Coup

The Crown 3×5

Harold Wilson: You know, people like Mountbatten, meddlers, for want of a kinder word, energetic, well-connected meddlers, it's better that they're inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in.

Lord Mountbatten: Are you kicking me out?
Harold Wilson: Well, no, sir, I'm thanking you on behalf of the government, on behalf of the armed forces, on behalf of the whole country for your many years of remarkable service.
Lord Mountbatten: You are. You're kicking me out. Well, there we are! Well... There we are.

Cecil King: It's not absurd. It's obscene. But where one door closes, another opens. "There is special providence in such a fall. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all."

Queen Elizabeth II: Remind me of the year.
Porchey: 1967. Why?
Queen Elizabeth II: 'Cause having seen what I've just seen, one might think it 2067. In terms of technology, and their management of the pasture, and their willingness to embrace new ideas, the Americans aren't just on a different level, they're on a different planet.

Lord Mountbatten: ..... Which brings me to the fifth element. Legitimacy. Now, our government draws its strength from long-established institutions that support it. The courts, body of common law, the constitution. For any action against the state to succeed, you'd have to overthrow these as well. But in a highly evolved democracy such as ours, their authority is sacrosanct. Which is why, gentlemen, a coup d'état in the United Kingdom... doesn't stand a chance. Unless...
Cecil King: Unless...
Lord Mountbatten: Unless we had the support of the one person not yet mentioned. The Crown has at its disposal unique constitutional powers which could still make something like this possible. In 1834, William IV used them to dismiss his government in the face of opposition from the House. And in 1920, the Emergency Powers Act was passed, which gave the sovereign power in certain circumstances to declare a state of emergency by proclamation. Meaning our Queen could dissolve Parliament and appoint a new government, and a prime minister as well. She's also Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. They swear allegiance to her and not to Parliament, so could count on their support to see it through. She is our Caesar.
Cecil King: And you think she might entertain this idea?
Lord Mountbatten: The circumstances are certainly compelling.

Queen Elizabeth II: Somehow today has managed to be one of the most enjoyable days of my life. And at the same time, one of the most depressing.

Queen Elizabeth II: If I tell you something, do you promise it will stay between us?
Porchey: Of course.
Queen Elizabeth II: This is how I'd like to spend all my time. Owning horses, breeding horses, racing horses. It's what makes me truly happy. And I actually think it's what I was born to do, until the other thing came along... that someone else was born to do, that they elected not to do, which meant that first my father, and then I, had to do a job we were never meant to do.
Porchey: Well, you've managed to make it look like the other thing is the only thing you were ever meant to do.
Queen Elizabeth II: Hmm. You're kind. But it isn't. And on days like today... in places like this, in company like this... you get a glimpse of what it all might have been like. The unlived life... and how much happier it might have made me.

Queen Elizabeth II: Not now! Oh, dear. Did I just snap?
Porchey: Slightly.

Lord Mountbatten: Why are you doing this? Why would you protect a man like Wilson?
Queen Elizabeth II: I am protecting the Prime Minister. I am protecting the constitution. I am protecting democracy.
Lord Mountbatten: But if the man at the heart of that democracy threatens to destroy it, are we supposed to just stand by and do nothing?
Queen Elizabeth II: Yes. Doing nothing is exactly what we do, and bide our time, and wait for the people that voted him in to vote him out again, if indeed that is what they decide to do.

Queen Elizabeth II: I'm sure you find it near impossible to do nothing and to not have the role and responsibilities you've always had. You were born to be busy and to lead. But you still have a huge role to play in this family. A father figure to my husband. An uncle and a guide to me. A king to make in Charles, not to mention a brother to your sister... When was the last time you even visited her? Cheered her up? That would be a greater service to the Crown than leading unconstitutional coups. Hmm.

Lord Mountbatten: The four of us. Look at us now. Only two left.
Princess Alice: You're left, not me. I'm on the way out.
Lord Mountbatten: Nonsense.
Princess Alice: There came a moment around the time I turned 70... when it dawned on me that I was no longer a participant, rather a spectator.
Lord Mountbatten: I've discovered that for myself.
Princess Alice: Then it's just a matter of waiting and not getting in the way.

Lord Mountbatten: The situation this country is facing is anything but amusing.
Princess Alice: Oh... Who cares? Honestly. One of the few joys of being as old as we both are is that it's not our problem. It's not really our country, either.
Lord Mountbatten: What are you talking about? Of course it's our country.
Princess Alice: We Battenbergs have no country. Our family might have kings and queens in its ranks, but we're mongrels, too. Part-German, part-Greek, part-nowhere at all.
Lord Mountbatten: Well, this is my country. It gave me a home, it gave me a name, and in return, I've given it my life. And to see it like this breaks my heart.

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