In the The Crown’s latest season, we saw actress Olivia Colman take over the role of Queen Elizabeth II from Claire Foy and Tobias Menzies from actor Matt Smith as Prince Philip. In the season three episode entitled Moondust, Prince Philip talks about the death of his mother Princess Alice (played by Jane Lapotaire). But what happened to the princess in real life?
How did Princess Alice die?
Princess Alice was introduced in The Crown in the episode Bubbakins, after she was moved into Buckingham Palace from her home in Greece.
She had become a recognisable figure after she founded an order of nuns called the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary.
The royal was moved to England due to her old age, declining health and the military dictatorship which took over Greece in 1967.
Princess Alice died two years later at the age of 84 on December 5, 1969.
READ MORE: The real TRUTH behind Prince Philip’s mother Princess Alice
No distinct cause has been outlined as to how she died but she was an old woman who had lived in poor conditions for decades.
She also had a traumatic life prior to her last few years in Greece.
In 1930, Princess Alice was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia by psychiatrist Thomas Ross who specialised in shell-shock.
Later in her life, she was then treated by Sir Maurice Craig, who treated King George VI before he had speech therapy.
When the princess died, she was laid to rest on the grounds of Windsor Castle.
However, nearly 20 years after her death, she was buried alongside her aunt, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, in a Jerusalem crypt on the Mount of Olives which is where she wanted to be buried.
In World War Two, Princess Alice of Battenberg sheltered Jewish refugees in her home to protect them from the Nazis in a German-occupied Athens.
In 1993, she was also posthumously given the Righteous Gentile award by Israel’s Holocaust museum Had Vashem for her actions.
Prince Philip and his Princess George of Hanover accepted the award on her behalf in 1994.
This was the first time he had visited his mother’s crypt due to a political rift between the royal family and Israel which affected him visiting the country.
During the ceremony, he said: “I suspect that it never occurred to her that her action was in any way special.
“She was a person with deep religious faith and she would have considered it to be a totally human action to fellow human beings in distress.”
The Crown season 3 is available to watch on Netflix.