Black Tulip Scandal

The Black Tulip Scandal was a scandal involving the then queen consort Lauren and the former King Farouk of Egypt. It occurred during the early years of the reign of King Charles III and has since became a controversial matter in the history of Anglo-Egyptian relations.

Background

In 1947, in a break from the royal tradition of commonly marrying among the upper classes of the royalty and nobility, Charles, the then Prince of Wales married an American commoner by the name of Lauren Bacall. Despite its controversial nature, the marriage was allowed to retain, with both Charles and Lauren becoming the respective king and queen consort upon the death of King Edward VII.

In Egypt, a 16-year old Prince Farouk had ascended to the throne upon the death of his father and predecessor, Fuad I. Initially a well-received and popular despot, the Farouk's popularity began to decline substantially in the aftermath of the Second World War due to his refusal in committing to social reforms in the country. Ultimately, in the Egyptian revolution of 1952, Farouk was deposed by a group of army officers known as the Free Officers Movement which subsequently abolished the Egyptian monarchy.

Scandal

As a token of good faith, the newly coronated Charles III had offered the former Egyptian king alongside his wife temporary asylum in Britain. Following their arrival from Italy on January 1953 in which to the surprise of the British royals, the former king had appeared alone without his wife whom had prior returned to Egypt, the latter was swiftly granted residence in Buckingham Palace.

Though the former king was considerably well received among the palace inhabitants, the former's deviant behavior however quickly earned the ire of the king and queen, in which the queen in particular subtly resented Farouk, citing the former king's discreet attempts to seduce her. For instance, the queen later recounted in her memoirs of the very first dinner in which the royal family were joined alongside Farouk himself in which she described on how she was the unwilling subject of Farouk's repeated stares and glimpses: "When he was eating, he ate well the dishes brought for him but when he wasn't, he would often look at me like how he looked at the ladies that caught his eye. He was smart enough to hide it from my husband and it would have been rude for me to scold him at the dinner table". Reportedly, Farouk's discreet coquetish behaviour had also manifested itself in the form of staged conversations and occasional compliments in regards to the queen consort's profound beauty.

However, unbeknownst to Farouk, his actions were consistently relayed to the king. Consequently, after just four days since the former king had taken up residence in the palace, he was then subsequently expelled, the occasion which caused a great deal of controversy among the local British populace. Farouk himself would return to Italy on the same day, while local media would describe the occasion as the Black Tulip Scandal, owing to the queen's preferred outfit, a black sleveless gown with patterns representing the tulip flowers imprinted across the gown.

Legacy

Amidst the large amount of controversy surrounding the "banishment" of the former Egyptian king from Buckingham Palace, neither the then king and queen chose to disclose the aforementioned reasons. However, it was eventually disclosed to public knowledge in an interview by the queen's granddaughter in which the latter recounted the late Queen Mother's personal views of the former king: When I used to ask my grandmother on her past, she once told me of a particular man named Farouk, a man who she described as an uncontrolled, slobby freak. He is definitely a sore subject of her past".