Queen Elizabeth might be lauded for her commitment to her duty as the Queen of England, but she failed to be a caring mother to her growing children, especially Prince Charles and Princess Anne.
The Crown creator Peter Morgan said that the monarch was consumed by her duty and was trying to find her feet as a ruler that she couldn't look after Charles and Anne. Royal biographer Sally Bedell-Smith attested in an interview with Town & Country magazine that the monarch depended on nannies to supervise her children while she and her husband, Prince Philip, were away, sometimes for weeks or months, for their royal duties at home and abroad.
Morgan wrote the episode "Favorites" for The Crown season 4, where the Queen has one on one encounters with her now-grown kids to figure out if she likes one over the other better. One scene showed Her Majesty asking her private secretary to prepare briefings about Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward so she won't come off as uninformed about their lives.
In another scene, the Queen also said that she and Prince Philip had two more children to make up for their failures as parents, especially with Charles. Royal historians have theorized that Charles, the heir to the throne, didn't get the love and attention he needed, which affected his relationship as a married man. In a 1994 TV interview, Prince Charles hinted at some resentment when he mentioned that the nursery staff raised him because his mother is the Queen.
But, the implications of these scenes in the Netflix drama have received criticism from royal fans. Morgan defended that he wrote the storylines based on the show's consultants and the royal historians' smart observations.
The writer said Charles and Anne are opposite characters as well. The heir needed a "great deal of love" demonstrated to him whereas Anne was not the type to seek mothering.
Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth became more relaxed in her duty 10 years on, when she had her "second team" of children and was, therefore, able to be more present as a mother. For the experts, the Queen was a better mom towards Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, who were born 10 and 14 years after Princess Anne.
Anne, however, defended her mother from the criticisms that she's a bad parent in a BBC interview in 2002. She said there is no evidence that her mother is not a caring person and all notions are simply "beggar's belief."
