Diana, Princess of Wales
Overview
Spencer family
The Spencer family are a British noble family descended in the male line from Henry Spencer, claimed to be a descendant of the cadet branch of the ancient House Le Despencer , male-line ancestor of the Earls of Sunderland, the later Dukes of Marlborough, and the Earls Spencer...
; 1 July 1961 31 August 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century. Her wedding to the Prince of Wales, held at St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
, was televised and watched by a global audience of over 750 million people. After this marriage she received the courtesy titles Princess of Wales
Princess of Wales
Princess of Wales is a British courtesy title held by the wife of The Prince of Wales since the first "English" Prince of Wales in 1283.Although there have been considerably more than ten male heirs to the throne, there have been only ten Princesses of Wales. The majority of Princes of Wales...
, Duchess of Cornwall
Duchess of Cornwall
The Duchess of Cornwall is the title held by the wife of the Duke of Cornwall. Duke of Cornwall is a non-hereditary peerage held by the British Sovereign's eldest son and heir....
, Duchess of Rothesay
Duchess of Rothesay
Duchess of Rothesay is a Scottish courtesy title. It is held by the wife of The Dukes of Rothesay since the first Duke in 1398. Due to the mortality rate and the fact that very few Dukes of Rothesay were of majority or married prior to ascending the throne , there have in fact been only eight...
, Countess of Chester and Baroness of Renfrew.
Discussions
Quotations
She won't go quietly, that's the problem. I'll fight to the end, because I believe that I have a role to fulfill, and I've got two children to bring up.
ibid.
I'd like to be a queen of people's hearts, in people's hearts, but I don't see myself being Queen of this country. I don't think many people will want me to be Queen.
ibid.
I do things differently, because I don't go by a rule book, because I lead from the heart, not the head, and albeit that's got me into trouble in my work, I understand that.
ibid.
Everyone needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back.
The Guardian, December 9, 1995, p. 2.
Encyclopedia
Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances; née Spencer
; 1 July 1961 31 August 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales
, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century. Her wedding to the Prince of Wales, held at St Paul's Cathedral
, was televised and watched by a global audience of over 750 million people. After this marriage she received the courtesy titles Princess of Wales
, Duchess of Cornwall
, Duchess of Rothesay
, Countess of Chester and Baroness of Renfrew. The marriage produced two sons: Princes William and Harry
, currently second and third in line
to the thrones of the 16 Commonwealth realm
s, respectively.
A public figure from the announcement of her engagement to the Prince of Wales
, Diana was born into an aristocratic English family with royal ancestry, and she remained the focus of worldwide media scrutiny during and after her marriage, which ended in divorce on 28 August 1996, including following her death in a car crash
in Paris on 31 August 1997 and the subsequent display of public mourning
a week later. Diana also received recognition for her charity work and for her support of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
. From 1989, she was the president of Great Ormond Street Hospital
for Children, in addition to dozens of other charities.
. She was the third child of Viscount and Viscountess Althorp
(née Frances Roche, later Shand Kydd). The Spencer family
was hoping for a male heir to carry on the Spencer title. The Spencer family is one of Great Britain's oldest and most important families, closely allied with the royal family for several generations. As the family was expecting a boy, no name was chosen for a week, until they settled on Diana Frances, after a Spencer ancestress and her mother. Diana was the sister of Lady Sarah McCorquodale
, Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes
, and Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer
. Diana was baptized at Sandringham church, with commoners as god parents
; her younger brother, Charles, was baptized at Westminster Abbey
with Elizabeth II as principal godparent. Another brother, John, died a year before she was born. According to Andrew Morton
's biography of Diana, the infant John Spencer was so deformed and sick he only survived 10 hours after birth. The desire for an heir added strain to the Spencers' marriage, and Lady Althorp was reportedly sent to Harley Street
clinics in London to determine the cause of the "problem". The experience was described as "humiliating" by Charles Spencer, the current earl: "It was a dreadful time for my parents and probably the root of their divorce because I don't think they ever got over it." Diana grew up in Park House, which was situated near to the Sandringham estate
.
Diana's mother The Honourable
Frances Shand Kydd
was also a member of the British aristocracy
for her parents were the Baron Fermoy
and his wife Lady
Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy
. The Baroness had been an Extra Woman of the Bedchamber to The Queen Mother, and they were very close friends.
Diana's parents separated when she was only seven years of age. Her mother, Frances, had an affair with Peter Shand Kydd
. In Morton's book, he describes Diana's remembrance of her father loading suitcases in the car, her mother crunching across the gravel forecourt and driving away through the gates of Park House. Diana and her younger brother lived with their mother in London during their parents' separation, but during the Christmas holidays at the end of the year, Lord Althorp refused to let his estranged wife return with the children to London. Shortly afterward Lord Althorp won custody of Diana and her three siblings, with support from his mother-in-law, Frances Spencer's mother. She was first educated at Riddlesworth Hall, and later attended boarding school at The New School at West Heath
.
In 1973, Lord Althorp began a relationship with Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of Alexander McCorquodale and Barbara Cartland
. Diana received the title of Lady after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer in 1975. Lord Spencer and Lady Dartmouth were married at Caxton Hall
, London, on 14 July 1976. As Countess Spencer, Raine was unpopular with her stepdaughter Lady Diana. Lady Diana was often noted for her shyness while growing up, but she did take an interest in both music and dancing. She also had a great interest in children. After attending finishing school at the Institut Alpin Videmanette
in Switzerland, she moved to London. She began working with children, eventually becoming a nursery teacher at the Young England School. Diana had apparently played with The Princes Andrew
and Edward
as a child while her family rented Park House, a property owned by Elizabeth II and situated on the Sandringham estate.
) in Sevenoaks
, Kent, where she was regarded as a poor student, having attempted and failed all of her O-levels
twice. However, she showed a particular talent for music as an accomplished pianist. Her outstanding community spirit was recognised with an award from West Heath. In 1977, at the age of 16, she left West Heath and briefly attended Institut Alpin Videmanette
, a finishing school
in Rougemont, Switzerland
. At about that time, she first met her future husband, who was then dating her eldest sister, Lady Sarah
. Lady Diana also excelled in swimming and diving, and longed to be a professional ballerina
with the Royal Ballet. She studied ballet for a time, but then grew to 5'10", too tall for the profession.
Lady Diana moved to London before she turned 17, living in her mother's flat, as her mother then spent most of the year in Scotland. Soon afterwards, an apartment was purchased for £50,000 as an 18th birthday present, at Coleherne Court in Earls Court
. She lived there until 1981 with three flatmates.
In London, she took an advanced cooking course at her mother's suggestion, although she never became an adroit cook, and worked as a dance instructor for youth, until a skiing accident caused her to miss three months of work. She then found employment as a playgroup (pre-preschool) assistant, did some cleaning work for her sister Sarah and several of her friends, and worked as a hostess at parties. Lady Diana also spent time working as a nanny for an American family living in London.
The Prince of Wales (Prince Charles) had previously been linked to Lady Diana's elder sister Lady Sarah, and in his early thirties he was under increasing pressure to marry.
The Prince of Wales had known Lady Diana for several years, but he first took a serious interest in her as a potential bride during the summer of 1980, when they were guests at a country weekend, where she watched him play polo
. The relationship developed as he invited her for a sailing weekend to Cowes
aboard the royal yacht Britannia
, followed by an invitation to Balmoral
(the Royal Family's Scottish residence) to meet his family. Lady Diana was well received by Elizabeth II, by The Duke of Edinburgh
, and by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The couple subsequently courted in London. The prince proposed on 6 February 1981, and Lady Diana accepted, but their engagement was kept secret for the next few weeks.
