Royal Traitor: How Queen Elizabeth II Felt Betrayed By Former Prime Minister
During her 67-year reign in the British throne, Queen Elizabeth II has seen and worked with a total of 14 Prime Ministers. While Buckingham Palace is firm to say that the Queen maintains a stable relationship with the country's leaders, reports show that she has developed some stronger bonds than the others.
Being the head of the royal family, one of the rules that the 94-year-old monarch has to abide is not to share her political views and never divulge her relationship with political leaders.
This is the very reason why Her Majesty felt betrayed when former Prime Minister Tony Blair published controversial details of their private conversation when he penned an autobiography.
Back in 2005, the 72nd Prime Minister of the United Kingdom published a book called "A Journey: My Political Life." It narrates Blair's 1997 victory of ending 18 years of a conservative government.
However, Blair's memoir sparked furious reactions from the Queen, as it included several private conversations that they had during some of their one-on-one private audience session.
Queen's Disappointment
According to a Telegraph report, a senior courtier said that the Queen was disappointed with some details of the said book.
"(There is) a profound sense of disappointment", the courtier said.
"Her Majesty has to be able to talk to her chief minister in confidence, without any sense of trepidation that her words might someday be retailed in a cheap and cheerful volume of memoirs."
The palace courtier explained that no Prime Minister had done that move before, and the palace hopes it will never happen again.
One of the conversations with the Queen divulged by Blair on his biography book is the discussion they had after the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. The conversation took place at the Balmoral, in which Blair claimed that Her Majesty told him they should learn a lesson with the way things were handled after the death of her estranged daughter-in-law.
In another attempt to insult the monarch, Blair also revealed how the Queen occassionally exhibited an "hauteur" treatment towards him.
Right To Be Consulted
Constitutional historian Kenneth Rose said that Queen Elizabeth II's degree of disappointment was perfectly understandable, as Blair should have consulted the monarch before publishing the private conversations.
"The monarch has 'the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn' his or her chief minister. That has to be done on the basis of trust," Rose explained.
Prince William Echoes The Queen's Disappointment
According to a 2010 report, Prince William also felt betrayed by the ex-PM after he also published some of their private conversations.
In his book, Blair shared how the Duke of Cambridge hated the "prison walls" of his destiny as the future king.
"He knew now, if he didn't before, what being a prince and a king meant. For all the sense of duty, the prison walls of hereditary tradition must have seemed too high a price to pay," Blair wrote.
