Not every "The Crown" scene is a history lesson. Welcome to MsMojo, and today, we’re counting down our picks for the captivating tales from the semi-historical Netflix drama so far that you won’t find in your history books.
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00:00 "Just a pulse, sir. True. Not a reassuring one."
00:05 Welcome to Miss Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the captivating tales from
00:10 the semi-historical Netflix drama so far, that you won't find in your history books.
00:15 "It's nonsense, you know, it's fiction, it's fiction."
00:18 In some cases, while the event itself may have taken place,
00:21 we have no proof of what happened behind palace gates.
00:24 10. The Kennedy's Visit
00:27 It's true that after his election, John F. and Jackie Kennedy visited the Queen,
00:32 however, the rivalry portrayed between the two women in The Crown seems exaggerated,
00:36 possibly fueled by media speculation.
00:39 "You know, I liked her very much, and I've been all set to lose her,
00:42 but in the end I was utterly charmed."
00:45 Reports suggest that the two influential figures actually found common ground
00:49 and shared a warm relationship.
00:50 "Really one of the great paradoxes of being in a position where I have to talk to a great many
00:55 people, but deep down I'm happiest with the animals. That makes two of us."
01:00 Still in the series, tensions rise when unkind remarks made by the First Lady reach the monarch.
01:06 Although Jackie might have criticized the Queen and the palace in real life,
01:10 her harsh words in the series likely only served to heighten the drama.
01:13 "In our head of state, we had a middle-aged woman, so incurious,
01:20 unintelligent, and unremarkable."
01:25 There's also no reliable proof that their rivalry affected foreign policy or triggered the Queen's
01:31 Ghana visit. As head of the Commonwealth, these trips are kind of in her job description.
01:36 9. Thatcher declares war while her son is missing
01:41 During an audience with the Queen, the Prime Minister crumbles the Iron Lady's composure,
01:45 revealing her son has disappeared in the Sahara Desert.
01:48 "Mark, a very special child, the kind of son any mother would dream of having, has gone missing."
01:59 The Crown implies that her maternal anxieties influenced her choice to go to war in the
02:04 Falklands.
02:04 "Our people, far from home, their lives are in danger, Charles. Our own. We must do something."
02:15 Although both events happened within the same year, there is nothing to suggest that they're
02:19 linked in any way. In reality, the war began after Argentinian workers raised their flag,
02:24 asserting the country's control over the Falklands. Britain responded by sending a naval fleet.
02:29 "The flag was taken down, but HMS Endurance was then ordered to hold off. For Britain,
02:35 the response to all these crises had been proportionate, but to the Argentinians,
02:40 they appeared token at best."
02:41 The war ran on for 74 days, resulting in significant loss of life. It also doesn't
02:46 seem to be true that Thatcher asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament when her leadership was
02:51 challenged.
02:52 "Technically, it is within your power to request this. But we must all ask ourselves
02:58 when to exercise those things that are within our power and when not to."
03:02 8. Philip probably didn't refuse to kneel
03:06 In the early seasons of The Crown, Prince Philip grapples with his role as a supporting figure
03:11 to his wife.
03:11 "He said you intended to refuse."
03:12 "No, I merely asked the question whether it was right in this day and age that the
03:16 Queen's consort, her husband, should kneel to her rather than stand beside her."
03:21 In this episode, which leads up to her 1953 coronation, he requests to do without the
03:27 tradition of kneeling to the monarch. Of course, he is rejected, and his resentment at being made
03:32 to do so is palpable.
03:34 "Your wife is not asking you to."
03:35 "But my Queen commands me."
03:36 "Yes."
03:37 "I beg you, make an exception for me."
03:39 "No."
03:44 While it certainly hypes up the drama, it's probably not true.
03:48 Prince Philip knew what he signed up for when he married a future monarch.
03:52 Also, coming from royalty, he would have been well aware of the importance placed on royal customs.
03:57 "I Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, to become your liegeman of life and limb and a verse of worship.
04:05 If faith and truth I will bear unto you."
04:07 We doubt he would have disrespected his wife at such a monumental moment in her life.
04:12 7. Senior Royals Breaking Up Prince Charles and Camilla
04:17 In season 3, Lord Mountbatten and the Queen Mother plot to break up young lovebirds,
04:23 Prince Charles and Camilla Shand.
04:24 "Well, I can take care of Charles. Nice long posting overseas will bring him to his senses.
04:29 I'll speak to everyone at the Admiralty. Eight months on the other side of the world,
04:34 it'll soon go away."
04:36 While it's seemingly true that the royal family disapproved of the match, because,
04:40 and we hope you're wearing pearls, because you're going to want to clutch them,
04:44 she was a "commoner" with a dating history.
