Lord Louis Mountbatten, also known as Uncle Dickie, is a prominent figure in The Crown and royal history.

Of all the major real-life events that have been portrayed in the historical drama television series The Crown, which covers approximately sixty years in the life of Queen Elizabeth II, one of the most consequential events was the death of Lord Louis Mountbatten, better known as Uncle Dickie, who was killed by a terrorist bombing in 1979.

While Mountbatten’s death had, as seen on the show, a severe emotional impact on the royal family, the death of Mountbatten, who was played by Greg Wise in the show’s first two seasons and Charles Dance in the following two seasons, also changed the course of royal history. As the maternal uncle of Prince Philip and a once-removed second cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, Dickie was deeply entrenched within the royal family. However, Dickie was also especially close to his great-nephew, Prince Charles, who regarded Dickie as a mentor and surrogate father.

Moreover, had Dickie, who was known to interfere in Charles’ personal life, not died in 1979, it’s entirely possible that Charles wouldn’t have married Lady Diana Spencer.

Dickie Was a Royal Matchmaker and War Hero

Lord Mountbatten, Uncle Dickie, had the unique distinction of being related to both Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II, whose 1947 wedding, which serves as the launching point for The Crown, was made possible by Dickie, who introduced Elizabeth to Philip at a family wedding in 1934. Dickie was especially close to Philip, whose mother was Dickie’s sister. The third season of The Crown explores the troubled relationship between Philip and his mother, who underwent shock therapy and institutionalization throughout much of her adult life. During the period of his mother’s institutionalization, Philip lived with Dickie and Dickie’s family, and this led to the development of a close personal relationship between Dickie and Philip.

In the second season of The Crown, which focuses on infidelity, Elizabeth reveals her marital troubles to Dickie, who famously had an open marriage with his wife, Lady Edwina, until her death in 1960. After Edwina’s death, Dickie, who married Edwina in 1922, embarked on a long-running affair with actress Shirley MacLaine.

Beyond his sensational personal life, Dickie was a noted military commander and strategist who served with distinction in both World Wars and was later appointed commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet. Indeed, Dickie’s prominent military career and elder-statesman royal status were significant factors in terms of why Dickie was targeted for assassination.

Dickie Was a Second Father to Prince Charles

Prince Charles referred to Lord Mountbatten, Uncle Dickie, as being the grandfather whom Charles never had, referring to the fact that Charles’ paternal grandfather, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, died approximately four years before Charles was born. Dickie nonetheless also played a paternal role in Charles’ life, especially in terms of Charles’ romantic life, for which Dickie was fond of giving Charles dating advice. However, while Dickie initially encouraged Charles to be romantically adventurous and sow his proverbial wild oats, Dickie eventually encouraged Charles to get married.

Dickie’s definition of a suitable wife for Charles was a woman who came from a traditional aristocratic family and who had an uncomplicated relationship history. However, as Dickie didn’t live to see Charles’ courtship of Lady Diana in 1980, the woman whom Dickie actually had in mind for Charles to marry was Dickie’s granddaughter, Amanda Knatchbull, whom Charles dated sporadically between 1974 and 1979.

However, following Dickie’s 1979 assassination, which also resulted in the death of Knatchbull’s brother and grandmother, Knatchbull decided that she didn’t want to live the life of a princess and rejected Charles’ proposal of marriage. Charles, of course, famously married Diana in 1981.

Dickie’s Assassination Shocked the Royal Family and the World

One of the most shocking events in The Crown and the history of the royal family is the assassination of Lord Mountbatten, Uncle Dickie, whose murder was dramatized in the debut episode of the show’s fourth season. Dickie was killed on August 27, 1979, by an explosion on a fishing boat, while Dickie was enjoying a relaxing vacation in Ireland with several of his family members, including two of his grandsons.

The assassination was carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). As an influential member of the royal family and a legendary figure in British military history, Dickie was a valuable target for the IRA, which dispatched volunteer Thomas McMahon to plant a fifty-pound bomb onboard said fishing boat on the night before the attack, which was triggered by a remote control device. McMahon was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the bombing but was released in 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

However, nearly forty-five years after his death, Dickie’s legacy lives on, not only through The Crown but also with the new generation of the royal family. In April 2018, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Princess Catherine, upon the birth of their third child and second son, named the child Louis, as a tribute to Dickie, who died nearly three years before William was born.