[Music] after a near 70-year long reign queen elizabeth ii seems to have carried the weight of the world on her shoulders or at least the weight of her family's world from the shameful alliances of her uncle edward viii during world war ii to the tragic death and surrounding conspiracies of her daughter-in-law diana spencer there doesn't seem to be a scandal or transgression elizabeth hasn't faced throughout her reign elizabeth has been known for never divulging any of her personal opinions or emotions to anyone this secrecy might derive from a special motto the queen has been known
to use never complain never explain which is said to have been a mantra of elizabeth's own mother as well never complain never explain may protect the queen from disclosing some of her more personal beliefs but the sentiment behind this expression might have also encouraged the royal family to keep some of their most disgraceful secrets and actions under wraps for years one of those being the hidden and nearly forgotten cousins of queen elizabeth [Music] in 1987 a shocking story broke revealing that a relative of the royal family presumed to have died 47 years before was actually
alive in a scandalous headline the sun tabloid announced queen's cousins locked in madhouse referring to catherine beau's leon the first cousin of queen elizabeth and niece of the queen mother catherine and elizabeth were both born in 1926 making both of them 61 years old at the time the story broke the publications revealed that catherine and her sister narissa who had died just a year earlier had been secretly put up in a mental hospital by her mother back in 1941 what was the most shocking however was that until now the bose leon sisters were thought to
have been dead catherine and narissa had been recorded as deceased in the 1963 editions of burke's peerage and deborah's peerage two respected publications and reference books to the british aristocracy narissa and catherine bose leon were the third and fifth daughters born to john herbert bosleon and his wife vanilla john herbert was the brother of queen elizabeth's mother making narissa and catherine the queen mother's nieces the sisters were born with extreme developmental disabilities with some sources saying they had the mental equivalency of a three or four year old throughout their entire lives while their exact diagnosis
remains unknown they were unable to comprehensively speak and according to nerissa's medical records she made unintelligible noises all the time and could say a few babyish words only their father died in 1930 and 11 years later narissa and catherine were admitted to the royal earlswood hospital a state-funded mental institution in red hill london they were 15 and 22 respectively at the time as it turns out the story that broke in 1987 also revealed that three of the sisters cousins edonia ethrida and rosemary who were born with similar disabilities were admitted to the hospital on the
same day the royal earlswood hospital was founded in 1847 and established at park house highgate in 1848 at the time only 50 patients were admitted but by 1849 145 were living in the institution the accommodations were not sufficient for so many patients and earls would move to a new location in 1855 where they typically housed around 500 patients at a time the hospital was not known for its cleanliness or general quality it was widely criticized for sanitation issues overcrowding of patients and for being understaffed with about 40 patients per two nurses this is where catherine
and naressa and their three cousins lived from 1941 until their deaths while their close relatives resided in a number of stately homes palaces and mansions owned by the british monarchy it was reportedly the bose leon's mother who admitted the sisters to earlswood while some sources say that vanilla boze leon continued to visit them until her death in 1966 there are no official records of either sister ever receiving a family visit including one from their mother after the story broke in 87 earlswood staff confirmed that the boseland sisters were the cousins of the queen around the
same time journalists discovered the burial site of narissa who had passed away only a year before she had been laid to rest in a pauper's grave which was only marked with a basic plastic marker and a serial number after the news broke an anonymous donor paid for a proper gravestone to replace the plastic tag a hospital administrator told one reporter that catherine who survived her sister was living in a seven bed ward and was unaware of her ties to the royal family another hospital administrator described catherine as an elderly frail old lady one who finds
it very difficult perhaps to understand this sort of thing and what's going on in the world around her the administrator also confirmed that she hadn't been visited by any direct relatives since the 1960s but had been visited by members of the league of friends and other volunteers and had spent her holidays at the hospital's holiday home people from across britain sent flowers to catherine upon learning about her existence but she was still never called on by a family member after this information was released buckingham palace released a curt statement confirming that the queen was aware
of the revelations and adding we have no comment about it at all it is a matter for the bose leon family there is no evidence that the royals ever visited the bose leons in the years that followed while queen elizabeth reportedly believed that marissa and catherine had both died in 1961 as recorded in burke's peerage such was not the case for her mother according to some reports the queen mother had come to find out the truth about the sisters in 1982 five years before the story broke to the public upon learning this information she sent
earlswood a single check and never made an effort to visit what's more she never even went to the trouble of correcting the public record about them being alive in 1986 she became a patron for the royal society for mentally handicapped children and adults some believe that the queen mother's failure to correct the public record about her nieces as well as her timely patronage point to an attempted royal cover-up in 2011 the story came to light again in a channel 4 documentary the queen's hidden cousins which covered the story of all 5 bose leon women narissa
catherine edonia etheldrida and rosemary the program suggests that they were treated unsympathetically by the royal family corroborated by hospital staff testimony stating that narissa and catherine had very much seemed forgotten by their family members in the documentary care workers at earlswood also recalled that whenever royal family members would appear on television narissa and catherine would stand up and salute wave or curtsy despite some saying they were not aware of their royal ties nurses remembered the women as especially excited about the wedding of prince charles and princess diana while buckingham palace made no comment one relative