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Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981, after Lady Diana selected a large £30,000 ring (£94,800 in today's terms) consisting of 14 diamonds surrounding a sapphire, similar to her mother's engagement ring. The ring was made by the then Crown jewellers Garrard
but, unusually for a member of the Royal Family, the ring was not unique and was, at the time, featured in Garrard's jewellery collection. The ring later became, in 2010, the engagement ring of Catherine Middleton (now The Duchess of Cambridge, wife of Diana's elder son Prince William).
Twenty-year-old Diana became The Princess of Wales when she married The Prince of Wales on 29 July 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral
, which offered more seating than Westminster Abbey
, generally used for royal nuptials. It was widely billed as a "fairytale wedding", watched by a global television audience of 750 million while 600,000 people lined the streets to catch a glimpse of Diana en route to the ceremony. At the altar Diana accidentally reversed the order of Charles's first two names, saying "Philip Charles" Arthur George instead. She did not say that she would "obey" him; that traditional vow was left out at the couple's request, which caused some comment at the time. Diana wore a dress
valued at £9000 with a 25-foot (8-metre) train.
, on 21 June 1982, the Princess gave birth to her and the Prince's first son and heir, William Arthur Philip Louis. Amidst some media criticism, she decided to take William, still a baby, on her first major tours of Australia and New Zealand, but the decision was popularly applauded. By her own admission, the Princess of Wales had not initially intended to take William until it was suggested by Malcolm Fraser
, the Australian prime minister
.
A second son, Henry Charles Albert David
, was born two years after William, on 15 September 1984. The Princess asserted she and the Prince were closest during her pregnancy with "Harry
" (as the younger prince has always been known). She was aware their second child was a boy, but did not share the knowledge with anyone else, including the Prince of Wales.
Even her harshest critics agree that the Princess of Wales was a devoted, imaginative and demonstrative mother. She rarely deferred to the Prince or to the Royal Family, and was often intransigent when it came to the children. She chose their first given names, dismissed a royal family nanny and engaged one of her own choosing, selected their schools and clothing, planned their outings and took them to school herself as often as her schedule permitted. She also negotiated her public duties around their timetables.
, Brian Peckford
, "I am finding it very difficult to cope with the pressures of being Princess of Wales, but I am learning to cope," from the mid-1980s, the Princess of Wales became increasingly associated with numerous charities. As Princess of Wales she was expected to regularly make public appearances to hospitals, schools and other facilities, in the 20th century model of royal patronage. The Princess developed an intense interest in serious illnesses and health-related matters outside the purview of traditional royal involvement, including AIDS and leprosy
. In addition, she was the patroness of charities and organisations working with the homeless, youth, drug addicts and the elderly. From 1989, she was President of Great Ormond Street Hospital
for Children. The day after her divorce, she announced her resignation from over 100 charities to spend more time with the remaining six.
During her final year, Diana lent highly visible support to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
, a campaign won the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1997, only a few months after her death.
The chronology of the break-up identifies reported difficulties between the Prince and Princess as early as 1985. The Princess of Wales began an affair with Major James Hewitt
, and the Prince of Wales returned to his former girlfriend, Camilla Shand (now The Duchess of Cornwall, who had become Mrs Andrew Parker-Bowles. These affairs were exposed in May 1992 with the publication of Diana: Her True Story, by Andrew Morton. The book, which also laid bare the Princess' allegedly suicidal unhappiness, caused a media storm. This publication was followed during 1992 and 1993 by leaked tapes of telephone conversations which negatively reflected on both the royal antagonists. Transcripts of taped intimate conversations between the Princess and James Gilbey
were published by the Sun newspaper in Britain in August 1992. The article's title, "Squidgygate
", referenced Gilbey's affectionate nickname for Diana. The next to surface, in November 1992, were the leaked "Camillagate" tapes, intimate exchanges between the Prince of Wales and Camilla, published in Today and the Mirror newspapers.
In the meantime, rumours had begun to surface about the Princess of Wales' relationship with James Hewitt
, her former riding instructor. These would be brought into the open by the publication in 1994 of Princess in Love.
In December 1992, Prime Minister John Major
announced the Wales' "amicable separation" to the House of Commons,
and the full Camillagate transcript was published a month later in the newspapers, in January 1993. On 3 December 1993, the Princess of Wales announced her withdrawal from public life.
The Prince of Wales sought public understanding via a televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby
on 29 June 1994. In this he confirmed his own extramarital affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, saying that he had only rekindled their association in 1986, after his marriage to the Princess had "irretrievably broken down".
While she blamed Camilla Parker-Bowles for her marital troubles due to her previous relationship with the Prince, the Princess at some point began to believe he had other affairs. In October 1993, she wrote to a friend that she believed her husband was now in love with Tiggy Legge-Bourke
and wanted to marry her. Legge-Bourke had been hired by the Prince as a young companion for his sons while they were in his care, and the Princess was extremely resentful of Legge-Bourke and her relationship with the young princes.
by journalist Martin Bashir
; the interview was broadcast on 20 November 1995. In it, the Princess said of her relationship with Hewitt, "Yes, I adored him." Of Camilla, she claimed "There were three of us in this marriage." For herself, she said, "I'd like to be a queen of people's hearts." On the Prince of Wales' suitability for kingship, she said, "Because I know the character I would think that the top job, as I call it, would bring enormous limitations to him, and I don't know whether he could adapt to that."
In December 1995, the Queen asked the Prince and Princess of Wales for "an early divorce", as a direct result of the Princess' Panorama interview. This followed shortly after the Princess' accusation that Tiggy Legge-Bourke
had aborted the Prince's child, after which Legge-Bourke instructed Peter Carter-Ruck
to demand an apology. Two days before this story broke, Diana's secretary Patrick Jephson resigned, later writing that the Princess had "exulted in accusing Legge-Bourke of having had an abortion".
On 20 December 1995, Buckingham Palace publicly announced the Queen had sent letters to the Prince and Princess of Wales advising them to divorce. The Queen's move was backed by the Prime Minister and by senior Privy Counsellors
, and, according to the BBC, was decided after two weeks of talks. The Prince immediately agreed with the suggestion. In February, the Princess announced her agreement after negotiations with the Prince and representatives of the Queen, irritating Buckingham Palace by issuing her own announcement of a divorce agreement and its terms.
The divorce was finalised on 28 August 1996.
Diana received a lump sum settlement of around £17 million along with a clause standard in royal divorces preventing her from discussing the details.
Days before the decree absolute of divorce, Letters Patent
were issued with general rules to regulate royal titles after divorce. In accordance, as she was no longer married to the Prince of Wales
, Diana lost the style Her Royal Highness and instead was styled Diana, Princess of Wales. Buckingham Palace issued a press release on the day of the decree absolute of divorce was issued, announcing Diana's change of title, but made it clear Diana continued to be a British princess
.
Almost a year before, according to Tina Brown, The Duke of Edinburgh
had warned the Princess of Wales, "If you don't behave, my girl, we'll take your title away." The Princess is said to have replied: "My title is a lot older than yours, Philip".
Buckingham Palace
stated Diana was still a member of the Royal Family, as she was the mother of the second- and third-in-line to the throne. This was confirmed by the Deputy Coroner of the Queen's Household
, Baroness Butler-Sloss
, after a pre-hearing on 8 January 2007: "I am satisfied that at her death, Diana, Princess of Wales continued to be considered as a member of the Royal Household." This appears to have been confirmed in the High Court judicial review matter of Al Fayed & Ors v Butler-Sloss. In that case, three High Court judges accepted submissions that the "very name ‘Coroner to the Queen's Household’ gave the appearance of partiality in the context of inquests into the deaths of two people, one of whom was a member of the Family and the other was not."
After the divorce, Diana retained her double apartment on the north side of Kensington Palace
, which she had shared with the Prince of Wales since the first year of their marriage, and it remained her home until her death.
