1 00:00:00,760 --> 00:00:04,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to noble blood, a production of I heart radio 2 00:00:04,640 --> 00:00:08,480 Speaker 1: and grim and mild from Aaron maankie listener discretion advised. 3 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:24,480 Speaker 1: On September eighth, twenty twenty two, Elizabeth the Second Queen 4 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:28,760 Speaker 1: of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth realms, died at her 5 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:33,680 Speaker 1: summer residence Balmoral in Scotland at age ninety six. She 6 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:38,040 Speaker 1: had reigned for seven decades, the Queen through the space 7 00:00:38,159 --> 00:00:41,680 Speaker 1: race and the dawn of the information age, the fall 8 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:44,840 Speaker 1: of the Soviet Union and the rise of the Internet. 9 00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:49,280 Speaker 1: She hosted the Kennedys at Buckingham Palace, Rode Horses with 10 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:54,600 Speaker 1: Reagan and sent Dwight Eisenhower a recipe for scones. Fifteen 11 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:59,800 Speaker 1: prime ministers formed governments in her name, including Winston Churchill. 12 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:05,000 Speaker 1: Seventy years on the throne, for most people around the 13 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:10,319 Speaker 1: world she was the only monarch in memory, a constant presence, 14 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:14,959 Speaker 1: both physically on money and on stamps, but also in 15 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:21,440 Speaker 1: the popular imagination through jokes, references, songs and through every 16 00:01:21,480 --> 00:01:24,759 Speaker 1: mother who had ever corrected the table manners of their 17 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:28,560 Speaker 1: child by saying would you too with your mouth open 18 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:32,760 Speaker 1: if you are having dinner with the Queen? The monarchy 19 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:38,279 Speaker 1: itself is a strange and antiquated institution. If you've listened 20 00:01:38,319 --> 00:01:42,040 Speaker 1: to this podcast, you understand how odd it is when 21 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 1: vast political power is arbitrarily inherited, and inherited by well 22 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:53,160 Speaker 1: people who, for all the pomp and ceremony that tries 23 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:56,480 Speaker 1: to turn them into deities, remain, at the end of 24 00:01:56,520 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 1: the day, just people with the normal jealousy's insecurities, vanities 25 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:08,200 Speaker 1: and mistakes that people make. The death of the Queen, though, 26 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:12,200 Speaker 1: isn't just the death of an individual, it's the death 27 00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:16,120 Speaker 1: of a symbol, because in the twenty one century, with 28 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:22,640 Speaker 1: political power almost entirely granted to democratically elected representatives, the 29 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:29,160 Speaker 1: monarchy is symbolic. Like Sherlock Holmes or Paddington Bear, the 30 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:36,359 Speaker 1: Queen was an institution synonymous with Britishness. That Paddington comparison 31 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:40,200 Speaker 1: becomes all the more self evident with reports of mourners 32 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:44,960 Speaker 1: leaving marmalade sandwiches as tribute at the gates of Buckingham Palace. 33 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 1: She's a symbol of British tea towel kitch, of a 34 00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:54,760 Speaker 1: bygone era that we might falsely remember through Rose Tinted 35 00:02:54,840 --> 00:03:01,200 Speaker 1: Downton Abbey Lenses. A Symbol of Happy Childhood Memories, Watch doctor, who, 36 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:05,080 Speaker 1: of course, there are many around the world who understand 37 00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:09,760 Speaker 1: the queen fairly, I might add, was also a symbol 38 00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:14,760 Speaker 1: of an imperialist and colonial power that caused tremendous pain 39 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:19,880 Speaker 1: across the globe. For better or for worse, the Queen 40 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:24,639 Speaker 1: was a fixture in every sense of the word. She 41 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:29,080 Speaker 1: was fixed, I think, in a world in which change 42 00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:34,920 Speaker 1: is near constant and terrifyingly fast and