簡単に言えば、フィリップ殿下の叔父、Lous Mountbatten, the first Mountbatten of Burmaの孫息子である、Norton Knatchbull, Lord Romsey(Lord Brabourne) のお嫁さんである、Lady Penny Brabourne。スイスで教育を受け、ロンドンで経済学を学んだそうです。
ルイス・マウントバッテン卿の長女パトリシア・ナッチブルは、父に男児が生まれなかったため、女性でありながら、稀な例として、2代目Mountbatten of Burmaを継いで伯爵であったそうです。パトリシアは、エリザベス女王のthe lady in waitingを務めています。夫が第7代ブラボーン男爵ジョン・ナッチブルで、結婚式にはエリザベス女王とマーガレット王女、アレクサンドラ王女がブライドメイドを務めた親しい両家。双子を含む8人の子女を産み、双子の男児と父を事故で失いました。
長男第3代Mountbatten of Burma伯爵ノートン・ナッチブルのお嫁さんが、Penelope Eastwoodで、結婚後はLady Penelope Romsey、のちにLady Penelope Brabourneペネロペ・ブラボーン伯爵夫人になった写真の女性です。結婚式では、チャールズ皇太子が新郎のベストマンとして出席しているそうです。
この女性について、あれこれ記事を見ていたら、むか〜し読んだ、サマーセット・モームの短編戯曲 "The Constant Wife"の世界に、とても似ていると思いました。英国上流社会の生き方、価値観が、現代も続いているのかも。
A lady-in-waiting or court lady is a female personal assistant at a court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman, but of lower rank than the woman to whom she attended. Although she may either have been a retaineror may not have received compensation for the service she rendered, a lady-in-waiting was considered more of a secretary, courtier or companion to her mistress than a servant.
The Queen, sitting just feet away, was relieved to see her husband of 67 years looking so relaxed and contented. She has always known, and accepted, Philip's fondness for the company of beautiful women, and he has never made a secret of it. 'Flirtatiousness at his age is quite good for him,' says one of the Queen's oldest friends. 'It keeps him chirpy.'
Over the years Philip's name has been linked with many women, from the late Jane, Countess of Westmoreland and Alexandra, wife of brewery heir Lord Tollemache, to the actresses Anna Massey and Merle Oberon. The Prince has always brushed away these stories with feigned indifference, punctuated by the occasional exasperated denial. Wearily he has pointed out 'I have had a detective in my company night and day since 1947' a reference to his police bodyguard who always accompanies him.
For her part, the Queen has never questioned her husband's loyalty and support. As she said of Philip in her golden wedding speech in 1997: 'He has, quite simply, been my strength and my stay all these years.' At the same time, she is also worldly enough to accept, as her close friend puts it, that: 'Some men have certain needs and that doesn't mean they love their wives any the less.' The Queen has always known, and accepted, Philip's fondness for the company of beautiful women, and he has never made a secret of it.
Of all the women's names that have been linked with Philip, Penny Brabourne's is easily the most enduring, the one that even now so late in his life, continues to raise unwelcome attention.
But then, this is hardly surprising since over the past two decades Philip and the woman described by friends as 'bewitchingly beautiful' have spent endless weekends carriage driving together all over the country. She has been a regular guest at the weekend house parties he holds at secluded Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk. She never stays when the Queen is there.
There was a time, indeed, when courtiers referred to the 'Penny Romsey situation' — this before her now-estranged husband succeeded to his father's title of Baron Brabourne a decade ago.
The phrase had emerged in royal corridors some years earlier, after details of a lengthy and rambling telephone conversation between Penny and Prince Philip were leaked by an electronic eavesdropper.
With a warm familiarity, they were overheard chewing over some of the Royal Family's most private and pressing issues, from Charles and Diana's divorce, to Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles.
Prince Philip valued her thoughts and opinions. After all, Penny was the first person to suggest that Charles and Diana were ill-suited because they had virtually nothing in common. The full details of that late-night call have never been revealed.
But after the Squidgygate and Camillagate affairs — when telephone calls between Diana and her friend James Gilbey, and Charles and his then mistress Camilla Parker Bowles were intercepted and then leaked — the taped conversation was inevitably dubbed 'Dukegate', much to Philip's understandable anger.
Even though their conversation had little in common with the intimacies and implications of the others, some interpreted it as an indication of their closeness.
Ever since 1975, when Norton first introduced his girlfriend — the then Penny Eastwood — to Prince Charles, with whom he was at school, and then Philip, she has always been popular with the Royal Family. As one Royal Family friend who has known her since those early days recalls: 'She was one of the most natural young women I have ever met, outgoing but not brash or flirty.' Undoubtedly, it was her lively mind, as well as her beauty, which turned this former meat trader's daughter into a central figure at the heart of royal life.
