In the third series, the show covers the years 1964 to around 1976 and the inspired-by-real-events plot will cover the Aberfan disaster, Harold Wilson’s time as Prime Minister and Princess Anne’s affair with Roddy Llewellyn. King was sacked as chairman of the umbrella publishing group, International Publishing Corporation, 21 days later. Their tempestuous relationship with Greece culminated in a coup d’état in 1922. The fifth episode of the third season of The Crown, ‘Coup’, discusses the possible involvement in 1968 of Lord Mountbatten in a potential coup against the Labour government of Harold Wilson. Historian Alex von Tunzelmann, drawing on private information from Buckingham Palace, has suggested the advice came from elsewhere. Essentially, in 1968, a newspaper editor and Bank of England director, Cecil King, attempted to persuade Lord Mountbatten to lead a coup d'état against Wilson's Labour government. Il n’en a pas le temps. Although its claim that Mountbatten was motivated by pique at being sacked as chief of the defence staff is incorrect – Mountbatten retired naturally in 1965 at the age of 65 – there were certainly plans for such a coup. PRINCE PHILIP AND MOUNTBATTEN. He agreed to meet King, together with the Mirror’s editorial director Hugh Cudlipp, on 8 May at his London home in Kinnerton Street – not the boardroom of the Bank of England as in The Crown – and brought along his unofficial advisor, Solly Zuckerman. You can unsubscribe at any time. Against that backdrop, Mountbatten, who had always harbored politi… King apparently believed that the country was headed for political and economic collapse, which is why he wanted to put Mountbatten in power. How much of the drama is true? Thank you for subscribing to HistoryExtra, you now have unlimited access. Ce dernier insiste sur la nécessité d’obtenir un accord de la reine, qu’il se charge de lui demander. The attack hardened the hearts of many Brits against the IRA and convinced Margaret Thatchers government to take a hard-line stance against the terrorist organization. “Dickie was immensely worried, and I was not surprised when he again said that with all his political experience, he might have made a better job of leading the country than had Attlee.”. After Solly had gone, Mountbatten said he had been lunching at the Horse Guards and that morale in the armed forces had never been so low. Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret: why did their marriage break down? Other than his service at the Navy, Lord Mountbatten assisted in the Britain’s exit from India and the latter’s emergence as one of the independent nations of the world. Mountbatten agreed that “talent and administrative ability which does not exist in Parliament must be harnessed. Lord Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, died on 27 August, 1979, aged 79, while on a family trip to Ireland, at the height of the Troubles. They then referred to Cudlipp’s account of the meeting with Mountbatten and explained that their MI5 informant had told them that the danger of a military takeover had been real. What actually.. A real coup d’etat was never launched in 1968, but there were rumours of a coup being planned at the time. In the past decade alone, there have, by my reckoning, been 73 coups in 46 different countries around the world, and the success of some of these might encourage us. Indeed, if The Crown had drawn on my recent book The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves, which looks at the private correspondence of those involved in the coup, they might have stressed a greater role for Mountbatten. You're now subscribed to our newsletter. Here's what happens to the Duke of Edinburgh's title following Prince Philip's death aged 99, Where does vanilla flavouring come from? Please enter your number below. You can unsubscribe at any time, He also suggested Sir William Armstrong, the head of the Home Civil Service; Sir Michael Cary, the second permanent under secretary at defence, dealing with the Royal Navy; and Jimmy Carreras, head of Hammer Film Productions – a “great go-getter” whom Mountbatten had met through the Variety Club. He talked as though there was nothing that he could not do.”, In 1951, Zuckerman and Mountbatten had met again at a cocktail party given at Admiralty House: “He drew me aside, and we had a long talk about many things, but particularly about the sorry state of the country,” Zuckerman later wrote. Essentially, in 1968, a newspaper editor and Bank of England director, Cecil King, attempted to persuade Lord Mountbatten to lead a coup d’état against Wilson’s Labour government. Zuckerman later wrote in his memoirs: “The one job that he felt that he could have done was that of prime minister, but that office had been closed down to him because of his royal connections. Lord Mountbatten était un symbole. The assassination of Mountbatten was the first blow struck against the British royal family by the IRA during its long terrorist campaign to drive the British out of Northern Ireland and unite it with the Republic of Ireland to the south. The scheme would be a full-scale coup d’etat including the seizure of Heathrow, the BBC and Buckingham Palace. There seems to be a problem, please try again. Louis Mountbatten, 1er comte Mountbatten de Birmanie (né prince Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas von Battenberg le 25 juin 1900 et mort le 27 août 1979), amiral de la flotte et homme d'État, fut le dernier vice-roi de l'Inde britannique et premier gouverneur général de l'Inde indépendante. Lord Mountbatten : Gentlemen. He navigated the UK’s position with America during the Vietnam War, keeping British troops out of