Queen Elizabeth is reportedly “upset” over a scene in The Crown that depicts Prince Philip as “insensitive.”
According to Cosmopolitan, the scene in question was one where Philip was seen as being very firm about his expectation for Prince Charles to attend Gordonstoun school, even though it appeared the prince had been subjected to bullying.
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“The Queen realizes that many who watch The Crown take it as an accurate portrayal of the Royal Family and she cannot change that,” a senior courtier explained of the Queen’s feelings on the scene. “But I can convey that she was upset by the way Prince Philip is depicted as being a father insensitive to his son’s well-being. She was particularly annoyed at a scene in which Philip has no sympathy for a plainly upset Charles while he is flying him home from Scotland.”
The royal family spokesperson went on to say that this moment in particular “simply did not happen.”
According to historian Robert Lacey, Prince Philip wanted Charles to attend the school because it is where he attended. “For Philip it is a wonderful, pioneering moment and in many ways was the making of him,” Lacey told PEOPLE in January.
“Philip has been depicted as cruel for sending him to the school, but Philip did it the best of motives. It was a fantastic, developing stage in his life, after his broken background. He thought it would be the making of Charles, but the school had changed,” the historian went on to explain.
“When Philip was there, he found the hardships, the challenges of the climate and countryside uplifting. By the time Charles was there, the school has become a much more conventional private school,” Lacy continued. “It’s a poignant, powerful story.”
The Crown aside, it has often been speculated and assumed that the time Charles spent at the Gordonstoun school was unpleasant as he himself has been quoted as calling is “absolute hell” and nicknaming the institution “Colditz in kilts.”
However, he is also on the record as speaking highly of the school, and calling assumptions that he hated it “exaggerated.”
“I am always astonished by the amount of rot talked about Gordonstoun and the careless use of ancient clichés used to describe it,” he said of the school during a 1975 House of Lords speech, nearly a decade after he had left.
“It was only tough in the sense that it demanded more of you as an individual than most other schools did — mentally or physically, he added. “I am lucky in that I believe it taught me a great deal about myself and my own abilities and disabilities. It taught me to accept challenges and take the initiative. Why else do you think I am brave enough to stand up before your Lordships now?”
Seasons one and two of The Crown are currently available to stream on Netlfix, and season three will be launching later this year.