Diana dated the respected heart surgeon Hasnat Khan
, from Jhelum
, Pakistan, who was called "the love of her life" after her death by many of her closest friends, for almost two years, before Khan ended the relationship. Khan was intensely private and the relationship was conducted in secrecy, with Diana lying to members of the press who questioned her about it. Khan was from a traditional Pakistani family who expected him to marry from a related Muslim clan, and their differences, which were not just religious, became too much for Khan. According to Khan's testimonial at the inquest for her death, it was Diana herself, not Khan, who ended their relationship in a late-night meeting in Hyde Park
, which adjoins the grounds of Kensington Palace, in June 1997.
Within a month Diana had begun dating Dodi Al-Fayed
, son of her host that summer, Mohamed Al-Fayed
. Diana had considered taking her sons that summer on a holiday to the Hamptons on Long Island, New York, but security officials had prevented it. After deciding against a trip to Thailand
, she accepted Fayed's invitation to join his family in the south of France, where his compound and large security detail would not cause concern to the Royal Protection squad. Mohamed Al-Fayed bought a multi-million pound yacht, the Jonikal, a 60-metre yacht on which to entertain Diana and her sons.
were seen worldwide. It was during this campaign that some accused her of meddling in politics and declared her a 'loose cannon'. In August 1997, just days before her death, she visited Bosnia
with Jerry White
and Ken Rutherford of the Landmine Survivors Network
. Her interest in landmines was focused on the injuries they create, often to children, long after a conflict is over.
She is believed to have influenced the signing, though only after her death, of the Ottawa Treaty
, which created an international ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines. Introducing the Second Reading of the Landmines Bill
1998 to the British House of Commons
, the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook
, paid tribute to Diana's work on landmines:
The United Nations appealed to the nations which produced and stockpiled the largest numbers of landmines (United States, China, India, North Korea
, Pakistan, and Russia) to sign the Ottawa Treaty
forbidding their production and use, for which Diana had campaigned. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF), said that landmines remained "a deadly attraction for children, whose innate curiosity and need for play often lure them directly into harm's way".
road tunnel in Paris, which also caused the death of her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul
, acting security manager of the Hôtel Ritz Paris
. Millions of people watched her funeral.
. From February 1999, Dodi's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed
(the owner of the Paris Ritz, for which Paul had worked) maintained the crash had been planned, accusing MI6
as well as The Duke of Edinburgh
. Inquests in London during 2004 and 2007 attributed the accident to grossly negligent driving by Henri Paul and to the pursuing paparazzi
. The following day Al-Fayed announced he would end his 10-year campaign for the sake of the late princess' children.
for many months.
Diana's funeral took place in Westminster Abbey
on 6 September 1997. The previous day Queen Elizabeth II had paid tribute to her in a live television broadcast.
Her sons, the Princes William and Harry, walked in the funeral procession behind her coffin, along with the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh, and with Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer
. Lord Spencer said of his sister, "She proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic."
Immediately after her death, many sites around the world became briefly ad hoc memorials to Diana, where the public left flowers and other tributes. The largest was outside the gates of Kensington Palace
. Permanent memorials include:
In addition, there are two memorials inside Harrods
department store, at the time owned by Dodi Al-Fayed's father Mohamed Al-Fayed
, in London. The first memorial consists of photos of the two behind a pyramid-shaped display that holds a wine glass still smudged with lipstick from Diana's last dinner as well as an 'engagement' ring Dodi purchased the day before they died. The second, unveiled in 2005 and titled "Innocent Victims", is a bronze statue of the two dancing on a beach beneath the wings of an albatross. The Flame of Liberty
, erected in 1989 on the Place de l'Alma in Paris, above the entrance to the tunnel in which the fatal crash later occurred, has become an unofficial memorial to Diana.
an official license to produce Diana merchandise, the fund sued the company, accusing it of illegally selling Diana dolls, plates and jewellery. In California, where the initial case was tried, a suit to preserve the right of publicity may be filed on behalf of a dead person, but only if that person is a Californian. The Memorial Fund therefore filed the lawsuit on behalf of the estate and, upon losing the case, were required to pay the Franklin Mint's legal costs of £3 million which, combined with other fees, caused the Memorial Fund to freeze their grants to charities.
In 1998, Azermarka
issued postage stamps with both Azeri
and English captions, commemorating Diana. The English text reads "Diana, Princess of Wales. The Princess that captured people's hearts".
In 2003, the Franklin Mint counter-sued; the case was eventually settled in 2004, with the fund agreeing to an out-of-court settlement, which was donated to mutually agreed charitable causes.
Today, pursuant to this lawsuit, two California companies continue to sell Diana memorabilia without the need for any permission from Diana's estate: the Franklin Mint and Princess Ring LLC.
Diana has been depicted in contemporary art
since her death. Some of the artworks have referenced the conspiracy theories, as well as paying tribute to Diana's compassion and acknowledging her perceived victimhood.
In July 1999, Tracey Emin
created a number of monoprint drawings featuring textual references about Diana's public and private life, for Temple of Diana, a themed exhibition at The Blue Gallery, London. Works such as They Wanted You To Be Destroyed (1999) related to Diana's bulimia, while others included affectionate texts such as Love Was On Your Side and Diana's Dress with puffy sleeves. Another text praised her selflessness – The things you did to help other people, showing Diana in protective clothing walking through a minefield in Angola – while another referenced the conspiracy theories. Of her drawings, Emin maintained "They're quite sentimental . . . and there's nothing cynical about it whatsoever."
In 2005 Martin Sastre
premiered during the Venice Biennial the film Diana: The Rose Conspiracy
. This fictional work starts with the world discovering Diana alive and enjoying a happy undercover new life in a dangerous favela
on the outskirts of Montevideo
. Shot on a genuine Uruguayan slum and using a Diana impersonator from São Paulo
, the film was selected among the Venice Biennial's best works by the Italian Art Critics Association.
In 2007, following an earlier series referencing the conspiracy theories, Stella Vine
created a series of Diana paintings for her first major solo exhibition at Modern Art Oxford
gallery. Vine intended to portray Diana's combined strength and vulnerability as well as her closeness to her two sons. The works, all completed in 2007, included Diana branches, Diana family picnic, Diana veil and Diana pram, which incorporated the quotation "I vow to thee my country". Immodesty Blaize
said she had been entranced by Diana crash, finding it "by turns horrifying, bemusing and funny". Vine asserted her own abiding attraction to "the beauty and the tragedy of Diana's life".
published photographs showing Diana amid the wreckage of the car crash, despite an unofficial blackout on such photographs being published. The editor of Chi defended his decision by saying he published the photographs simply because they had not been previously seen, and he felt the images are not disrespectful to the memory of Diana. Fresh controversy arose over the issue of these photographs when Britain's Channel 4
broadcast them during a documentary in June 2007.
1 July 2007 marked a concert
at Wembley Stadium
. The event, organised by the Princes William and Harry, celebrated the 46th anniversary of their mother's birth and occurred a few weeks before the 10th anniversary of her death on 31 August.
The 2007 docudrama
Diana: Last Days of a Princess
details the final two months of her life.
On an October 2007 episode of The Chaser's War on Everything
, Andrew Hansen
mocked Diana in his "Eulogy Song", which immediately created considerable controversy in the Australian media.
From her engagement to the Prince of Wales in 1981 until her death in 1997, Diana was a major presence on the world stage, often described as the world's most photographed woman. However, numerous other sources split the title of "world's most photographed woman"--in terms of Diana compared to others--between her and Princess Grace. She was noted for her compassion, style, charisma, and high-profile charity work, as well as her difficult marriage to the Prince of Wales.
