(Research):The royal family's refusal to acknowledge any human frailty is not new. Prince John, who would have become brother-in-law to both the Queen Mother and Princess Alice had he lived, was born in 1905.
His life was transformed when he was four and had his first epileptic fit. His health-obsessed parents, later George V and Queen Mary, were appalled.
He was excluded from official family photographs. He was not allowed to be present at his father's coronation in 1911.
Early in 1917, John was removed from any risk of public discovery forever. He was consigned - with a nanny and two robust male attendants to hold him down whenever he had fits - to Wood Farm, on a corner of the Sandringham estate. He was never to see his parents again.
Two years later John died in his sleep. The King and Queen drove the three miles from the main house at Sandringham to view his body.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/monarchy/story/0,2763,346418,00.html
Set against a backdrop of unprecedented upheaval in Britain, The Lost Prince tells the heartbreaking story of a prince that history forgot.
Acclaimed writer and director Stephen Poliakoff (Shooting the Past) assembles a fabulous cast for this true story of an Edwardian prince, John, the youngest child of George V and Queen Mary. His short life spanned one of the most momentous periods in history -- the political build-up to the First World War and the machinations of European royalty in the early part of the 20th century.
Diagnosed as an epileptic, and suffering from autistic-like learning difficulties, Prince John was unable to participate in public life and became increasingly isolated from his family.
Gina McKee (The Forsyte Saga), Tom Hollander (Wives and Daughters, Gosford Park), Miranda Richardson (The Hours, The Crying Game), and Michael Gambon (Wives and Daughters, Harry Potter) star in this human story of a unique family and an extraordinary boy.
Hij leed aan epilepsie
John Charles Francis Windsor |