EXCLUSIVE: A prince, his mistress, a hidden will, and priceless emeralds

How the will of Prince Francis of Teck so shocked the British royals that they had it hidden in a safe for more than a century. Now, it's public.

Prince Francis of Teck (Wikimedia Commons)

His Serene Highness Prince Francis Joseph Leopold Frederick of Teck was always trouble for his family. “He was terribly funny but outrageous,” said one relation. He’d be a footnote in royal history if not for his will and the lengths to which his sister, Queen Mary, went to reclaim the historic royal emeralds he’d bequeathed to his mistress, and to ensure the will was forever kept from prying eyes.

Today, some of those emeralds adorn the Vladimir tiara. Stories, rumours, and speculation have circled the prince and those emeralds for decades. This month, 113 years after it was locked in a court safe, the will was finally released, revealing the true story of the prince, his mistress, and those infamous emeralds.

The Vladimir tiara with its Cambridge emerald drops (Royal Collection)

Known to his family as Frank, he was born in Kensington Palace in 1870 to the Duke of Teck and his wife, Mary Adelaide of Cambridge. His Times obituary described him as “a man of frank and genial personality, an interesting companion, a keen sportsman, and a staunch friend, he was extremely popular in society.”

His family had a more jaundiced view of him. “He did some very naughty things too. We were all very cross with him,” said Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, to Queen Mary’s biographer¹. He “always began betting and running debts all over again as soon as his previous commitments had been paid,” confirmed his nephew George, 2nd Marquess of Cambridge².

Then, there were the family emeralds. In 1818, George III’s seventh son, Adolphus, married Augusta of Hesse. While in Frankfurt, she bought a ticket to a state lottery and “won a small box containing some 40 graduated cabochon emeralds,” explained Leslie Field in her authoritative book, The Queen’s Jewels. Set into jewellery, the Cambridge emeralds, as they are known, were inherited by their daughter Marie Adelaide. Upon Marie Adelaide’s death in 1897, the emeralds ended up with her third son, Frank, who promptly let his mistress, the Countess of Kilmorey, wear them in public.

In May 1910, Edward VII died. King George V and Queen Mary were now on the throne of the greatest empire on the planet. The last thing the new king and queen wanted was a royal sex scandal. Then, on October 22, 1910, Prince Francis of Teck died. He was 39 years old. He’d undergone a nasal operation in mid September but was well enough to attend a reception on October 7 for Sarah Bernhardt, the theatrical icon (and former mistress of Edward VII).

Within days, he travelled to Balmoral Castle in Scotland. On October 11, the Court Circular announced that he was ill due to an attack of pleurisy, an infection of the lining of the lung. On October 14, he travelled to London and was immediately operated on to “give relief from the pleurisy.” Regular bulletins were issued updating the public on his failing health. At around 4:30 in the morning of October 22, 1910, George and Mary rushed to her brother’s bedside of Francis. He died at 11 a.m. He was 39 years old.

The ceremonial funeral was held at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle on October 26, 1910. Queen Mary, “who scarcely ever showed emotion in public, broke down and wept freely,” wrote her official biographer. ³ One of the pallbearers flanking the royal coffin was the Earl of Kilmorey, the husband of Prince Francis’s lover, the Countess of Kilmorey (also another former mistress of Edward VII).

The Times, October 26, 1910

For the longest time, all the public knew about Frank’s will was that his estate was valued at 23,154 pounds (around CAD$4 million today) when probate was granted in February 1911. His sister persuaded a judge to conceal the contents of the will from the public.

At the time, George and especially Mary were desperate to envelop the British monarchy in an air of stolid respectability. Her recently deceased father-in-law, Edward VII, had a succession of mistresses and his own gambling scandals. It was also a turbulent time in politics, with two elections in 1910 alone. If that wasn’t enough, European monarchies were teetering. King Manuel II of Portugal had been overthrown on October 5 and fled to Britain. Indeed, George and Mary had announced plans to lunch with him the day her brother died.

They couldn’t afford a scandal involving royal emeralds, a mistress, and the Mary’s brother, so a judge was persuaded to seal it from public view. Before then, royal wills were available for public inspection. But the handling of Frank's will set a new precedent. Since then, the wills of more than two dozen royals were locked away, as researchers tried and failed to gain access.

Over the years, researchers have pieced together the basic outline of the story of Frank bequeathing the Cambridge emeralds to the Countess of Kilmorey. Two decades ago, the BBC unearthed a draft copy of the will from the family papers of the Earl of Kilmorey, which had been deposited at the Belfast Records Office.

Yet no one had seen the actual will.

In 2021, Prince Philip died. In a ruling about access to his will, Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the Family Divison, “confirmed that he was the custodian of a safe in which there are over 30 envelopes which contain the sealed will of a deceased member of the Royal Family – the earliest being the will of Prince Francis of Teck,” as the Gazette explained. In his judgment, McFarlane set out how long Philip’s will would be sealed — 90 years. It took until 2023 for the procedures by which other royal wills could be made public after that 90-year-mark (the monarch’s will is exempt as it doesn’t go through probate).

On June 13, 2024, the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website revealed that “nine original wills, envelopes and seals have been surrendered to the Royal Archives for safe keeping and academic research and copies have been provided to the Probate Registry.” The first on that list was the first sealed back in 1911 — the will of Prince Francis Joseph Leopold Frederick of Teck.

The outside of Prince Francis of Teck’s will, with a handwritten note that it was sealed by a judge on February 17, 1911