The Crown quotes

Michael Adeane: [after hearing Philip calling for "sweetie" on the tannoy and assuming he wants to speak to Elizabeth] His Royal Highness the Duke of...

Queen Elizabeth II: Not me, I'm afraid. I'm "darling" or "cabbage." "Sweetie" is someone else.

Prince Philip: I owe you an apology.

Princess Alice: Whatever for?

Prince Philip: My faithlessness. All this time, I've been trying to keep you out of sight of the cameras, when, quite clearly, you should have been centre stage.

Princess Alice: If anyone owes anyone an apology, we both know it's the other way round. At least your sisters had something of their mother. When we were forced to leave Greece, I couldn't cope. I needed care. I needed help.

Prince Philip: But that, that wasn't help that they gave you. It was torture.

Princess Alice: They tried their best.

Prince Philip: No. The treatment they gave you was barbaric. And your courage in rising above it was remarkable.

Princess Alice: I didn't do it alone. I couldn't have. I had help every step of the way. Now, Bubbikins, you mentioned faithlessness. How is your faith?

Prince Philip: Dormant.

Princess Alice: What?

Prince Philip: Dormant.

Princess Alice: That's not good. Let this be a mother's gift to her child. The one piece of advice. Find yourself a faith. It helps. No, not just helps. It's everything.

Queen Elizabeth II: If I tell you something, do you promise it will stay between us?

Lord Porchester: Of course.

Queen Elizabeth II: This is how I'd like to spend all my time. Owning horses, breeding horses, racing horses. It's what makes me truly happy. And I actually think it's what I was born to do. Until the other thing came along that someone else was born to do, that they elected not to do. Which meant that first my father, and then I, had to do a job we were never meant to do.

Lord Porchester: Well, you've managed to make it look like the other thing is the only thing you were ever meant to do.

Queen Elizabeth II: You're kind. But it isn't. And on days like today, in places like this, in company like this, you get a glimpse of what it all might have been like. The unlived life and how much happier it might have made me.

Louis Mountbatten: Gentlemen. In the past decade alone, I have, by my reckoning, been in seventy-three coups in forty-six different countries around the world. And the success of some of these might encourage us. In Ghana, two years ago, President Nkrumah was ousted with just 500 men. And in 1961, South Korea, Major General Park Chung Hee seized power with 3500 men. And in 1964, Gabon, just 150 men were able to arrest President M'Ba, and thus gain control over the levers of state power. And, of course, it was with just one Legion that Caesar crossed the Rubicon. Perhaps we would not seek to follow his fate. Sic Semper Tyrannis, gentlemen. Now, what all successful insurgencies have in common are five key elements: control of the media, control of the economy and the capture of administrative targets, for which you'd need the fourth element, the loyalty of the military. Now, in Ghana and Gabon, this could be achieved with a handful of battalions, but here, in the United Kingdom? We would need to secure Parliament, Whitehall, Ministry of Defense and the Cabinet Office. Prime Minister would be arrested, of course, along with other politicians still loyal. Then we'd have to shut down the airports, air traffic control. Same with the train stations. Curfews would be put in place, Martial Law declared. And I haven't even mentioned the police. It would take tens of thousands of unquestioningly loyal servicemen, and even in my heyday, I could never command that. Which brings me to the fifth element: Legitimacy. Now, our government draws its strength from long-established institutions that support it. The courts, body of common law, the Constitution. For any action against the State to succeed, you'd have to overthrow these as well. But in a highly evolved democracy such as ours, their authority is sacrosanct. Which is why, gentlemen, a coup d'etat in the United Kingdom doesn't stand a chance.

Louis Mountbatten: I'm getting a feeling that I've not had since Dieppe, that I'm walking into a trap.

Queen Elizabeth II: I'd like to think you had that sinking feeling on another occasion recently, when going to see your friends at the Bank of England. Is it even true?

Louis Mountbatten: Yes, I did go to lunch at the Bank of England to meet and listen to people who are horrified by what's happening to the country. A horror I hope you share.

