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Charles Edward Stuart, ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, the hero of the 1745 uprising who
regarded himself as Charles III, died a virtually penniless, bloated drunk in exile.
Elizabeth and Philip, however, were only too happy to depart from the predictable
procession of Georges and Edwards favoured by the Hanoverians. As they proudly told
friends, they chose the name simply because they liked it. They were determined that
nobody should know it in advance and their staff remembered the ‘glee’ with which they
announced it. ‘Prince Philip would want to fly in the face of tradition,’ one commented.
Boy Browning’s reaction was ‘Charles – bad news…’
Prince Charles was christened on 15 December in the White and Gold Music Room at
Buckingham Palace; among his godparents were the King, Queen Mary, the King of
Norway, Prince George of Greece, the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven, Patricia
Brabourne and Elizabeth’s uncle, David Bowes-Lyon. Elizabeth had sent handwritten
notes to her senior staff inviting them to the celebration and among the thirty guests
were Mr Ainslie, the Palace Steward, Mrs Ferguson, the Palace housekeeper, Jerram, the
King’s valet, Miss Willox, the Queen’s dresser, John Dean and, of course, Bobo and Ruby
MacDonald. The Edinburghs’ own staff from the country house in Surrey which they had
rented, Windlesham Moor, were also there, including Mr King, the Steward, and Mrs
Barnes, the cook, who baked the cake. To mark the occasion, Elizabeth had asked for the
mothers of every other British child born on 14 November to be sent food parcels.
Elizabeth’s delight in her new baby was overshadowed by concern for her father,
whose health had been undermined by the anxieties of the war and the crisis years
which followed. ‘As a result of the stress he was under the King used to stay up too late
and smoked too many cigarettes,’ Alec Hardinge told his son. The King had left for the
South African tour in January 1947 a deeply tired and anxious man. The break from the
Palace had not really revitalized him; the programme had been punishing and he had
lost 17lb by the time he returned. By January 1948 he was suffering from cramp in his
legs, the early symptoms of Buerger’s disease (arteriosclerosis resulting from smoking)
which was restricting the flow of blood to his lower legs and feet. By August he was in
discomfort most of the time; his secretaries noted that he would kick his leg against the
desk in an attempt to restore circulation. On 12 November, two days before Prince
Charles’s birth, his surgeon, Professor Learmonth, came up with an alarming diagnosis:
the King had a condition of early arteriosclerosis with a danger of gangrene developing
and even the possibility of his right leg requiring amputation. News of this was kept
from Elizabeth until after the birth of her child when two days later the King reluctantly
agreed to announce the cancellation of his projected tour of Australia and New Zealand.
Nicotine addiction had been a family curse from Edward VII onwards. Smoking had
played a major part in Edward’s death and that of his son, George V. Even Queen Mary
smoked; her present to her son Bertie on his eighteenth birthday had been a cigarette
case. George VI was only fifty-four, but his life was already endangered. He was too ill
to go to Sandringham for Christmas, which the family spent in London, and on 12
March 1949 Learmonth performed a lumbar sympathectomy in a specially fltted-up
operating theatre at the Palace. ‘I am not in the least worried,’ the King said as he went