King George II & Queen Elizabeth (nee Romania)

[Kalafrana]

Elizabeth seems to have been a rather difficult person throughout her adult life. Maybe Sophie just found her hard to like.

And an obsession with jewellery at a time when your in-laws are lurching from one crisis to another seems distinctly grasping to me.

Ann

[Eric_Lowe]

I don't think so. Queen Sophie was just too judgmental. She did not even attend her sister Moretta's funeral. At least Kaiser Bill sent a wreath and Mossy arranged for her to be buried in Kronberg.

Not really. As a woman I thought you would have more sympathy on Elisabetta. women usually are sensitive on wedding gifts they received. My mother never like the gold bracelet my grandmother (mother-in-law) gave her and told us about it. I think Sophie was just being mean period.

[Kalafrana]

'As a woman......'

I love it! No, I have little sympathy with those females who are obsessed with their appearance. 

Ann

[Eric_Lowe]

Well...I think what you personally think is not much of personal interest than what evidence proves.

1. Sophie wasn't sensitive to Elisabetta's feeling after she married into her family. I think she is mean. Missy was right to be outraged.  She at least gave Helen a chance.

2. Sophie got her jewels but couldn't spare a brooch or necklace to her new daughter-in-law. That is stingy.

3. Every evidence that Elisabetta wanted to start a new page with George (she might even told him of her affair and the reason why she refuse to marry him so many times). It was George who was sweet on Elisabetta. She never loved him. However in her letters to her mother, she vowed (in the early days) to be a good wife to George and truly admired him as a person and husband. But that wasn't love was it ?

[Kalafrana]

Eric

Both of us are filtering the factual evidence through our own particular mindsets. The factual details are the same, but the interpretation is different.

Sophie of Greece and Marie of Rumania were first cousins, but seem not to have been particular friends. Maybe they were just too different in tmperament. In any case, as I have already said, being related does not of itself mean you have to be friends.

To my mind (though not to yours, clearly), it is not really surprising that Sophie may have had other things on her mind besides jewellery at the time George and Elizabeth married. Her husband had only just been restored to the Greek throne, and doubtless she was grieving for Alexander, who had died only four months earlier. Her daughter Helen married Carol only 11 days later. Given his past history (the Lambrino marriage) and the possibility that Helen was already pregnant (presumably by Carol - I am not aware of any doubts ever being raised about Michael's paternity), plus Marie's own scandalous history, plus the possibility that Sophie was aware of Elizabeth's recent affair with Frank Rattigan, it seems unsurpring that Sophie was less than enthusiastic about the marriage with Elizabeth (or indeed Helen's marriage to Carol). By the standards of the 1920s, one would have to be an unusually forgiving soul to put aside all that. And perhaps Carol's subsequent behaviour towards Helen coloured Sophie's attitude to Elizabeth? I don't know, but I find it rather sweeping to condemn Sophie as 'mean' and 'stingy'.

Can you post the3 relevant excerpts from Elizabeth's letters to her mother.

Ann

[seriya]

Elisabeta was so embarrassed because queen sophie and her family deliberately spoke only Greek at dinner.

[grandduchessella]

I can agree with that being mean behavior much more than the jewelry issue. Unlike the jewels, there is no excuse to be made (wartime, personal conflicts, etc) to warrant the deliberate exclusion of someone. That's just petty and doesn't reflect well on Sophie (who is someone I find interesting and misunderstood and have a positive view on overall) regardless of her personal feelings towards her son's wife.

[Eric_Lowe]

Indeed. The whole family gang up against her. She would arrive at the table when many languages were spoken and would switch to Greek when she sat down. Poor Elisabetta had to sit through the dinner without understanding a thing. She did include that episode in her letters to her mother. She wrote that George was good to her and she fully intend to be a worthy wife to him. Elisabetta felt lonely and friendless when her husband was called away on military business. She wrote "the only person that was very nice to her was Sitta (Helen)." That information was taken from an article published in Royalty Digest.

[Kalafrana]

Did Elizabeth make an effort to learn Greek?

Ann

[Kalafrana]

Being cautious and a Devil's advocate here.

Do these letters saying that the Greek royal family spoke nothing but Greek when Elizabeth was there date from the beginning of their marriage, or later, when she and George had broken up?

Could it be that by speaking nothing but Greek, the Greek royals were trying to get Elizabeth to learn the language as rapidly as possible? It is, after all, a standard technique in teaching languages to go in for 'total immersion'. For example, a friend of mine tells me that when he went on a course at the Defence School of Languages there was one floor where no one could speak anything but Russian, all the signs and notices were in Russian, etc. Another floor was entirely Arabic and a third was entirely Malay. Hard going at first, but you do pick up enough to get by pretty fast.

Ann

[Eric_Lowe]

The letters were from the early days. It was kind of mean to treat a newly wedded bride like this. It was to Elisabetta's credit that she held her head up. She also notice that they pulled Princess Andrew of Greece's leg with her lip-reading calling her "Alish"... As for leaning Greek, it took awhile for Princess Andrew & Princess Nicholas of Greece to learn Greek, did they expect Elisabetta to lean it over night ?

I have to admit I do not find Elisabetta's action commendable all the time. But her early letters to her mother praised the integrity of her husband and even though I think she never really "loved" him, she did sought to be worthy of his love and attempted to made good efforts. Sophie never gave her a chance.

[KarlandZita]

George and Elizabeth in 1928 with spanish relatives Queen Victoria Eugenie and Prince Alvaro :

[Eric_Lowe]

No. I think it was Ali (Alfonso) not Alvaro (his son) with his wife Bee (head down) (Aunt & sister of Elisabetta's mother Queen Marie) greeting George & Elisabetta in 1928.

[KarlandZita]

Elizabeth in majesty :

[Eric_Lowe]

She got the look of a tragic queen.