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French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier once blasted Queen Elizabeth, later styled the Queen Mother, as an “excessively ambitious young woman” after a diplomatic visit to France by the Royals in 1938, just before the outbreak of the Second World War.
In a scathing attack, Mr Daladier claimed that she was “ready to sacrifice every other country in the world so that she may remain Queen” a royal expert has revealed in a new documentary which details the love story between the Queen Mother and her husband King George VI.
Despite the strong criticism, the Queen Mother was to prove her stoicism and absolute dedication to her country when she refused to leave the UK as London faced an onslaught of bombs from the Germans in an event known as the Blitz.
In 1940, as London was bombed relentlessly by the Germans Queen Elizabeth and the King would tirelessly tend to those affected by the bombing offensive, visiting bombed civilians, devastated factories and members of the armed forces.
When Buckingham Palace was bombed during the offensive, she famously remarked: ‘I can look the East End in the face’.
“To those with shattered homes and bodies, a royal visit was a symbol that the whole British nation knew and cared,” a royal expert reveals.
“The Queen’s talent for communication and empathy strengthened an anxious king while performing his royal duties.
“In the same way, she strengthened the British people during the War. After the Queen’s visits to factories, production figures always improved.”
The Blitz was a German bombing offensive against Britain during the Second World War which ran from September 7, 1940, to May 11, 1941.
The term was first used by the British press as an abbreviation of Blitzkrieg.
After failing to gain air superiority during the Battle of Britain, Hitler turned his attention to breaking the will of the British people, targeting industrial areas such as London and Coventry.
32,000 civilians lost their lives during the Blitz, with 87,000 seriously injured.
The bombings also saw two million homes destroyed, with other famous landmarks such as Westminster Abbey and the Chamber of the House of Commons also all sustaining damage.
The Queen Mother was born almost 39 years before the outbreak of the war, on August 4, 1900, as Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon.
She was the ninth child of Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis the 14th Earl of Strathmore and his wife, Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck.
On April 26, 1923, the Queen Mother married her long-time childhood friend and love – Prince Albert, who later became King George VI.
Together the royal couple brought up two healthy daughters with their eldest, Elizabeth, taking over the crown in 1952.
Queen Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926, at her grandmother’s house on 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair in London.
Because The Queen Mother shared the same name as her eldest daughter who was now Queen, her title changed Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother to avoid confusion.
On March 30, 2002, the Queen Mother was found dead at Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park.
The Queen Mother spent the last four months of her life struggling with a severe cold before dying at the age of 101.
Princess Margaret also tragically died just seven weeks earlier, on February 9 2002. Their ashes were both laid together with those of George VI.
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