Queen Elizabeth II: Perhaps. But conspiring with them is not the solution.

Louis Mountbatten: It is the beginning of a solution. Why are you doing this? Why would you protect a man like Wilson?

Queen Elizabeth II: I am protecting the Prime Minister. I am protecting the constitution. I am protecting democracy.

Louis Mountbatten: But if the man at the heart of that democracy threatens to destroy it, are we supposed to just stand by and do nothing?

Queen Elizabeth II: Yes. Doing nothing is exactly what we do, and bide our time, and wait for the people that voted him in to vote him out again, if indeed that is what they decide to do.

Princess Alice: One of the few joys of being as old as we both are is that it's not our problem. It's not really our country, either.

Louis Mountbatten: What are you talking about? Of course it's our country.

Princess Alice: We Battenbergs have no country. Our family might have kings and queens in its ranks, but we're mongrels, too. Part-German, part-Greek, part-nowhere at all.

Louis Mountbatten: Well, this is my country. It gave me a home, it gave me a name, and in return, I've given it my life. And to see it like this breaks my heart.

Queen Elizabeth II: I've had the opportunity now to read the translation of what you actually said, and the inferences you made. The similarity between Wales's suffering and yours was clear.

Prince Charles: Was it?

Queen Elizabeth II: Unmistakable.

Prince Charles: Only to you.

Queen Elizabeth II: To all Wales, apparently. [walks over to her bed and picks up the translated copy of Charles' speech] "If this union is to endure, then we must learn to respect each other's differences. Nobody likes to be ignored, to not be seen or heard or listened to."

Prince Charles: Well, am I wrong? Isn't there a similarity between my predicament and the Welsh? Am I listened to in this family? Am I seen for who and what I am? No. Do I have a voice?

Queen Elizabeth II: Rather too much of a voice for my liking. Not having a voice is something all of us have to live with. We have all made sacrifices and suppressed who we are. Some portion of our natural selves is always lost.

Prince Charles: That is a choice.

Queen Elizabeth II: It is not a choice. It is a duty. I was a similar age to you when your great-grandmother, Queen Mary, told me that to do nothing, to say nothing, is the hardest job of all. It requires every ounce of energy that we have. To be impartial is not natural, it's not human. People will always want us to smile or agree, or frown or speak, and the minute that we do, we will have declared a position, a point of view, and that is the one thing, as the royal family, we are not entitled to do. Which is why we have to hide those feelings, keep them to ourselves. Because the less we do, the less we say or speak or agree or...

Prince Charles: Think. Or breathe. Or feel or exist.

Queen Elizabeth II: The better.

Prince Charles: But doing that is perhaps not as easy for me as it is for you.

Queen Elizabeth II: Why?

Prince Charles: Because I have a beating heart. A character. A mind and a will of my own. I am not just a symbol. I can lead not just by wearing a uniform, or by cutting a ribbon, but by showing people who I am. Mummy, I have a voice.

Queen Elizabeth II: Let me let you into a secret. No one wants to hear it.

Prince Charles: Are you talking about the country or my own family?

Queen Elizabeth II: No one.

Prince Philip: My mother died recently. She, she saw that something was amiss. It's a good word, that. A-Amiss. She saw that something was missing in her youngest child. Her only son. Faith. "How's your faith?" she asked me. I'm here to admit to you that I've lost it. And without it, what is there? The, the loneliness and emptiness and anticlimax of going all that way to the moon to find nothing but haunting desolation. Ghostly silence. Gloom. That is what faithlessness is. As opposed to finding wonder, ecstasy, the miracle of divine creation, God's design and purpose. What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say that the solution to our problems, I think, is not in the, in the ingenuity of the rocket, or the science or the technology or even the bravery. No, the answer is in here. Or here, or wherever it is that, that faith resides. And so, Dean Woods, having ridiculed you for what you and these poor, blocked, lost souls were, were trying to achieve here in St. George's House, I now find myself full of respect and admiration and not a small part of desperation as I come to say, Help. Help me. And to admit that while those three astronauts deserve all our praise and respect for their undoubted heroism, I was more scared coming here to see you today than I would have been going up in any bloody rocket!