the future is well, 43 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:38,720 Speaker 1: pretty scary, there was a comfort in thinking that this 44 00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:45,000 Speaker 1: one thing was just there, remaining the same, not changing, 45 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:52,400 Speaker 1: not doing anything different, just there. The Queen understood that, 46 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:56,200 Speaker 1: that that fear of change and the need to cling 47 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: to comfort was as much the purpose of the monarch 48 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:04,600 Speaker 1: in the twenty one century as anything else. Sometimes to 49 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:08,960 Speaker 1: her detriment, she refused to bend to modernity. She did 50 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:13,520 Speaker 1: not reveal much of her personality, let alone her political opinions. 51 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:18,520 Speaker 1: Whereas Princess Diana was able to captivate attention with her 52 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:24,839 Speaker 1: vulnerability and charisma, Queen Elizabeth had an almost opposite strength. 53 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:30,200 Speaker 1: She wouldn't burn bright necessarily, but she would burn along 54 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:36,599 Speaker 1: in action was her most powerful action. With that in mind, 55 00:04:36,680 --> 00:04:40,159 Speaker 1: I want to draw your attention to one particular crisis 56 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:44,880 Speaker 1: moment in Queen Elizabeth's reign, a disaster in Wales that 57 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:49,039 Speaker 1: tested her instincts as a monarch. In her many years 58 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 1: on the throne, the Queen would look back to the 59 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:55,480 Speaker 1: event that occurred in Aberfan in nineteen sixty six and 60 00:04:55,640 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: call her response her greatest regret. The Chat Lenge of 61 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:05,200 Speaker 1: balancing spontaneous action with one's position as an a political 62 00:05:05,279 --> 00:05:09,600 Speaker 1: fixture is only becoming harder in a world of constant 63 00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:13,800 Speaker 1: access and social media. If the monarchy is going to 64 00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 1: survive after Queen Elizabeth's death, perhaps the new king, Charles 65 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:22,480 Speaker 1: the third, might learn from his mother, both from her 66 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:29,400 Speaker 1: successes and from her failures. I'm Dani Schwartz and this 67 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:45,480 Speaker 1: is noble blood. It was before a mid semester break, 68 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:51,040 Speaker 1: and so on October one, the students of punk glass 69 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:55,240 Speaker 1: junior school in Aberfun were only there for half day. 70 00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:58,719 Speaker 1: They had raced to school in the rain, their boots 71 00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:02,400 Speaker 1: squelching in the and hoods pulled up against the drizzle. 72 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:07,320 Speaker 1: That area of Wales is usually wet, getting over sixty 73 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:10,000 Speaker 1: inches of rain a year, and so it wouldn't have 74 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:12,840 Speaker 1: been abnormal for them to have been shaking off their 75 00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:16,159 Speaker 1: jackets and stomping the mud away as they settled into 76 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:19,159 Speaker 1: their seats to begin their day with a traditional hymn. 77 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:24,239 Speaker 1: All things bright and beautiful. It was, in other words, 78 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:29,640 Speaker 1: a perfectly normal day. Until the students heard a low rumble. 79 00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:34,440 Speaker 1: The rumble became louder. It would later be described as 80 00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:38,280 Speaker 1: like the roar of a jet engine. It was an 81 00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:43,719 Speaker 1: avalanche approaching, tumbling down the hill nearby faster than anyone 82 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:47,960 Speaker 1: could have imagined, but not an avalanche of snow or Earth, 83 00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:52,960 Speaker 1: but the slurry or waste from the coal mine nearby. 