Angry Royals?
Could the new series of The Crown ‘infuriate’ the Royal Family, particularly in its depiction of one of Prince Philip’s closest friendships...
No doubt, the friendship between the late Duke of Edinburgh and one particular High Society beauty was a close one. She was one of only 30 mourners at his funeral in April.
Prince Philip spent huge amounts of time with Penny Knatchbull, his carriage-driving partner, and the next series of Netflix hit The Crown explores the relationship and could reportedly ‘infuriate Royals’.
Countess Mountbatten of Burma, 30 years the Prince’s junior, will be played by Natascha McElhone, and Philip by Jonathan Pryce.
Series two depicted Prince Philip coming to live in the UK after the death of his sister, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, in a plane disaster.
In it, Philip’s father blames him for her death, saying: ‘You are the reason we are all here, burying my favourite child.’
Royal experts told the Mail
the Duke was ‘deeply hurt’ by this on-screen depiction – with Royal biographer Hugo Vickers commenting, ‘The depiction was cruel and deeply unfair.’
As for Penny, she was a close confidante of the Prince in the Nineties and ‘keeper of secrets’, according to the biography Prince Philip Revealed.
Penny is believed to have met Philip in 1974, while dating Norton Knatchbull, now the 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma, one of Prince Charles’s closest schoolfriends at Gordonstoun.
The only daughter of Reginald Eastwood, a butcherturned-businessman, she was educated in Switzerland, before taking a business degree at the London School of Economics.
Earl Mountbatten, now 73, whose family seat is Broadlands in Hampshire – where the Queen and Philip spent their honeymoon – is the grandson of Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s uncle.
When Norton married Penny in 1979 – with Prince Charles as best man – it was just two months after his father, Lord Louis Mountbatten, had been murdered by the IRA.
The Earl also lost his brother Nicholas and grandmother, Lady Brabourne, when a bomb, planted on the family’s fishing boat, exploded in County Sligo.
The Knatchbulls were close members of the Royal circle – but it was tragedy that bonded Penny and Philip, after her daughter Leonora died of kidney cancer, age five, in 1991.
After her daughter’s death, Philip began to invite Penny on carriage rides and she became passionate about the sport. They were often together at events such as the Royal Windsor Horse
Show, even on matching mini-motorbikes.
How far The Crown – based on real-life events, but taking much artistic licence – will delve into their relationship is yet to be seen, but it is not a stretch to imagine the Queen and the Royals raising an eyebrow at the news.
Added to reports suggesting that the Queen is ‘exasperated’ with Harry and Meghan’s issues with The Firm – and is ‘lawyering up’ to potentially sue the pair – there could be very stormy seas ahead...
The Crown is available on Netflix with the next series due in 2022.
‘The pair were often seen together, even on matching bikes’