Diana was revealed to be a major source behind Andrew Morton's Diana: Her True Story, which had portrayed her as being wronged by the House of Windsor. Morton instanced Diana's claim that she attempted suicide while pregnant by falling down a series of stairs and that Charles had left her to go riding. Tina Brown opined that it was not a suicide attempt because she would not intentionally have tried to harm the unborn child.
Royal biographer Sarah Bradford commented, "The only cure for her (Diana's) suffering would have been the love of the Prince of Wales, which she so passionately desired, something which would always be denied her. His was the final rejection; the way in which he consistently denigrated her reduced her to despair." Diana herself commented, "My husband made me feel inadequate in every possible way that each time I came up for air he pushed me down again ..."
Diana herself admitted to struggling with depression, self-injury, and bulimia, which recurred throughout the early years of her marriage. One biographer suggested Diana suffered from borderline personality disorder
.
In 2007, Tina Brown wrote a biography about Diana as a "restless and demanding ... obsessed with her public image" and also "spiteful, manipulative, media-savvy neurotic." Brown also claims Diana married Charles for his power and had a romantic relationship with Dodi Fayed to anger the royal family, with no intention of marrying him.
Posthumously, as in life, she is most popularly referred to as "Princess Diana", a title she never held.The style "Princess Diana", although often used by the public and the media during her lifetime, was always incorrect. With rare exceptions (such as Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester
) only women born to the title (such as The Princess Anne
) may use it before their given names. After her divorce in 1996, Diana was officially styled Diana, Princess of Wales, having lost the prefix HRH
Still, she is sometimes referred to (according to the tradition of using maiden names after death) in the media as "Lady Diana Spencer", or simply as "Lady Di". After Tony Blair's famous speech she was also often referred to as the People's Princess.
Diana's full title, while married, was Her Royal Highness The Princess Charles Philip Arthur George, Princess of Wales & Countess of Chester, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, Countess of Carrick, Baroness of Renfrew, Lady of the Isles, Princess of Scotland.
After her divorce and until her death Diana, Princess of Wales continued to be a Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
without the style Royal Highness
. As the mother of the future Sovereign
, she was accorded the same precedence she enjoyed whilst being married to The Prince of Wales
. This situation made the Princess the first non royal British princess in history.
Foreign honours
, one of the oldest and most prominent noble families in Britain which currently holds the titles of Duke of Marborough, Earl Spencer
and Viscount Churchill
. The Spencers claimed to have descended from a cadet branch of the powerful medieval Despenser family, but its validity is still being questioned. Diana's noble ancestors include the legendary John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and Prince of Mindelheim
, his equally famous wife, the powerful and influential Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough
, Britain's first Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford
, Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, 2nd Duke of Alba
, one of the most powerful men of his era, Maria, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh
, and Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey
. She is also a distant relative of the dukes of Abercorn
, Bedford
, Richmond
, Devonshire
, Gordon
and most of the members of the British aristocracy.
Diana's ancestry also connects her with most of Europe's royal houses. Diana is five times descended from the House of Stuart
from Charles II
's four illegitimate sons James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
, Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton
, Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans
and Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond
, and from James II
's daughter, Henrietta FitzJames, Countess of Newcastle
, an ancestry she shares with the current Dukes of Alba
. From the House of Stuart, Diana is a descendant of the House of Bourbon
from the line Henry IV of France
and of the House of Medici from the line of Marie de' Medici
. She is also a descendant of powerful Italian noble families such as that of the House of Sforza
who ruled as the Dukes of Milan from the line of the legendary Caterina Sforza, Countess of Forlì
. Diana also descends from the House of Wittelsbach via morganatic line from Frederick V, Elector Palatine
and of the House of Hanover
via Sophia von Platen und Hallermund, Countess of Leinster and Darlington
, the illegitimate daughter of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg
and the half sister of George I
. Diana also descends from the House of Toledo of the original dukes of Alba and Medina Sidonia
.
Spencer family
The Spencer family are a British noble family descended in the male line from Henry Spencer, claimed to be a descendant of the cadet branch of the ancient House Le Despencer , male-line ancestor of the Earls of Sunderland, the later Dukes of Marlborough, and the Earls Spencer...
; 1 July 1961 31 August 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century. Her wedding to the Prince of Wales, held at St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
, was televised and watched by a global audience of over 750 million people. After this marriage she received the courtesy titles Princess of Wales
Princess of Wales
Princess of Wales is a British courtesy title held by the wife of The Prince of Wales since the first "English" Prince of Wales in 1283.Although there have been considerably more than ten male heirs to the throne, there have been only ten Princesses of Wales. The majority of Princes of Wales...
, Duchess of Cornwall
Duchess of Cornwall
The Duchess of Cornwall is the title held by the wife of the Duke of Cornwall. Duke of Cornwall is a non-hereditary peerage held by the British Sovereign's eldest son and heir....
, Duchess of Rothesay
Duchess of Rothesay
Duchess of Rothesay is a Scottish courtesy title. It is held by the wife of The Dukes of Rothesay since the first Duke in 1398. Due to the mortality rate and the fact that very few Dukes of Rothesay were of majority or married prior to ascending the throne , there have in fact been only eight...
, Countess of Chester and Baroness of Renfrew. The marriage produced two sons: Princes William and Harry
Prince Harry of Wales
Prince Henry of Wales , commonly known as Prince Harry, is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and fourth grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
, currently second and third in line
Line of succession to the British Throne
The line of succession to the British throne is the ordered sequence of those people eligible to succeed to the throne of the United Kingdom and the other 15 Commonwealth realms. By the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701, the succession is limited to the descendants of the Electress Sophia of...
to the thrones of the 16 Commonwealth realm
Commonwealth Realm
A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state within the Commonwealth of Nations that has Elizabeth II as its monarch and head of state. The sixteen current realms have a combined land area of 18.8 million km² , and a population of 134 million, of which all, except about two million, live in the six...
s, respectively.
A public figure from the announcement of her engagement to the Prince of Wales
Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer
The wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Frances Spencer took place on Wednesday, 29 July 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral, London, United Kingdom. Their marriage was widely billed as a "fairytale wedding" and the "wedding of the century". It was watched by an estimated global TV...
, Diana was born into an aristocratic English family with royal ancestry, and she remained the focus of worldwide media scrutiny during and after her marriage, which ended in divorce on 28 August 1996, including following her death in a car crash
Death of Diana, Princess of Wales
On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Fayed's...
in Paris on 31 August 1997 and the subsequent display of public mourning
Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales
The public funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales started on September 6, 1997 at 9:08 am in London, when the tenor bell sounded to signal the departure of the cortege from Kensington Palace. The coffin was carried from the palace on a gun carriage, along Hyde Park to St. James' Palace, where...
a week later. Diana also received recognition for her charity work and for her support of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
International Campaign to Ban Landmines
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines is a coalition of non-governmental organizations working for a world free of anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions, where mine and cluster munitions survivors see their rights respected and can lead fulfilling lives.The coalition was formed in...
. From 1989, she was the president of Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children is a children's hospital located in London, United Kingdom...
for Children, in addition to dozens of other charities.
Early life
Diana Spencer was born in the late afternoon on 1 July 1961, in Sandringham, NorfolkSandringham, Norfolk
Sandringham is a village and civil parish in the north of the English county of Norfolk. The village is situated some south of the village of Dersingham, north of the town of King's Lynn and north-west of the city of Norwich....
. She was the third child of Viscount and Viscountess Althorp
Frances Shand Kydd
Frances Ruth Shand Kydd was the first wife of John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer and the mother of Diana, Princess of Wales...
