A Royal Patient

A saga about a young man going into the world, meets trials and finds a princess — this is an old tale, so what's new?

The young man is the adventurous Axel Munthe from Stockholm, Sweden, who strived to become a doctor and find a role for himself in the cosmopolitan high society in Europe on the threshold to the 20th century. Later in life Axel Munthe would write The Story of San Michele that became an international bestseller.

The princess is Princess Victoria of Baden, beloved granddaughter to Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany, who at the age of seventeen was married into the Swedish royal family as suitable spouse to young Crown Prince Gustaf of the United Kingdoms of Sweden-Norway.

One day in April 1891, Crown Princess Victoria enters Doctor Munthe's medical surgery in Rome in Italy. Locked into the roles of a doctor and a patient, they are also a man and a woman, young and attractive, charming when they want to charm, and skilled at powerplay. This was the prelude to a friendship lasting for fifteen years, then enmity for seven years, then negotiations and a strange co-dependency. Many have speculated over the relationship between the two — was it a romance or not?

What had happened in their lives until the moment when their paths crossed for the first time? Crown Princess Victoria, the bright granddaughter of Kaiser Wilhelm I in Germany, was educated in the same way as her younger brother. When she met Munthe, she had three young sons, one of them suffering from a mysterious malady. An accomplished pianist and skilful photographer, she was struggling with how to manage life. How did it come about that she should consult this doctor? And how did the youngest son to an apothecary in Stockholm, get to study medicine in Montpellier in France, live in Paris and then become a sought-after physician in Rome in Italy? Each of them yearned for independence and control over how to live. Both are bright and wilful, vulnerable, marked by dark emotional experiences.

The tale is about their longings and fears, flashes of sweet delight and moments of grief. Not least is it a story about the very human need and desire to be seen and loved.

The narrative shifts back and forth between Axel and Victoria. Building on letters and other documents in private and public archives in Sweden, France, Germany, Italy and Great Britain, this is a chronicle of life in the cosmopolitan upper classes in Europe in the late 19th century and of the medical ideas that shaped the treatment of women's bodies and minds at that time.