Prince Philip with his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, in 1960.Photo: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty
One of the stand-out stories in season three ofThe Crownfocuses onPrince Philip’s eccentric mother Princess Alice.
“She is the unheralded star of the show,” says Robert Lacey, the historical consultant for the Netflix series.
Royal historian Hugo Vickers, author ofThe Crown Dissected, (excerpted inThe Times), says the show portrays Philip as being uncomfortable with his mother being in Buckingham Palace, and is reluctant to visit her in her room.
In reality,Prince Philiphad been trying to persuade his mother to come over to London for some time. Vickers writes that she lived at the palace between 1967 and 1969, when she passed away.
Princess Anne and Princess Alice in 1969.WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty
Vickers, who also wroteAlice: Princess Andrew of Greece, says that Philip was the much longed-for son after Alice had four daughters. “On his part, he was very good to her, often flying her from one place to another and, as related, buying her the apartment in Athens.”
As Philip grew up, there were long separations due to his mother’s hospital stays, or when she was living in Germany in the 1930s, and later in Athens. Vickers adds, “I suspect that others in his family sought to minimize her influence on him.”
Her health challenges saw famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud being consulted — although he did not treat her as the show recounts, the biographer points out.
And the scene of her interview-bombing (to granddaughter Princess Anne’s enjoyment!) the official documentary made about the Windsors is also fiction. But it does underline how close Anne was to her.
Anwar Hussein/Getty
“Anne called Alice Yaya, the Greek word for grandmother,” Lacey, the author ofThe Crown, The Inside History, says. “She loved sitting and hearing the stories that her grandmother would tell about Victoria being present at Alice’s birth.”
More recently, Alice has become more celebrated for her role in helping save a Jewish family — and she is buried Jerusalem. “She was also a hero of the Holocaust,” adds Lacey. Her grandsonPrince Charles, 71, spoke of her and his fatherPrince Philipat a recent palace reception.
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source: people.com
