King Charles’s distant cousin has died (Image: Getty)
Elizabeth Alice Wise, King Charles’s distant cousin, died last weekend at the age of 89, it has emerged. Mrs Wise, formerly known as Elizabeth Alice Abel Smith, was the daughter of Lady May Abel Smith (formerly known as Princess May of Teck) and Sir Henry Abel Smith.
She was also the granddaughter of Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone and a great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria. This made her a third cousin, once removed, of King Charles III. According to royal historian Marlene Koenig’s blog, Royal Musings, Elizabeth died on Sunday, August 2, at Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, Yorkshire.
Elizabeth Wise on her wedding day in 1965 (Image: Getty)
Her later life was stained by tragedy after she pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of her nine-month-old daughter, who died in infancy.
Elizabeth was born at Kensington Palace in September 1936. She was the youngest among her siblings, Anne Abel Smith and Richard Abel Smith.
During World War 2, she moved to Ottawa, Canada, with her family, while her grandfather, the Earl of Athlone, was the Governor General of Canada.
In 1945, Elizabeth and her siblings returned to England and she even attended the late Queen Elizabeth’s wedding to Prince Philip in 1947 at Westminster Abbey, aged 11.
In 1956, she moved to Australia again, where her father was appointed Governor-General of Queensland.
Elizabeth returned home in the 1960s and married Peter Ronald Wise, a shipping executive, in 1965.
A young Elizabeth in Ottawa with her family (Image: Getty)
The late Queen attended the wedding at St Paul’s Church in Knightsbridge, London.
A royal reception was held afterwards at St James’s Palace.
Ten years later, in 1975, the couple divorced following the death of their daughter, Emma Charlotte Abel Wise the year before.
Emma was only nine months old when she died due to severe and irreversible brain damage.
Her mother was charged with her murder and pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
According to Ms Koenig, Emma is said to have caught an infection a week after birth, with a specialist saying that the infant had “serious mental retardation with minimal responsiveness.”
Elizabeth, right, with her parents in 1958 (Image: Getty)
Elizabeth’s lawyer, David Napley, told the court that his client “broke” when she learned that her daughter would not survive.
He said: “In these circumstances, she administered something to the child.”
A post-mortem examination reportedly showed that the “disease had destroyed three-quarters” of Emma’s brain and that her condition had no cure.
Elizabeth said while testifying in court: “My intention was that she would die quickly, peacefully, and painlessly.”
The judge sentenced Elizabeth to twelve months’ probation, saying: “The doctors are genuinely puzzled as to how this child lived so long. I have little doubt it was your devotion which kept her alive.”
“I regard this as an extreme case even among exceptional cases. In my judgment you have suffered enough for the wrong, according to the law, you did.”
The same year, Elizabeth spoke to the Sunday People and claimed she spoke to the late Queen.
She said: “The Queen has been very kind, sympathetic and understanding.
“We are still good friends. She did not know anything about my daughter until after she died and my arrest was reported in the newspapers. But while I was on remand we talked at some length.”
Elizabeth Alice Wise is survived by her sister, Anne Liddell-Grainger, and her nieces and nephews, Ian, Charles, Simon, Alice and Malcolm Liddell-Grainger and Katharine Beaumont.