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eplied, ‘Not at all… He could he very stubborn…’ Churchill, for his part, was described
by one of the royal Private Secretaries as coming away from his audiences ‘purring’. His
reluctance to give up the pleasure of these weekly private talks as well as the reins of
power was certainly a factor in the gloom with which he contemplated his resignation.
The old man’s romantic affection for Elizabeth nearly caused an embarrassing moment
at his resignation audience with her on the day after the farewell Downing Street
dinner.
It had been Colville’s idea that since his service as Prime Minister had been so
exceptional, it would be ‘appropriate’ if he were to be offered an exceptional honour by
the Queen – a dukedom, just as his famous ancestor John Churchill had been made Duke
of Marlborough for his services to the nation. The Palace reply was that no more
dukedoms were ever going to be conferred except on royal personages. ‘However, it did
seem appropriate. Could I give the undertaking that the Prime Minister would refuse it?’
When Colville took soundings with Churchill, he found him adamantly opposed to it – he
wished to die in the House of Commons as Winston Churchill. ‘I rushed to the telephone’,
Colville recalled, ‘and rang up Sir Michael Adeane and said that he could safely tell the
Queen the dukedom could be offered.’ On the day, however, Colville had serious
misgivings:
I was greatly disturbed because as I saw the Prime Minister going off in his frock coat and his top hat and
knowing as I did that he was madly in love with the Queen… I was rather alarmed that sentimental feelings
might indeed make him accept at the last moment. In which case I knew that both the Queen and Sir
Michael would be very angry with me for having given this pledge.
When he returned from his audience the first thing I said to him as we sat in the Cabinet room was ‘How
did it go?’ With tears in his eyes he said, ‘Do you know, the most remarkable thing – she offered to make me
a Duke.’
With trepidation I asked what he had said. ‘Well you know, I very nearly accepted, I was so moved by her
beauty and charm and the kindness with which she made this offer, that for a moment I thought of
accepting. But finally I remembered that I must die as I have always been – Winston Churchill. And so I asked
her to forgive my not accepting it. And do you know, it’s an odd thing, but she seemed almost relieved.’ 16
In a handwritten letter from Windsor Elizabeth told him sincerely how much she
missed him and how neither his successor, Anthony Eden, nor any other of his
successors, ‘will ever, for me, be able to hold the place of my first Prime Minister, to
whom both my husband and I owe so much and for whose wise guidance during the
early years of my reign I shall always be so profoundly grateful’. Churchill’s reply also
illuminated his relationship with Elizabeth and the respect he had grown to have for her:
I have tried throughout to keep Your Majesty squarely confronted with the grave and complex problems of
our time. Very soon after taking office as First Minister I realized the comprehension with which Your
Majesty entered upon the august duties of a modern Sovereign and the store of knowledge which had already
been gathered by an upbringing both wise and lively. This enabled Your Majesty to understand as it seemed
by instinct the relationships and the balances of the British constitution so deeply cherished by the mass of