84 00:06:53,400 --> 00:06:58,080 Speaker 1: It happened before anyone knew what to do. The school 85 00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:03,240 Speaker 1: and much of the town was buried. The roar abated 86 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:10,080 Speaker 1: and the town became eerily silent. Aberfan became a mass grave. 87 00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:17,440 Speaker 1: To understand what happened in Aberfan and why, it's important 88 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:20,800 Speaker 1: to go back in time. The whales became a coal 89 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:25,280 Speaker 1: mining center during the industrial revolution in the late seventeen hundreds. 90 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:29,720 Speaker 1: Its True Coal Hey day was during the nineteen twenties, 91 00:07:30,080 --> 00:07:32,920 Speaker 1: when more than a quarter of a million workers were 92 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: making their livelihoods in coal mines. By the nineteen sixties, 93 00:07:37,720 --> 00:07:41,800 Speaker 1: at the Merthyr Vale Colliery Outside Aberfan. That number was 94 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:45,680 Speaker 1: just down to eight thousand, but still it was how 95 00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:50,160 Speaker 1: those eight thousand men made their living and supported their families. 96 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:53,960 Speaker 1: Coal mining is a messy business and part of the 97 00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:57,520 Speaker 1: process is that waste rock is generated in the digging. 98 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:00,520 Speaker 1: The best way to deal with that way east is 99 00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:05,360 Speaker 1: too elegantly enough stack it up in piles that are 100 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:10,160 Speaker 1: referred to as tips. In nineteen sixty six there were 101 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:14,120 Speaker 1: seven tips from the Mirth R Veil Colliery. The seventh, 102 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:18,320 Speaker 1: which had begun in nineteen fifty eight, atop a sandstone 103 00:08:18,400 --> 00:08:22,480 Speaker 1: base above a natural spring on a hill above Aberfan, 104 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:26,720 Speaker 1: was more than one d feet tall. Of course, in 105 00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:32,480 Speaker 1: retrospect it seems obvious that a massive waste pile shouldn't 106 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:35,840 Speaker 1: have been built atop a hill with a primary school 107 00:08:35,920 --> 00:08:41,160 Speaker 1: just below. And citizens in Aberfan complained to the mine 108 00:08:41,200 --> 00:08:45,000 Speaker 1: and to the National Coal Board. But nothing was done. 109 00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:50,240 Speaker 1: And worse than nothing, the response back from the powers 110 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:54,400 Speaker 1: that be seemed to be saying, in not so many words, 111 00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:58,640 Speaker 1: keep making a fuss and will close the mind altogether, 112 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:03,080 Speaker 1: and then will you make your living. And so the 113 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:06,720 Speaker 1: mining continued and the spoil tip on top of the 114 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:13,200 Speaker 1: hill continued to grow. Later after the disaster, the National 115 00:09:13,280 --> 00:09:18,600 Speaker 1: Coal Board would face an examining tribunal who would report. Quote. 116 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:24,080 Speaker 1: The aberfan disaster could and should have been prevented, but 117 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:28,319 Speaker 1: it was a matter not of wickedness but of ignorance, 118 00:09:28,679 --> 00:09:35,240 Speaker 1: ineptitude and a failure in communications. End. Quote. It was 119 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:41,040 Speaker 1: a rainy autumn in a rainy place that day on October, 120 00:09:41,679 --> 00:09:46,520 Speaker 1: the sludge on the hill became swollen with water, thick 121 00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:52,680 Speaker 1: and wet and black, and then the tip gave way. 122 00:09:59,040 --> 00:10:02,920 Speaker 1: Bulldozers set to work immediately, trying to dig away the 123 00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:07,559 Speaker 1: one hundred and forty thousand cubic yards of black sludge 124 00:10:07,679 --> 00:10:12,880 Speaker 1: that had consumed the primary school and the town. Firefighters, 125 00:10:12,920 --> 00:10:16,800 Speaker 1: policemen and countless volunteers began digging at the earth with 126 00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:21,280 Speaker 1: their bare hands, horror struck at the faint sounds of 127 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:25,720 Speaker 1: wailing they could hear coming from below. The men digging 128 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:30,040 Speaker 1: had come straight from their jobs at the mine. John Humphries, 129 00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:33,199 Speaker 1: a Welsh journalist who had been reporting there that day, 130 00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:38,080 Speaker 1: described them. Quote. There they were when I arrived, their 131 00:10:38,080 --> 00:10:42,040 Speaker 1: faces still black save for the streaks of white from 132 00:10:42,040 --> 00:10:45,400 Speaker 1: the sweat and the tears as they dug and prayed 133 00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:49,760 Speaker 1: and wept. Most of them were digging for their own children. 