THE LAST VICEROY OF INDIA
Who Is Prince Philip's Uncle, Lord Mountbatten?
Prince William named his son Louis in tribute to the late Lord Mountbatten.
If you haven't finished season two of The Crown, proceed with caution, light spoilers ahead.
Prince Philip's close relative Lord Mountbatten plays a key role in The Crown, the Netflix series about Queen Elizabeth's reign. Portrayed by English actor Greg Wise in seasons one and two, and Game of Thrones alum, Charles Dance in the forthcoming seasons three and four, Uncle Dickie, as he's affectionately known to the royals, serves as Prince Charles's mentor, helping him to navigate his role within the family.
But the television series doesn't tell the whole story. Here's what Lord Mountbatten was really like.
THE MOUNTBATTEN CONNECTION TO THE ROYAL FAMILY
As with many royal relatives, Louis Mountbatten was related to both Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth. A great-grandson of Queen Victoria, he was both a distant cousin of the Queen's and Prince Philip's uncle. Philip's mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, was Louis's sister. Philip also lived with the Mountbattens for several years following his mother's institutionalization.
A COMPLICATED MARRIAGE
In a particularly tender scene in the first episode of season two ofThe Crown, Elizabeth II speaks candidly with Uncle Dickie about her marital woes. “You married a wild spirit—we both did," he says, referring to his wife Lady Edwina Ashley Mountbatten, whom he married on July 18, 1922. "Trying to tame them is no use."
"Of course I considered ending it," he continues. "Then I imagined how thin, how poor life would be. I realized, when you really adore someone, as fully and as hopelessly as I think you and I do, you put up with anything."
The second chapter of The Crown centers around infidelity—rumors followed many of the couples featured on the show—but in reality Louis and Edwina Mountbatten had a rather unorthodox marriage. Certainly, Edwina could not be tamed, to use the language of the show, but by 1931 the couple had reportedly "cut a deal," according to the Washington Post: "They would stay together with separate beds and, to some extent, separate lives. But they would remain loving, mutually supportive chums. Above all, they would be discreet."
Both Mountbattens had affairs, and Louis is thought by some historians to have been bisexual. He once reportedly said, "Edwina and I spent all our married lives getting into other people's beds."
The couple did eventually have two daughters together: Patricia Knatchbull, who later became the 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, and Lady Pamela Hicks, mother of designers Ashley Hicks and India Hicks.
Lady Pamela Hicks has even recently commented on her parents' unusual marital arrangements. "They each had one real lover," she said about her parents in her podcast, referencing Colonel Harold “Bunny” Phillips, her mother's companion, and a french woman, with whom her father had an affair for several decades. "My sister and I my mother's lover and my father's lover, we adored them both..." saying that they loved their parents' lovers "very nearly" as much as their parents.
THE LAST VICEROY OF INDIA
In many ways, Mountbatten represents the beginning of the end of the British Empire. He served as the final Viceroy of India, arriving in New Delhi in March of 1947 with the intention of ending British rule in the country. He was quickly successful. Per his obituary in the New York Times, "Independence for India and Pakistan came on Aug. 15, 1947, only 195 days after Lord Mountbatten's arrival." The transition was less than smooth, but he eventually became India's first Governor General, a position he held until June 1948 when he returned to Great Britain.
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