(née Frances Roche, later Shand Kydd). The Spencer family
Spencer family
The Spencer family are a British noble family descended in the male line from Henry Spencer, claimed to be a descendant of the cadet branch of the ancient House Le Despencer , male-line ancestor of the Earls of Sunderland, the later Dukes of Marlborough, and the Earls Spencer...
was hoping for a male heir to carry on the Spencer title. The Spencer family is one of Great Britain's oldest and most important families, closely allied with the royal family for several generations. As the family was expecting a boy, no name was chosen for a week, until they settled on Diana Frances, after a Spencer ancestress and her mother. Diana was the sister of Lady Sarah McCorquodale
Lady Sarah McCorquodale
The Lady Elizabeth Sarah Lavinia McCorquodale is the older sister of Diana, Princess of Wales.-Early life:Sarah was born The Honourable Elizabeth Sarah Lavinia Spencer; she acquired the courtesy title The Lady Elizabeth Sarah Lavinia Spencer in 1975, when her grandfather died and her father became...
, Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes
Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes
Cynthia Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes is the older sister of Diana, Princess of Wales.-Early life:Lady Fellowes was born The Honourable Cynthia Jane Spencer. Her title changed to The Lady Cynthia Jane Spencer in 1975, when her grandfather died and her father became the 8th Earl Spencer...
, and Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer
Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer
Charles Edward Maurice Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, DL , styled Viscount Althorp between 1975 and 1992, is a British peer and brother of Diana, Princess of Wales...
. Diana was baptized at Sandringham church, with commoners as god parents
Godparent
A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's baptism. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother...
; her younger brother, Charles, was baptized at Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
with Elizabeth II as principal godparent. Another brother, John, died a year before she was born. According to Andrew Morton
Andrew Morton (writer)
Andrew David Morton is a former British Fleet Street journalist, a notable writer and biographer.Before moving into a career in journalism, he attended grammar school, then studied history at the University of Sussex....
's biography of Diana, the infant John Spencer was so deformed and sick he only survived 10 hours after birth. The desire for an heir added strain to the Spencers' marriage, and Lady Althorp was reportedly sent to Harley Street
Harley Street
Harley Street is a street in the City of Westminster in London, England which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery.- Overview :...
clinics in London to determine the cause of the "problem". The experience was described as "humiliating" by Charles Spencer, the current earl: "It was a dreadful time for my parents and probably the root of their divorce because I don't think they ever got over it." Diana grew up in Park House, which was situated near to the Sandringham estate
Sandringham House
Sandringham House is a country house on of land near the village of Sandringham in Norfolk, England. The house is privately owned by the British Royal Family and is located on the royal Sandringham Estate, which lies within the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.-History and current...
.
Diana's mother The Honourable
The Honourable
The prefix The Honourable or The Honorable is a style used before the names of certain classes of persons. It is considered an honorific styling.-International diplomacy:...
Frances Shand Kydd
Frances Shand Kydd
Frances Ruth Shand Kydd was the first wife of John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer and the mother of Diana, Princess of Wales...
was also a member of the British aristocracy
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
for her parents were the Baron Fermoy
Baron Fermoy
Baron Fermoy is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1856 for Edmond Roche, who represented County Cork and Marylebone in the House of Commons and also served as Lord Lieutenant of County Cork. His younger son, the third Baron, sat as Member of Parliament for Kerry East. He was...
and his wife Lady
Lady
The word lady is a polite term for a woman, specifically the female equivalent to, or spouse of, a lord or gentleman, and in many contexts a term for any adult woman...
Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy
Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy
Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy, DCVO, OBE, was a friend and confidante of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the maternal grandmother of Lady Diana Spencer, later Princess of Wales....
. The Baroness had been an Extra Woman of the Bedchamber to The Queen Mother, and they were very close friends.
Diana's parents separated when she was only seven years of age. Her mother, Frances, had an affair with Peter Shand Kydd
Peter Shand Kydd
Peter Shand Kydd was the former stepfather of Diana, Princess of Wales and an heir to the wallpaper fortune built by his father Norman Shand Kydd. He was half-brother to the former champion amateur jockey William Shand Kydd....
. In Morton's book, he describes Diana's remembrance of her father loading suitcases in the car, her mother crunching across the gravel forecourt and driving away through the gates of Park House. Diana and her younger brother lived with their mother in London during their parents' separation, but during the Christmas holidays at the end of the year, Lord Althorp refused to let his estranged wife return with the children to London. Shortly afterward Lord Althorp won custody of Diana and her three siblings, with support from his mother-in-law, Frances Spencer's mother. She was first educated at Riddlesworth Hall, and later attended boarding school at The New School at West Heath
The New School at West Heath
The New School at West Heath is an independent school in Sevenoaks, in southeast England. It caters for children for whom mainstream schooling has become insufficient, for varying reasons...
.
In 1973, Lord Althorp began a relationship with Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of Alexander McCorquodale and Barbara Cartland
Barbara Cartland
Dame Barbara Hamilton Cartland, DBE, CStJ , was an English author, one of the most prolific authors of the 20th century...
. Diana received the title of Lady after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer in 1975. Lord Spencer and Lady Dartmouth were married at Caxton Hall
Caxton Hall
Caxton Hall is a building on the corner of Caxton Street and Palmer Street, in Westminster, London, England. It is a Grade II listed building primarily for its historical associations...
, London, on 14 July 1976. As Countess Spencer, Raine was unpopular with her stepdaughter Lady Diana. Lady Diana was often noted for her shyness while growing up, but she did take an interest in both music and dancing. She also had a great interest in children. After attending finishing school at the Institut Alpin Videmanette
Institut Alpin Videmanette
The Institut Alpin Videmanette was a finishing school in the municipality of Rougemont, Switzerland. It was an all-girl school where the lessons were skiing, cooking, dress-making and French. The school closed sometime before 1996.-Alumnae:...
in Switzerland, she moved to London. She began working with children, eventually becoming a nursery teacher at the Young England School. Diana had apparently played with The Princes Andrew
Prince Andrew, Duke of York
Prince Andrew, Duke of York KG GCVO , is the second son, and third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
and Edward
Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex KG GCVO is the third son and fourth child of Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh...
as a child while her family rented Park House, a property owned by Elizabeth II and situated on the Sandringham estate.
Education
At the age of seven, Diana was sent to Riddlesworth Hall, an all-girls boarding school. While she was young, she attended a local public school. She did not shine academically, and was moved to West Heath Girls' School (later reorganised as The New School at West HeathThe New School at West Heath
The New School at West Heath is an independent school in Sevenoaks, in southeast England. It caters for children for whom mainstream schooling has become insufficient, for varying reasons...
) in Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a commuter town situated on the London fringe of west Kent, England, some 20 miles south-east of Charing Cross, on one of the principal commuter rail lines from the capital...
, Kent, where she was regarded as a poor student, having attempted and failed all of her O-levels
General Certificate of Education
The General Certificate of Education or GCE is an academic qualification that examination boards in the United Kingdom and a few of the Commonwealth countries, notably Sri Lanka, confer to students. The GCE traditionally comprised two levels: the Ordinary Level and the Advanced Level...
twice. However, she showed a particular talent for music as an accomplished pianist. Her outstanding community spirit was recognised with an award from West Heath. In 1977, at the age of 16, she left West Heath and briefly attended Institut Alpin Videmanette
Institut Alpin Videmanette
The Institut Alpin Videmanette was a finishing school in the municipality of Rougemont, Switzerland. It was an all-girl school where the lessons were skiing, cooking, dress-making and French. The school closed sometime before 1996.-Alumnae:...
, a finishing school
Finishing school
A finishing school is "a private school for girls that emphasises training in cultural and social activities." The name reflects that it follows on from ordinary school and is intended to complete the educational experience, with classes primarily on etiquette...
in Rougemont, Switzerland
Rougemont, Switzerland
Rougemont is a municipality in the Pays-d'Enhaut of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.-History:Rougemont is first mentioned in 1115 as Rubeus Mons and Rogemot. The name of the village also appears in various forms in medieval chronicles: Rubeimontis, Rogemont, Rubeo monte, Rogo mons, and Rojomont...
