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A 51 year old accountant, who claims that he is the illegitimate child of Princess Margaret, applied to the High Court seeking an order that would allow him to see the wills of the late Queen Mother and late Princess Margaret. He said the purpose of his application was to identify whether the Royal wills made any provision for an illegitimate child.

Normally wills are open to inspection and an application to the High Court would not be necessary to see a will. However, the will of the Sovereign is not subject to probate because of special rules, which mean that the wills are sealed unless the court directs it to be opened.

Robert Brown’s theory as to his real origins seems to more like the elaborate plot of a Disney film rather than real life. His seemingly ordinary and uneventful upbringing started in Kenya where he was born. His birth certificate was signed by Cynthia Joan Brown in which she named herself as his mother and stated that he was born in Nairobi on 5 January 1955, his father being Douglas Richard Brown, a builder by occupation. Robert said that he had always had a “sense of not belonging to the family environment in which he was brought up’’.

Although Robert in his own words acknowledges that he has ‘not been told’ that he is the illegitimate child of Princess Margaret, or even that he was adopted, he said that ‘It is a conclusion I have arrived at by deduction.’ This he continues is ‘based upon a jigsaw of personal recollections, events, circumstantial evidence, conversations, reactions and extensive research.’

The catalyst for his extraordinary theory was a cousins wedding in Wales. The wedding was said to have been a grand affair, with guests including a large number of titled people - Lords and Ladies, Earls and Countesses. Looking at the seating plan, Robert noticed that he was more or less the only Esquire. Robert said that: ‘‘When I mentioned this to my uncle he gave an embarrassed half-laugh and said: “wrong side of the sheets”. It was at this moment that he started to think more about his ancestry and in particular the possibility that he might be the illegitimate child of a Royal. Robert cites other events as part of his ‘jigsaw’ such as meetings from early childhood in Kenya with a woman ‘whom I now believe may have been Princess Margaret’ and someone commenting ‘you could be King one day’.

The executors for the Royal family were not impressed with his claim describing it as scandalous. The barrister representing the executors goaded Robert during the trial calling him deluded. The High Court wasn’t quite so convinced either and in throwing out his claim concluded that that there had been ‘no rational basis whatsoever’ for him to have held the belief that he was the illegitimate child of Princess Margaret.

Marie, Contributor to Lawmate.