Erased from History: The tragic fate of Queen Elizabeth II's cousins

The secret pages of the history of the British royal family were recently revealed in a new Netflix series called "The Crown" (The Crown). One of the plots tells about the sad fate of Queen Elizabeth II's cousins, Nerissa and Catherine Bowes-Lyon. They were hidden from the world and officially recognized as dead while they were whiling away their time in an orphanage for the feeble-minded. Read the bitter story of two sisters of royal blood further in our material.

Nerissa and Catherine suffered from a congenital severe mental disorder. They spent almost all of their lives in an orphanage for the feeble-minded, without receiving the privileges corresponding to their high origin.

Nerissa was born in 1919, and her younger sister Catherine was born in 1926. They were the daughters of John Bowes-Lyon, the brother of Queen Elizabeth I.

In the orphanage, the sisters lived in poor conditions. They had very few clothes of their own, and underwear had to be shared with other 230 residents. Placing them here was a radical measure after the marriage of their aunt Elizabeth and the future King George VI in 1923. In those days, having blood relatives with mental disorders was considered a disgrace. The fate of the sisters was sacrificed for the sake of power and a high title.

Young Princess Elizabeth (left) with her sister Margaret and mother Elizabeth

In 1996, a scandalous article about the tragic fate of Queen Elizabeth II's cousins appeared in one of the British newspapers. It said that the Queen Mother Elizabeth I did not know about the life of her nieces until 1982 and considered them dead. However, many people think that she was involved in a secret conspiracy from the very beginning. There is no information that Nerissa and Catherine were visited by their high-ranking relatives.

The story of the fate of the royal cousins is shrouded in mystery. It is known that they were sent to a shelter for the feeble-minded at the ages of 15 and 22. It is said that the staff of the institution knew about their noble origin and saw the amazing similarity of Catherine and the Queen Mother. The last time the sisters were visited was in the 60s, when their mother Fenella died. The girls ' father, John, died in 1930 from pneumonia. He was only 44 years old.

Katherine's younger sister in the last years of her life in the orphanage

One of the nurses of the shelter once told in an interview about the sisters. They didn't know how to talk, but they tried to explain what they wanted with gestures and individual sounds. However, the girls understood almost everything. The employees of the institution regretted that Nerissa and Catherine were not visited and, practically, were deleted from the history of the royal family.

When Nerissa died in 1986, she was buried in the orphanage cemetery under a sign that only indicated her name and serial number.

There are still many unsolved mysteries in the history of the royal family. Only now it is gradually becoming known what skeletons Princess Diana hid in the closet.