Royal Nannies & Governesses


If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
purple_platinum said:
Prince Christian of Denmark's nanny, Mette.
picture taken during the prince's christening. (from polfoto)

mt14z7.jpg

no pics! i wanted see that pics please
 
TRH the Crown Prince and Prince Joachim of Denmark have stated that they, in retrospect, would have liked to have seen more of their parents when they were young. They had a nanny whom they are still very fond of, Else Kirstine Pedersen, who also attended the christening of HRH Prince Christian.

HM Queen Margrethe II has on several occasions clearly admitted that she ought to have been more of a mother, less of a queen when her children were small. But she has also admitted that she was not good with small children at the time. I interpret that as saying that the handling of small children made her feel unsure of herself. But now, it is clear to all that Her Majesty's relations to her sons and grandchildren are very good. When asked whether she was ever jealous of Else Kirstine Pedersen, Her Majesty clearly denied. She was simply very happy that her sons liked their nanny so much, as long as the Queen did not doubt that her boys loved her as their mother.

/Lasse Pedersen
 
Anyone knows about nannies for Elena, Cristina and Felipe of Spain?
 
here's one of peter and zara phillips with their nanny pat moss from 1985 at windsor horse trials. pat moss was their nanny from just before zara's birth. she was hired to help princess anne with her children as she was a really hands on mom.(from getty images)
 
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My favorite would be Queen Elizabeth's nanny Marion Crawford that has already been mentioned here. I've read her book "The Little Princesses: The Story of the Queen's Childhood by her Nanny, Marion Crawford" and it's very good. Marion crawford was such a loving governess, more so then I thought they would be back then, she truely cared for the Elizabeth and Margeret. I reccomend the book to anybody who would want to read about Lillabet's childhood.:)
 
photofan said:
Odd question:
what's a governess?

Kind of like an live-in tutor...she/he is in charge of teaching the child, unlike the nanny who takes care of child-care. Like home-schooling...only the parent is not the one home-schooling the children.

Have you ever read Jane Eyre? In that novel, Jane is the governess to Adele.
 
saterday in the telegraaf, a dutch newspaper an article about the nanny of the children of WA and Maxima, she was trained at

Welcome to the Norland College website





I believe some of them do go to a school to learn to be a nanny- for instance, there are three schools that I know of that most royal nannies in the UK attend- Norland, Childton, and Princess Christian Nanny Training College. Must be a big business there.
For the other royals, I'm not exactly sure how one gets chosen to be a nanny. Good question, maybe someone could find out for us!
-Kara-
 
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not really necessary I imagine, the nanny speaks english with them so they can learn, they probably speak spanish/dutch and english with Maxima and spanish/english with their grandparents from their mothers side.

I was brought up with 3 languages (no nanny though ;)) and it works, children learn fast.

I wonder if their nanny speaks Spanish too?
 
Did Princess Anne of Great Britain have a nanny for her children, Peter and Zara?
 
Royals and Their Nannies

I know QEII and POW had Loving and close relationships with their caregivers but what about Other Royals?
 
William and Harry were/are close to at least some of their nannies. William and his maternal aunts attended Olga Powell's funeral in 2012 (Harry was in Afghanistan.) He cancelled engagements to go. Jessie Webb helped William and Catherine with George before they hired Nanny Maria. And the whole family is close to Tiggy Legge-Bourke (now Pettifer.)
 
King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden and his sister's were very close to their nanny, the noblewoman Nenne Björnberg. So close that their mother, Princess Sibylla, got upset when they went to Nenne instead of to her with their problems. Inspite of this the two women also became quite close with Nenne often being able to rein in the quite temperamental princess.
Nenne remained an integral part of the Royal family all her life and once the children grew up became the main housekeeper at the Royal palaces.
After the births of the Kings children she became head nanny. Big parts of the family attended her funeral.
Another Swedish nanny is Elisabeth Zimmerman who after taking care of Crown Princess Victoria and her siblings was rehired to take care of Victoria's children Estelle and Oscar.
 
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Nanny Lightbody, Prince Charles's first nanny, was of the old school. Rule the nursery with a rod of iron and terrify the parents into submission. Apparently a hierarchy prevailed in the nursery in which young Charles was very much the senior child. Princess Anne made a remark about Nanny Lightbody putting the 'senior child' Charles first, when viewing old footage in the doco celebrating the Queen's 90th birthday.

The Queen and Nanny Lightbody came to a parting of the ways when the Queen put a pudding for Charles on the nursery menu of which the nanny disapproved. The Queen had never challenged the nanny before but girded her loins and gave her the sack. After that the much loved Mabel Anderson took over. Charles in particular was devoted to her.
 
Irish-born Margaret Eager was nurse and nursery governess to the four daughters of the last Tsar Nicholas of Russia from 1898 to 1904. (There was quite a long tradition of British nannies in the Romanov household.)

Margaret might have been dismissed because the British were allied to the Japanese at the time of the 1904 Russo-Japanese War, though Britain didn't play an active role in the conflict. She taught the four little Grand Duchesses English, but they ended up speaking it with an Irish accent which was later 'corrected'!

