The Balmoral Test Seen in "The Crown" Is Absolutely a Real Thing
Season 4 of The Crown depicts Prince Charles and Diana Spencer's whirlwind courtship, and complicated marriage.
In September 1980, Diana traveled to Balmoral, the royal family's castle retreat in Scotland.
Is the "Balmoral Test" depicted in episode 2 of The Crown real? In fact, it is—and this is how to pass.
Take away all the titles and castles, and the second episode of The Crown's fourth season depicts a rite of passage for many couples: Meeting the family. After visiting Balmoral Castle in September of 1980, Diana (Emma Corrin) asks her beau Charles (Josh O'Connor) to let her know if she "passed" his family's test.
Diana and Charles could be any couple in that moment—but of course, they're not. He's a prince, and first in line to the English throne. And if 19-year-old Diana earns the Windsor family's approval, she will go from being a relatively anonymous aristocrat to one of the most famous women in the world. As Diana's grandmother Lady Fermoy (a close friend of the Queen Mother) tells her upon entering the castle, this is the "most important weekend of [her] life."
"The Balmoral Test" captures the two on the precipice of long-lasting change—and the story is true, including the so-called Balmoral Test. Here's how to "pass" it.
Balmoral Castle is the Windsor family's getaway in northern Scotland.
Queen Victoria bought the Highlands castle in 1848. Ever since, the Aberdeenshire retreat has been a favorite destination of the royal family—especially of Queen Elizabeth II, who spends summers at the northern hideaway.
"I think Granny is the most happy there. I think she really, really loves the Highlands," described her granddaughter Princess Eugenie in the documentary The Queen At Ninety.
Balmoral is more than a castle—it's an entire environment. The estate clocks in at 50,000 acres, and houses 150 buildings. While at Balmoral, the royal family is known to fish, ride horses, hunt, picnic, and barbecue. At Balmoral, the Windsors "act as normal people—to a point," Lord Lichfield, a former photographer for the family, said in 1972.
Yes, the "Balmoral Test" is apparently real.
If you ever happen to score an invitation to Balmoral, know this: You will be scrutinized by the Windsors, just like Diana and Margaret Thatcher are in The Crown. As the legend goes, visitors are supposed to navigate the home's particularities, which date back to Queen Victoria's purchase in 1848.
"The very quirks and obscure family traditions which have accrued over the years can intimidate newcomers," Andrew Morton wrote in Princess Diana: Her Story in Her Own Words, which features interviews with Diana. "'Don't sit there,' they chorus at an unfortunate guest foolish enough to try and sit in a chair in the drawing-room which was last used by Queen Victoria."
A weekend at Balmoral is a make-or-break moment for future social dealings with the family: "Those who successfully navigate the social minefield, popularly known as the Balmoral Test, are accepted by the royal family. The ones who fail vanish from royal favor as quickly as the Highland mists come and go," Morton wrote. Essentially, if you're a good sport, you'll pass.
Prime Ministers visit Balmoral yearly. Thatcher, for the record, was said to have called Balmoral "purgatory," according to the Queen’s biographer, Ben Pimlott, as The Guardian reports.
According to The Crown's version of events, Diana, unlike Margaret Thatcher, fits right in with the Windsors. "She was a triumph. In the history of Balmoral, no one has ever passed the test with such flying colors," a morose Charles tells Camilla Parker-Bowles, his lover, on the phone. Charles's family encouraged him to marry Diana following that weekend—and the tabloids took note.
Technically, Diana's third date with Charles was at Balmoral Castle.
In September 1980, Diana traveled to the northern reaches of Scotland to spend a weekend with Charles and his family at Balmoral. By that point, they had gone on a two dates (of 13, total, before their engagement, according to the documentary Diana in Her Own Words). Charles and Diana first attended a performance at Royal Albert Hall, accompanied by Diana's grandmother as a chaperone, and went on a week-long yachting trip.
Then came Balmoral. The Crown dramatizes Diana's weekend in Scotland, from games to hunting expeditions with the Duke of Windsor. In actuality, Morton's biography states that Diana stayed with her sister Jane and husband Robert Fellowes, who, being a member of the royal household, had a cottage on the estate (remember, there are 150 structures). Every day, Charles would call on Diana to join him for an outdoorsy activity—no word on whether that included stag hunting with Prince Philip.
By all accounts, Diana made a good impression. "The adjectives every witness applied enthusiastically to Diana in these early days of her romance with Charles were 'uncomplicated,' 'jolly,' and 'easygoing.' It was a big plus to Diana's cause that she appeared so happy tramping over sodden moors,'" Tina Brown wrote in The Diana Chronicles.
Not depicted in The Crown are the prying eyes that intruded on the royal idyll that summer. According to Morton, royal journalist James Whitaker and two photographers attempted to snap photos of the courting couple, though Diana effectively disguised herself with a headscarf.
In November 1980, Diana was in her first paparazzi photos—and this time, couldn't hide herself with a headscarf. She's wearing a simple sweater, clutching her flat keys in her hand. "From then on, her private life was effectively over," Morton writes. Diana was becoming a celebrity, simply via association with the Crown.
Charles and Diana returned to Balmoral for their honeymoon in 1981.
Charles and Diana were married in July 1981, less than a year after that first trip to Balmoral. Following a two-week Mediterranean cruise on the Royal Yacht Britannia, the couple returned to the Scottish castle to continue their honeymoon.
According to The Diana Chronicles, Diana found the atmosphere in Balmoral stifling once she was a part of the royal family, from that summer on.
Diana, in her own words, said that she began to devolve on their honeymoon, surrounded by Charles's family. "Charles used to want to go for long walks around Balmoral the whole time we were on our honeymoon. His idea of enjoyment would be to sit on top of the highest hill at Balmoral," Diana said in the Morton biography. She added that she was depressed and "in a very bad way" by October of 1981. Diana would go on to "dread" the eight-week annual trip, per Brown.
When Diana died in 1997, her sons, William and Harry, were at Balmoral with their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen instructed her staff to let the children sleep in before telling them the news, and banned all newspapers with headlines about the crash, per the Washington Post.
The Crown is not filmed at Balmoral, though.
No royal hideaways were disturbed in the making of The Crown. Ardverikie Estate in the Scottish highlands provides the dramatic backdrop for The Crown. This doesn't rule out seeing the castle in person, though: Balmoral is open to the public during the months of April through July.
You can catch a glimpse inside Balmoral in photos here.
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