of the family and a niece of the bose leon sisters lady elizabeth anson responded to the documentary with a statement to the bbc in it she claimed that there was no attempt at a cover-up and that the sisters were often visited by family members despite there being no record of this additionally she posited that the sister's mother fanella was merely careless and did not purposefully record her daughters as deceased in public records lady elizabeth described fanella as a very vague person who often did not fill out forms completely that burke's peerage center even so one
editor for deborah's peerage responded by saying that an oversight like that doesn't happen considering the unbelievable nature of this story it is natural that conspiracy theorists have taken a stab at understanding why the royals would have covered up the entire existence of family members some believe that queen elizabeth ii is actually catherine bowes leon an idea that hinges only on the fact that queen elizabeth and catherine were born just 10 weeks apart in 1926. the switched at birth theory posits that the queen's parents child was born with severe mental disabilities and swapped out babies with
the bose leons to save face however especially considering that elizabeth was quite far down the line of succession at the time of her birth it is highly unlikely that a switch like this would have ever been made tragically the true reason for a cover-up of this extent is much more likely related to social and cultural stigma surrounding disabilities and neurodivergence to this day buckingham palace has failed to make a comment on the concealment of the boseleon women catherine died in 2014 and the royal family never publicly acknowledged her existence or that of her sister or
cousins of course this means that there is never a verified reason or logistical justification offered as to why the sisters were hospitalized and kept a secret and even more so why they were declared dead long before they actually were an editor of deborah's in 1987 posited that it seemed as though their mother had more or less rejected them in her mind as being her daughters she had five daughters and these two unfortunately seem to be born mentally disturbed in that in her own mind she shut them out others have explained that the treatment of narissa
and catherine at the time was fairly standard practice all those years ago people went into long-stay mentally handicapped hospitals and to all intents and purposes they were dead netflix's popular series the crown even musters an attempt to understand the reasoning behind the royal family's decision to effectively conceal the bose leon sisters in the fourth season of the series creator peter morgan postulates that by hiding the truth about narissa and catherine the royal family was attempting to avoid public speculation that their bloodline was tainted in some way in one episode queen mother explains that the hereditary
principle already hangs by such a precarious thread throw in mental illness and it's over the idea that one family alone has the automatic birthright to the crown is already so hard to justify the gene pool of that family better have percent purity there have been enough examples on the winsor side alone to worry people if you add the mostly on illnesses to that the danger is it becomes untenable in this speech she also brings up prince john who was a brother of her husband and elizabeth's father george vi john was diagnosed with epilepsy at age
3 and at the time the condition was often grouped with mental disabilities as his epilepsy worsened john was sent to live on a secluded corner of the sandringham estate with the nanny and away from the public eye until his death at age 13. the show deduces that the bose lee and sisters were sent away and hidden for similar reasons to avoid public speculation about the royal bloodline's possible impurities in real life genetic experts in 1987 found that the genetic order of catherine and narissa and their cousins passed through the common maternal grandfather of queen mother
and her brother baron clinton evidently not affecting the queen or her heirs at all it is most likely that the bose leon sisters were hidden away as their conditions were feared to potentially threaten the social standing of the british monarchy mainly due to the social stigma surrounding learning and mental disabilities combine that with an already fragile public perception of the royal bloodline it is no wonder that buckingham palace chose to continue ignoring their long-lost relatives even after the story broke despite some sources denying the claims made in the 1987 news story and the 2011 documentary
regarding them as utter lies and insisting that the sisters were indeed regularly visited by their family any records proving such do not exist and the fact that narissa and catherine's dates of death were never corrected on their public record show even more negligence on the part of the royal family in 1996 the daily express reported that the queen did not respond to an invitation to meet with earlswood authorities the invitation was apparently to discuss the status of catherine's future as she was still alive at the time according to the paper earlswood administrator peter kinsey wrote
to the family members of all the hospital's patients including the queen and queen mother earthwood was set to close down in march of 1997 and kinsey was to determine what would happen with all of the institutions remaining 233 patients the queen and her mother were invited but reportedly failed to attend in typical form buckingham palace said it had no comment catherine was moved to another facility in 1996 along with her living cousins she died in 2014 at the age of 87. the royal family made no announcement at the time of her death and never acknowledged
her existence or that of the other bose lyon women who resided at earlswood today royal family members such as william and kate also known as the duke and duchess of cambridge as well as prince harry are working with charities to help end the stigma around mental health they have even started their own campaign called heads together which works with such charities to achieve this goal while such charitable acts are commendable it is impossible not to imagine the positive impact simply acknowledging the royal family's own history with mental health issues and disabilities would have royals throughout
time have sought out treatment for various mental health issues albeit behind closed doors from princess margaret to princess diana and most recently meghan markle perhaps if buckingham palace acknowledged this as normal and healthy as opposed to something shameful to be kept quiet the efforts of campaigns such as hedge together would not be in vain sadly neurodiversity and developmental disabilities continue to be surrounded by stigma and shame and the royal family has continued to deny the existence of such struggles in their bloodline it is unlikely that the house of windsor will ever publicly recognize this dark
side of their family tree or their unsavory treatment of their long-lost relatives however thanks to some stealthy reporters outside of buckingham palace the names of narissa catherine edonia ethedrita and rosemary bose leon will not be forgotten [Music] you
