We know that when she woke up, Queen Elizabeth II liked to read her freshly ironed newspaper. A binding request for her servants but less eccentric than it seems because for her it was about not dirtying her fingers when leafing through the pages. An aversion to ink that she passed on to her son as proof of Charles III’s anger on Tuesday during his trip to Northern Ireland over a faulty pen. And this one pays attention to a lot of extra detail on a daily basis.
At least that’s what this article says. New York Post appeared Tuesday, citing testimonials from former members of his staff in the media over the past few years. His stories paint the portrait of a very demanding man, sometimes even absurd.
The former butler of Elizabeth II after Diana, Paul Burrell, who surrendered in 2015 before the cameras of a documentary produced by Amazon and entitled Serving the Royals: Inside the Firm (which can be translated as At the service of the royal family: behind the scenes of the Firmthe popular label ascribed to the Windsors in the United Kingdom), sums it up like this: “We do everything for you”.
Iron is essential
And there is also a matter of iron. “We iron her pajamas every morning, her laces are ironed,” said Paul Burrell. Still facing the Amazon documentarians, the latter added: “He asks his servants to spread two centimeters of toothpaste on his toothbrush.”
After this first intervention, the servants have not yet left the inn, much less the bathroom. “The tub should be half full, at a lukewarm temperature, and the drain should be placed in a certain position,” Paul Burrell reminded once again.
Charles is so picky when it comes to sanitary matters that his “House” has to carry his toilet seat and toilet paper – Kleenex Velvet brand – every time he goes.
culinary requirements
Friends who invite you to their second home for a vacation or a simple weekend in the country are also warned, this time according to the journalist and biographer Tina Brown in her book the palace papers published a few weeks ago: his host only arrives after a procession made up of his “furniture, his bed and even photos”.
Obviously, a character who is so straddled between his daily grooming and his sleep has instructions to give regarding his breakfast. Graham Newbould, a former Dynasty staffer, confided in him Serving the Royals: “It has a very healthy formula: homemade bread, a bowl of fresh fruit, freshly squeezed juice. And wherever you go on the planet, your breakfast box follows you.” Inside, according to the same interlocutor, there are “six different types of honey, a special type of muesli, its nuts.”
Your culinary demands don’t stop at breakfast and extend throughout the day. Thus, it requires that its cheese and crackers – which apparently accompany the end of its meals – be reheated before the tasting, according to an element collected by the New York Post. Nice sin that has a corollary for its employees. They should have on hand a cart specifically equipped for this heating operation.
“The Spoiled Prince”
So many customs that earned him a nickname among the servants of Clarence House, his official residence in London, inherited from the British state on the death of his grandmother, the Queen Mother, in 2002: “spoiled prince“, or “the spoiled prince”.
Certainly Charles has risen through the ranks since then and his title has changed. However, I’m not sure his new assistants, servants, cleaning men and women will notice the difference in his daily work.
Source: BFM TV
