Queen Elizabeth viewed the risk of being killed in battle as “acceptable” for Prince Harry but “too great” for his older brother William. The late monarch’s assessments of the value of the lives of the “heir to the heir and the spare” are revealed in an explosive new insight into the world’s most famous family.
ITV’s new series The Real Crown reveals the family’s different attitude towards William and Harry that could be seen as sowing the seeds of discontent that have driven a massive wedge between the now warring brothers.
The former head of the Army lifts the lid on the issue by talking about one of his private audiences with Elizabeth II.
Sir Mike Jackson, Chief of the General Staff from 2003 to 2006, said the Queen told him of the need for both princes to serve in the forces but only Harry should be sent to war.
He said: “She told me my grandsons have taken my shilling and therefore they must do their duty.
“But it was decided that for William as heir to the heir the risk was too great. But for his younger brother the risk was acceptable.”
The retired general, 79, explained that he had a meeting with the Queen “once or twice a year” and faced a rigorous grilling – but it was an unwritten rule that what was said remained between them.
However, before making his revelation about her view on Harry’s expendability in comparison to his older brother, he said: “I will break the rule by revealing what went on this one occasion when she was very clear.”
The five-part series probes the facts behind many of the events chronicled in the hit Netflix dramatisation, such as Buckingham Palace intruder Michael Fagan and the IRA murder of Lord Mountbatten.
Among other key stories, it confirms how a clandestine meeting in a South London house paved the way for Camilla to finally marry Charles.
And it relates how the now disgraced Prince Andrew insisted on carting a six-foot ironing board around the globe while consistently “going off script” and refusing to carry out duties as a taxpayer-funded trade envoy.
Executive producer David Gover, of 72 Films, said: “It’s a family where succession is known and there are issues with that. So even though the Queen was keen that both her grandsons should be sent to war because they had taken the same shilling that every other soldier takes, there is a difference between the heir and the spare.
“It goes down the generations and in this series you see it with Charles and Andrew. Andrew goes off to war and comes back a war hero.
“Go back a generation before that and you have the Queen and her sister and so there is a sort of sadness when the Queen has to tell her sister that she can’t marry the person she loves.
“Everybody knows that story but the point of having the inside track is that you hear the inside story of it.
“You can see the trajectory of characters throughout the series.
“For example, at one stage Charles is this fringe interest with a strange fascination in environmentalism and climate change who everybody thinks is bonkers – while his brother is this incredibly glamorous war hero.
“Contrast that with today where one of them is King and the other is, sort of…. not King.”
Prince Harry, 38, served in the Army for a decade and went on two tours of Afghanistan, rising to the rank of captain.
His brother, 40, completed seven years of military training and rose to the rank of lieutenant in the Household Cavalry (Blues and Royals).
Following attachments to the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, he trained as a search and rescue pilot and was stationed at RAF Valley, Anglesey, in September 2010.
The programme also hears from former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr George Carey who tells how he met Camilla at his son Andrew’s humble house in Peckham after her relationship with Charles went public in January 1999.
The Archbishop had warned the couple that marrying would cause a crisis for the church but changed his mind during the get-together.
Dr Carey, 87, recalled: “She walked through the front door and we had coffee together.
“I was really struck by her, she was a very nice looking lady, very presentable, very intelligent. We had an animated conversation and we talked about her relationship with Charles, going way back to when they were teenagers. And after that I decided there was no way I could treat her as anything other than a really nice human being who is deeply in love with Charles.
“That affected me in talking to other people about it behind the scenes. I hope it had a way forward, I think it did.”
All episodes can be streamed on ITVX from April 20.
