Queen news: Childhood friend remembers major challenge monarch faced as a child | Royal | News (Reports)

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The Queen was thrust into the royal spotlight from the age of 10 when her uncle King Edward VIII abdicated the throne making her father King. The change in lineage meant Princess Elizabeth was now first in line to the throne, marking a very different life for the young royal. Looking back on her early years, a close friend of the future monarch has given an insight on what Elizabeth was like as a child, including a major challenge she faced.

Whilst growing up at Windsor Castle during the Second World War Elizabeth, who was nicknamed Lilibet, became friends with Alathea Fitzalan Howard, the daughter of British peer Henry Edmund Fitzalan Howard, second Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent.

Alathea was sent to live at Windsor at the age of 16 with her grandfather Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent during the war, where she grew close to Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.

She often visited the two sisters at Windsor Castle for parties and balls, as well as for other informal meetings such as picnics and cinema evenings.

During this period of her life, Alathea recorded every intimate detail of her time with the young Princesses in a diary, which is set to be published next month.

Excerpts from the diary have been released by the Daily Mail, and reveal Alathea’s true feelings of the future Queen and her younger sister.

One diary entry, from Friday September 4, 1942, is particularly scathing of Elizabeth’s letter writing ability.

The excerpt, which refers to Princess Elizabeth as PE, reads: “Letter from P.E. [from Scotland] — it was sweet but so like that of a child of 11.

“I think it is the greatest pity she cannot compose a good letter — it gives such a bad impression, and it is even frightening when one considers she is 16 and might be Queen tomorrow.

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The full diary will be published on October 8, in the book ‘The Windsor Diaries: A Childhood With The Princesses’.

Althea died in 2001, but the rights to the diary were acquired directly from her family.

The childhood friend of the Windsor’s left her personal archives to friend Isabella Naylor-Leyland, who edited The Windsor Diaries.

Speaking about the book, Mrs Naylor-Leyland said: “The diaries are full of details of life with the princesses at Windsor but also tell Alathea’s own story, which can be both harrowing and occasionally very funny.

“The diaries were her refuge and show that she loved writing.

“I hope that by publishing I am honouring her wish.”

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