Elizabeth Alice Wise, King Charles's distant cousin, has died at the age of 89. She passed away on Sunday, August 2, at Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, Yorkshire, according to royal historian Marlene Koenig's blog, Royal Musings.
Royal lineage
Born at Kensington Palace in September 1936, Elizabeth was the daughter of Lady May Abel Smith (formerly Princess May of Teck) and Sir Henry Abel Smith. She was the granddaughter of Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, and a great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, making her a third cousin once removed of King Charles III.
During World War II, she moved to Ottawa, Canada, with her family while her grandfather served as Governor General. In 1945, she returned to England and attended the late Queen Elizabeth's wedding to Prince Philip in 1947 at Westminster Abbey, aged 11.
Marriage and tragedy
In 1956, Elizabeth moved to Australia, where her father was appointed Governor-General of Queensland. She returned to England in the 1960s and married shipping executive Peter Ronald Wise in 1965. The late Queen attended the wedding at St Paul's Church in Knightsbridge, London, with a royal reception 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. Elizabeth was charged with murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Court proceedings
According to Ms Koenig, Emma had caught an infection a week after birth, with a specialist saying the infant had "serious mental retardation with minimal responsiveness." Elizabeth's lawyer, David Napley, told the court that his client "broke" when she learned her daughter would not survive, adding: "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: "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." He added: "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."
Later life
The same year, Elizabeth spoke to the Sunday People and claimed she had spoken to the late Queen, saying: "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.