Margaret and the four girls corresponded until the deaths at Ekaterinberg. It was said that Margaret, who died in 1936, was haunted by this for the rest of her life.
 
Elizabeth Zimmerman has been brought back by both Victoria and Madeleine.

With the royal trio as kids
https://www.svenskdam.se/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ase-Fotland-nanny-ibl.jpg

With Estelle

http://kuvakauppa.lehtikuva.fi/edoris?tem=dorismark&doc_id=7aa7d121652745128de60547bf90f7fa

With Leonor

http://www.photovat.com/PHOTOVAT/FR...A/content/bin/images/large/00884_27042015.jpg

Back with the family for Oscar now. Estelle has a few younger nannies

Crown Princess Victoria, Estelle, Oscar and nanny Elisabeth Zimmerman left already from Kalmar Airport to Stockholm.


As for Harry and William, Tiggy was not only at the royal wedding but her son was a page. Both William and Harry serve as godfather to one of her sons as well.
 
I can't help but wonder if Victoria brought back Elizabeth Zimmerman to assist her setting the standard for the nursery. More in teaching Victoria an adult view of "the Nursery" and setting the necessary "royal" component as a standard for all the younger Nannies.

Estelle is usually exceptionally well behaved in public and I am not sure if we have even seen a tiny tantrum in public, yet she is a happy, charming and outgoing child. Someone must be doing something right.
 
I can't help but wonder if Victoria brought back Elizabeth Zimmerman to assist her setting the standard for the nursery. More in teaching Victoria an adult view of "the Nursery" and setting the necessary "royal" component as a standard for all the younger Nannies.

Estelle is usually exceptionally well behaved in public and I am not sure if we have even seen a tiny tantrum in public, yet she is a happy, charming and outgoing child. Someone must be doing something right.
Think you're onto something there:
1. Elisabeth is someone they know they can trust and someone who's professional abilities they don't need any references on.
2. Using someone they already know minimizes the amount of "strangers" in the home.
3. Her discretion is without a doubt. The only short interview she's given was friendly but very correct.
4. She's an active member of the Pentecostal church something especially the Queen was very happy to find out at her job interview.
All this makes her a perfect example to the other nannies.
 
Nanny Lightbody, Prince Charles's first nanny, was of the old school. Rule the nursery with a rod of iron and terrify the parents into submission. Apparently a hierarchy prevailed in the nursery in which young Charles was very much the senior child. Princess Anne made a remark about Nanny Lightbody putting the 'senior child' Charles first, when viewing old footage in the doco celebrating the Queen's 90th birthday.

The Queen and Nanny Lightbody came to a parting of the ways when the Queen put a pudding for Charles on the nursery menu of which the nanny disapproved. The Queen had never challenged the nanny before but girded her loins and gave her the sack. After that the much loved Mabel Anderson took over. Charles in particular was devoted to her.


Goodness, it always fascinates me how much clout nannies and governesses are permitted to hold in Royal and upper class households, or at least WERE permitted to have. :lol:I don't think you see that so much now. The mothers tend not to want to let their children's nannies overshadow them so much.

The late Princess of Wales sacked at least one of William's nannies when she felt the boy was getting too close for comfort.

Thanks for the story Curryong.?
 
Elizabeth Franklin was the nanny of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia.
 
Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom, The Princess Royal's first governess was Lady Sarah Spencer, the daughter of George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer.
 
Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom, The Princess Royal's first governess was Lady Sarah Spencer, the daughter of George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer.

She was Lady Sarah Lyttleton by that time. She was a widow when she entered Queen Victoria's court. She was widowed in 1837 and came to court originally as a lady in waiting to the queen. She was thought fondly of by both Victoria and Albert, and was named governess in 1843. She wasn't hire simply as governess to Victoria, but to over see the entire nursery, hired the year that Alice was born. She left in 1850 (the year Alfred was born) after the death of her own daughter, to raise her motherless grandchildren. The royal children all affectionately referred to her as Laddie, even as adults. The queen had been reluctant to let her leave, but she gave Sarah a very generous pension of 800 a year when she did.
 
Do you think Prince Harry and Meghan will hire a nanny who had been employed by some of their aristocratic friends?
 
I would think that anyone in Harry and Meghan's circle of friends that have hired a nanny probably still has use for one. :) So no, I don't think so.
 
I think they will get a "professional" Nanny. Norlands and other such places produce fully vetted and trained nannies. That includes the care and nurturing of infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers. They are also trained in evasive/defensive driving and self defence among a multitude of other things.

The more "Patronages" and such that both Harry and Meghan take on, the busier they will be what with prep, engagements and tours. And they are well schooled for each engagement. If they weren't, the would both have featured in 'idiot plonker' or 'vacuous' dolly stories in all the rags.
 
For approximately how many years is a professional nanny employed?
 
:previous:It depends, but William and Harry still had a nanny when young teens.
 
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