. At about that time, she first met her future husband, who was then dating her eldest sister, Lady Sarah
Lady Sarah McCorquodale
The Lady Elizabeth Sarah Lavinia McCorquodale is the older sister of Diana, Princess of Wales.-Early life:Sarah was born The Honourable Elizabeth Sarah Lavinia Spencer; she acquired the courtesy title The Lady Elizabeth Sarah Lavinia Spencer in 1975, when her grandfather died and her father became...
. Lady Diana also excelled in swimming and diving, and longed to be a professional ballerina
Ballerina
A ballerina is a title used to describe a principal female professional ballet dancer in a large company; the male equivalent to this title is danseur or ballerino...
with the Royal Ballet. She studied ballet for a time, but then grew to 5'10", too tall for the profession.
Lady Diana moved to London before she turned 17, living in her mother's flat, as her mother then spent most of the year in Scotland. Soon afterwards, an apartment was purchased for £50,000 as an 18th birthday present, at Coleherne Court in Earls Court
Earls Court
Earls Court is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It is an inner-city district centred on Earl's Court Road and surrounding streets, located 3.1 miles west south-west of Charing Cross. It borders the sub-districts of South Kensington to the East, West...
. She lived there until 1981 with three flatmates.
In London, she took an advanced cooking course at her mother's suggestion, although she never became an adroit cook, and worked as a dance instructor for youth, until a skiing accident caused her to miss three months of work. She then found employment as a playgroup (pre-preschool) assistant, did some cleaning work for her sister Sarah and several of her friends, and worked as a hostess at parties. Lady Diana also spent time working as a nanny for an American family living in London.
Relationship with the Prince of Wales
The Prince of Wales had known Lady Diana for several years, but he first took a serious interest in her as a potential bride during the summer of 1980, when they were guests at a country weekend, where she watched him play polo
Polo
Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
. The relationship developed as he invited her for a sailing weekend to Cowes
Cowes
Cowes is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east Bank...
aboard the royal yacht Britannia
HMY Britannia
Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia is the former Royal Yacht of the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. She was the 83rd such vessel since the restoration of King Charles II in 1660. She is the second Royal yacht to bear the name, the first being the famous racing cutter built for The Prince of Wales...
, followed by an invitation to Balmoral
Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle is a large estate house in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and east of Braemar. Balmoral has been one of the residences of the British Royal Family since 1852, when it was purchased by Queen Victoria and her...
(the Royal Family's Scottish residence) to meet his family. Lady Diana was well received by Elizabeth II, by The Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
, and by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The couple subsequently courted in London. The prince proposed on 6 February 1981, and Lady Diana accepted, but their engagement was kept secret for the next few weeks.
Engagement and marriage
Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981, after Lady Diana selected a large £30,000 ring (£94,800 in today's terms) consisting of 14 diamonds surrounding a sapphire, similar to her mother's engagement ring. The ring was made by the then Crown jewellers Garrard
Garrard & Co
Garrard & Co is a luxury jewellery and silver company founded by George Wickesin London in 1735. Its current base is at Albemarle Street in Mayfair, London, its USA flagship store is in New York. The company also has a presence in Tokyo, New York, Dubai, Moscow and Hong Kong...
but, unusually for a member of the Royal Family, the ring was not unique and was, at the time, featured in Garrard's jewellery collection. The ring later became, in 2010, the engagement ring of Catherine Middleton (now The Duchess of Cambridge, wife of Diana's elder son Prince William).
Twenty-year-old Diana became The Princess of Wales when she married The Prince of Wales on 29 July 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
, which offered more seating than Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
, generally used for royal nuptials. It was widely billed as a "fairytale wedding", watched by a global television audience of 750 million while 600,000 people lined the streets to catch a glimpse of Diana en route to the ceremony. At the altar Diana accidentally reversed the order of Charles's first two names, saying "Philip Charles" Arthur George instead. She did not say that she would "obey" him; that traditional vow was left out at the couple's request, which caused some comment at the time. Diana wore a dress
Wedding dress of Lady Diana Spencer
The wedding dress of Lady Diana Spencer was worn by Lady Diana Spencer at her wedding to Charles, Prince of Wales on 29 July 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral. Diana wore a ivory silk taffeta and antique lace gown, with a 25-foot train, valued then at £9000...
valued at £9000 with a 25-foot (8-metre) train.
Children
On 5 November 1981, the Princess' first pregnancy was officially announced, and she frankly discussed her pregnancy with members of the press corps. In the private Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital, PaddingtonPaddington
Paddington is a district within the City of Westminster, in central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...
, on 21 June 1982, the Princess gave birth to her and the Prince's first son and heir, William Arthur Philip Louis. Amidst some media criticism, she decided to take William, still a baby, on her first major tours of Australia and New Zealand, but the decision was popularly applauded. By her own admission, the Princess of Wales had not initially intended to take William until it was suggested by Malcolm Fraser
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...
, the Australian prime minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
.
A second son, Henry Charles Albert David
Prince Harry of Wales
Prince Henry of Wales , commonly known as Prince Harry, is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and fourth grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
, was born two years after William, on 15 September 1984. The Princess asserted she and the Prince were closest during her pregnancy with "Harry
Prince Harry of Wales
Prince Henry of Wales , commonly known as Prince Harry, is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and fourth grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
" (as the younger prince has always been known). She was aware their second child was a boy, but did not share the knowledge with anyone else, including the Prince of Wales.
Even her harshest critics agree that the Princess of Wales was a devoted, imaginative and demonstrative mother. She rarely deferred to the Prince or to the Royal Family, and was often intransigent when it came to the children. She chose their first given names, dismissed a royal family nanny and engaged one of her own choosing, selected their schools and clothing, planned their outings and took them to school herself as often as her schedule permitted. She also negotiated her public duties around their timetables.
Charity work
Although in 1983 she confided in the then-Premier of NewfoundlandPremier of Newfoundland and Labrador
The Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador is the first minister, head of government and de facto chief executive for the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Before 1964, the position's official title was Premier of Newfoundland...
, Brian Peckford
Brian Peckford
Alfred Brian Peckford, PC served as the 3rd Premier of Newfoundland. He served as leader of the Progressive Conservatives from 1979 until his retirement in 1989....
, "I am finding it very difficult to cope with the pressures of being Princess of Wales, but I am learning to cope," from the mid-1980s, the Princess of Wales became increasingly associated with numerous charities. As Princess of Wales she was expected to regularly make public appearances to hospitals, schools and other facilities, in the 20th century model of royal patronage. The Princess developed an intense interest in serious illnesses and health-related matters outside the purview of traditional royal involvement, including AIDS and leprosy
Leprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...
. In addition, she was the patroness of charities and organisations working with the homeless, youth, drug addicts and the elderly. From 1989, she was President of Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children is a children's hospital located in London, United Kingdom...
for Children. The day after her divorce, she announced her resignation from over 100 charities to spend more time with the remaining six.
During her final year, Diana lent highly visible support to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
International Campaign to Ban Landmines
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines is a coalition of non-governmental organizations working for a world free of anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions, where mine and cluster munitions survivors see their rights respected and can lead fulfilling lives.The coalition was formed in...
, a campaign won the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
in 1997, only a few months after her death.
Problems and separation
During the early 1990s, the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales fell apart, an event at first suppressed, then sensationalised, by the world media. Both the Prince and Princess allegedly spoke to the press through friends, each blaming the other for the marriage's demise.The chronology of the break-up identifies reported difficulties between the Prince and Princess as early as 1985. The Princess of Wales began an affair with Major James Hewitt
James Hewitt
James Hewitt is a former British household cavalry officer in the British Army. He had an affair with Diana, Princess of Wales for five years, receiving extensive media coverage after revealing details of the affair.-Early life:...
