Could mystery letters reveal Philip’s lover?

Historian alleges £2m ‘cover-up’ of royal archives

- NIGEL NELSON

MINISTERS waging a bitter battle over royal diaries and letters may be trying to cover up an affair of Prince Philip’s, a historian claims.

Author Andrew Lownie estimates the Government has spent around £2 million trying to stop him seeing the complete archive left by Philip’s uncle Lord Mountbatten and his wife.

Dr Lownie says he has spent £460,000 in legal fees trying to reveal secrets concealed within the 30,000 pages.

The Mountbatten family sold the papers to Southampton University in 2011 for £2.8million, most of which came from lottery funding.

Dr Lownie, 60, used freedom of information laws to try to get access to them for a book on the Mountbattens, backed by the information commissioner.

The Cabinet Office and Southampton University appealed and he estimates the bill to try to stop him has now reached more than four times the money he has spent.

Dr Lownie is furious that during his three-year legal battle, more than 99% of the papers were dumped on the internet without warning.

But there were 100 redactions in letters between Mountbatten and his wife Edwina, who had an open marriage.