Secrets Found Under Buckingham Palace; Who Really Inherits Princess Diana’s Home?

0:03 Caloroga Shark Media. Hello and welcome to Palace Intrigue. I am your host, Mark Francis. Buckingham Palace's renovations has uncovered evidence of life below stairs. Football pools, coupons, worn boots, cigarette packaging and a ticket to a staff card night held when King Charles was only five months old. Contractors found the objects beneath floorboards and tucked into hidden spaces while replacing the palace's aging infrastructure. Together, they offer a glimpse of the people who worked there, away from the ceremonies and official portraits. Among the discoveries reported by the Guardian and the Independent is a six-penny ticket for a whist drive on April 14, 1949. It survived embedded in a lump of building rubble. George VI was on the throne.

0:52 Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip had been married for less than 18 months. and members of the Royal Household Social Club were organising an evening of cards. Other finds suggest how staff spent their time off. There are blank Littlewood's Football Pools coupons from 1957, and a fragment of theatre listings from an 1889 edition of The Standard. A battered pair of black hobnail boots and an empty silk-cut packet also emerged from the building. Then there is a document showing just how carefully a royal evening was organised, typed instructions for the Diplomatic Corps reception, during the Queen's Silver Jubilee year in 1977, specified everything from where drinks would be served to which way the royal family should walk.

1:34 In the ballroom, Her Majesty and other members of the royal family will move round the room in a clockwise direction. Even conversation required a little staff encouragement. The British guests will be distributed throughout the state rooms, except the Music Room and West Gallery, where they should be encouraged to talk to the diplomats, the instructions read. There were 350 British guests to help mingle with diplomatic visitors. The timetable was precise. Drinks will be served to guests in the Blue Drawing Room, State Dining Room and West Gallery between 9.30 and 10pm. Guests allotted to the Ballroom will be served drinks in the Ballroom Annex from 9.30pm until approximately 10.15pm. Smoking will not be permitted in any of these rooms.

2:16 It is a revealing piece of organisation behind an occasion designed to look effortless. Workers also recovered pages from a 1966 Daily Express featuring Durham Prison and the Great Train Robbers, along with a pewter tankard, a water bottle, six Christmas cards, and decorative fireplace tiles whose design dates from the mid-19th century. The discoveries came during the Palace's 10-year, £ 370 million reservicing program, scheduled for completion next year. The work includes replacing electrical systems, plumbing and heating systems, Some of what contractors uncovered required urgent removal. Around two kilometres of old rubber-covered electrical cabling have been taken out because the deteriorating insulation presented a fire risk. Alongside that essential work, the renovation has brought small pieces of palace life back into view. A six-penny card ticket was never intended to become a historical record.

3:09 Nearly 80 years later, it tells us something about Buckingham Palace that a state portrait cannot. Princess Diana's family home is expected to pass to her nephew, Louis Spencer, rather than to William or Harry. InStyle reports that Louis, who uses the title Viscount Althorpe, is said to inherit the Northamptonshire estate from his father, Charles Spencer. The Spencer tiara, which Diana wore at her wedding in 1981, is also expected to remain with that branch of the family. Althorpe has belonged to the Spencers for more than 500 years. Diana moved there at 14, when her father inherited the estate and became the 8th Earl Spencer. It is also where she is buried. Louis has three older sisters, Lady Kitty Spencer and twins Lady Amelia and Lady Eliza. Their father previously acknowledged that leaving the property to his eldest child, Kitty, would break the estate's tradition. Speaking to the Mail on Sunday in 2015, Charles said he would be totally relaxed about Kitty inheriting, but added, if I chose Kitty, it would be against all the tradition that goes with Althorp.

