It was, according to the Mail’s Andrew Pierce, the ‘deepest’ curtsy he ever saw.
Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, in greeting the Queen and Prince Philip when they arrived at her 80th birthday party in 2005, humbly lowered herself despite her frailty.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Mail’s Reaction podcast, Mr Pierce said Her Majesty’s presence at the glitzy partyat the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge betrayed the ‘nonsense’ that the Queen did not like Britain’s first female PM.
‘The helicopter landed in Hyde Park, the Queen and Prince Philip arrived,’ he added.
‘Mrs. Thatcher did the deepest curtsy you’ve ever seen… at the age of 80. I didn’t think she was ever gonna get up again.’
It came a decade after Mrs Thatcher appeared to curtsey even lower to the Queen at her 70th birthday party.
It was, according to the Mail’s Andrew Pierce, the ‘deepest’ curtsy he ever saw. Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, in greeting the Queen and Prince Philip when they arrived at her 80th birthday party in 2005, humbly lowered herself despite her frailty. Above: The curtsy moment at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge
It came a decade after Mrs Thatcher appeared to curtsey even lower to the Queen at her 70th birthday party at Claridges in 1995
And on several occasions while in Downing Street between 1979 and 1990, Mrs Thatcher was pictured curtseying to the monarch – who she saw regularly at their weekly audiences.
On the latest episode of The Reaction, Mr Pierce also described the touching moment that the Queen held Baroness Thatcher’s hand at her 80th.
The former PM was then both physically frail and had a failing memory.
‘It was so lovely,’ he told co-presenter and fellow Mail writer Sarah Vine.
‘And she only stayed for two or three hours, but she was telling the world I’m at my former Prime Minister’s birthday party.’
Mr Pierce also pointed out that the Queen – who also went to Mrs Thatcher’s funeral – did not go to other former prime ministers’ birthday parties.
He went on to describe the moment the Queen told Mrs Thatcher that she and Philip were leaving her party.
‘And then she said, “Lady Thatcher, Philip and I, we have to leave”.
‘And Mrs Thatcher said, “Yes, so do I, Your Majesty.” The Queen said, “actually Lady Thatcher, it’s your party, I think you should stay.”
Sarah Vine and Andrew Pierce discussing Margaret Thatcher’s curtseys on the latest episode of The Reaction
Margaret Thatcher’s curtseys to the Queen as the monarch arrives at Claridges in London for the former PM’s 70th birthday party, 1995
Baroness Thatcher curtseys to the Queen as they greet each other at the Falkland Islands Memorial Chapel at Pangbourne College, Reading, on the 25th anniversary of the end of the Falklands War, June 2007
Margaret Thatcher greets Queen Elizabeth II on her arrival at 10 Downing Street to celebrate it’s 250th anniversary, December 1985
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‘And then the Queen left and Mrs. Thatcher who been told absolutely by her staff because the memory was beginning to go did this amazing speech for four minutes without a note. Mesmerising. Because the Queen gave her a new bolt of energy.’
Charles Powell, Mrs Thatcher’s former foreign affairs adviser, previously spoke about the relationship between his boss and the Queen.
He told the Mail: ‘Her curtsies were always low and although I used to brief her before her weekly audiences, she never told us anything that happened, not a word.’
It has been claimed that Mrs Thatcher and the Queen did not get on well.
Documentary maker Michael Cockerell said that they ‘rubbed each other up the wrong way’.
Charles Moore, Mrs Thatcher’s biographer, wrote about their awkward early audiences.
‘Thatcher would sit nervously on the edge of her chair, produce an agenda from her handbag and launch into a monologue.’
The Queen later allegedly told her private secretary, Sir William Heseltine: ‘I wasn’t given much encouragement to comment.’
However, Mrs Thatcher was an arch-royalist and in ‘awe’ of the Queen.
The PM would often turn up 15 minutes early for her weekly meetings with the Queen.
The Queen and Margaret Thatcher in Zambia for the Commonwealth conference of 1979
A former private secretary told the Daily Mail how this did not annoy Her Majesty, who instead found it amusing, ‘but she never saw her any earlier’, they added.
In 1995, five years after she had been forced from Downing Street by her own party colleagues, the Queen chose to award Mrs Thatcher the highly prestigious Order of the Garter and the Order of Merit.
She also felt that the politician had been so badly treated that she invited her to a race meeting.
When the Queen turned 80 in 2006, Mrs Thatcher delivered a gushing public tribute in what was one of her last public statements.
She said:’Her guidance and and advice are always most acute, and I was privileged to benefit from both enormously,’ she said.
‘She is truly an inspiration and an example to the whole nation. Long may she rule. Happy birthday, ma’am.’
The Queen’s attendance at Mrs Thatcher’s funeral in 2013 was the first send-off of a PM she had been to since Winston Churchill’s in 1965.
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