Prince Charles: Dear Uncle David, I want to thank you again, and Wallis, for having me at your home in the Bois de Boulogne. It's a rare thing that fate should allow a former king and a king-in-waiting to meet. To tell the truth, it opened my eyes to a few things. To the nature of kingship, the nature of love and all the difficulties that go with both. I'm sure you know the family would have preferred me not to visit you. Afraid, perhaps, I might recognize myself in you, sympathize with you. Well, let me confess that I do recognize myself in you. Your progressiveness and flair. Your individuality and imagination. What a king you would have made in a kinder world. What a king we were denied. It makes me so sad to see you living in exile, when all you did was take a stand for principle, and love one woman completely. You were cruelly denied your right to reign alongside the woman that you wanted by your side. But I give you my word. I will not be denied what you have been denied. The Crown is not a static thing resting forever on one head. It is moving. Alive. Divine. The changing face of changing times, and if, God willing, it has been ordained that I should wear it, then I shall do so on my own terms and hopefully make you proud.

Wallis, Duchess of Windsor: I'm sorry not to see your girlfriend.

Prince Charles: Well, she's picking me up after this. We're spending the evening together before I return to Dartmouth. But don't tell anyone. It's a secret. She's not official, yet.

Wallis, Duchess of Windsor: Is she the one?

Prince Charles: Yes. I think so.

Wallis, Duchess of Windsor: Then if I may offer two pieces of advice. Never turn your back on true love. Despite all the sacrifices and all the pain, David and I never once regretted it.

Prince Charles: Thank you. And the second?

Wallis, Duchess of Windsor: Watch out for your family.

Prince Charles: They mean well.

Wallis, Duchess of Windsor: No, they don't.

Queen Elizabeth II: It's age. Happens to us all.

Harold Wilson: Uh, no, ma'am. It's not just age. No. It's been diagnosed. It has a name. Alzheimer's. I first noticed symptoms two years ago. I always speak without notes. I've something of a photographic memory. But then one day, I dried. And in the months that followed, I noticed more forgetfulness. Agitation. Delusion. Paranoia.

Queen Elizabeth II: I shouldn't worry too much. Several of your predecessors had far more serious afflictions, and they continued to govern without the public being any the wiser.

Harold Wilson: Uh, no, ma'am, it's a ... It's a mental health issue now. I shall put myself in the hands of the doctors.

Queen Elizabeth II: Oh, Prime Minister, I am sorry. This will come as a terrible shock.

Harold Wilson: Well, maybe, but, uh, no shock lasts longer than forty-eight hours. There's too much appetite for the next shock.

Queen Elizabeth II: I'll miss our sessions terribly. I don't mind admitting I let out an unconstitutional cheer when you beat Mr. Heath this time.

Harold Wilson: I always said deep down, you're a leftie at heart.

Queen Elizabeth II: Nothing to do with the politics. You're just a better companion. Although, I wouldn't have said that the first time we met.

Harold Wilson: No! You thought I was going to rough you lot up. And look what a sentimental old royalist I turned out to be. [rises to his feet and bows] Your Majesty.

Queen Elizabeth II: Prime Minister? If you saw fit to invite your Queen to supper at Downing Street before you left, she would be honored.

Harold Wilson: But that's an honor previously only given to Churchill.

Queen Elizabeth II: The Duke of Edinburgh and I would like that very much.

Harold Wilson: So would Mrs. Wilson and I.

Queen Elizabeth II: Ask yourself, in the time I've been on the throne, what have I actually achieved?

Princess Margaret: You've been calm and stable and...

Queen Elizabeth II: Useless and unhelpful. This country was still great when I came to the throne, and now look. So much for the Second Elizabethan Age, which Winston talked about. All that's happened on my watch is the place has fallen apart.

