The Duke of Edinburgh was a larger-than-life character, but even he paled next to his colorful aunt, Marie.
A relative of Napoleon Bonaparte, he was a fascinating character, famous for his consuming interest in sex and psychoanalysis, his friendship with Sigmund Freud and his unconventional lifestyle.
He also had a very effective way of dealing with exhibitionists…
Marie Bonaparte, born in 1882, was the great-granddaughter of Napoleon I’s rebellious younger brother, Lucien.
Princess Marie Bonaparte, Napoleon’s niece, was Prince Philip’s aunt. She led a colorful and independent life.
Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon’s younger brother, was the father of Princess Marie Bonaparte.
Prince George of Greece with his wife, Mary Bonaparte. George appears to have had little interest in the opposite sex.
A portrait of Prince Philip, son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Alice of Battenburg, taken in 1927. Philip would have been five or six years old at the time.
She was fabulously wealthy thanks to her maternal grandfather, François Blanc, who made his fortune in real estate development in Monaco and bought 97 percent of the Monte Carlo casino.
His wealth allowed him to finance Prince Philip’s family after they were forced to flee Greece at the end of the Greco-Turkish War in 1922.
(It was Mary who paid for Philip’s education at The Elms, an American school in Paris. Paradoxically, she sent her own children, Prince Peter and Princess Eugenie, to the local state lyceum, feeling that it was important that they mix with children from all origins.)
In 1907, Mary married Philip’s paternal uncle, Prince George of Greece.
George has a footnote in history for saving future Tsar Nicholas II of Russia from assassination during a visit to Otsu, Japan, in 1891.
The tsarevich was attacked by a policeman with a sword who turned out to be a former samurai who held a grudge against Westerners. George managed to knock him to the ground using his cane.
George seemed to have little interest in the opposite sex. In fact, he was passionately in love with his own uncle, Prince Valdemar of Denmark, the younger brother of the British Queen Alexandra (wife of Edward VII).
It was no surprise, then, that George and Marie’s marriage was relatively uneventful.
The groom never allowed his new wife to kiss him on the lips and after the honeymoon she wrote: ‘You took me that night in a short and brutal gesture, as if forcing you. You said, “I hate him as much as you do. But we must do it if we want to have children.”
Marie would look for love elsewhere and, accumulating a long list of willing sexual partners, Marie documented them in her unpublished 1918 memoir, ‘The Men I Have Loved’.
Marie enjoyed an equally satisfying life outside of bed.
She was a close friend of Sigmund Freud, who mentored her interest in psychoanalysis and who once memorably asked her, “What does a woman want?” -presumably feeling that if anyone would know it would be the princess.
He conducted his own study on frigidity under the pseudonym AE Narjani.
Their theory was that the closer the clitoris was to the vagina, the more likely a woman was to achieve orgasm.
To back this up, she personally measured this crucial distance in 243 women.
Satisfied that she had discovered the truth, she had her own clitoris surgically moved a few inches in what she believed was the right direction. Unfortunately, both this and a subsequent operation failed in its ultimate objective.
She was so focused on the benefits of psychoanalysis that once, when her attention was caught on the Rue de Boulogne, she handed the bewildered perpetrator her card and the offer of a free session on her analyst’s couch, a gesture that made him flee.
Marie also had an interest in the criminal mind and described Jack the Ripper as “a super-murderer and a super-anarchist.”
In 1934 he published The Life and Work of Edgar Allan Poe: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation with a Foreword by Sigmund Freud.
The princess’s writings also offer a vivid picture of some of Prince Philip’s relatives.
He described his mother, Princess Alice, as “a beautiful, full-fleshed, English blonde who smiles a lot and doesn’t say much because she is deaf.”
He has also left us a fascinating vignette of Queen Alexandra whom he found at 63 years old (in 1907), surprisingly young and with enamelled skin. Disturbing when youth covers old skin. She seems kind and friendly, but also the epitome of insignificance.’
Prince George and Marie maintained strong ties to the British royal family, especially after Prince Philip joined what George VI called “the firm.”
They represented the King of Greece at the coronation of George V in 1911 and half a century later they stood in for King Paul at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
They were also present at Westminster Abbey to witness the marriage of their niece, Princess Marina of Greece, to Prince George, Duke of Kent in 1934 and again 13 years later for Philip’s marriage to Princess Elizabeth.
Prince Andrew of Greece, fourth son of King George I of Greece (and nephew of Queen Alexandra) along with his fiancée, Prince Alice of Battenberg. Andrew and Alice were Prince Philip’s parents.
Princess Marie Bonaparte and her children Peter and Eugenie of Greece
Mary Bonaparte with her husband, Prince George of Greece and Denmark. They are photographed at the Paris opera in 1954.
Philip remained in contact with Mary for the rest of his life and she was present with George when the Greek royal family gathered at Tatoi, the summer palace near Athens, for a private visit by Elizabeth and Philip in December 1950.
The Queen and Prince Philip enjoyed several dinners with George and Marie, both private and formal.
Marie wrote to a friend: ‘Great dinner at court for Elizabeth and Philip, decorations, tiaras, horror!’
The most unconventional of the princesses, she remained a nonconformist until the end.