, and the Prince of Wales returned to his former girlfriend, Camilla Shand (now The Duchess of Cornwall, who had become Mrs Andrew Parker-Bowles. These affairs were exposed in May 1992 with the publication of Diana: Her True Story, by Andrew Morton. The book, which also laid bare the Princess' allegedly suicidal unhappiness, caused a media storm. This publication was followed during 1992 and 1993 by leaked tapes of telephone conversations which negatively reflected on both the royal antagonists. Transcripts of taped intimate conversations between the Princess and James Gilbey
James Gilbey
James Gilbey is a former British actor. He is possibly best known for playing the character Jack Woodman in the BBC soap opera EastEnders during the early 1990s...
were published by the Sun newspaper in Britain in August 1992. The article's title, "Squidgygate
Squidgygate
Squidgygate refers to the pre-1990 telephone conversations between Diana, Princess of Wales and a close friend, James Gilbey, and to the controversy surrounding how those conversations were recorded. During the calls, Gilbey affectionately called Diana by the names "Squidgy" and "Squidge"...
", referenced Gilbey's affectionate nickname for Diana. The next to surface, in November 1992, were the leaked "Camillagate" tapes, intimate exchanges between the Prince of Wales and Camilla, published in Today and the Mirror newspapers.
In the meantime, rumours had begun to surface about the Princess of Wales' relationship with James Hewitt
James Hewitt
James Hewitt is a former British household cavalry officer in the British Army. He had an affair with Diana, Princess of Wales for five years, receiving extensive media coverage after revealing details of the affair.-Early life:...
, her former riding instructor. These would be brought into the open by the publication in 1994 of Princess in Love.
In December 1992, Prime Minister John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
announced the Wales' "amicable separation" to the House of Commons,
and the full Camillagate transcript was published a month later in the newspapers, in January 1993. On 3 December 1993, the Princess of Wales announced her withdrawal from public life.
The Prince of Wales sought public understanding via a televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby
Jonathan Dimbleby
Jonathan Dimbleby is a British presenter of current affairs and political radio and television programmes, a political commentator and a writer. He is the son of Richard Dimbleby and younger brother of British TV presenter David Dimbleby.-Education:Dimbleby was educated at Charterhouse School, a...
on 29 June 1994. In this he confirmed his own extramarital affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, saying that he had only rekindled their association in 1986, after his marriage to the Princess had "irretrievably broken down".
While she blamed Camilla Parker-Bowles for her marital troubles due to her previous relationship with the Prince, the Princess at some point began to believe he had other affairs. In October 1993, she wrote to a friend that she believed her husband was now in love with Tiggy Legge-Bourke
Tiggy Legge-Bourke
Alexandra Shân "Tiggy" Legge-Bourke MVO was nanny, later companion, to Prince William of Wales and his brother Prince Harry, and a personal assistant to Charles, Prince of Wales, between 1993 and 1999...
and wanted to marry her. Legge-Bourke had been hired by the Prince as a young companion for his sons while they were in his care, and the Princess was extremely resentful of Legge-Bourke and her relationship with the young princes.
Divorce
The Princess of Wales was interviewed for the BBC current affairs show PanoramaPanorama (TV series)
Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme, which was first broadcast in 1953, and is the longest-running public affairs television programme in the world. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby...
by journalist Martin Bashir
Martin Bashir
Martin Bashir is a British journalist and media personality, currently with NBC News as a contributor for its Dateline program, and an afternoon anchor for MSNBC, hosting Martin Bashir...
; the interview was broadcast on 20 November 1995. In it, the Princess said of her relationship with Hewitt, "Yes, I adored him." Of Camilla, she claimed "There were three of us in this marriage." For herself, she said, "I'd like to be a queen of people's hearts." On the Prince of Wales' suitability for kingship, she said, "Because I know the character I would think that the top job, as I call it, would bring enormous limitations to him, and I don't know whether he could adapt to that."
In December 1995, the Queen asked the Prince and Princess of Wales for "an early divorce", as a direct result of the Princess' Panorama interview. This followed shortly after the Princess' accusation that Tiggy Legge-Bourke
Tiggy Legge-Bourke
Alexandra Shân "Tiggy" Legge-Bourke MVO was nanny, later companion, to Prince William of Wales and his brother Prince Harry, and a personal assistant to Charles, Prince of Wales, between 1993 and 1999...
had aborted the Prince's child, after which Legge-Bourke instructed Peter Carter-Ruck
Peter Carter-Ruck
Peter Frederick Carter-Ruck was an English lawyer, specialising in libel cases. The firm he founded, Carter-Ruck, is still practising.-Personal life:...
to demand an apology. Two days before this story broke, Diana's secretary Patrick Jephson resigned, later writing that the Princess had "exulted in accusing Legge-Bourke of having had an abortion".
On 20 December 1995, Buckingham Palace publicly announced the Queen had sent letters to the Prince and Princess of Wales advising them to divorce. The Queen's move was backed by the Prime Minister and by senior Privy Counsellors
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
, and, according to the BBC, was decided after two weeks of talks. The Prince immediately agreed with the suggestion. In February, the Princess announced her agreement after negotiations with the Prince and representatives of the Queen, irritating Buckingham Palace by issuing her own announcement of a divorce agreement and its terms.
The divorce was finalised on 28 August 1996.
Diana received a lump sum settlement of around £17 million along with a clause standard in royal divorces preventing her from discussing the details.
Days before the decree absolute of divorce, Letters Patent
Letters patent
Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation...
were issued with general rules to regulate royal titles after divorce. In accordance, as she was no longer married to the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
, Diana lost the style Her Royal Highness and instead was styled Diana, Princess of Wales. Buckingham Palace issued a press release on the day of the decree absolute of divorce was issued, announcing Diana's change of title, but made it clear Diana continued to be a British princess
British princess
This is a list of British princesses from the accession of King George I in 1714. This article deals with both princesses of the blood royal and women who become princesses upon marriage....
.
Almost a year before, according to Tina Brown, The Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
had warned the Princess of Wales, "If you don't behave, my girl, we'll take your title away." The Princess is said to have replied: "My title is a lot older than yours, Philip".
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
stated Diana was still a member of the Royal Family, as she was the mother of the second- and third-in-line to the throne. This was confirmed by the Deputy Coroner of the Queen's Household
Coroner of the Queen's Household
The Coroner of the King's/Queen's Household is an officer of the Medical Household of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom.-History:...
, Baroness Butler-Sloss
Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss
Anne Elizabeth Oldfield Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss, GBE, PC is a retired English judge. She was the first female Lord Justice of Appeal and, until 2004, was the highest-ranking female judge in the United Kingdom. Until June 2007, she chaired the inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess...
, after a pre-hearing on 8 January 2007: "I am satisfied that at her death, Diana, Princess of Wales continued to be considered as a member of the Royal Household." This appears to have been confirmed in the High Court judicial review matter of Al Fayed & Ors v Butler-Sloss. In that case, three High Court judges accepted submissions that the "very name ‘Coroner to the Queen's Household’ gave the appearance of partiality in the context of inquests into the deaths of two people, one of whom was a member of the Family and the other was not."
Personal life after divorce
Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has been a residence of the British Royal Family since the 17th century and is the official London residence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke and...
, which she had shared with the Prince of Wales since the first year of their marriage, and it remained her home until her death.
Diana dated the respected heart surgeon Hasnat Khan
Hasnat Khan
Hasnat Ahmad Khan, PHD, FRCS, has been a heart and lung surgeon at Harefield Hospital in London. He is reported to be planning to return to Pakistan to accept a post at a hospital in Lahore...
