The website's critical consensus read 'The Crown continues its reign with a self-assured sophomore season that indulges in high drama and sumptuous costumes.' 107 On Metacritic, the second season holds a score of 87 out of 100, based on 27 critics, retaining the first season's indication of 'universal acclaim'. “The Crown” Season 2 Episode 7 Recap: Matrimonium. ‘Matrimonium’ shifts our focus back into the heart of the Royal family. Specifically, the heart of Princess Margaret. The episode begins with her receiving a most painful letter from her former lover, Peter. He reveals to her that he has met a woman, only 19 years of age.

What continues to leave me in absolute awe of Netflix’s The Crown, is how it has taught me so much more than any history class ever did. And Episode 6 in particular is all about history. Titled ‘Vergangenheit’ (the German word for past/history), the second season’s sixth episode opens with a flashback to Germany in 1945, where we see American soldiers leading a man, Lewis, to a remote wooded area. Lewis leads them into the trees and digs up a metal box, wrapped in an old coat. Inside there are multiple letters, telegrams, all manners of communication. They are, of course, in German, so the soldiers send it off to the Foreign Office in London for translation. And as it turns out, the letters contain something so dire that the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, is immediately notified. Churchill takes the information to the King (Elizabeth’s father), the Queen, and the King’s Private Secretary, Tommy. They all are in agreement that these documents, for the good of the country and its people, must never see the light of day.

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  • The Crown Recap: Episode 7, Season 2: Matrimonium Posted 27 January 2018 by The History Chicks.

Back in the current timeline, an American Reverend is currently in Britain, spreading the word of Christ. His name is Billy Graham, and though most of the Royal family doesn’t seem to like him, Elizabeth is quite in awe of him. She finds herself hanging on his every word, and is so interested in his sermons that she formally invites him to preach at Windsor. During the sermon, it is clear that neither the Queen Mother or Philip care for what he says, but Elizabeth cannot get enough of it. She meets with Billy in private afterwards, praising him on his ability.

“The great joy that I have felt today was that of being a simple congregant, being taught, being led. You see, as head of the Anglican Church, in terms of rank, even the great Archbishops of York and Canterbury are below me. Above me there is only God.”

He imagines that would be quite lonely, and she admits it is. And I think it’s one of the most difficult things about Elizabeth’s position. Even when she does not have the most control or power, she is above everyone when it comes to rank. She can be advised, but she can never be told what to do. And while that is a great thing, it is also a great burden. When she listens to Billy, she is able to escape that role and simply learn, and that’s a beautiful thing.

Meanwhile, outside of Britain, The Duke of Windsor is growing restless. Though he and his wife live a life of nothing but pleasure, it seems even pleasure has its limits. He wishes to serve his country again. However, one of the terms of his abdication was that he would no longer work. But he is determined to convince both Parliament and the Queen that this term should be changed, and his wife, growing tired of her husband’s boredom, is completely supportive. And so, claiming he is visiting Britain for research for a book he’s writing, he returns to England.

He is currently staying in Sussex with a friend, where parties with various members of Parliament are held. They won’t take much convincing. Thanks to the Duke’s lawyer, along with the fact that the government often appears to be a boy’s club, they all believe that the Duke should be able to hold a position and serve his country. This is all done without the Queen’s knowledge. There’s no coincidence in that, and it can’t help but feel like a plot. She is the last person the Duke sees, he ensures that he has everyone else’s support before meeting with her. But only hours before he does, the documents that her father worked so hard to keep buried finally come to light.

While some of the country’s finest historians were hard at work one day, they came across the forbidden texts, and immediately wanted to make them public. That was their duty, as honest historians. And, as it turns out, the Americans have a duplicate of the records. If the British don’t release them, the Americans almost certainly will. But the lead historian, Wheeler, knows the consequences of revealing these documents, so he takes them directly to the Prime Minister. They will then be taken to the Queen herself. The documents will be released no matter what, but the Queen should know exactly what they are before they reach public eye. They do directly affect her family, after all.

The documents in question are called the Marburg Files, and they concern none other than the Duke of Windsor himself. They were discovered, hidden, and given to the American soldiers by the assistant to Hitler’s personal translator. He took these files in hopes that he could secure safety and freedom. They contained information about the relations between Nazi high command and the Duke of Windsor. Michael, the Queen’s private secretary, and the Queen Mother explain this all to Elizabeth, and her mother adds that she hopes her daughter has a strong stomach. It’s a fair comment to make, for the truth is disturbing, to say the least.

