Queen Elizabeth II was known for being unflappable in her demeanor, and even as a child she was described as unusually mature for her age. But it turns out even queens have their bad days, as one hilarious and "violent" story about her childhood shows.
The tale—which was initially shared in royal nanny Marion Crawford's book The Little Princesses—has resurfaced in Craig Brown's new book, Q: A Voyage Around The Queen. In a chapter recalling stories from Queen Elizabeth's childhood, Brown writes how the young Princess Elizabeth, as she was then known, rarely misbehaved as compared to her rather spirited little sister, Princess Margaret.
However, there was one time when Elizabeth completely lost it.
In Q, Brown describes Margaret and Elizabeth's relationship with their governess, Crawford, whom they referred to as "Crawfie," writing that there was "one single act of disobedience" from Princess Elizabeth during her childhood days.
Decades before books like Prince Harry's memoir, Spare, hit the shelves, Crawfie penned a then-controversial memoir of her time working with the young princesses. So controversial, in fact, that she was shunned by the Royal Family forever. Among the shocking revelations? That Princess Elizabeth once dumped ink over her French teacher's head.
It's hard to imagine the late Queen doing anything of the sort, and Brown writes that the event was "peculiarly startling." As the story goes, Princess Elizabeth was taking French lessons with her teacher "Mademoiselle" when Crawfie heard "curious sounds" coming from the other room.
"I found poor Mademoiselle shattered and transfixed with horror," Crawford wrote, adding that "Lilibet, rebelling all of a sudden, and goaded by boredom to violent measures" had dumped a "big ornamental silver inkpot" over the teacher's head. Quelle horreur indeed.
Apparently, the nanny had walked in to find Mademoiselle sitting "with ink trickling down her face and slowly dyeing her golden curls blue." Crawford admitted that she "never really got to the bottom of what had happened" as the French teacher "was past explaining" and was so overwhelmed she "had to retire and drink water."
Brown continued that "the rest of [Elizabeth's] life was measured and obedient and considerate," making the inkwell incident stand out even more. But ironically, ink would come back to play a part in another tantrum after Queen Elizabeth died.
As Brown added in a footnote, King Charles famously threw a fit over a leaking pen five days after his mother passed away in September 2022. While signing a visitor's book at Hillsborough Castle, the new King exclaimed, "Can't bear this bloody thing! It's what they do every stinking time!" as Queen Camilla went on to "calmly" sign her name.
Perhaps he was channeling his mom's French lesson energy.
