In April 1926, royalty was all over the news. There was much
\nexpectation as the second in line to the throne, the future George
\nVI, and his wife, Elizabeth, waited for the birth of their first
\nchild. Royal baby mania was already bubbling as April got under way
\nbut on April 4, Easter Sunday, there were plenty of other regal
\nstories to catch the eye.<\/p>\n
Worries for a princess<\/h2>\n
All the papers were still filled with concern for Princess
\nVictoria, one of King George V\u2019s three sisters. She had been ill
\nwith pneumonia for some time and there was continuing speculation
\non the state of her health. On Easter Saturday, an update had been
\ngiven on her state and most of the Easter Sunday papers carried it.
\nThe Sunday Express reported \u201dthe following bulletin was issued
\nyesterday with regard to the condition of Princess Victoria\u201d and
\nthen replicated the exact wording \u201dalthough the pneumonia is
\nresolving, the strain on the heart remains great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Sunday Mirror tried to add a happier note that
\nEaster as concerns continued. It reported, in its \u2018Mainly for
\nWomen\u2019 page, that Prince George, youngest surviving son of George
\nV, was trying to keep his aunt\u2019s spirits up. Then on service with
\nthe Royal Navy, the paper noted that \u201dthe Prince\u2019s racy letters
\nfrom the various ports, illustrated by the little thumbnail
\nsketches which he knows so well how to do, have been a great joy to
\nher.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Princess](\"https:\/\/royalcentral.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Victoria_de_Gales-1-664x1024.jpg\")
\nheadlines as her health continued to cause concern
(By W. & D. Downey. London, Public Domain, Wiki
\nCommons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
The Sunday Sun of Newcastle published a quasi obituary of
\nPrincess Victoria which painted George V\u2019s sister as something of a
\nvictim of the Royal Family. It focused on the severe impact that
\nleaving her home at Sandringham was having on her, noting that \u201dthe
\nleaving of beloved Sandringham, where she had been for so many
\nyears, was a heavy trial.\u201d And it wrote at length of her devotion
\nto her mother, Queen Alexandra, who had died the previous
\nNovember.<\/p>\n
The paper, rather curtly, said Alexandra \u201dclung with pathetic
\naffection to Princess Victoria\u201d who was \u201dafflicted with peculiar
\nseverity\u201d by the death of the then Queen Mother. And it noted that
\nVictoria was called \u201dThe Unselfish Princess\u201d by her late father,
\nKing Edward VII and claimed that she herself had heard someone call
\nher \u201dthe Unknown Princess\u201d.<\/p>\n
News on the expected royal baby<\/h2>\n
She was far from unknown that April as the papers pored over
\ndetails over her health while trying to keep royalty front and
\ncentre ahead of the expected big regal event of the year, the
\narrival of a baby prince or princess. While the impending birth of
\nthe first child of the Duke and Duchess of York was usually
\ndescribed in genteel terms like \u201dthe forthcoming happy event\u201d, The
\nPeople cut straight to the chase that Easter Sunday. It wrote that
\n\u201dthe Duchess of York\u2019s baby is expected to arrive early in May at
\n17 Bruton Street, the Duchess\u2019 old home.\u201d It turned out that the
\npaper got everything bar the date right.<\/p>\n
![\"Lady](\"https:\/\/royalcentral.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Philip_de_Laszlo_-_Elizabeth_Angela_Marguerite_Bowes-Lyon_1925.jpg\")
\nwas big news in April 1926
(Wiki Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
The People also had news of the Duke of Norfolk who was also
\nEarl Marshall and so responsible for organising major Crown events.
\nA few decades later, it would be this duke who ran the Coronation
\nof the baby about to be born. However, in April 1926 he had other
\nthings on his mind. The People noted that he is \u201dnot musical but
\nhas been practising lassoing, a rather difficult art in a London
\nballroom but useful at times for the removal of a dull guest.\u201d
\nPresumably, no one at the Coronation of 1952 was boring as the Duke
\nwas never seen lassoing in public.<\/p>\n
Royal romance<\/p>\n
All that was needed for the papers on Easter Sunday 1926 was a
\nbit of royal romance and that was provided by the then Crown Prince
\nof Norway who would later reign as King Olav, one of the most
\nfamous monarchs of the 20th century. On April 4 1926, he was better
\nknown as the handsome prince in a bubbling royal love story except
\nno one would say who is paramour could be.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/royalcentral.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Olav_V_of_Norway.jpeg\")
\nhis reign \u2013 as a Crown Prince he gave gossip writers some
\nexcitement as the waited for his wedding
(Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Reynold\u2019s Newspaper was one of several to report that Easter
\nweekend about a forthcoming marriage, saying \u201dthe betrothal of the
\nCrown Prince of Norway will be announced shortly. The bride-elect
\nis a member of the British Royal Family, closely related to The
\nQueen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The information was clearly wide of the mark. No engagement was
\nannounced and Olav instead fell in love with Princess Martha of
\nSweden with their wedding taking place in 1929.<\/p>\n
The amazing princesses<\/h2>\n
To end, back to the Sunday Mirror which was on form that Easter
\nDay. It also noted that Princess Victoria, whose ill health was
\ncausing so much concern, had once been a \u2018pioneer\u2019 of the Royal
\nFamily. Along with her sister Maud, now Queen of Norway and mother
\nof Olav, she had \u201damazed London by bicycling in Battersea Park\u201d.
\nWhether it was the bicycle or the sight of two royals as far south
\nas Battersea that caused the shock wasn\u2019t explained.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source royalcentral.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In April 1926, royalty was all over the news. There was much expectation as the second in line to the throne, the future George VI, and his wife, Elizabeth, waited for the birth of their first child. Royal baby mania was already bubbling as April got under way but on April 4, Easter Sunday, there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2358158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2358157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Racy-letters-for-a-princess-caught-the-headlines.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2358157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2358159,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358157\/revisions\/2358159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2358158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2358157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2358157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2358157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}