Back in September, the Queen’s staffers were already trying to figure out what the Queen’s Christmas plans should be. This was obviously before the UK went into another lockdown, although the spikes of coronavirus have been happening for months on both sides of the Atlantic. Anyway, back in September, some people floated the idea that the Queen and the rest of her family might be able to gather at Sandringham like it was any other year. The problem with this plan was that it would have meant that Sandringham staff (plus royal protection officers) would have needed to isolate away from their families for four weeks during the holidays. Those staffers were in REVOLT at the very suggestion. And the Queen was said to be FURIOUS that the peasants would not agree to refuse to see their families over Christmas just so that she could scowl at her relations.
Well, the Queen finally decided last week to simply spend Christmas at Windsor Castle with a small staff and her husband. But apparently the whole “peasants revolting against the Queen” story is still around, and it looks like the Sandringham head housekeeper might have quit her job because of it?
The Queen’s trusted head housekeeper at her Sandringham estate has mysteriously quit her job. The resignation of 56-year-old Patricia Earl follows a staff revolt that threw royal Christmas plans into turmoil.
She was said to be embarrassed after some servants refused to Covid bubble for four weeks over the festive period so that the Queen and Prince Philip would be able to stay there safely. Instead, Her Majesty must now remain at Windsor Castle, meaning she will be spending the festive holiday there for the first time in 33 years.
Patricia, who lives close to Sandringham in the Norfolk village of Dersingham, has worked for the Queen for 32 years. That includes 14 years in her most recent housekeeper role. She was handed the Royal Victorian Order for her service to the Queen in 2018.
Her Majesty was said to be “furious” that staff at the Norfolk estate protested about the quarantine directive. They objected to being away from their families for so long.
Patricia, who it is believed will depart later this month, said she did not want to comment on her position. But a Buckingham Palace spokesman yesterday insisted: “This was a completely amicable departure.”
I feel like there are more of these kinds of women, the Patricias and Angela Kellys of the world, who exist as sort of Royal-Adjacent Karens and their jobs are mostly about gatekeeping and being nasty to anyone lower than them on the royal food chain. We don’t know why Patricia really left, but if she quit because household staff in Sandringham wanted to, you know, see their families over Christmas, then that is truly Patricia’s problem. I do feel like the pandemic has really brought out the worst in so many in and around the Windsor clan, right?
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.
That last picture of Petty Betty’s smug face surrounded by her offspring making various ridiculous faces is gold!
So this Patricia woman quit her job because she was embarrassed that she couldn’t keep the peasant-y household staff in line? I know the royals aren’t said to pay much, but surely it’s better than unemployment? I hope she’s saved up over the years.
If the housekeeper did resign (and was not forced out) and it was over the staff refusing to go along with the excessive quarantine, then there is also something else here. After 32 years of service, the last 14 as head housekeeper where she was so loyal and highly thought of that she was awarded the Royal Victorian Order, the Queen let her fall on her sword. The Queen, in ACCEPTING the housekeeper’s resignation — in my opinion — is clearly agreeing that the housekeeper needed to go as she failed in keeping the worker bees in line. I’m sure this is also a warning to other staff. Seems, as usual devotion and loyalty and compassion, only runs one way in the Queen’s world and that is up to her glory and comfort.
This is the vibe I’m getting @lowcountrylady – that she failed to keep the worker bees in line so she resigned. preparing sandringham for Christmas is probably the housekeeper’s biggest responsibility, and here she could not “prepare” it by keeping the staff in a bubble. It’s sad if she did resign over this, because it was an insane request to begin with, and the queen should have said from the outset that she would stay at Windsor.
I bet the royals are happy that they don’t have to do Christmas which each other this year. Imagine having to do Christmas each year for decades with people that you don’t like and have to do multiple outfit changes a day.
Not just clothes changes, but your day is planned FOR you. Show up at such time for breakfast, then there’s the organized walk/stalk, then change, then lunch, then cards, then change, then tea, then change, then drinks, then games, then change, then dinner, then presents…. exhausting. And don’t forget…when Petty Betty finishes ANYTHING, YOU. ARE. DONE. (whether or not you *are* actually done).
FEH.
and EVERY SINGLE THING is in order of precedence. Kids can’t even tear open their Xmas presents spontaneously. The adults give stupid GAG gifts and they have to observe the same stupid order of precedence. What a lousy way to spend Xmas!
I read about this yesterday at the Daily Fail
My god, so many comments against this employee quitting were vile
The one good (?) Thing about this pandemic is that it really does show people’s character: either visually, on their face with a mask, or in cases like this by their behavior.
That pic… all it needs is a VO with an evil laughing building to a crescendo lol
Doesn’t make sense to me to quit because SOMEONE ELSE didn’t want to work that “shift”…only if YOU didn’t want to. Still… I’m sure Petty Betty will eventually find someone else willing to work for peanuts for the “prestige” of cleaning up her messes.
Am I a bad person for being *really* happy her “peasants” refused to bubble-up for her selfish pleasure??
I too really hate when many servants refuse to ruin their Christmas plans to make mine work exactly as it did before.
“And the Queen was said to be FURIOUS that the peasants would not agree to refuse to see their families over Christmas just so that she could scowl at her relations.”
^^ The above and Chuck’s recent Netflix meltdown usually signal the end of an era for the tone deaf.
As a Brit I have seriously been getting a vibe recently that these grifters are on their way out. I was ambivalent about them until Meghan joined the BRF. But as a black woman seeing how she has been treated has made me realise was a dire waste of resources they are.
Also looking into the very dogma that surrounds their existence disgusts me. When you are told from birth that you will one day be the representation of God on earth, no wonder you lack empathy that people may want to see their families in the middle of a pandemic.
It’s time to bin this cabal of clowns.
The more stories come out about this woman, the more her devotion of Andrew makes sense.
Where to start with this? The fact that the Queen is mad her servants were not willing to give up seeing their family for a moment, just so she could see hers?
JFC.
Yes, because the optics of the Queen and the RF having the usual big family get together at Sandringham for Christmas would be so good. (Sarcasm) Especially in the worst year since WW2.
Wellll it might have thinned out the herd if they’d all met up and someone brought COVID in with them…..
She was probably forced to resign by the Queen.
This is what I believe. Nothing else makes any sense to me or any normal person and it just shows you how truly ruthless these mortals are and how determined they are to be treated as demi gods.
Here’s an idea: Get your family together and they can make the tea and cook and clean up after themselves for once.
The staff that ‘ revolted’ were the most poorly paid- the cleaners etc I bet if she’d offered them a huge bonus, she would have got enough staff for her to attend to her at Sandringham, but the Royal staff are paid the absolute minimum. The Royals think the prestige of working for them is payment enough. Good for them telling The Royals and all the courtiers who were probably mortified to stuff it.
In this terrible time of pandemic, we’re ALL called upon to make sacrifices. And as we’ve all seen, this family doesn’t do sacrifice well. The notion that they’d have to give up even an iota of their own comfort and privilege so others could have a merry Christmas was probably inconceivable to them.
I hope she write a book about petty betty.
Oh i know… she needs to contact the crown writer, peter morgan.