The letter, sent as a joke, took young Marjatta Ísberg to the Queen of England. The news of Elizabeth’s death has brought back many details from decades ago for Ísberg.
The pace hasn’t slowed down much, even though his career as a teacher ended seven years ago.
– I got bored of being retired, so I went back to university. I wrote my thesis on Viking swords, and graduated two years ago. Now I’m just here, growing flax,” says Ísberg with a sigh.
Ísberg, who has lived in Reykjavík, Iceland, for decades, has just harvested the first flax crop of his life to learn the steps of fabric making.
But what was the matter with the English court and the queen, the princes and the earls of the whole world?
Spring 1965, 57 years ago – how a seat opened up at the English court
While studying at the University of Helsinki, Ísberg lived with his roommate from Oulu on Aurorankatu. The roommate tried to learn German and said that she had already been a maid for the German Hohenzollern prince.
At that time, 20-year-old Ísberg studied English himself, and his studies included a mandatory period of language study in a country where English is spoken.
– I said that I don’t mind any prince, I’d rather try to see if I could get into the royal court. And so I wrote to Buckingham Palace in London and asked for a job, Ísberg tells Yle by phone.
According to Ísberg, it was actually a joke. After the letter was put in the mail, it was forgotten.
– I was terribly surprised when I got an answer from the palace’s housekeeper that they had a position like *resident housemaid* available.
So there was work available as an innkeeper who would live in the palace himself. Since he himself had been asked for a job by the queen, Ísberg had the feeling that he couldn’t really refuse. And so, after finishing my studies in the spring of 1965, I left for London.
A normal day at the palace
Marjatta Ísberg’s title was *housemaid*. In Buckingham Palace, his work area was named *visitors floor*. Ísberg doesn’t remember anyone other than relatives of the royal family living on the floor.
– And then some others. German princes and such, they had to be served there a while ago, Ísberg smiles.
– He was terrified. I got a quick lesson in how to respond to high-ranking guests and what kind of acceptable tone should be.
Otherwise, the tasks of the insider included, among other things, *turning down a bed*, i.e. opening the bed. It meant that you had to take off the bedspread and turn the sides of the blanket appropriately so that whoever is going to sleep can slip under the blanket easily.
If the guest wanted to take a bath, the housekeeper put water at the right temperature in the tub and put suitable bath towels on the chair.
– It was exactly what servants do in some novels set in 19th century England.
Most of the time there were no guests at all on the guest floor. Nevertheless, the dust had to be wiped once a day. In addition, footprints were brushed off the carpets so that when the next guest came, the footprints of the previous one were not visible.
Everyone had their own tasks
In Windsor Castle, where the royal family spent Christmas, Ísberg’s life was different. The work area there were the rooms where the royal family stayed.
The dust was wiped three times a day: in the morning before the royal family got up, after lunch and a little before dinner.
On Saturdays, the insiders polished the brass doorknobs. Polishing the silver belonged to lackeys, who also cleaned and ironed the family’s shoes on Saturday mornings.
Even in Windsor Castle, the staff rooms were on the upper floors, on Ísberg in one of the towers. Windsor Castle is enormous, and its halls have various galleries, of which Ísberg especially remembers the miniature gallery.
As one would expect in an old castle, Windsor was full of halls, towers and corridors.
– The long corridors were lined with knight armor from all over the world. I remember how on Christmas morning I had to go early to dust. It was dark outside and the lighting was low. I was terribly afraid and thought, \”Ooh, if there’s a ghost inside that armor and it’s attacking me!\” Ísberg recalls with a laugh.
Oddly enough, the castle surroundings of the English court did not arouse any great surprise or awe in the 20-year-old Marjata.
– Maybe it was so different that you didn’t even think about it. But it was quite different, even though I had seen Olavinlinna.
Court life on the Scottish moors
Some of the court’s inner members, including Marjatta Ísberg, were defined to be *on the traveling list*. It meant traveling with the queen in her homeland.
In autumn, from mid-August to mid-October, the family lived in Scotland at Balmoral Castle. In addition to hunting, there was fishing from the river Dee that runs through the estate.
Balmoral, located on the Scottish moors, is a gray stone hunting castle, and the equipment is therefore a little more modest than in Buckingham and Windsor.
Among other things, the heating was not as efficient, and so the boarders put hot water bottles in the beds for the residents in the evenings. The part of the castle where the royal family lived was more modernized. The guests, on the other hand, found a memory from the past years under their bed: a saucer.
– I was there visiting some relatives, counts and others, and there was only a potty in their rooms. Apparently, the counts didn’t bother to use the dishes, because I never had to empty them. Maybe a little further away it was in the water, Ísberg recalls.
Balmoral left Ísberg with beautiful memories, among other things, of deer hunters.
– I remember when they came in the fall and the fireplace room had deer antler heads on the walls and leather couches where you could sit and relax after a hunting trip. There were very beautiful landscapes and the slopes of the fells had a kind of soft purple heather carpet.
Children were rarely seen
– At that time, Princess Anne and Prince Charles were in boarding school. Edward was so little I remember when we were at Balmoral and he was just learning to walk. When we got there, all the servants and rangers lined up and the Queen and Prince Philip went to greet everyone individually. Edward walked behind his mother and also wanted to say hello, but he flew backwards when the walk wasn’t quite successful yet.
Andrew Ísberg, who is four years older than Edward, does not remember at all.
– I haven’t paid any attention to him at all. But yes, he must have been involved, because Edward was too. In England, some went to boarding school as early as five years old, but Andrew must have been too young to be in school yet.