04:47 Still, there's no solid evidence of any interference.
04:50 "You're probably wondering why I've invited you all here this afternoon.
04:54 It's a slightly delicate matter. Something of an imbroglio involving your son, Derek,
05:00 your daughter, Mrs. Shand, and my grandson."
05:02 It seems that Prince Charles simply wasn't ready for marriage, while Camilla was still with her
05:07 off-again-on-again partner, Andrew Parker Bowles, who she'd go on to marry.
05:12 Incidentally, Princess Anne also dated Mr. Parker Bowles,
05:15 just not during the time frame the series suggests.
05:18 It does make good television, though, doesn't it?
05:20 "It was all very straightforward. He got what he wanted,
05:23 which was to make Camilla jealous, I got what I wanted, which was a bit of fun."
05:27 "Fun?"
05:29 "Yes. Sorry, Mummy, it was."
05:30 6. The Queen's Meeting with Lord Altrincham
05:34 Season 2 introduces Lord Altrincham, aka John Grigg, a journalist who criticises
05:39 the royal family for being out of touch and targets the Queen's way of speaking.
05:43 "She has to be ordinary and extraordinary, touched by divinity and yet one of us.
05:48 But being ordinary doesn't have to mean bland, or ineffectual, or forgettable."
05:55 The real Altrincham's opinions were divisive, and indeed earned him a slap in the face.
06:00 While much of his story can be accounted for, one part remains a mystery - his meeting with
06:05 the Queen. We have no way of knowing if such a meeting occurred. Of course, in the episode,
06:10 Altrincham is sworn to secrecy, so perhaps the Crown's creative team knows something the rest
06:16 of us don't. Although we doubt it. "Dartreus then went home to tell me that no one can ever know
06:21 that I met the Queen, and that should I ever claim that I did, the palace would robustly deny it."
06:27 During the episode's conclusion, we're informed that the monarchy credits his role in helping
06:31 modernise the institution.
06:33 5. Princess Margaret objects to Prince Charles and Diana's wedding
06:39 It's true that Prince Charles met Diana while dating her sister, but the scenario and tree
06:43 costume were just a creative decision by the show's writers to highlight her love for performing arts.
06:49 "We're doing a Midsummer Night's Dream at school."
06:51 "I love Midsummer Night's Dream."
06:54 "So do I. All the characters have such wonderful names."
06:59 After spending some time together, the pair got engaged. But during the rehearsal, Princess
07:04 Margaret spots a look on her nephew's face that brings old feelings bubbling to the surface.
07:10 Later, she implores her family to learn from past mistakes, but her pleas fall upon deaf ears.
07:15 "How many times can this family make the same mistake?
07:22 Forbidding marriages? It should be allowed."
07:26 If anyone were going to try to call off the wedding, we'd say the real Princess Margaret
07:30 probably has the most grounds to do so.
07:33 However, actress Helena Bonham Carter takes credit for this scene's inclusion.
07:38 "For them, as human beings,
07:40 we have to stop them now."
07:48 4. Queen Mary didn't influence the Romanovs' fate
07:52 This season 5 episode explored the fascinating links between the British
07:56 royals and Russia's last imperial family. We learn that Parliament reached out to King George V,
08:02 offering to help his relative, Tsar Nicholas II, and his family escape from Russian Revolution.
08:08 "The government is willing to send a ship to bring the Romanovs to safety here in England.
08:14 The Prime Minister does not wish to do so without your support."
08:18 In the series, he consults with his wife, Queen Mary, who ultimately seals the Romanovs' fate.
08:24 "What say you, my lord? Do we send the ship?"
08:28 Historian Dr. Helen Rapoport explains that King George initially supported granting his
08:39 cousin's asylum, but soon changed his mind due to the wartime political climate
08:44 and fears of civil upheaval in Britain. Britain wasn't the only country that refused asylum over
08:49 political reasons either. Ultimately, these decisions - not Queen Mary - delivered the
08:54 family's coup de grace. "The truth is, Queen Mary
08:57 was devastated when she heard they'd been killed."
09:02 3. Venetia Scott's tragic ending
09:07 This season 1 episode takes place during the Great Smog of London in 1952.
09:12 "A thick cold fog had settled over the city four days earlier,
09:16 trapping dirty smoke from the coal fires most residents relied on for warmth."
09:22 The episode depicts absolute chaos descending on the city. But that simply wasn't the case.
09:28 Firstly, Londoners were used to fogs, albeit few as intense as this one, and also,
09:33 it's particularly in the British DNA to keep calm and carry on.
09:38 It also reportedly wasn't as politically charged as it's made out to be.