Princess Margaret: It's only fallen apart if we say it has. That's the thing about the monarchy. We paper over the cracks. And if what we do is loud and grand and confident enough, no one will notice that all around us it's fallen apart. That's the point of us. Not us. Of you. You cannot flinch. Because if you show a single crack, we'll see it isn't a crack, but a chasm, and we'll all fall in. So you must hold it all together.

Queen Elizabeth II: Must I do that alone?

Princess Margaret: There is only one queen.

Prince Philip: That's the last thing this country needs.

Queen Elizabeth II: What?

Prince Philip: Two women running the shop.

Queen Elizabeth II: Perhaps that's precisely what this country needs. I rather like what I've seen of her so far.

Prince Philip: What, the shopkeeper's daughter?

Queen Elizabeth II: An alderman shopkeeper's daughter who worked hard and gained a scholarship to Oxford.

Prince Philip: Yes, to study chemistry.

Queen Elizabeth II: Yes, but later changed direction and qualified as a barrister while raising twin children. You try doing that.

Prince Philip: What about her character? [reading from a newspaper article] It says here, "As a young woman, she applied for a job as a food research chemist and was rejected after the personnel department assessed her as being headstrong, obstinate, and dangerously self-opinionated."

Queen Elizabeth II: Really? Who else around here does that sound like?

Louis Mountbatten: Dear boy! My office rang Buckingham Palace what must be an hour ago, and I've been put through to about nine different extensions. Where have we finally reached you?

Prince Charles: Northeast Iceland, in a lodge on the River Hofsá.

Louis Mountbatten: What are you doing there?

Prince Charles: Salmon fishing with friends. You at Classiebawn with the gang?

Louis Mountbatten: The whole tribe, and everyone's asking after you. Are you gonna be in London next week? I'd like to see you.

Prince Charles: I won't. I have a rendezvous with Camilla. We've found a couple of days where we could catch up.

Louis Mountbatten: Oh, Charles, you're not still seeing her? You know what the family thinks.

Prince Charles: Yes, I'm perfectly aware of what the family thinks.

Louis Mountbatten: And what I think too?

Prince Charles: Yes, and the richness of that is not lost on me either. The idea that you, of all people, should lecture me about the sanctity of marriage...

Louis Mountbatten: [talking over Charles] I don't lecture you.

Prince Charles: ...and affairs of the heart needing to be conventional, because you and Edwina hardly blazed a trail in that department. At least when Camilla and I commit adultery, there aren't national security implications involved.

Louis Mountbatten: That was uncalled for.

Prince Charles: So is your unwelcome intervention in this matter. Honestly, you make a great show of being my ally in this family, watching my back, but when the chips are down, you're just a quisling. A fifth columnist playing for the other side. The fact is, I haven't met anyone I like as much as Camilla, who is herself trapped in a marriage of your engineering...

Louis Mountbatten: [talking over Charles] My own engineering?

Prince Charles: ...with a husband who's bedding half of Gloucestershire. Invite us both to Broadlands soon and you'll see how happy we actually make one another. That is, if my happiness is even remotely important to you.

Louis Mountbatten: My dear Charles, there exists no greater compliment than to be called a "prince among men." Such a person earns his title with his ability to lead and inspire, elusive virtues to which you must reach and rise. And it grieves me to say that you are not working hard enough to reach and to rise. The choice of a woman was the issue around which the last Prince of Wales came to grief. And it's astonishing to me that, forty years after the abdication, you are making so little attempt to conceal your infatuation for another man's wife. How could you contemplate such ruin and disappointment to yourself, to your family, to me? Must I remind you again of the importance of building your destiny with some sweet and innocent, well-tempered girl with no past, who knows the rules and will follow the rules? Someone with whom you can make a fresh start and build a new life. One that people will love as a princess and, in due course, as queen. This is your duty now, your most important task. You are more than a man, more than a prince, and one day, dear boy, you shall be king. But now, to the sea. I miss you enormously. There is no one whose company I enjoy more. But I think you know that. Your ever-loving honorary grandpa, Dickie.