134 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:55,640 Speaker 1: End Quote. The community continued their efforts at finding survivors, 135 00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:59,199 Speaker 1: digging every single day in the wreckage of the school 136 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:03,200 Speaker 1: for a week straight. But after that first day no 137 00:11:03,280 --> 00:11:09,040 Speaker 1: more survivors were found. It was a national tragedy. Twenty 138 00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:12,800 Speaker 1: eight adults were killed in the disaster and one hundred 139 00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:17,920 Speaker 1: and sixteen children, half of all of the children in 140 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:22,680 Speaker 1: the towne of Aberfan, were dead. Of course, in moments 141 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:28,479 Speaker 1: like that, of senseless loss and unimaginable grief, the monarchy 142 00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:32,640 Speaker 1: is there to offer comfort and to help draw attention 143 00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:37,080 Speaker 1: to relief efforts. And Prince Philip arrived in Wales the 144 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:40,080 Speaker 1: very next day, along with the prime minister at the time, 145 00:11:40,160 --> 00:11:44,600 Speaker 1: Harold Wilson, and Lord Snowden, the husband of Princess Margaret. 146 00:11:45,280 --> 00:11:50,200 Speaker 1: But the Queen wasn't there. The question is why? The 147 00:11:50,280 --> 00:11:55,360 Speaker 1: answer is, well, we're not sure. It seems a decision 148 00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:59,440 Speaker 1: was made and that decision was to dispatch Prince Philip 149 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:04,760 Speaker 1: in the Queen Place. But whose decision was it? According 150 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:08,720 Speaker 1: to the Queen's former private secretary, Lord Charteris, the Queen 151 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:12,640 Speaker 1: had been given bad advice. Quote. We told her to 152 00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:17,000 Speaker 1: stay away until the preliminary shock had worn off. End. Quote. 153 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:20,160 Speaker 1: The thought was that if the Queen went while the 154 00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:24,240 Speaker 1: relief efforts were still underway, it might cause a distraction 155 00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:29,920 Speaker 1: divert resources among police or security that otherwise might go 156 00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:34,960 Speaker 1: toward digging still. Another adviser presents a different picture of 157 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:40,040 Speaker 1: the discussions happening within the royal inner circle. Biographer Robert 158 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:45,359 Speaker 1: Lacy quoted an adviser who said we kept presenting the arguments, 159 00:12:45,559 --> 00:12:51,160 Speaker 1: but nothing we said could persuade her. STOICISM and aversion 160 00:12:51,240 --> 00:12:55,880 Speaker 1: to emotional gestures was a feature of Queen Elizabeth's reign, 161 00:12:56,360 --> 00:12:59,839 Speaker 1: not a bug, as they say. She was averse to 162 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:04,839 Speaker 1: doing anything that might have an outsized reaction, even if 163 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:08,920 Speaker 1: the reaction might be good, because it risks the possibility 164 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:13,680 Speaker 1: that it might not be. Consider that Elizabeth's Moore, let's say, 165 00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:18,280 Speaker 1: Les a fair sister, Princess Margaret, offhandedly remarked that people 166 00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:22,560 Speaker 1: should be donating toys to Aberfan for the remaining children. 167 00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:28,400 Speaker 1: The consequence of Princess Margaret's remarks was that toys overwhelmed 168 00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:32,800 Speaker 1: the town, overflowing from the cinema and the donation centers 169 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:37,120 Speaker 1: to the point where it was a distraction from relief efforts. 