Venby Elise
The chess in the old world is as cold as ice, and the human ants are close relatives. Even as a royal family, they can't get rid of the helplessness of life, old age, illness and death, but the shackles of the royal family's image make them have to cover up the truth of the disease to the public - and in the public's eyes, this fully confirms the cold-bloodedness and hypocrisy of the royal family.
There is a slang in English called "A skeleton in the cupboard", which means that every household has an unknown "family ugly", so for the British Windsor royal family in the early twentieth century, their "family ugly" is an unseemly blood relative, the British called "missing prince" John. Rumors that the Windsor family, in order to maintain the royal family's image, brutally isolated this child with epilepsy and autism, which is difficult not to think of the horrible humanity behind the "crazy woman in the attic".
In 1919, when the thirteen-year-old Prince John was finally taken to life by illness, his eleven-year-old brother Prince Edward (the one who later loved the beauty and did not love the country) mentioned the younger brother who had little contact with him in a letter to his lover, and accused the Windsor family of "completely isolating him ([John] from the outside world during the last two years of Prince John's life, and meeting the rest of the family no more than twice a year, like animals." The letter caused an uproar after the media spread and became the biggest scandal in the royal family. The headline of the Independent Daily at the time was: "The royal family blocked his sick prince, left him to fend for himself, and died at the age of thirteen".
Everyone seems to have forgotten that at the beginning this cute boy actually grew up in the spotlight and was the jewel in the palm of the royal family.
Born in 1905, Prince John was the youngest child of King George V of England (nicknamed "The Naval King") and Queen Mary. The royal couple had six children (the other five were Prince Edward, Prince Albert, Princess Mary, Prince Henry, and Prince George), but the children were raised and accompanied mostly by their nanny, Charlotte Lala, and John was no exception. He had only an hour a day to meet his birth mother, and even less time with King George, but that didn't stop him from being a lively and loving child in his early years.
The Prince's aunt, the Empress of Russia, after visiting relatives of the British Royal Family, made a special mention of Little John in a letter to her son Nicholas II: "Several of George V's children were very cultured and lovely, especially the two youngest: George and Little John, who were particularly charming and amusing."
Little John is the pistachio of the family, but also George V likes to show the royal family of the perfect part of the family, such as this propaganda photo, six children like satellites up and down three around the king and queen, simply perfect, this time little John's exposure is not low, but also very high.
The aura came to an abrupt end when Little John was four years old, and the once-clever little prince began to be found to have slow mental development and restless behavior, and in the same year, Little John suffered the first epilepsy attack in his fate, and was later diagnosed with autism. In the words of George V: "He doesn't seem to know how to control his behavior. But the child's nanny, Charlotte, insisted that John's door to perception and response to outside emotions had never been closed. At this time, John still often appeared in the public eye, and everyone was lucky to think that as he grew older, John's condition would also be alleviated.
However, it did not. After John began to scream uncontrollably, the older siblings began to feel troubled and tired of this unprovoked younger brother, and the time spent with little John and his siblings began to decrease. By 1912, when the family's second youngest child, Prince George (who was the closest to Prince John's age), began entering elementary school, the media rushed to report it. The Times published an article saying that George had already begun life in boarding school, and the next person to usher in primary education was John, but George and Mary did not plan to enroll John the next year. The Times predicted correctly: not only had John Jr., who had reached his current grade in his second year, not reported it, but for the rest of his short life, John Jr. had not taken a step into school. Queen Mary and King George have confirmed that John is poor in learning and can only be cared for at home and find the sick child's own learning rhythm.
If there was anything good for John in such a life, it was that the children who were exceptional escaped from the clutches of their father, George. George V's perennial naval career had an indelible impact on him and his family, he was serious and taciturn, communicating with his wife Mary mostly by letter rather than in person, and demanding absolute obedience from soldiers in the education of his children. The education of royal children is very strict, generally from the age of four or five years old to receive a comprehensive and systematic curriculum, regularly report to their parents on their academic status. Under the pressure, George's children have more or less left an indelible mark on their personality, such as the eldest son Edward grew up to be sexually affectionate, and later even abandoned the throne; and George, who succeeded to the throne, was a king with stuttering, and in the movie "The King's Speech", it is also implied that behind this stuttering may be the impact of childhood on George's psychology.
So John, in his year of four years of age, gave him extra freedom, and was carefully cared for by his nurse Charlotte, away from his father's high pressure, but also away from the royal family members.
After Prince George entered boarding elementary school, as the youngest child in the family, John could no longer see his brothers and sisters, who were either in the army or in boarding school; with the beginning of World War I, John's parents spent all day fulfilling their duties as monarchs on war encouragement and propaganda. In contrast to his busy family members, Prince John was like an isolated island living in a villa in the countryside, his condition deteriorating, and doctors said his condition was likely to not survive to adulthood.
Eleven was another watershed year, when John was moved to a more remote and deserted country house, WOOD FARM, and this time he was accompanied only by his nanny Charlotte, and his other two governesses were no longer hired, perhaps the Georges thought john had completely lost his sanity and mind. It was also from this year that John never had a single photo or portrait published to the public, and there was no media coverage of him. This is what Prince Edward later stated in his letter, "The two years of captivity like an animal." ”
But Edward's words may be exaggerated, and hiding John in the countryside is based on the face of the royal family, but it does not rule out that it is a protection for John. Although far from the public eye and family members, Prince John was not alone, in addition to Charlotte's company and care, Queen Mary also specially found some children of similar age noble families from the local area to accompany Prince John to play; John's maternal grandmother, Queen Alexander, left a large garden for the back of his house - planting flowers and hoeing grass were the great source of Joy for Prince John. Every once in a while Queen Mary receives a letter from WOOD FARM containing small flowers planted by Prince John.
Prince John last saw his family on Christmas Day 1918, when he had a reunion dinner with his parents and siblings, but was sent back to WOOD FARM that night without staying in the palace.
Two months later, Death took the boy's hand in his sleep and took him away.
For the first time, the Windsor royal family made public the fact that the little prince was an epileptic and autistic patient, so the child who did not seem to exist before his death was widely publicized by the media after his death, and headlines such as "Revealing the Prince who has been missing for many years in the royal family" are all over the streets. Queen Mary's sadness was inevitable, but she herself said that "this death is also a relief, and the face of the dead John is like a little angel".
John didn't leave much handwriting, but the boy had written a blessing card for his wet nurse Charlotte. The crooked handwriting shows that this is a child who has been controlled by the disease, and he thanked the person who accompanied him for the longest time in his life in this way.
"Nanny, I love you." He said, "From your little John. ”