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made from the emerald of the Great Mogul selling for $2.1 million.)
After the Duke’s death, Mountbatten became involved in a protracted and ultimately
losing battle with the Duchess’s French lawyer, Maître Suzanne Blum, for control of the
final disposition of the Windsor assets. He did succeed in having some of the Duke’s
uniforms and military insignia returned to Windsor and in 1972 made an arrangement
with the late Duke’s private secretary (who received a CVO from Windsor and the sack
from his employers) for all the Duke’s papers to be removed from the Paris house and
taken to the Windsor archives. Maître Blum later in 1979 alleged that ‘two individuals’
authorized by Mountbatten and acting on royal authority ‘burgled’ the Duke’s filing
cabinets, removing his private correspondence and other papers. This was absolutely
denied by the Palace, but some of his papers were then returned. Mountbatten,
however, failed in his attempt to set up a Foundation headed by Charles to administer
the Duke’s income to various charities or to induce the Duchess to make Charles and
other members of the Royal Family the beneficiaries of her will. At one time it seemed
as if the Duchess intended to do so. She was charmed by Charles and once told a friend
that ‘all this’ (indicating her possessions) would go to Charles because he had written
her such a ‘beautiful letter’ after the Duke’s funeral. Mountbatten had to admit defeat
after receiving a final communication from her in 1974:
As to the depositions in my will, I confirm to you once more that everything has been taken care of according
to David’s and my wishes, and I believe that everyone will be satisfied. There is therefore no need of your
contacting my advisor in Switzerland. It is always a pleasure to see you, but I must tell you that when you
leave me I am always terribly depressed by your reminding me of David’s death and my own, and I would be
grateful if you would not mention this any more. 12
The Duchess was not invited to Princess Anne’s wedding in 1973, but the Queen
Mother did make an effort to pay a personal visit to her when on an official visit to
Paris in October 1976. At the last moment the Duchess was too ill to receive her; she was
suffering from senile hallucinations (which would almost certainly have produced hostile
comments and behaviour towards the Queen Mother, whom she had always relentlessly
denigrated in private conversations). Queen Elizabeth, with a graceful but possibly not
heartfelt gesture, sent a bouquet of two dozen red and white roses with the message, ‘In
friendship. Elizabeth’. This was the last contact between the royal family and the Duke’s
widow. The Duchess lingered on in the shuttered house in the Bois de Boulogne,
increasingly incapacitated mentally and physically, until she died there in a vegetative
state on 24 April 1986, aged eighty-nine.
Her body was flown to London escorted by the Lord Chamberlain and met by the
young Duke of Gloucester (Prince William’s younger brother, Prince Richard, had
inherited the title on their father’s death) who accompanied it to Windsor. The short
private service in St George’s Chapel was attended by sixteen members of the royal
family, the American Ambassador and the few surviving friends of the Duchess. Her
coffin lay in the place previously occupied by her husband, Queen Mary and the
preceding Kings of England, and on it rested a wreath of yellow and white lilies from