170 00:13:37,720 --> 00:13:41,200 Speaker 1: If you do nothing, the queen seemed to believe, then 171 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:46,880 Speaker 1: you can do nothing wrong, except, of course, sometimes you can. 172 00:13:47,800 --> 00:13:52,400 Speaker 1: In action is also action, and as the days crept 173 00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:57,679 Speaker 1: by and the relief efforts became exhausted, eventually it was 174 00:13:57,800 --> 00:14:03,320 Speaker 1: decided that the Queen would visit Aberfan. After all, it 175 00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:07,720 Speaker 1: was eight days after the disaster. The deaths were counted 176 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:12,280 Speaker 1: and there was no more digging. When the Queen arrived, 177 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:16,960 Speaker 1: a young girl approached and presented her with a posy. 178 00:14:17,400 --> 00:14:22,400 Speaker 1: The note attached red from the remaining children of Aberfan. 179 00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:33,680 Speaker 1: According to a number of the morning families, the Queen's 180 00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:37,720 Speaker 1: visit was a great comfort. She stood with the parents 181 00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:41,400 Speaker 1: who had lost their children, listen to them, made them 182 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:47,080 Speaker 1: feel less anonymous, less alone. The crown was here with them. 183 00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:53,760 Speaker 1: The country saw their pain. That was what her visit symbolized. Still, 184 00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:58,200 Speaker 1: she had waited eight days. Maybe it would have been 185 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:02,080 Speaker 1: a distraction if she had come earlier. Maybe the grief 186 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:06,520 Speaker 1: would have been overwhelming and the relief efforts too chaotic 187 00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:12,120 Speaker 1: to accommodate a royal visit. But still, sometimes you can 188 00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:16,239 Speaker 1: only regret and think what you might have done differently. 189 00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:21,400 Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth the second certainly did. The Queen would return 190 00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:25,440 Speaker 1: three more times the village of Aberfan in her reign. 191 00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:29,840 Speaker 1: Though the power of the monarchy is largely symbolic, now, 192 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:34,160 Speaker 1: that power is still legitimate. Case in point, during one 193 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:37,920 Speaker 1: of her later visits, it was revealed that the government 194 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:42,040 Speaker 1: had used the Aberfan disaster fund in order to fund 195 00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:46,520 Speaker 1: the removal of the six remaining slag tips. That sounds 196 00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:49,920 Speaker 1: all well and good, but that money had actually been 197 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:55,280 Speaker 1: set up explicitly to help the bereaved families. Queen Elizabeth's 198 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:59,320 Speaker 1: visit helped bring attention to that corruption, which led to 199 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:04,200 Speaker 1: the money be repaid to those families. On her final 200 00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:08,800 Speaker 1: visit to Aberfan, in against the advice of her advisers, 201 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:12,920 Speaker 1: the Queen insisted that she take off in a helicopter. 202 00:16:13,440 --> 00:16:15,920 Speaker 1: The ground was too wet, they said, and the weather 203 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:20,040 Speaker 1: too erratic, but she insisted because she thought that the 204 00:16:20,120 --> 00:16:24,000 Speaker 1: children would like to see it, and so off in 205 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:29,280 Speaker 1: a helicopter she went. I highlight the Aberfan disaster because 206 00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:31,960 Speaker 1: it captures at once what I believe to be the 207 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:37,400 Speaker 1: monarchy's greatest weakness, but also their strength. Its weakness is 208 00:16:37,440 --> 00:16:42,040 Speaker 1: that its stability comes from inaction the royal family can 209 00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:47,440 Speaker 1: never be dazzling or unexpected. There can be no great victories, 210 00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:52,720 Speaker 1: because to achieve any victory is to risk defeat. The 211 00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:56,680 Speaker 1: Queen understood that more than anyone, that her role was 212 00:16:56,720 --> 00:17:01,040 Speaker 1: to be less a person, with whatever one or desires 213 00:17:01,160 --> 00:17:06,400 Speaker 1: came from that, and instead be an institution, to let 214 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:10,800 Speaker 1: her personhood be subsumed