The British royal family’s connection with Mallorca stretches back years and over the past few decades, the Queen accompanied by the late Prince Philip came the island in 1988 while Prince Charles and the late Lady Diana with the Princes Harry and William have visited the island together on official visits and for holidays.
Prince Charles used to love painting on the island while Lady Di stayed at La Residencia in Deya.
Prince Andrew came to play golf on Majorca while William and Harry were regular visitors on holidays in their younger years, and the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie have also enjoyed the delights of Majorca.
Furthermore, the parents of one Prince Philip’s closest confidantes and friends, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, lived on the island.
While much has been made of their shared passion for the sport of carriage driving, their ties were deep and went back decades. Penny is thought to have met Philip in 1974 when she was dating Norton Knatchbull, now the 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma, one of Prince Charles’s closest friends at Gordonstoun School in Scotland.
Formerly Penelope Meredith Eastwood, ‘Penny’ Knatchbull, previously known as Lady Romsey and later Lady Brabourne, is the daughter of a retired army major.
Penny’s father left school at 15 and became a butcher, like his father and grandfather before him.
He founded the Angus Steakhouse chain of restaurants which he sold for several millions, giving Penny a privileged childhood.
She grew up and was educated in Switzerland before attending the London School of Economics.
She first met the Duke – who was 30 years her senior – at a polo match when she was 20 and in a relationship with Lord Romsey, Earl Mountbatten’s grandson Norton Knatchbull.
Norton, 73, is the grandson of Lord Mountbatten - who was famously close to his nephew Prince Philip. Philip was Norton’s godson, while Norton is the godfather of Prince William.
Penny’s father, Reg Eastwood, had sold his steakhouse chain to the Golden Egg company and was living with his wife in Mallorca when his daughter married Norton.
The wedding had been delayed for eight weeks because five months earlier, on August 25, IRA bombers blew up a small boat in the sea off Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo, where Lord Mountbatten had a holiday home.
It killed Mountbatten, Norton’s 14-year-old younger brother Nicholas (after whom he was to name his own son), his paternal grandmother the Dowager Lady Brabourne and Paul Maxwell, a 15-year-old local.
At Tuesday’s at memorial service, Penelope Knatchbull was spotted talking to Prince Kyril of Preslav who spends every summer in Majorca.