When mother died
It was August 26th in 1965, a beautiful autumn day at Balmoral and Marjatta Ísberg’s birthday. The work had begun in one of the castle’s towers, when he heard the queen’s postmistress call out in English: \”Marjatta, here is an electronic message for you!\”
– I went down from the tower to the post office and I was so happy when I thought that there would be a birthday greeting. But when I opened the email, it was from my dad and it said, \”Mom died in a car accident. Come home.\” I didn’t have to say anything. Others saw that something bad had happened.
The shock was, of course, great, when instead of a birthday greeting, a message of death arrived. Mother had died two days earlier.
– When I told what had happened and what the email said, the Queen’s staff immediately took action. They just asked, \”You are being asked to come home, but do you want to come back afterwards?\” I replied that I wanted to come back.
In no time, the staff had organized everything. First, Ísberg was driven in the Queen’s Rolls-Royce to the nearest railway station, Ballater, from where a local train took her to Aberdeen. From there, a berth was reserved on the night train to London.
The Queen’s Rolls-Royce was waiting there again, which took Ísberg to Buckingham Palace for the night.
– The next morning I was driven to Heathrow airport, where a plane ticket and a letter with pounds as travel money were waiting. I was told then let me know when you want to come back. Stay as long as you want.
Ísberg returned home, attended his mother’s funeral, and after two weeks announced that he wanted to return. The return trip was organized just like the departure.
– My father asked to ask what all this cost. He wanted to pay the expenses because I had a small salary. However, the queen’s housekeeper said that after the queen heard what had happened, she had announced that everything could be paid from her private accounts.
Thinking about it afterwards, Ísberg says that he always thinks fondly of the queen and her staff.
– I was completely insignificant, just an inside. For him, of course, it was just like a button falling off a jacket, when he is one of the richest people in the world. But still, that in that way he took care personally. Since then, I’ve always had a place in my heart for the English and their royalty, says Ísberg.
Christmas in Windsor
Traditionally, the royal family always spent Christmas at Windsor Castle, which is located about 40 kilometers west of London. Some of the staff stayed at Buckingham Palace and some, like Marjatta, went with them to Windsor.
Before leaving London, it was a tradition to give each member of the Queen’s personal staff a Christmas present. Marjatta was also specifically employed by the queen, not by the state or the government, the queen herself was the employer.
– None of us received the same gift. Of course, the queen didn’t go and buy them herself, but she probably gave the instructions, because a gift was chosen separately for each person, the value of which was according to the years of service, Ísberg recalls.
Ada, the second nester on the visitors’ floor, had served for more than 20 years and received a silver teapot. Ísberg received a woolen neckerchief when he arrived.
The gifts were handed out a day or two before Christmas. Each employee went one by one to the Queen’s study, where Elisabeth and Prince Philip were standing. The Queen handed over the gift, shook hands and wished Merry Christmas, then Philip shook hands and wished Merry Christmas too.
– If every day we happened to meet the queen, we greeted her by saying \”Good morning, ma’am\ but for this official meeting the master of ceremonies advised that we should answer: \”Thank you, your Majesty\” and to Philip \”…Your Royal Highness\”. And of course you had to shave.
Swinging London and the Beatles
Ísberg happened to be living in Buckingham Palace just as The Beatles were awarded the MBE, or Order of the British Empire, on October 26, 1965. The band members arrived at the palace to receive their titles from the Queen herself.
– I watched from the window of my room when they came in the courtyard and walked there. Behind the iron fences of the palace was a huge crowd of young people, all shouting: \”We want Paul! We want Paul!\”
Ísberg only got closer to a Beatle in 1984 when he shook Ringo Starr’s hand once in Reykjavík. An evening job at a popular restaurant’s narika was the right place and time.
– Ringo’s host was an acquaintance of mine who brought him to our restaurant and introduced us. Ringo must have been terribly surprised, but took a hand! I didn’t even bother to mention that I had last seen him in the courtyard of Buckingham Palace, Ísberg regrets and laughs.
Departure from England
Marjatta Ísberg left the service of England and the royal family quite soon in 1966. Something at work caused the twenty-something Ísberg’s atopic skin to develop symptoms. In addition, they were waiting to continue their studies at the University of Helsinki.
The departure was not only viewed as good. The queen’s housekeeper was actually angry at the rather quick departure.
\”In retrospect, it was obviously shameful when I thought how well they had treated me at Balmoral when tragedy befell our family. But I didn’t intend to be a nester for the rest of my life! Ísberg states.
The goal of the trip to England was originally the English language. Ísberg first graduated from the University of Helsinki with a bachelor’s degree in humanities and then became a teacher. Later, a laudatur was completed in both English and Nordic philology.
The scholarship took me to university in Iceland, where I could get another degree. During that time, Ísberg met her current husband, with whom she eventually moved to Iceland through the University of Munich.
– Nothing special has really happened since then. Children, work, grandchildren, and now, in retirement, I grow linen and make ribbons inspired by the old discoveries of the Viking age, Ísberg says with a laugh.
Following the court and knowledge of death
After leaving Sískö’s pesti, Ísberg has followed the English royals regularly. Nowadays, television is watched less often, but on Youtube you can find, for example, The Royal Family Channel and Australian Sky News, which often offers news about the royal family.
News of Queen Elizabeth II’s death reached the former insider at home in Reykjavík.
Earlier in the day, there was news that the queen’s spiritual doctors were worried about her health.
The TV was on at the Ísbergs and Sky News had a live broadcast from the Balmoral gate. The gate shown in the pictures reminded me of events that had been forgotten for years. When the television was turned off, we continued to monitor the situation online.
– Then my husband said that now there has been an announcement that the queen has died. I just said that *end of an era*, the end of one era.
Despite her advanced age, the queen’s death came as a surprise to Ísberg.
*What thoughts did the story evoke? The discussion is open until Monday, September 19 at 11 pm.*