The Countess of Wessex, formerly Sophie Rees-Jones, is said to be discreetly back working at RJH, the public relations agency she co-founded. Sophie still retain a shareholding valued at £2 million in the company and sits on the board.

After criticism of her commercial role at RJH, and an embarrassing incident in which she was taken in by a fake sheik who was found to be a News of the World journalist and induced her to slag off various politicians, she agreed to become a full-time Royal with a stipend from the Queen.

Her husband, Prince Edward, also withdrew from a business career when his TV production company went out of business with millions of pounds of debt.

Now it seems, the high cost of maintaining thier enormous residence, Bagshot Park, leased from the Crown Estates, plus a new member of the family, Lady Louise, has persuaded Sophie to look towards her business once more.

So far it’s been very low key, but expect flak when certain Labour backbenchers get hold of it.

Among the rare authentic stories of Philip’s childhood is the account of how an insensitive grown-up arrived one day on the beach with toys for all but an invalid child, assumed to be ruled out for playthings. Philip, who was five, went into the house and collected all his personal treasures and presented them to her, the latest acquisition on top. It could have been showing off. It was more probably an early glimpse of character. One of his equerries recently came out with something on this : “What people don’t realise is that he’s immensely kind. No one has a bigger heart, or takes greater pains to conceal it.”

From Philip: An Informal Biography by Basil Boothroyd (1981).

Click here for the best price on Philip and Elizabeth by Giles Brandreth.

King Edgar died in AD 975, his reputation still undiminished. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records his passing as follows :

In this year Edgar passed away
Ruler of the English,
Friend of the West Saxons
And protector of the Mercians.
That was known far and wide
Throughout many nations,
Kings honoured the son of Edmund
Far and wide over the gannet’s bath,
And submitted to the Sovereign,
As was his birth right.
No fleet however proud
No host however strong,
Was able to win booty for itself
In England, while the noble King
Occupied the Royal throne.

Channel 4 in the UK last night screened an excellent, and largely sympathetic, documentary on the much maligned Prince Eddy, later Duke of Clarence. In his short life (he died at 28) he was heir to the throne, accused of homosexuality by default, and even of being Jack the Ripper, or the cause of Jack’s crimes.

The story is a confused one, not least because his personal records were destroyed by unknown hands. Prince Albert Victor was born in 1864 and died of pneumonia in 1892.

Historian Andrew Cook has unearthed letters sent by Eddy to his friends and they reveal a very different character to the one generally portrayed. He’s very taken with a number of young princesses and eager to find a wife, for example.

The scandal at a homosexual brothel concerned a member of the aristocratic Somerset family ~ and not the one named. Somerset’s artful lawyer tried to deflect attention by hinting that a more illustrious figure was involved, and a cover-up ensued. Eddy was touring India at the time, so was an easy target for innuendo.

As for his being Jack the Ripper, Cook proves conclusively from the Court Circulars that Eddy was out of London on the days of each of the murders.

Eddy’s younger brother became King George V on his death, and the course of the Royal Family was changed forever.