The Crown is one of Netflix’ biggest bets in the industry, as well as one of the most expensive series in history, and, to be honest, it’s worth every single penny. After two extremely successful seasons where we got to delve deep into the most intimate chapters of Queen Elizabeth’s life and early years on the throne, season three will show us a new facet of this fascinating monarch, who has stayed the most time in power in the history of the island.
Now, with a change of cast comes a new set of characters who have shaped the story of the royal family over the past decades, and with them, several moments and scandals that we’ve been waiting to see since the series was first announced. This season, which will take place during the seventies mostly, will show us a more mature Queen already established on the throne, but also the beginning of what would become the biggest scandal in British royal history: the story of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.
Everyone loves the show, not only because we love learning more and more about this particularly hyped royal family, but also because its creators have managed to make it a great historical document. So, if you want to prepare before season 3 arrives, here are five key historical events we’ll most likely see Elizabeth struggling with.
The Troubles
This conflict, which lasted for more than three decades, is one of the most violent in modern history. Starting in 1969, the main conflict happened in Northern Ireland between Unionists/Loyalists (protestants) and Nationalists/Republicans (Catholics). Unionists wanted to remain a part of the United Kingdom, while Nationalists wanted to join a united Irish republic.
However, things weren’t that simple, and tensions grew when British troops were called in to intervene, not to mention that several paramilitary groups like the IRA (Irish Republican Army), INLA (Irish National Liberation Army) mainly sided with the Nationalists and with the Unionists the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) and the UDA (Ulster Defence Association); all of them equally radical and equally violent.
Throughout three decades, several protests, riots, confrontations with the British army, and bombings took place (even Queen Elizabeth’s cousin Lord Louis Mountbatten and one of his sons were killed by an IRA bomb). The total death toll during The Troubles is estimated around 3,254, with even more injured, until things kind of got settled in 1998 in what’s known as the Good Friday Agreement, in which it was agreed that Northern Ireland would remain part of the UK and special relations between the latter and the Republic of Ireland were established.
Winter of Discontent
About a decade after The Troubles started, Britain saw itself immersed in a serious internal conflict. Not only was the winter between 1978 and 79 the coldest of the last sixteen years, but people were also really upset at the government and they weren’t just going to sit in their couches to wait for the former to do something. This event of several strikes all over the territory came to be known as the Winter of Discontent, a line taken from Shakespeare’s Richard III.
The first group that decided to go on a strike were the petrol tankers, followed by lorry drivers, dustmen, gravediggers, ambulance drivers, and even hospitals, which blocked their entrances, only treating those they considered emergency patients. These strikes paralyzed the country and caused mayhem, pushing the population to extreme violence.
It all started after Prime Minister James Callaghan and the leader of the Labour party approved a series of policies to avoid inflation. These included pay caps over most of the public sectors, which were demanding a fair salary raise. By February 1979, Callaghan quit, and strikers reached an agreement, but discontent about the Labour party was huge and eventually led to Margaret Thatcher’s conservative victory, which brings us to our next point.
Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister
Thatcher, who had been already named the first female leader of a political party in the UK, used the Winter of Discontent to her advantage during the election campaign. As she claimed, the Labour party wasn’t good enough to solve the issues of the country and she, a strong leader who was eventually nicknamed “Iron Lady,” offered a series of solutions and policies that could take the country out of the crisis.
Among the many policies introduced by Thatcher to reverse the consequences of the “Winter of Discontent,” were taking action over the high rates of unemployment all over the British territory, the privatization of state-owned companies, and the opening of labor markets, all by reducing the power of trade unions.
Now, none of these policies were well-received, but, in retrospect, Thatcher is still considered one of the best modern PMs in British history. She got reelected two more times one in 1983 and the third one in 1987, though she ended up resigning due to the discontent over her taxation system.
Expulsion of Asians from Uganda
On August 4th, 1972, Ugandan President Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of all the South Asian population from the country, giving them only 90 days to leave. Most of these Asian citizens were Gujaratis from India, and according to Amin, they were responsible for all the social problems in Uganda. This was the peak of a horrible wave of Indophobia in the country that included the highest sectors of the government and society.
Amin justified himself by claiming that it had been a hard decision to “give back Uganda back to ethnic Ugandans.” He added that Gujaratis were disloyal to the nation, that they never wanted to integrate with the culture and the people, and worst of all, that they were guilty of commercial malpractice. To that, we must add, that he claimed he had been instructed by God in a dream to take that measure, so you have an idea of how this character was.
Now, of the 80,000 South Asians in Uganda, most of them were actually citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies, of them, 23,000 had already approved Ugandan citizenship although most of them decided to emigrate anyway. In total, around 27,000 arrived in the UK, but what’s interesting is that even with all those immigration numbers, by the end of the decade, emigration from the UK would outnumber immigration rates due to the economic and political turmoil.
Brixton Riots
Happening between April 10 and 12, 1981, the Brixton riots were one of the biggest racial confrontations in the UK of the century. Besides the fact that the entire UK was going through a serious recession, the Afro-Caribbean community was struggling even more because they had fewer employment opportunities and access to social programs.
The tensions got worse after an event that was known as the New Cross House Fire where 13 black youngsters died in a fire. The authorities jumped to declare it had been an accident and that the fire had started inside the building, but the community was sure it had been a hate crime. To protest the lack of investigation of the case, an estimated 20,000 protested on March 2nd in what was known as the “Black People’s Day of Action” protest, covered by the press as a violent one, even though it wasn’t.
On April 10th, a constable saw Bailey, a young black man running towards him, apparently running away from two other young men. He seemed hurt, but still, he managed to get rid of the constable. He reached a house where they tried to treat what appeared to be a four-inch stab wound. The constable reached and was assisted by the police who took Bailey on the back of the police car. People thought they were arresting him and started protesting as more and angrier witnesses approached them, taking Bailey from the police and told them to let them “look after our own.”
The news about the police letting an injured black boy die spread quickly and soon over 200 black youngsters turned against the police. By the next day, known as Bloody Saturday, an angry mob in Brixton started throwing bricks at police cars and starting the riot. Around 299 police officers and 65 civilians were injured. 82 were arrested and several buildings and cars were seriously damaged.
If previous seasons had shown us how the UK was reconstructing itself after the war and how the British Empire started to crumble with the many independence movements of its colonies, this season will be all about social discontent and the violence that is born out of anger and disappointment. Definitely, it won’t be easy for Elizabeth, now portrayed by Academy Award-winner Olivia Colman.
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