Katya & The Prince of Siam

However, one morning, after he had been in Bangkok three weeks, he set out to arrive – punctual as always – at the weekly private audience held by the King at Dusit Palace. Attendance was not obligatory, but it was unofficially understood that members of the Royal Family and important notables were expected to be present.

Unknown to Chakrabongse, however, gossip and rumour had been winging round the city like flocks of mischievous birds, twittering that there was a Madame Bisnulok staying in Singapore. Discounted at first as being unbelievable, the story gained credence and eventually reached the ears of the King. Therefore on this fateful occasion, it was not long after Chakrabongse had arrived that he was invited to draw nearer to his father. The Monarch was his usual genial self as he chatted to his son, and while still smiling amiably though watching him closely, said jestingly: ‘Lek, I hear you have a European wife – is it true?’

Torn between consternation and relief that the dreaded moment had inescapably come to pass, Chakrabongse turned pale, and at a similar loss for words as when he had proposed to Katya, muttered hoarsely and ineptly: ‘Very possibly’. A terrible silence fell. Then with a look like forked lightning, Chulalongkorn turned on his heel and left, terminating the audience and his hitherto complete confidence in his beloved son.

Chakrabongse’s interview with his mother was more harrowing still, for she stormed and raved for hours, while he, deeming it his duty, listened in respectful silence, for she was not only his mother, but also the Queen. Late that night when she at last allowed him to depart, he felt so wretched that he dismissed his car and walked home in a downpour of drenching rain.

Subsequently when the King again reproached him for marrying so irresponsibly, he reminded Chakrabongse that his new system of succession (based on the sons of his chief wife, Queen Saowabha taking precedence over those by lesser queens regardless of age) meant that Chakrabongse was not merely an important prince but heir-presumptive – second in line to the throne after his elder brother Crown Prince Vajiravudh.

Worn and exhausted by the furore he had raised, Chakrabongse lost no time in arranging for Katya to leave Singapore. And without mentioning the storm of disapproval he had caused by his marriage, wrote cheerfully and reassuringly to her brother in a letter dated only 1906:

 

‘In some days Katya will arrive here. I am awaiting her with impatience. My house is ready and it is very nice and cosy and also cool. My father himself gave all the orders about the furnishing and arrangements and told me this is the best house in Bangkok. I am very happy that Katya will have a home with all modern comfort and convenience. She is so pretty that I still can’t get used to it.

‘I cannot tell you how lucky I am to have such a wife. She is also so happy and I hope it will remain this way forever.

‘We talk about you often and I want to thank you once more for all your help especially to me, who has stolen your sister and taken her so far away. With many thanks and love.’

 

When Katya crossed the threshold of her elegant cream-coloured home, built in the style of an Italian villa, the assembled servants falling gracefully at her feet, she stepped into a seclusion as absolute as that of the ‘Inside’ in the days of her husband’s grandfather King Mongkut. But whereas by now, the queens and wives of Chulalongkorn enjoyed some freedom outside the palace walls, it would be a whole year before Katya went beyond the gates of Paruskavan except for evening motor-drives along the tree-lined avenues of Bangkok. During this period, she met neither her father-in-law or mother-in-law, who had presumably decided that if they ignored their son’s marriage it might somehow turn out to be untrue.

Fortunately Paruskavan and its immense gardens contained much to delight and interest her, while Chakrabongse, remorseful and concerned that she should not be isolated, took great trouble to indulge and please her in every way. Apart from the main building were separate servants’ quarters, stables and a European as well as a Siamese kitchen.

 

 

Paruskavan Palace.

 

Katya in Paruskavan Palace.