The Lost Prince: Born in the Imperial Family

Prince John, 13, was planted in the grass at Wood Farm and never got up again. Three days later, his family held a small funeral for him at the relatively secluded Sandringham Palace, attended by John's father, King George V, his mother, Queen Mary, and his brother Prince George. Prince John's popularity was good, and the farm staff spontaneously came to mourn him, and after the funeral, Prince George said to Lara, the nanny who had been with John, "I think he is the only one among us who can be himself." ”

Prince George's words can also be regarded as the most incisive conclusion of Prince John's short life. As a member of the British Royal Family, life was not good in the first two decades of the 20th century. From the perspective of the state system, the British royal family has completely become a ceremonial and spiritual existence, the country's major policies are all decided by the cabinet, and the British king only has the power to sign cabinet resolutions - "even if the king's death sentence is sent to him, he must sign it", but once there is any political turmoil, the royal family is easy to carry the black pot. It is not easy to get taxpayers across the UK to agree to spend a fortune to support a royal family in difficult times, and they have to try to play their role in the national system and the public.

Of course, as a two-episode 180-minute TV movie produced by the BBC, "The Lost Prince" will not deliberately smear the royal family, screenwriter and director Polyakov has created many TV film works for the BBC, and his British interest is also vividly reflected in this work, and the elegant and sad audiovisual style runs through it. Prince John suffered from epilepsy and autism, mental retardation, so he was hidden by the royal family for a long time, and with the outbreak of the First World War, Prince John began to live in seclusion on Wood Farm, gradually disappearing from public view until his death in 1919. His files have long been deliberately kept secret by the royal family, and were not made public until these years — the show is worthy of the name "The Lost Prince", and this Prince John is the uncle of the current Queen Elizabeth II.

The fate of Prince John was like a metaphor for the British royal family at that time, and the lonely situation made the royal family walk on thin ice everywhere. The British crown was associated with many European monarchs, and Prince John was impressed by his Russian cousins, the last Tsar Nicholas II and his sons, and his German cousin, the last Kaiser Wilhelm II, but both were overthrown during the First World War. In particular, the Tsar's family of nine were shot dead by the Bolsheviks (there are historical records that Lenin personally ordered it), which gave a huge psychological impact to the British royal family. Previously, the Tsar had also made a request for asylum in exile in England, but the British royal family refused – which also became a heavy knot in the heart of George V.

And in the First World War, Britain and Germany became mortal enemies, which made the British royal family stigmatized in the minds of the people - even a British officer shouted at them, claiming that the royal family and Germany colluded: the British royal family has intermarried with almost all European monarchies in history, and has a deep relationship with Germany, although it has been independent for hundreds of years, but George V's surname at that time still originated from Germany, which made the British people indignant, so that the royal family finally had to take the initiative to change the surname and change the dynasty . From the Saxon-Coburg-Gotha dynasty to the Windsor dynasty. For George V, this district suit under pressure was obviously difficult for him to accept, but he had to knock out his teeth and swallow blood.

The sick Prince John had the opportunity to be outside the political whirlpool, but through his eyes, the political drama of the royal family was vividly displayed. His grandfather, Edward VII, was grumpy by nature, but the childlike John made him laugh and relax, but at his father's coronation ceremony after his grandfather's death, Prince John was not allowed to attend--he even had to find a secluded place to hide before he fell ill to convulse and convulse on the ground (not to lose the face of the royal family); Prince John was unrestrained because of his mental retardation, which was in stark contrast to the harsh education that Prince George received at the military academy and was reprimanded by his father.

The status of a prince gave John good food and good care, but the lack of affection made him suffer from loneliness in his short life - even after meeting his mother on a hike, he could promote a meeting between mother and son. When chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, when the country was destroyed, he once sighed at his daughter Princess Changping, "Ru He was born to my family", and then cut off his daughter's left arm; however, the Shunzhi Emperor who succeeded Chongzhen in the world left behind the verse "Why was I born in the imperial family" and left the poem "Why was I born in the imperial family" and left the dust.

Poor Little John of England, why was he born in the imperial family?

(Published in Literary and Art Style, July 2014)