Lennon was not alone, though, in questioning the value of the royal family at that time. At a luncheon of the Foreign Press Association thirteen days before Edward was born, Prince Philip was asked: ‘Do you think that the monarchy has found its proper place in the Britain of the sixties?’

Philip replied: ‘Here we are in the sixties. What am I supposed to say? Perhaps you would enlarge on the question.’

The questioner did: ‘One sometimes hears criticism in the press that the monarchy has not found its place, although it is, of course, playing a useful role in this country, but has still not found the right approach to the problems of Britain today.’

Philip answered: ‘What you are implying is that we are rather old-fashioned. Well, it may easily be true; I don’t know.’

He continued: ‘One of the things about the monarchy and its place – and one of the great weaknesses in a sense – is that it has to be all things to all people. Of course, it cannot do this when it comes to being all things to all people who are traditionalists and all things to all people who are iconoclasts. We therefore find ourselves in a position of compromise, and we might be kicked by both sides. The only thing is that if you are very cunning you get as far away from the extremists as you possibly can because they kick harder.’

He concluded, warming to his theme: ‘I entirely agree that we are old-fashioned; the monarchy is an old-fashioned institution.’ And that was the way it was going to stay. The Queen’s radical decision to have her husband by her side during the birth notwithstanding, the great ship of royalty continued its majestic course with barely a sideways glance at the foam of change churning up around it. ‘I am a traditionalist,’ the Queen bluntly declared, and the habits of her Court reflected that.

The royal family, as well as being an institution that functions best in calm conditions, is also a business. Philip has called it ‘The Firm’, and it employed a full-time staff of several hundred people – cooks, chamber maids, ladies’ maids, coachmen, footmen, valets, butlers and nannies. Hierarchical and tradition-bound, they were dutiful, loyal and clung steadfastly to the old ways, and the palace continued to be run in the most paternalistic manner. But the Queen, for all her riches, was forever looking for ways of making small savings, in the endearing if incorrect belief that by counting the pennies the pounds of royal expenditure would somehow manage to look after themselves. So, for example, Edward slept in the same cream-painted cot his brothers and sister had used, and played with the same toys.