Elizabeth and Bertie Trivia Quiz

Answer: She was afraid she could not be herself

Bertie, the later King George VI (1895-1952) actually proposed to the fun-loving and vivacious Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (1900-2002) three times before she finally succumbed. Previously she had said no to his proposals because she felt the confines and strict etiquette and rules of the royal life would not suit her. She was "afraid never, never again to be free to think, speak and act as I feel I really ought to".

In desperation, he enlisted the aid of his mother, Queen Mary (1867-1953) to intervene on his behalf, but although the Queen did visit Elizabeth at her family home in Glamis Castle, Scotland, and felt that Elizabeth was "the one girl who could make Bertie happy", she would not interfere in his private life. Love conquers all, however, and although Elizabeth still had misgivings about the confines of royal life, she accepted the young Prince's final proposal in January, 1923.

Answer: His equerry

Captain James Stuart, 1st Viscount Stuart of Findhorn (1897-1971) would go on to become a Scottish Unionist politician, Winston Churchill's Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury during WWII, and the later Secretary of State for Scotland under Churchill and Anthony Eden - but at that time of his life, he was serving as Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George's equerry. Why, the cad! He was also courting Elizabeth at the same time as his employer. One wonders if Bertie knew of this.

Whatever the case may be, Bertie won the day - and the lass - and James left his service to take up a post elsewhere. He apparently didn't suffer too badly from losing in the game of love, however, for, in 1923, he married one Lady Rachel Cavendish, daughter of the 9th Duke of Devonshire and the couple went on to have three children.

Answer: No

Elizabeth was the second youngest child of Lord Glamis who went on to inherit the title of the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. She was a blue blood through and through, but although her father was a peer, he was not a member of royalty. British princes, up until then, were expected to marry princesses, and the fact that this marriage was given approval by Bertie's royal parents was a sign that the royal family and the establishment were willing to take the first unsteady steps along the long, long road to bringing the British monarchy into the new age following WWI.

Although the majority of the old traditional values and beliefs still held firm and fast, the old order were beginning to reel under the ever increasing changes and values of this new world.

Answer: Bertie was not the heir to the British throne

At that time (the early 1920s), Prince George, as Bertie was titled, was not expected to become King. His older brother Edward held that right, and though, even at that stage, Edward was a weak and self-indulgent young man who didn't really want to be king, there were no signs that he would later go on to abdicate the throne of the United Kingdom, using his desire to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson as his escape route.

Poor Wallis Simpson suffered under the scorn of the English people for the rest of her life over that, when the truth was that she desperately tried to talk Edward out of his rash decision. In 1923, however, when all that still lay unrevealed in the future, Bertie and Elizabeth were content in the knowledge that their future together would be as "minor" members of the royal family only, with just the obligatory duties to be carried out now and then when the occasion demanded. There were no real objections then to Elizabeth, Bertie's choice of wife, the girl he truly loved.

Answer: Green

Elizabeth's wedding dress was designed by Madame Handley Seymour, a court dressmaker to Queen Mary. The material was an ivory chiffon moire that was embroidered over with pearls and silver threads, and the style was very modern indeed - 1920s in fact. No, no before you gasp, it wasn't a knee high flapper's gown. It reached to the floor, but in the straight simple lines of the time, topped by a square neckline. Elizabeth's normal style was soft, feminine, frilly and delicately laced. Her bridal gown would have looked stunning on a tall willowy bride with definite hips and bust, but she was diminutive indeed and the dress just didn't suit her.

Around the waist of the gown, such as it was, she wore a girdle of silver leaf on a background a spring green tulle. This trailed delicately to the ground, and was fastened with a thistle of silver and rose. The dress itself was exquisite, as was the matching veil. It was just the wrong dress for that particularly lovely bride. It lacked all shape completely and made her look like a tiny regal stick.