4:09 It's just the way it is. I also get the strengths of it having worked to date. Kitty expressed support for the arrangement in an interview with Tatler that year. I'm totally pro-gender equality, but I'm quite happy that that's going to be my brother's responsibility. I just think it's the correct way. I like that the house stays within the same family, with the same surname. I wouldn't want it any other way for the Spencers, and I just know my brother is going to do an impeccable job. For what William and Harry all thought provides a private place to visit their mother's grave, Diana was buried on Oval Island in the middle of a lake on the estate after her death in August 1997, Charles Spencer said the isolation of the site was deliberate. He told the BBC, In his book, All Thought, The Story of an English House, he wrote that He has previously told Good Morning Britain that he visits the grave pretty much every day. Speaking to People about his nephew's access to her resting place, Spencer said, I think it's very important for them to be there with her. It is, luckily, very tranquil here, and they can come and go as they wish whenever they want, and that's very lovely for me to know that.

5:28 More Palace in just a moment. Norway's King Harkin has a place in the queue for another crown. The King of Norway is around 92nd in line to the British throne. The connection is Queen Maud, Harkin's great-grandmother. She was a daughter of Britain's King Edward VII and married the future King Harkin VII of Norway. Her descendants therefore belong to the extended British royal family as well as the Norwegian one. Their place in British succession comes through that ancestry. And there is another twist further down the list. Harkin's daughter, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, comes ahead of her younger brother, Prince Svea Magnus, in Norway. In Britain, he comes first. The reason is the timing of changes of the two countries' succession rules. Norway introduced equal succession rights in 1990 for children born from that year onwards. Ingrid Alexandra was born in 2004 and Svea Magnus in 2005, so the elder child takes priority. Britain changed its rules later. The succession to the Crown Act of 2013, which took effect in 2015, ended male preference for those born after October 28, 2011.

6:38 Both Norwegian siblings were born before that cut-off, leaving Svea Magnus ahead of his older sister on the British list. The same distinction explains some familiar British positions. Princess Anne remains behind her younger brother and their descendants. Lady Louise Windsor follows her younger brother, James, Earl of Wessex. Princess Charlotte, however, retains her place ahead of Prince Louis because both fall under the newer rules. For Harkin, a British crown is an exceedingly distant prospect, but his place in the succession is a reminder that Europe's royal families are branches of a much larger family tree. Even a reigning king can find himself well down someone else's waiting list. Princess Anne wants Britain to remember what its traditional working horses can still do. In an interview with Horse and Hound at Gatcombe Park, the Princess Royal made the case for protecting Suffolk horses by recognising their practical value. Anne is patron of the Suffolk Horse Society and keeps a small herd at a Gloucestershire estate. The breed is critically endangered and she believes its working abilities deserve more attention. She said, My passion for the Suffolks really comes from an annoyance that we forget at our peril just how good they were at working. There are places where having horses working makes a difference. They make less mess, they're neater and can work in smaller places. Princess Charlotte's growing interest in cricket happens to coincide with plans for an upgrade to the cricket ground at King Charles Sandringham Estate. The 11-year-old princess was recently seen playing cricket in family footage released by Prince William and Catherine. The video, filmed on a

8:09 beach in Cornwall, attracted attention for Charlotte's technique, with former England captain Mike Atherton among those commenting on her abilities. Now the Sandringham and Dershingham Cricket Club, which uses the cricket ground on the King's Norfolk Estate... is seeking to install a new all-weather artificial surface. A planning application submitted to the local council puts the cost of the project at £ 9, 000. The new surface would allow the club to play for longer periods while protecting the grass pitch during wet weather and heavy use. There is no suggestion the improvements were commissioned specifically for Charlotte. Cricket does, however, have a long royal connection. Charlotte's great-grandfather, Prince Philip, was an enthusiastic sportsman who played cricket himself. including during his time in the Royal Navy before his marriage to the future Queen Elizabeth II. And there you have it. If you'd like to email us or address us at thepalaceintrigue at gmail.com.

9:02 If you're on Spotify, leave us a comment. If you're on Apple, hit that button up there that says Listen Uninterrupted and get the show commercial free for just five bucks a month. I'm Mark Francis. My thanks to John McDermott. This is Palace Intrigue. Good times.