in 1936 the object of Edward's

affections was an American divorcee

Morley Simpson who he was determined to

marry as soon as she was free Britain as

a nation was shocked and felt that the

American socialite had stolen their King

some suggest that Edward had found a

convenient way of shirking his royal

duties while others are of the opinion

that this was indeed true love and the

King had been braver than those of his

predecessors who'd settled for a

marriage of convenience and a string of

mistresses as Duke and Duchess of

Windsor Edward and Wallis lived in exile

in Paris and were only parted when the

Duke died from throat cancer

in 1972 as our time looking at royal

romances draws to a close we couldn't

possibly conclude without considering

the most widely publicized royal romance

of all time between Charles His Royal

Highness the Princess of Wales and Lady

Diana Spencer ironically at Edward the

eighth rule this King married a suitable

lady and produced an heir Prince Charles

may never have found himself first in

line to the British throne

when he was just three years old his

mother became queen elizabeth ii and by

the time the prince had come of age

every press agency in the world was

speculating about who the eligible young

royal would marry Prince Charles

certainly seemed to be in no hurry to

find a bride but shortly after his 30th

birthday he met the shy youngest

daughter of Earl Spencer of Althorp Lady

Diana with an impeccable ancestry Diana

had been born on the royal estate at

Sandringham before moving to Althorp in

Northamptonshire when her father

inherited the title Earl Spencer after a

brief spell at finishing school

Diana bought herself a flat in

fashionable Fulham and flourished as a

children's nanny a job that she loved

before long it wasn't only Prince

Charles who'd been captivated by Diana

the British public started a love affair

with the future Princess of Wales that

would last for all time it was a 20th

century fairy story come true and when

Diana left Buckingham Palace a lady to

marry her prince charming under the huge

dome of st. Paul's Cathedral on the 29th

of July 1981 she returned a princess to

the delight of the cheering crowds

London was in a mood to celebrate the

Royal Wedding that heralded a new age in

the history of the British monarchy in a

few short years the new Princess of

Wales blossomed into a delightful young

woman with a unique style of her own and

after the birth of two sons Prince

William and Harry had secured the

succession and fulfilled one of her most

important royal duties as a future Queen

but things were not all that they might

have seemed eventually both Buckingham

Palace and the British government had to

admit that the romance was over and the

Prince and Princess of Wales were

divorced in 1996

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and as we all know this was not the end

of the story even stripped of her HRH

status Diana Princess of Wales was still

adored wherever she went and for just

the briefest of moments it appeared that

she was succeeding in building a new

life for herself then tragedy struck on

a Paris night in August 1997 when Diana

was killed in a car crash along with her

companion Dodi al-fayed and their driver

the outpouring of public grief and the

dignified funeral of the young woman

who'd changed the face of British

royalty proved beyond question just how

a bored Diana had been and when she was

finally laid to rest on a peaceful

island in the middle of the oval lake at

all thought her ancestral home the

nation vowed never to forget Diana

Princess of Wales

it's a promise that's been kept and as

the years go by visitors to or Thorpe in

Northamptonshire and the London

residences that Diana called home from

the charming flat in : Court

to the regal elegance of Kensington

Palace we are constantly reminded that

Diana the people's princess once passed

this way the fairy tale may not have

ended as everyone not least charles and

diana had hoped but this story

nonetheless qualifies as a royal romance

of its time throughout history there

have been many more royal romances than

those featured in this program and in

truth so long as the monarchy survives

there'll be many more to come

ironically it isn't only the members of

the royal families of the past for whom

true love ran smoothly

who are most fondly remembered because

just as is the case in popular novels

when it comes to romance whether royal

or otherwise there's always room for

secrets and intrigue alongside the

hearts and flowers

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