The Crown, 8 historical inaccuracies
The Crown
The fifth season of The Crown, available November 9 on Netflix, has been met with numerous controversies since before its debut. After the death of Queen Elizabeth and with the facts narrated approaching those that really happened, many have raised the criticism that the Netflix series would split as historically accurate when instead you take a lot of freedoms compared to what really happened.In particular, the objections have focused on some controversial reconstructions, such as the alleged plan of Charles to abdicate his mother in the nineties and the relationship between Prince Philip and his friend Penny Knatchbul. Many believe these things to be indelicate especially after the death of the long-lived sovereign and would like the public to be warned before each episode that this is not a documentary but a free interpretation of history. But in any case, the fifth season is not the first to take liberties, let's see when it happened in the past.
The queen and Churchill
In the first season, great space is dedicated to the relationship between Queen Elizabeth, who has just ascended the throne, and Winston Churchill. In the series, the historic prime minister is portrayed as extremely cold towards the young sovereign, especially at the beginning of her reign, being portrayed as a serious and stubborn man. In reality the relationship between the two was extremely cordial and the queen herself let slip that Churchill was one of the favorite premieres with whom she had ever worked, especially for the sense of humor of the experienced politician.Alex Bailey / Netflix
Elizabeth vs. Jackie
In the second season one of the episodes is dedicated to the alleged rivalry between Queen Elizabeth and the first lady Jackie Kennedy: the sovereign is shown as envious and insecure in the face of the American all glamor and freedom, even if the two at eventually they have a moment of reconciliation and even Jackie is seen sending letters of apology. In reality there was no letter. Furthermore, it is not plausible that Elizabeth organized her state visit to Ghana to demonstrate that her resourcefulness could rival that of Kennedy: that visit had already been scheduled two years in advance.Prince Philip and Charles
One of the most interesting aspects of this series is the way it tells the often little explored aspects of the relationships between the various members of the royal family. In the second season, in particular, the stormy relationship between Prince Philip and his eldest son Carlo is shown, with his father who defines him as "damned weak" and who almost feels disgust for the fearful character of the young man. Although the palace experts reiterate that Filippo had a privileged relationship with his daughter Anna, the bond with Carlo was also positive and constructive.Alex Bailey / Netflix
The raid on Buckingham Palace
One of the most curious facts told in the fourth season is the double raid by Michael Fagan at Buckingham Palace: a simple citizen, Fagan entered the palace twice in 1982, first drinking a glass of wine and then even entering the queen's room. The Crown stages a rather long dialogue with the sovereign, in which the man expresses his disappointment with Margaret Thatcher's harsh social policies. In reality, Elizabeth II immediately left the room and Fagan later declared that he had no particular ideological motivations, but simply that he "had something in his mind".Amorous quadrangle
The fourth season enters the privacy of the children of the English sovereigns, also narrating a curious amorous “quadrangle” between Princess Anne, Prince Charles and their respective love interests. At a certain point, in fact, there is a strange intertwining between Anna who is dating Andrew Parker Bowles and Carlo who falls in love with Camilla, who then instead will be with Parker Bowles. In reality, this overlap did not occur in such a precise way: Anna and Andrew, in fact, began dating in the summer of 1970, when Carlo and Camilla had seen each other perhaps only a few times; when the history between Carlo and Camilla was more assiduous, around 1972, Anna was already struggling with her future husband Mark Phillips.Ollie Upton / Netflix
Princess Margaret and the wedding of Charles and Diana
The fourth season of The Crown deals extensively with the relationship between Charles and Diana, from courtship to marriage, and then to the problems that immediately arose between the two. In the series we see how Princess Margaret, an expert on her own experience of love gone bad, expresses her opposition to marrying the two young people, despite the enthusiasm of the rest of the royal family. There is no evidence that the princess was opposed to the union, instead it seems it was an idea of the same actress who played her, Helena Bonham Carter, who thought that was a behavior appropriate to the character, whose love story it had in turn been tampered with by Crown meddling.The Queen and Thatcher
In July 1986, the Sunday Times publishes a front-page revelation in which Queen Elizabeth was rather dismayed ("dismayed") from Thatcher's heartless rigor. Although the fact had really happened and those were the feelings of the sovereign confirmed by some insiders, multiple sources have denied that it was Elizabeth herself who instructed her personal secretary Michael Shea to share her grievances with the newspaper. Even the Thatcher government never showed any belief in the monarch's involvement in the news leak and the same relationship between the two women in power became more cordial over time, so much so that the queen awarded her the Order of Merit just two weeks after the his resignation.Mark Mainz / Netflix
