Who is this character that pulled the strings of the Windsor family? Great-grandson of Queen Victoria and uncle of the Duke of Edinburgh, he had a very important role at court
Lord Mountbatten had a great influence during the reign of Elizabeth II. He was in charge of raising his nephew, Felipe de Edimburgo, from a very young age because his sister, Princess Alice of Battenberg, had to be admitted to different asylums. Once he was engaged to the then Princess Elizabeth, it was Mountbatten who fought for his nephew to be given the title of prince, as well as Duke of Edinburgh. His contacts and his lineage made him a great personality in British society, and there are even those who link him to the attempted coup in 1968.
But … who is this character that pulled the strings of the Windsor family for decades? Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten is the son of Prince Louis of Battenberg (later Mountbatten) and Princess Victoria of Hesse. His siblings are Princess Alice of Battenberg, mother of the Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Louise of Sweden, remarried to King Gustav VI Adolf, and George Mountbatten, second Marquis of Milford Haven. Like his siblings, he was born in Windsor Castle, being the great-grandson of Queen Victoria. He lived his childhood on horseback between England, Germany, and Malta, where his father was posted as an officer. He was familiarly known as Dickieand he spent long periods in the Russian court, where it is said that he fell in love with Maria, one of the daughters of the last tsars, whose tragic end is known to all.
Very close to the British royal family from a young age, when they decided to change their German-surname to Windsor after World War II, Louis’s father did the same and changed the German Battenberg to Mountbatten, becoming Lord Louis Mountbatten. His military achievements were increasing and the trust that the Crown placed in him as well, since he was in charge of accompanying the then Crown Prince Edward – who would later become Edward VIII and abdicate for love of Wallis Simpson – on a tour of Australia, being your advisor. He also traveled with him to India and Japan, journeys in which a great friendship was forged between them.
His achievements in the navy with which he obtained the title of Viscount Mountbatten of Burma also earned him a position in the diplomatic world. In 1947 he became the last viceroy of India. After his mission in India, he returned to the British Armed Forces. From 1959 to 1965, he served as chief of the Defense Staff, from which he left due to a move by the Harold Wilson Government, a story that is also told in ‘The Crown’.
On a personal level, Mountbatten married Edwina Ashley and they had two daughters: Lady Patricia and Lady Pamela, both occasional bridesmaids to the queen. Lady Patricia was well known in British high society along with her husband John Knatchbull and father of her eight children, including Lady Amanda, the favorite of her grandfather Lord Mountbatten, who wanted to marry her to Prince Charles to unite the two even more. families. The power that Lord Mountbatten had over Prince Charles was so great that he did not object to marrying Amanda, even the heir wrote a letter to the mother of the bride telling her his wishes to marry her.
But Mountbatten’s sudden death changed circumstances and she finally rejected him, leaving Carlos free, who finally found Diana Spencer. His death is precisely one of the most tragic moments narrated in this fourth season of The Crown, just released. It was on August 27, 1979 when Lord Mountbatten died in an attack.. He was fishing with several members of his family in Mullaghmore, 19 kilometers from the Northern Ireland border. There he used to spend his holidays, despite receiving warnings, as it was a place of refuge from the terrorist group IRA. That day, when he caught his boat, Thomas McMahon, a member of the IRA, remotely detonated the bomb with 23 kg of explosives that he had placed there the night before.
Such was the explosion that the ship was completely destroyed and, although the Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle was rescued alive, he died of his injuries shortly after. He was not the only one who died in this attack: Nicholas, one of his grandsons, also lost his life, as well as the mother of his son-in-law, Doreen Knatchbull, who died the next day, in addition to Paul, a member of the crew. Her daughter Patricia, her son-in-law John and Timothy, another of her grandchildren, was seriously injured.
A week later a state funeral was held at Westminster Abbey. Charles’s relationship with the Mountbatten family remains extraordinary, so much so that Prince Charles accompanied Alexandra Knatchbull, his goddaughter and Lord Mountbatten’s great-granddaughter, to the altar at their wedding in 2016.
Amelia Warner
Amelia Warner writes all the Latest Articles. She mostly covers Entertainment topics, but at times loves to write about movie reviews as well.