When the Duke visits Her Majesty, he informs her of his wish to serve the country. She corrects him by saying that he had the chance to serve his country in the greatest possible way, and yet he turned away from it. No matter, he tells her of the government’s support and of the three jobs they think he might be best suited for. And while she agrees they sound very suitable, she cannot overlook facts.

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Elizabeth tells her uncle of the documents that have been discovered, documents that will soon be released to the public. Her anger is contained, but it is there, nonetheless. Her frustration grows the more the Duke denies it, so she begins to detail specifics.

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“In one telegram, from 1940, it states that you were considering publicly going against the government, and pledging your support for peace with Germany, thereby breaking with my father, the King. In another, it says that, in return for your support, the German government offered you a home in Spain, where you could wait out the rest of the war in peace and safety while your countrymen gave their lives.”

Despite this concrete evidence against him, he is determined to convince Elizabeth that these are nothing but lies. He knows there is only one thing that might save him now: his niece’s humanity. He begs her forgiveness, promising that her people would never believe these baseless rumors, and that all he wants is to serve her, to be closer to her.

She is completely at odds with herself. Not only as a Queen, not only as a niece, but as a Christian. Doesn’t the bible teach people to forgive? She confides in her husband, asking his opinion on the matter. He stands firmly against the Duke, so much so that he says something none of us ever thought we would hear.

“It’s not often I say this, so perhaps if I do, you will take it seriously. Ask Tommy Lascelles to come and see you.”

Philip has never attempted to hide his dislike for Tommy, but his opinion on the man doesn’t matter in this instance. Tommy served the Duke during his reign as King. He knows him better than anyone else, and he’ll be able to tell Elizabeth exactly what happened. She’s as shocked as the rest of us at this advice, which makes her take it to heart. She doesn’t summon Tommy (he is retired, after all), but wastes no time in visiting him herself. And what he has to say is harrowing.

It was known that the Duke shared classified information with the Duchess, and it was believed that she was sharing a bed with the German Ambassador at the time. The situation became so dire that important documents were soon kept out of the Duke’s red box. It was soon after that the abdication took place, but that was not the end of their worries. Shortly after, the Duke and Duchess visited Germany and took tours of the concentration camps. Tommy is sure to clarify that this was before “the true horrors” took place, but he still visited nonetheless. Not only that, but there was even a plan hatched to reinstate the Duke as King, throwing his own brother off the throne and giving German forces free reign across Europe.

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This information shakes Elizabeth to her core. Her uncle is nowhere near the man she thought he was, and though she had every intention of forgiving him, these acts of betrayal are too great to ignore. She lets the Duke know as much. She also curtly tells him that the sovereign no longer finds pleasure in his return to the United Kingdom, and as such he is no longer welcome. He shall not return to Britain as long as she lives. She is the Queen before she is his niece, so there cannot be an argument. But he is sure to insult her one last time, telling her she has no mind of her own, before he leaves for good.

Though she knows her decision was a necessary one, she still wrestles with. Speaking to Billy a second time, she asks him about forgiveness, and if there is ever a situation where forgiveness cannot be given. He doesn’t believe so, but if one finds oneself unable to forgive, what they must do is pray. Pray for the person who has wronged them, and God will hear. So that is what Elizabeth spends the night doing when Philip bursts in, clearly drunk. She’s unimpressed until he informs her that it was her mother and none other than Tommy Lascelles that he was drinking with! An odd threesome they make, but they all put aside their differences to celebrate Elizabeth and her decision to finally rid the family and country from the terrible burden that was the Duke of Windsor. She can’t help but be amused, but she still feels guilty as a Christian. Philip insists that she shouldn’t.

“You protected your country, and you protected the reputation of your family. Not to mention successfully banishing Satan from entering the Garden of Eden. That’s Christ’s business in anyone’s books. So it’s a gold star from Jesus. Free mame32 games. And a gold star from me.”

Elizabeth laughs, though Philip is being entirely serious. He begins to take off his jacket and unbutton his shirt to her surprise. They start laughing together as she turns out the lights. What started as quite a disturbing and conflicting day turned into a beautiful night. One that will only bring Elizabeth’s family and country closer together. And as for the Duke? He can barely look at himself in the mirror, and rightfully so. The episode ends with a series of photographs, taken of the actual Duke of Windsor and the Duchess visiting the camps and in conversation with Nazi high command. Something that was never even mentioned to us in school, and yet something incredibly important to know. The Crown continues to amaze.

