A historian made headlines this week after voicing his concerns about the handling of Queen Elizabeth II’s writings. Picture: Photo by Ben Stansall - WPA Pool/Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth II’s personal letters and diaries should be preserved in full in the National Archives, a leading academic has said.
This after The Guardian reported one of the late queen’s closest aides, had been appointed to sort through her private papers before they are transferred to the royal archive in Windsor.
Scot Peterson, a researcher at the University of Oxford who specialises in constitutional matters, said he shared the concerns someone without adequate training might get rid of things that should be preserved.
“I’ll go one step further and say I think it’s important to just preserve everything, and it should probably just be given to the National Archives,” Peterson said. Adding, “with the idea that all royal papers are subject to a 100-year embargo. Once 100 years has passed, it seems to me there isn’t very much reason to withhold things that were even scandalous at the time.”
Peterson said it was normal that most papers were deposited in the royal archives at Windsor.
“Access to those papers is not completely uncontrolled or unlimited, so the royal family retains control over who has access to the papers and what they do with it after they have access to it.
“They have a right of approval, or they can refuse to approve publication of things that come from those records. I’m even aware of cases where they’ve delayed approval in what seemed like an effort to try to stop publication without actually explicitly rejecting publication.”
The fear that vital documents might be destroyed or suppressed is not unfounded. A classic example of this, Peterson said, was the case of Princess Beatrice, who was one of Victoria’s daughters.
“We have published diaries of Queen Victoria, but they were all completely rewritten by her daughter, who then burned the originals to make sure that nothing ever came out that was embarrassing.”
Therefore all documents – regardless of whether a historian or academic believed them to be important or not – should be preserved as the royal family was a public institution in the UK, he argued.
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Meanwhile, the controversial royals attended a fundraising event for first-responder charity One805, where the Duke and Duchess presented Hollywood actor Kevin Costner with an award for his support before a headlining set by Maroon 5.
On Saturday, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were photographed at a fundraiser for the charity One805, which supports first responders in Santa Barbara, where Meghan and Harry have lived for three years reports Vanity Fair.
One805 shared footage on its Instagram account that showed Harry and Meghan presenting Costner with a Heart of the Community Award onstage.
Also present at the fundraiser were a few of Meghan and Harry’s high profile Montecito neighbours, including Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, and Portia de Rossi.
One attendee filmed a video that showed Oprah arm-in-arm with first responder Sam Dudley and his service dog Rhonda as she introduced him on stage.
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