the conflict, and at home oversaw social reforms from education to pensions under an increase of income tax for top earners to 83 per cent. Recommandé pour vous en fonction de ce qui est populaire • Avis Lord Mountbatten: Did Prince Philip’s uncle attempt to lead a coup against Harold Wilson’s government? Retired intelligence officers gathered with military brass and plotted a coup d'etat. "Olding": Was the Queen's personal art historian Anthony Blunt a Soviet spy? According to the writer Charles Higham: “One who took the plot seriously, perhaps too seriously was Marcia Williams, Harold Wilson’s secretary, who apparently spoke to the press at a later stage, talking of Mountbatten as ‘a prime mover in the plan’. All this talk of machine guns at street corners is appalling. How Prince Philip was related to Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India. The illegal action would be backed by sympathetic members of the army and the far-right nationalist patriot militias that had sprung up around the country. Parliament would remain the legislative chamber but it was futile to look solely to Parliament for the leadership required.”, King also referred to the idea in his diary and wrote: “Hugh asked him [Mountbatten] if it had been suggested to him that our present style of government might be in for a change. The Crown season three depicted Mountbatten considering leading a coup d’état against Harold Wilson’s government in the late 1960s, a move that would have seen an … Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth II: what was their relationship like? You have successfully linked your account! On this podcast, Andrew Lownie discusses the colourful and controversial lives of Louis and Edwina Mountbatten: Mountbatten expressed his agreement and Sir Solly departed. 'Je ne dirais pas que c'était un coup d'État, mais il était préoccupé par la façon dont le pays allait et il a fait des suggestions, alors il essayait d'être aussi utile que possible.' He and Edwina [Mountbatten’s wife] would have known how to handle the settling of ex-serviceman, and so on and so on. He said it had. Amongst those who had been approached was David Stirling, the founder of the SAS, who in the mid-1970s had created an organisation called Great Britain 75, recruiting members from the aristocratic clubs in Mayfair – mainly ex-military men (often former SAS members). Courtiour and Penrose claimed to have a senior MI5 officer as a source who, with others, “had told them that there was something much more substantial behind the story of a possible military takeover than people assumed. It was the queen herself.” Th altercation with the queen is a key moment in episode five. In June 1946, whilst receiving his honorary degree at Oxford, Mountbatten had talked long into the night with Zuckerman, about the war, about the enormous problems that it had left behind, and about what his own future was to be. According to Wright’s telling of the event, Mountbatten regarded this as treason, so refused to go along with idea. In Peter Wright’s 1987 book Spycatcher, he claims that Lord Mountbatten met with King in 1968 to discuss displacing Wilson as prime minister and placing Mountbatten in the role instead. Il se réunit en cachette, entouré de Cecil King, directeur de la Banque d’Angleterre et du groupe média Mirror. Thanks! Etant donnée l’époque dans laquelle nous vivons, nous sommes tous susceptibles d’être un jour victime d’un attentat, ici ou là. “Parliament, which had dug its own grave, would temporarily lie in it until national dignity and morale were restored. Read more from the experts…. To cultivate these connections, Philip was sent to a traditional preparatory school, Cheam, in Hampshire, between 1928 and 1933. At the age of seven, Philip came to England and stayed with Lord Mountbatten's family. Il est l'oncle maternel du prince Philip, duc dÉdimbourg, époux de la reine Élis… ... Mountbatten, he would later adopt). Dans cet épisode, lord Mountbatten, interprété par l’acteur Charles Dance, tente un coup d’État pour renverser le Premier ministre travailliste en fonction. Nor should you, Dickie,” and then both men excused themselves. I am a public servant and will have nothing to do with it. The Queen’s “rebel sister”: 8 facts about Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip: 8 milestones in their marriage. The official website for BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed, Try 6 issues of BBC History Magazine or BBC History Revealed for only £9.99, The fifth episode of season three of The Crown sees royal family member Lord Mountbatten approached to lead a coup against Harold Wilson’s struggling Labour government. Husband of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip died on Friday. According to Dickie, she is desperately worried over the whole situation.”, A file note in Zuckerman’s private papers suggests that the collaborators had agreed a public version of events: “All I hope is that Dickie did not go beyond what we had agreed. As they saw it, Cudlipp had indicated this in his account of the meeting with Mountbatten.”. The fact of the matter is – as Hugh Cudlipp knows only too well – that Dickie was really intrigued by Cecil King’s suggestion that he should become the boss man of a ‘government’… When I saw Dickie at Prince Philip’s diner party on 17th November, three nights after I started to dictate this note, he seemed very pleased with himself and thought the whole matter was settled – once again implying that his record of what had happened in an event would be the statement which history would accept.”, Want to know even more about the real events from history that inspired the drama?