Monarch’s request was deemed ‘excessive’, but officials nonetheless agreed to it so they could smooth diplomatic relations.
During a royal visit to Germany in 1978, Queen Elizabeth II surprised German officials with an “excessive” demand for two prize stallions as a gift, it has been revealed.
Prior to her arrival, the late monarch told the West German government that a gift of two coach horses would make her “delighted.”
She stated in a detailed wish list that she desired a Holsteiner of around 17hh with a coat that was not too light and “under no circumstances too dark.”
According to national archive documents obtained by Spiegel magazine, she stated that the other horse should be grey and “not too dirty” in complexion.
One of the horses would be used to pull the late Queen’s carriage, while another would be used by her husband, the late Duke of Edinburgh, to compete in events, according to a German aristocrat who passed on the request.
A German civil servant scoffed at the price, calling it “excessive,” and Germany’s auditing office expressed “serious reservations.”
The gift, worth £52,800 in today’s money, was the largest ever given to a foreign dignitary by the Bonn republic.
However, the German president at the time, Walter Scheel, agreed to the request in order to make the visit “as comfortable as possible for both sides.”
During her reign, the late Queen visited the country five times and was extremely popular among the German people.
Records of her 1992 visit, also published by Spiegel, show that she attempted to speak in front of the German parliament, which would have been a first for a monarch in the republic.
However, Helmut Kohl, the German chancellor at the time, appears to have personally vetoed the plan.
A letter from a German civil servant informing the chancellor’s office of the proposal was returned with the word “nein!” written in red ink.
Mr. Kohl dubbed the “Father of Reunification” in Germany, was enraged by Margaret Thatcher’s reservations about German unity in the late 1980s.
According to Spiegel, the decision to reject the late Queen’s request to speak in front of the Bundestag could have been late retaliation for Thatcher’s efforts to derail reunification.
During his state visit later this week, the King will become the first sitting monarch to address the German parliament.
It will be Charles’ first foreign visit since a planned trip to France was canceled due to unrest there.
In 2020, the King addressed the Bundestag while still Prince of Wales, speaking in fluent German.
Allowing a monarch to speak in a republican debating chamber has been deemed inappropriate by the left-wing Linke Party.
However, Charles can rely on his mother’s goodwill among the German people.
Germans flocked to catch a last glimpse of Elizabeth II in Berlin during her visit in 2015.
