The Scandal That Shaped Partition: The House of Mountbatten

0:00If you want access to bonus episodes, reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community, discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, ad-free listening, and a weekly newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at www.empirepoduk.com.

0:28This week on our Empire Club miniseries, we're going to carry on with the story of a scandal that shaped partition. Alex and I are discussing the unconventional marriage between the last Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, and his wife Edwina Mountbatten. Now, last week, you'll remember, we set up Nehru's life before he fell in love with Edwina. This week, we ask, how did the Mountbatons end up in India to begin with? Here's a clip from the episode where we discuss one of Edwina's many affairs of the 1920s and 30s. To access the full series, just head to empirepoduk.com, empirepoduk.com, and become a friend of the show.

1:10She was young. She was beautiful. She was rich. She was married to someone who wasn't enough for her. She was probably gadding about a bit. And we put a pin, for instance, in Leslie Hutchinson and Paul Robeson. Okay. Why don't we put Paul Robeson and Leslie Hutch Hutchinson together to talk about? Because it will be relevant in a moment. Even though these are completely different men. Yes. And so for those of you, and I'm sure more people know Paul Robeson's name than Hutch Hutchinson, but Paul Robeson, an African-American, huge on both sides of the Atlantic and very political as well. Absolutely.

1:43I mean, Paul Robeson, really one of the most important distinguished civil rights activists and so on of his day. Very political, also a communist, also, you know, international activist, also one of the greatest musical stars of his day and cinema stars. I mean, you know, you can watch him on screen. Incredibly charismatic, extraordinary man. Hutch was a jazz musician, also African-American, also from that sort of background, but not really political in the way Robeson was. He was much more of an entertainer. I mean, a legend in entertainment, hugely famous at the time. The reason we're speaking of these two men in one breath, they're very different men, is because Edwina was rumoured to have affairs with both of them.

2:29But there was an allegation printed in a newspaper in Britain, which was that basically a sort of royal woman was having an affair with a black entertainer. And this was so scandalous at the time that Buckingham Palace forced Edwina to bring libel proceedings, which she did not want to do. I mean, that's an unheard of thing because the royals don't like being in the courts. It's really unusual. But at this stage, you have to remember there was a lot more deference towards the royals. So when this went to court and Edwina actually testified, she so didn't want to. She didn't want to do any of this.

3:02And she testified there and said, you know, I've never met Paul Robeson, which was a lie, by the way. And apparently he was very upset about that afterwards that she denied it. And it was a sort of very controversial thing. But the newspaper did not defend themselves. They issued a full apology. They said, it's fine. We'll pay whatever damages. Hold it like a pack of cards. I mean, there was no case for the defence, even though it was probably true. But that's, of course, how this works, because the idea of going up against the royals was impossible. And they offered to pay damages. She actually refused to collect the damages, which I think tells you that she was just...

3:34It does, right? Yeah. She did. It's possible she had affairs with both of them. Who can say she gave Hutch a cigarette lighter engraved with her own initials, which isn't a very good way to hide it. No. If you're having a thing with somebody. No. I mean, she's built as a very smart woman. This is not a smart move. She doesn't care. She doesn't care. I mean, you know, and she was interested in interesting people. But I have to say, I mean, Robeson, very obviously her type. So, it's so her type. And also an interest in Indian politics from Robeson. Absolutely. Because, you know, he not only a communist, not only agitating for sort of minors in Wales here, But the Indian Workers Association, he was really fascinated with any adjutant groups that were challenging the status quo.

4:13I mean, hugely international figure. Yeah. So you can definitely see she got it. We really hope you enjoyed that clip from our members mini-series on the scandal that shaped Partition. To access the full series, just head to empirepoduk.com, empirepoduk.com, become a friend of the show.