'Error of judgement' that put monarch at centre of scandal

Not since the Queen exchanged pleasantries with the intruder Michael Fagin sitting on the royal counterpane one night in 1982 has a royal scandal surrounded the Monarch to such a personal extent as it did yesterday with the collapse of the Burrell case.

Other moments of supposed personal embarrassment for the Queen – a politician's guiding hand on her back, a cheeky invite to a joint photograph or the numerous verbal gaffes of her husband – pale to nothing in comparison to her inability to appreciate the legal significance of a conversation with a man at the centre of an important criminal trial involving her own family.

Indeed, the Burrell case is, arguably, the first instance in which Her Majesty herself might have committed an error of judgement which has brought down approbation on the House of Windsor.

In all the trials and tribulations of the Royals over the past decade – from the Windsor Castle fire to Prince Harry's antics in the village pub, via Squidgeygate, Sophiegate, Camilla and toe-sucking – nothing has rubbed off personally on to the figure of the Monarch. In fact, many would observe that she has sailed serenely above it all, as her increasingly dysfunctional family scrapped, committed adultery and engaged in dubious commercial enterprises.

Even on those occasions when she seemed to be heading for personal criticism, such as the issue of her tax affairs or the initially stilted reaction to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, errors were attributed to the influence of her courtiers or advisers.

Hugo Vickers, a royal author, believes it deeply unlikely that the Queen did not remember before, the conversation with Mr Burrell in which he told her he had been keeping some of his former employer's possessions. "Where there appears to have been an error is in appreciating the significance of the conversation, which is what happened when it was mentioned to her son.''

He believes several people might have been aware of the conversation, "I certainly heard about it a while ago," he says. "I don't think the Queen is at fault at all, she's behaved perfectly properly. I don't think it likely that she withheld knowledge or didn't remember the conversation. She's got a very good, clear memory.''

Irrespective of precisely how the existence of the conversation came to light, the Queen is now at the centre of a royal and legal controversy that may have no constitutional implications but provides fuel for those who believe the House of Windsor is dangerously out of touch.

All began to go wrong in the early Nineties after years of public and tabloid sycophancy, a process that had begun with the Coronation, continued with the silver jubilee in 1977 and peaked with the marriage of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.

When the failure of that marriage was followed in 1992 by the devastation of Windsor Castle, the row about taxpayers footing the renovation bill and the antics of her other daughter-in-law, Sarah Ferguson, and a toe-sucking lover, that was, she famously said, her annus horribilis.

But even royal divorces following royal weddings, disclosures of Diana's various lovers and the alleged taping of her son's dubious endearments to Camilla Parker Bowles, did not seem to shake the nation's affection for the Queen. Possibly they empathised: all families have problems.

But things got worse in 1997, when, after the death of Princess Diana, the national outpouring of grief seemed unmatched by the Royals, who forced her sons out to a public church service within hours of hearing the news about their mother and resisted calls to fly the flag at Buckingham Palace at half-mast. The tabloids urged her to "show more emotion". Only her broadcast to the nation on the eve of Diana's funeral seemed to rescue the situation.

The years since 1997 have generally been better. The public and the tabloids have warmed to her son's chosen partner and the monarchy has striven to present a warmer and more human face. She pays her taxes.

Now it has all gone wrong again. The Queen cannot have been happy at the unedifying row between Prince Charles and his brother, the Earl of Wessex, over the latter's film company following Prince William around at St Andrews University, particularly since the News of the World had just caught the Earl's wife, Sophie, using her royal connection to boost her PR company.

This year began with Prince Harry being caught hanging out with a few dubious characters amid rumours of drink and drugs and got worse with the death of her sister, Princess Margaret and followed a few weeks later by that of her beloved mother.

The successful golden jubilee celebrations and genuinely well-received summer concerts at Buckingham Palace have been forgotten in the storm caused by the disclosures at the Burrell trial, which was itself postponed to avoid a clash.

Now the Queen is immersed in a scandal which many will say she helped to cause. A second annus horribilis seems to have arrived.