09:42 "Winston people are angry. They see us as the culprits."
09:46 "Culpable for what? It's fog. Fog is fog. It comes and it goes away."
09:52 Anyway, with such limited visibility, public transport, bar the London underground, was halted.
09:58 This episode also shone greater light on Churchill's secretary,
10:02 Venetia Scott, a fictional addition to his staff. Audiences grew rather fond of her,
10:08 so we were devastated when she became one of the fog's casualties.
10:12 "But alongside the suffering, I've also seen heroism.
10:15 And where there is heroism, there will always be hope."
10:21 2. The Queen Chats With Her Intruder
10:24 Incredibly, the Queen's intruder, Michael Fagin, managed to breach security not once,
10:29 but twice, even making it to the Queen's private quarters the second time.
10:34 "Save us all from her." "Who?"
10:37 "Thatcher. She's destroying the country."
10:40 "We've got more than 3 million unemployed. That's more than at any time since the Great Depression."
10:45 While some aspects of the story are rooted in reality, conflicting accounts of the details
10:49 left the writers relying on creative license to bridge the gaps.
10:53 Reportedly, it took a while for someone to come to the Queen's rescue,
10:57 and apparently, she tried to stall until help arrived.
11:00 "The state can help with all of this."
11:02 "What state? The state has gone. She's dismantled it, along with all the other
11:08 things we thought we could depend on growing up."
11:10 But come on. As if the Queen was really going to sit around chatting with a man who'd just
11:15 broken into her bedroom. Instead, it seems like the writers used this event to highlight
11:19 the growing class divisions and unrest in Britain during that period.
11:24 "Goodbye." "Don't touch her."
11:28 "It's alright. I shall bear in mind what you've said."
11:33 Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honourable mentions.
11:37 Diana didn't give the Queen a heads-up about her Panorama interview.
11:41 The palace might have been warned, but not likely by a conversation between Diana and the Queen.
11:46 "Rather frank interview to the BBC. It should go out on Monday the 20th."
11:52 "Why?" "I felt the need to clear a few things up."
11:59 John Major didn't get involved in the Welles' divorce.
12:02 Yeah, marriage counselling isn't really under the Prime Minister's jurisdiction.
12:06 "I know as Prime Minister you are the busiest man in England, but
12:10 might you consider it to act on our behalf as an intermediary?"
12:16 Princess Margaret didn't discover her cousins, the Bowes-Lyons.
12:20 Their story was actually uncovered by the press, and the royal family declined to comment.
12:24 "That's when she told me about our cousins, our first cousins, Catherine and Larissa Bowes-Lyons,
12:30 third and fifth daughters, and mummy's favourite elder brother."
12:34 The Guardian interview with Princess Alice that never happened.
12:38 We imagine that this was a plot device to share her incredible story.
12:41 "Princess Alice is that rarest of creatures, a member of a royal family that has suffered
12:47 more than the rest of us, worked harder than the rest of us, and created more good than the rest of us."
12:53 Princess Margaret's role in improving US-UK ties.
12:57 Let's just say she wasn't the big hit the Crown makes her out to be.
13:01 "She finally snagged a home at four in the morning, newly Anglophile President
13:06 Johnson having agreed to the bailout. The special relationship more special than ever."
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13:27 1. Prince Charles Conspires to Overthrow the Queen
13:31 Most The Crown fans acknowledge the blurred reality in Peter Morgan's royal adaptation,
13:37 yet one plot point remains notably contentious.
13:40 "Just a poll, sir."
13:41 "True."
13:42 "Not a reassuring one."
13:46 "Polls come and go."
13:47 "Dangerous to ignore them."
13:50 "Equally dangerous to be guided by them."
13:52 In response to a public poll in the Sunday Times,
13:54 Prince Charles tries to persuade PM John Major to support his plan for his mother's abdication.
14:00 "John is a man of great rectitude and he would not have been a party to what he would have regarded
14:07 actually as a treasonous discussion." The royal major criticised the show via a
14:13 spokesperson, calling it "a barrel-load of malicious nonsense", seemingly advising viewers
14:18 not to believe everything they see. In the season finale, Charles attempts to bring new PM Tony
14:23 Blair on his side too. Like Major, Blair dismissed the story as "complete and utter rubbish."
14:29 The Crown defended itself as a fictionalised dramatisation, imagining behind-the-scenes
14:34 scenarios. Despite this, the controversy continues, raising doubts about the show's
14:39 historical interpretation. Which chapter from The Crown's history were you most surprised to
14:44 learn is untrue? Let us know in the comments. "It was pretty gobsmacking what he was doing."
14:50 Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms Mojo.
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