Answer: Bonnie Prince Charles

Charles Stuart, the Bonnie Prince Charles of history, was the second pretender to the throne of Great Britain, grandson of the deposed James II. Known as the instigator of the Jacobite Rebellion in 1745, he effectively disappeared from British history following his defeat - and the Jacobite claims to the British throne - at the famous Battle of Culloden in 1746. For Bertie and Elizabeth, however, he meant little beyond the gift of something old incorporated into the bride's wedding gown. Elizabeth was still trying to get that gown just so, right up to the day before the wedding itself, when she spent half the day at the dressmaker and the other half at her wedding rehearsals!

Answer: Duchess of York

Bertie's earlier life as a prince of the realm, compared to his later life as king, was comparatively stress free. Because he had no expectations of - or training for - inheriting the throne of the United Kingdom, he spent his youth attending naval college during his teens, and then serving in both the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force during World War I. The title of Duke of York, which was conferred on him in 1920, is a traditional title dating back to the 1400s. It has been bestowed on the second sons of British monarchs ever since then. Today's Prince Andrew, for example, the younger brother of Prince Charles, is also known as the Duke of York. No doubt, today's Prince Harry, younger brother to Prince William, will also be known as the Duke of York one day.

When Elizabeth married her prince in 1923, then, she became the Duchess of York in the annals of the British monarchy, in parliament and in official records. To the common people too, she was the Duchess of York, but they also had another name for this popular and much loved woman as well. To them, she became known far and wide as "the smiling duchess".

Answer: With their hats on

Awfully funny, but it was the case. When Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon married Prince George VI of the United Kingdom in 1923, that new fangled invention, the radio, was still relatively new, with radio broadcasting only just taking to the air in the early 1920s.

After the sorrow and tragedy of the First World War, it was thought the forthcoming wedding of the lovely Elizabeth to her Bertie several years later would be just the thing to cheer the hearts of the people - and it did. However, although images of the young couple on their wedding at Westminster Abbey (the procession only, not the service itself) soon flashed around the world, and although the Dean himself approved the broadcasting of the ceremony, the Abbey Chapter responsible for the running of the Abbey refused to grant permission for that to go ahead.

They objected on the grounds that every Tom, Dick and Harry would be able to hear it - including intoxicated men sitting in pubs with their hats on. Shocking!

Answer: Placed her bouquet on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior

As she entered Westminster Abbey on 26 April 1923, and before she proceeded up the aisle to marry Bertie, Elizabeth spontaneously veered off to one side. With memories of the war still fresh in her mind, she placed her bouquet at the base of the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. Future royal brides after her usually have their bouquets delivered to the Tomb after the official wedding photographs have been taken.

Elizabeth had lost one brother during the Great War, waited anxiously for the safe return of another from a German POW camp afterwards, and had helped turn her ancestral home, Glamis Castle, into a convalescent home for wounded soldiers which she herself nursed. Those memories would remain with her always, hence her lovely gesture on the morning of her wedding. So popular in fact was this young woman with the soldiers that she had nursed, that one wrote of her in her autograph book that she should be "Hung, drawn, & quartered ... Hung in diamonds, drawn in a coach and four, and quartered in the best house in the land". Amazingly so, this ultimately came to pass when her Bertie became King George VI of the United Kingdom, and she became known as Queen Elizabeth, his royal - and loyal - consort.

Answer: Elizabeth developed whooping cough

You'll be pleased to know, however, that the newly married couple did manage to get in a few blissful days together first. That precious time was spent at Polesden Lacey, an absolutely lovely manor house, now owned by the National Trust, in Surrey. After that, it was downhill for the couple for a short while, when, on leaving Surrey to spend the remainder of their honeymoon in Scotland, the young bride developed whooping cough, of all things. Also known as the "100 day cough" the cough from this disease can last for that long, but hopefully this wasn't the case for Elizabeth. Because this disease is so contagious of course, Bertie wasn't allowed anywhere near her. Maintaining her sense of humour even under that trying experience, the young bride summed it all up in her diary as most definitely "unromantic".