by the role. That was her 215 00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:15,560 Speaker 1: sacrifice and that was her duty. Elizabeth the second was 216 00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:20,119 Speaker 1: never supposed to be queen. Her father was King George 217 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:23,520 Speaker 1: the fifth, second son, and so her uncle had been 218 00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:27,280 Speaker 1: in line for the throne. He was King Edward the eighth, 219 00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:31,200 Speaker 1: but for several reasons that we've already discussed on this 220 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:35,800 Speaker 1: very podcast, he was entirely unsuited to the position. He 221 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:39,879 Speaker 1: abdicated in order to marry an American divorcee, in what 222 00:17:40,040 --> 00:17:46,359 Speaker 1: Elizabeth's family saw as a fundamental betrayal, a selfish dereliction 223 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:51,040 Speaker 1: of duty. She would never do anything like that. She 224 00:17:51,119 --> 00:17:56,360 Speaker 1: would honor the institution of the crown at all costs. 225 00:17:56,400 --> 00:18:01,400 Speaker 1: She would do her duty, withstanding whatever small humiliations and 226 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:06,760 Speaker 1: criticisms it required. She would be the human statue that 227 00:18:06,840 --> 00:18:09,359 Speaker 1: the nation could look to so that she could be 228 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:14,040 Speaker 1: able to achieve what I believe is the monarchy's greatest strength, 229 00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:20,680 Speaker 1: to make people feel seen comforted. If the Queen represents 230 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:24,199 Speaker 1: the entire nation, when she is there with you, you 231 00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:33,119 Speaker 1: know that the nation is with you too. That's the 232 00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:36,640 Speaker 1: story of Queen Elizabeth the second and the Aberfan disaster, 233 00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:40,000 Speaker 1: but stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear 234 00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:42,639 Speaker 1: a little bit more about the human side of the 235 00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:59,920 Speaker 1: late Queen. The Queen is such an institution that sometimes 236 00:19:00,160 --> 00:19:03,000 Speaker 1: it's easy to forget that she was in fact a 237 00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:08,400 Speaker 1: real human being. There's one anecdote I love, possibly Apocryphal, 238 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:11,880 Speaker 1: but that shows her sense of humor. The Queen's favorite 239 00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:16,280 Speaker 1: spot was balmoral. The castle located in the Scottish countryside, 240 00:19:16,560 --> 00:19:19,400 Speaker 1: and often she would walk across the hills to take 241 00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:22,280 Speaker 1: in the views. One morning she was walking when she 242 00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:27,800 Speaker 1: encountered a pair of hiking tourists. Incredibly, they didn't recognize 243 00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:31,840 Speaker 1: her and made conversation. They heard that the queen sometimes 244 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:36,000 Speaker 1: stayed around there. Was that true? Yes, she replied it was. 245 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:42,520 Speaker 1: The tourists became excited. Have you ever met her, they asked. No, 246 00:19:43,119 --> 00:19:47,080 Speaker 1: the Queen deadpanned. She pointed to her guard, who was 247 00:19:47,119 --> 00:20:00,320 Speaker 1: standing nearby at a respectful distance, but he has yeah. 248 00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:12,040 Speaker 1: Noble blood is a production of I heart radio and 249 00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:15,760 Speaker 1: Grimm and mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble blood is hosted 250 00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:20,600 Speaker 1: by me Danishwartz. Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, 251 00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:25,439 Speaker 1: Hannah's wick, Mirra Hayward, Courtney Sunder and Laurie Goodman. The 252 00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:29,680 Speaker 1: show is produced by Rema Il Kali, with supervising producer 253 00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:34,399 Speaker 1: Josh thane and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams and 254 00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:38,399 Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I heart radio, visit 255 00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:41,879 Speaker 1: the I heart radio APP, apple podcasts or wherever you 256 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:43,119 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.