Friends of Philip know that — as a man who always had an eye for a pretty girl but was also known to get bored easily — he was bound to find her intelligent and amusing company especially irresistible. Now, at an age when he is unable to do much carriage driving, he has found another reason for them to spend time together — painting in watercolours.
As for Philip and the Queen, these are now their golden, peaceful years, but old friends still remember those early days when the handsome young naval officer — with a reputation as a ladies' man — married the Queen. All this time, he has been unable to shake off the incessant gossip.
Over the past six decades his name has been linked with a string of women. The duchesses, princesses and society beauties came in addition to those who preceded his marriage, such as the author Daphne du Maurier and even, it has been murmured, a Fortnum & Mason waitress.
Contemporaries of the young Philip describe him as being 'astronomically good looking.'
As for the women who were most likely to attract his attention, he has never appeared to favour any type. As his cousin, Princess Alexandra of the Hellenes observed: 'He liked blondes, brunettes and redheads — he was very impartial.'
It is certainly extraordinary that even now, well into his tenth decade, talk of Philip's flirtatious nature does not abate.
And it is surely reasonable to speculate that the company of attractive women is one factor in his continuing rude health. No slippers and bath chair for him.
The Queen is said to be 'relaxed' — these days at least — about the constant topic of Philip and Penny The Queen is said to be 'relaxed' — these days at least — about the constant topic of Philip and Penny. As a figure close to the royals says: 'She shrugs her shoulders and says: "Philip likes to have her around."'
As for Philip, he 'doesn't believe he has anything to feel guilty about as he doesn't give a damn what the world thinks'.
Well, that's not entirely accurate.
'He has always been anxious for the world to know he would never do anything to humiliate the wife he has always loved,' says a friend.
And if outwardly the Queen's attitude to the gossip has always been total calm, over the years she was known to be irritated, and even hurt, by the talk that attached itself to his flirtations.
'She accepted that he took a lot of amusing,' says a close figure. 'I've always felt his need for amusement outside his marriage had something to do with him being such an active and demanding consort, while having to take a back seat to his wife.
'But his loyalty to her is unquestioning.'
These days, clearly, he doesn't require as much 'amusing' as in past days.
Although he is still up at 7.30 every morning (two hours ahead of the Queen) he no longer takes the stairs two at a time.
For Penny Brabourne, life goes on pretty much the same, since her husband returned from an affair in the Bahamas last year and moved into a cottage on the Broadlands estate while she lives in the main house.
She is a frequent guest of the Queen, and last weekend was staying at Windsor Castle.
No one talks of the 'the Romsey situation' any more. It has been replaced by 'the great friendship'. Penny herself is jokingly referred to by Palace staff as 'And also' as no guest list is complete without her.
She still adores the Duke of Edinburgh, and he undoubtedly, still enjoys the attentions of this younger, and still beautiful woman.
But then, no one can imagine Philip failing to respond to a pretty woman until he has breathed his last.
別の記事
Philandering peer is allowed back home: Queen's friend Lord Brabourne returns to his 60-room mansion after being banished to a stable block when his wife discovered his affair
When Lord Brabourne, the Queen’s cousin, returned to his ancestral seat after an affair with a fashion designer in the Bahamas, his wife, Penelope, banished him to a converted stable block next door.
Now, however, I can disclose that Prince Philip’s close friend Lady Brabourne has relented and let her husband, Norton Knatchbull, heir to the Mountbatten dynasty, back to live in the famous 60-room Palladian mansion Broadlands, in Hampshire.
‘Penny is happy for Norton to be back home,’ a friend tells me. ‘Norton is in poor health and ailing and it didn’t seem right for him to be away from his family home.’Brabourne, 69, the grandson of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, moved to the Bahamas in 2010 to embark on a new life with Lady Nuttall, 60. However, their affair fizzled out and he returned in 2014 to Broadlands, where the Queen began her honeymoon.
Norton, who was a friend and mentor to Prince Charles, married Penelope two months after the 1979 assassination of Lord Mountbatten, which also killed three others, including Norton’s youngest brother, Nicholas, and his grandmother, the Dowager Lady Brabourne. In 2010, Penelope, 64, who is Prince Philip’s regular carriage-driving companion, told staff at the 5,000-acre estate that her husband had left and she would be running the estate.
Lord Brabourne, a descendant of Queen Victoria, was living in the Bahamas with Eugenie Nuttall, glamorous widow of former Guards officer Sir Nicholas Nuttall.