For previous episode recaps of The Crown, visit our official Crown Page here!

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I have been DREADING this episode of The Crown. DREAD-ing. I can watch any sort of gruesome murder and death-related media but under NO circumstances can I handle a soft, delicate child being Bad-Dadded. I just cannot. That being said, despite being crushingly sad, this episode is actually a true triumph and a departure and achieves something both generous and deeply moving and elevates the quality of the season.

The

The decision to send Charles to Gordonstoun, the notorious cold-water boys-together bro fest school in Scotland where Philip thrived was extremely fraught, in life as in fiction. Dickie and the Queen lobbied for Eton, Philip carried the day (in the show, he actually breaks out a literal divorce threat when the Queen tries to bring him home mid-term). Philip ultimately triumphed at Gordonstoun, being a sturdy and athletic and tough lil fucker who worked out his emotional shit via physical endurance, while Charles from infancy on was a sensitive weak little guy who never had the stones to do the kind of work to get the friendship from the other students that his father could. It was a real mess.

I’m glad we get a deeper look at the relationship between young Charles and Uncle Dickie, who were exceptionally close. Dickie would die shortly before Charles and Diana married, after the IRA bombed his fishing boat (taking out a young local boy, as well as Dickie’s wife and young grandson) and by all accounts it was like Charles lost his father.

Philip, this may shock you, was not the most ideal parent for an orchid of a boy, who enjoyed reading mainly the mystical travel memoirs of Laurens van der Post (he would also bury himself in them to avoid Diana during his honeymoon).

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It’s hard to watch Charles struggle at school. The young actor who plays him was not cast solely for his ears (though the ears are ON POINT) and almost wordlessly manages to tell us exactly who the boy is. The child playing Philip is equally good. I honestly had expected the store would come down more sharply on Gordonstoun, a famously unpleasant place, but instead it gives us a very warm portrait of Dr. Kurt Hahn, the German educator (and founder of Outward Bound) who was exactly the father figure that Philip needed, according to The Crown, and did his best to be one for Charles.

We get to see both Philip and Charles tackle the strains of Scottish boarding school, decades apart. Charles’ struggle is his own nature, the suspicion of the other boys of his rank, and his inability to overcome that suspicion by doing and saying the right things. Philip, conversely, found all that easy enough to negotiate, but had to overcome a far more tangible and personal challenge: his pain at losing his favorite sister, Cecile. I shuddered when she first appeared, knowing the show had decided to depict her UTTERLY GRUESOME death (yes, she was afraid of flying, yes, she died in a plane crash, yes, she gave birth before or during the crash and a newborn was found in the wreckage, it’s all a NIGHTMARE). The scene in which Philip’s shitty terrible philandering father castigates him for the misbehavior that resulted in Cecile taking the flight is almost impossible to watch, as is his meeting with his mother, already in the throes of untreated mental illness, and unable to recognize him. It’s hard to maintain QUITE the same hatred for Philip afterwards, but I’m sure I’ll manage.

Philip as a parent, to his mild credit, does love the little softie, and I’m glad we got the scene of them in the airplane together returning from school, which gives us a sense of that relationship (I mean, up until he screams at him not to be so bloody weak, which he clearly hates himself for IMMEDIATELY). He didn’t pack the boy off to Gordonstoun in order to make him miserable, but because he knew that childhood and adolescence IS miserable, but if you toughen up soon enough you’ll develop a thick enough hide to survive the rest of your life. Which, honestly, is not un-true but still not something that suits every child, and certainly not Philip’s sweet and wispy son.

We see very little of the Queen in this episode, but the scene in which she threatens to pull the Queen card to yank Charles out of Scotland and back to attend Eton, and Philip threatens to end their marriage if she does, is a genie that will be hard to put back in the bottle. Neither of them have ever verbalized that unthinkable outcome before, and it’ll be interesting to see if it’s a tough slog back.

The show’s coda reminds us that Charles broke with his father’s wishes and sent his own two sons to Eton, where they met with an easier time of it than he had. It’s worth noting that the one or two boys who were kind to Charles at Gordonstoun were his lifelong friends thereafter, I think it was indeed rather like being at war together.

Nicole Cliffe used to run The Toast, a niche site for queer archivists which Hillary Clinton at least pretended to like, but is now mostly just dicking around on Twitter and writing about TV for Vulture and ELLE.com.

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