The life of Prince Philip's mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, who was exiled to an asylum, protected Jews during World War II and founded her own convent

From being exiled to an asylum where she was treated by Sigmund Freud to protecting Jewish families during the Second World War, Prince Philip's mother seemed to live a thousand lifetimes in her 84 years.

Princess Alice of Battenberg was born Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Mary on 25  February 1885 at Windsor Castle in the presence of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.

She was raised as an English princess, although her parents, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine and Prince Louis of Battenberg were very much German.

Queen Victoria with her daughter Princess Beatrice together with the Queen's granddaughter, Victoria of Hesse-Darmstadt and her eldest child, Prince Alice of Battenberg, in 1886

She was raised as an English princess, although her parents, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine and Prince Louis of Battenberg, were German

The Greek royal family was exiled shortly after the birth of Princess Alice's youngest child and only son, Prince Philip, in 1921. Mother and son are pictured arm in arm

Alice was one of four siblings. Her sister Louise later became Queen of Sweden and her brother Louis 'Dickie' Mountbatten, later Lord Mountbatten, was Prince Philip's  uncle, mentor to Prince Charles and adviser to the Royal Family.

The Battenbergs were told to Anglicise their surname to 'Mountbatten' during the First World War to drop the German connection.

Alice was congenitally deaf from birth but could speak clearly and lip read in several languages. Photographs of her as a young woman, often with upswept hair and wearing lace gowns, suggested beauty.

While at the Coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, she met and fell in love with Prince Andrew, a younger son of the King of Greece - a year later the couple were wed.

When the Balkan Wars began in 1912, Prince Andrew was reinstated in the army, while Prince Alice helped assist war efforts by setting up field hospitals.

She was later awarded the Royal Red Cross in 1913 by King George V, the late Queen's grandfather, for her hard work.

By 1914, Alice had given birth to four daughters, with a revolution brewing in Greece, where she was living at the time. Shortly after her youngest child and only son, Prince Philip, was born in 1921, the Greek royal family were exiled.

While he was just a toddler, the future Duke of Edinburgh was placed into a makeshift cot - an orange crate - as his family fled to Paris on a British warship.

Once in France, they lived on handouts from relatives. The stressful period caused strain on Alice, whose ardent religious beliefs had slowly become more eccentric over the years.

By 1930 she was hearing voices and believed she was having intimate relationships with Jesus and other religious figures. She was diagnosed as schizophrenic before being treated by Sigmund Freud at a clinic in Berlin.

Under the advice of the renowned psychoanalyst, her ovaries were blasted with X-rays - a treatment said to cure her of frustrated sexual desires.

Alice met and fell in love with Prince Andrew, a younger son of the King of Greece, at the Coronation of King Edward VII in 1902. Husband and wife are pictured together in 1915

Prince Alice with her husband, Prince Andrew of Greece on their wedding day in 1903 

Photographs of her as a young woman, often with upswept hair, showed her beauty

Princess Alice of Battenberg stands next to Queen Mary, second from the left on the front row in this family portrait to mark the wedding day of the late Queen and Duke of Edinburgh in 1947

Princess Alice is pictured at London Airport in 1965. Two years later, the Colonels took control of Greece in a military coup. Alice refused to leave until Prince Philip sent a plane and a special request from the Queen to bring her home

This treatment is believed to have prompted early menopause. She was admitted to a Swiss sanatorium where she remained imprisoned for two and a half years.

Prince Philip was just nine years old when Princess Alice was locked away. He had been taken out for a picnic with his grandmother and when he arrived home his mother had gone.

Prince Andrew effectively abandoned his wife to go and live on the French Rivera with his mistress, despite never getting divorced. 

He died in 1944 in Monaco.

During this time, young Prince Philip spent his time at boarding school in England and Scotland, being bounced from relative to relative during the holidays, including his uncle Lord Mountbatten.

When his mother was eventually released from the sanatorium in 1932, she drifted between modest German B&Bs.

The mother and son were not reunited until 1937, when they met at the funeral of Philip's sister Cecilie, who died in a plane crash at the age of 26. 

At this point, Alice wanted 16-year-old Philip to return to Athens with her, following the restoration of the Greek monarchy in 1935. But Philip already had his future etched out in the Royal Navy, so his mother was left alone in Greece.

By 1941, Alice was stranded in Nazi-occupied Greece. Lord Mountbatten sent her food parcels which she handed out to those in need.

During the war, she was instrumental in aiding the escape from Greece of several Jews. Alice even hid the Cohen's, Jewish family, on the top floor of her home, just yards away from Gestapo headquarters.

When the Gestapo became suspicious and questioned the Princess, she used her deafness as an excuse not to answer their questions and prevented them from entering her property.

Following the war, diamonds were used from Alice's tiara so Philip could present a ring to Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen.

Alice sold the rest of her jewels to create her own religious order, the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary, in 1949, becoming a nun.

She went on to build a convent and orphanage in a poor suburb of Athens.

The royal remained in Greece until 1967, when there was a Greek military coup. Alice refused to leave the country until Prince Philip sent a plane and a special request from the Queen to bring her home.

She spent the final years of her life living at Buckingham Palace with her son and daughter-in-law before she died in December 1969, aged 84.

The last few months of her life were fictionalised in the third season of Netflix's The Crown, played by Jane Lapotaire. The series incorrectly suggested she gave a tell-all interview with the Guardian, covering topics about her mental health condition.

She spent the final years of her life at Buckingham Palace with her son and daughter-in-law before she died in December 1969, aged 84

Prince William pictured during a visit to the Orthodox Church of St Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem to pay his respects at the tomb of his great-grandmother Princess Alice in June 2018

Shortly before her death, she wrote a heartbreaking letter to her only son, that read: 'Dearest Philip, Be brave, and remember I will never leave you, and you will always find me when you need me most. All my devoted love, your old Mama.'

In 1994, 25 years after Alice’s death, her son attended a ceremony in Jerusalem to honour his mother, who is buried in a crypt at Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives.

In honour of her courage during the war, when she saved her friends, the Cohen family, from certain death, she was given the title of Righteous Among The Nations.

Prince Philip said: ‘I suspect that it never occurred to her that her action was in any way special. She was a person with deep religious faith and she would have considered it to be a totally human action to fellow human beings in distress.’

How The Crown fictionalised a 'tell all' interview with a journalist 

The third series of The Crown claims Princess Alice gave a tell-all interview with the Guardian, stepping in to take the place of publicity shy Princess Anne. 

In the scene Anne feigns a cold and excuses herself from the interview and sends her grandmother (Jane Lapotaire) out into the hallway where journalist John Armstrong (played by Colin Morgan) is waiting.

Princess Alice, the mother of the Duke of Edinburgh, proceeds to give the journalists details about her tragic life, including her time spent in mental institutions.

This was all fictionalised, although Princess Alice did live at Buckingham Palace from 1967 until her death in December 1969. 

Jane Lapotaire as Princess Alice in Netflix's The Crown