, from Jhelum
Jhelum
Jhelum or Jehlum may refer to:* Jhelum, a city in Pakistan on the banks of the Jhelum River* Jhelum District, an administrative division in Punjab, Pakistan surrounding the city of Jhelum...
, Pakistan, who was called "the love of her life" after her death by many of her closest friends, for almost two years, before Khan ended the relationship. Khan was intensely private and the relationship was conducted in secrecy, with Diana lying to members of the press who questioned her about it. Khan was from a traditional Pakistani family who expected him to marry from a related Muslim clan, and their differences, which were not just religious, became too much for Khan. According to Khan's testimonial at the inquest for her death, it was Diana herself, not Khan, who ended their relationship in a late-night meeting in Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
, which adjoins the grounds of Kensington Palace, in June 1997.
Within a month Diana had begun dating Dodi Al-Fayed
Dodi Al-Fayed
Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed , known as Dodi Fayed , was an Egyptian film producer. He was best known internationally as the boyfriend of Diana, Princess of Wales, with whom he died in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris along with driver Henri Paul on 31 August...
, son of her host that summer, Mohamed Al-Fayed
Mohamed Al-Fayed
Mohamed Abdel Moneim Al-Fayed is an Egyptian businessman and billionaire. Amongst his business interests are ownership of the English Premiership football team Fulham Football Club, Hôtel Ritz Paris and formerly Harrods Department Store, Knightsbridge...
. Diana had considered taking her sons that summer on a holiday to the Hamptons on Long Island, New York, but security officials had prevented it. After deciding against a trip to Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, she accepted Fayed's invitation to join his family in the south of France, where his compound and large security detail would not cause concern to the Royal Protection squad. Mohamed Al-Fayed bought a multi-million pound yacht, the Jonikal, a 60-metre yacht on which to entertain Diana and her sons.
Landmines
In January 1997, pictures of Diana touring an Angolan minefield in a ballistic helmet and flak jacketFlak jacket
thumb|300px|The two components of an obsolete British military flak vest. On the left, the nylon vest. On the right, the several layers of [[ballistic nylon]] that provide the actual protection...
were seen worldwide. It was during this campaign that some accused her of meddling in politics and declared her a 'loose cannon'. In August 1997, just days before her death, she visited Bosnia
Bosnia (region)
Bosnia is a eponomous region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies mainly in the Dinaric Alps, ranging to the southern borders of the Pannonian plain, with the rivers Sava and Drina marking its northern and eastern borders. The other eponomous region, the southern, other half of the country is...
with Jerry White
Jerry White (activist)
Jerry White is an American political activist and co-founder of Survivor Corps. He is a recognized leader of the historic International Campaign to Ban Landmines, co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and co-founder of Survivor Corps Jerry White is an American political activist and co-founder of...
and Ken Rutherford of the Landmine Survivors Network
Landmine Survivors Network
Survivor Corps is a global network of survivors helping survivors to recover from war, rebuild their communities, and break cycles of violence. The organization currently operates programs in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi, Colombia, Croatia, El Salvador, Ethiopia,...
. Her interest in landmines was focused on the injuries they create, often to children, long after a conflict is over.
She is believed to have influenced the signing, though only after her death, of the Ottawa Treaty
Ottawa Treaty
The Ottawa Treaty or the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, officially known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, aims at eliminating anti-personnel landmines around the world. , there were 158...
, which created an international ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines. Introducing the Second Reading of the Landmines Bill
Bill (proposed law)
A bill is a proposed law under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature and, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an act or a statute....
1998 to the British House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
, the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook
Robin Cook
Robert Finlayson Cook was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Livingston from 1983 until his death, and notably served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 to 2001....
, paid tribute to Diana's work on landmines:
All Honourable Members will be aware from their postbags of the immense contribution made by Diana, Princess of Wales to bringing home to many of our constituents the human costs of landmines. The best way in which to record our appreciation of her work, and the work of NGOs that have campaigned against landmines, is to pass the Bill, and to pave the way towards a global ban on landmines.
The United Nations appealed to the nations which produced and stockpiled the largest numbers of landmines (United States, China, India, North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
, Pakistan, and Russia) to sign the Ottawa Treaty
Ottawa Treaty
The Ottawa Treaty or the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, officially known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, aims at eliminating anti-personnel landmines around the world. , there were 158...
forbidding their production and use, for which Diana had campaigned. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund
United Nations Children's Fund
United Nations Children's Fund was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II...
(UNICEF), said that landmines remained "a deadly attraction for children, whose innate curiosity and need for play often lure them directly into harm's way".
Death
On 31 August 1997, Diana was fatally injured in a car crash in the Pont de l'AlmaPont de l'Alma
Pont de l'Alma is an arch bridge in Paris, crossing the Seine. It was named to commemorate the Battle of Alma during the Crimean War, in which the Franco-British alliance achieved victory over the Russian army on September 20, 1854....
road tunnel in Paris, which also caused the death of her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul
Henri Paul
Henri Paul was the Deputy Head of Security at the Hôtel Ritz Paris. He was the driver at the time of the car accident at the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris that killed him along with Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed on 31 August 1997. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the sole survivor of...
, acting security manager of the Hôtel Ritz Paris
Hôtel Ritz Paris
The Hôtel Ritz is a grand palatial hotel in the heart of Paris, the 1st arrondissement. It overlooks the octagonal border of the Place Vendôme at number 15...
. Millions of people watched her funeral.
Conspiracy theories and inquest
The initial French judicial investigation concluded the accident was caused by Henri Paul's drunken loss of controlDriving under the influence
Driving under the influence is the act of driving a motor vehicle with blood levels of alcohol in excess of a legal limit...
. From February 1999, Dodi's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed
Mohamed Al-Fayed
Mohamed Abdel Moneim Al-Fayed is an Egyptian businessman and billionaire. Amongst his business interests are ownership of the English Premiership football team Fulham Football Club, Hôtel Ritz Paris and formerly Harrods Department Store, Knightsbridge...
(the owner of the Paris Ritz, for which Paul had worked) maintained the crash had been planned, accusing MI6
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
as well as The Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
. Inquests in London during 2004 and 2007 attributed the accident to grossly negligent driving by Henri Paul and to the pursuing paparazzi
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...
. The following day Al-Fayed announced he would end his 10-year campaign for the sake of the late princess' children.
Tribute, funeral, and burial
The sudden and unexpected death of an extraordinarily popular royal figure brought statements from senior figures worldwide and many tributes by members of the public. People left public offerings of flowers, candles, cards and personal messages outside Kensington PalaceKensington Palace
Kensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has been a residence of the British Royal Family since the 17th century and is the official London residence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke and...
for many months.
Diana's funeral took place in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
on 6 September 1997. The previous day Queen Elizabeth II had paid tribute to her in a live television broadcast.
Her sons, the Princes William and Harry, walked in the funeral procession behind her coffin, along with the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh, and with Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer
Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer
Charles Edward Maurice Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, DL , styled Viscount Althorp between 1975 and 1992, is a British peer and brother of Diana, Princess of Wales...
. Lord Spencer said of his sister, "She proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic."
Memorials
Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has been a residence of the British Royal Family since the 17th century and is the official London residence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke and...
. Permanent memorials include:
- The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Gardens in Regent Centre Gardens KirkintillochKirkintillochKirkintilloch is a town and former burgh in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It lies on the Forth and Clyde Canal, about eight miles northeast of central Glasgow...
- The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial FountainDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial FountainThe Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain is a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales. It was designed to express Diana's spirit and love of children. It is located in the southwest corner of Hyde Park in London, just south of the Serpentine Lake and east of the Serpentine Gallery...
in Hyde Park, LondonHyde Park, LondonHyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
, opened by Elizabeth II - The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial PlaygroundDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial PlaygroundThe Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground is a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales in Kensington Gardens, in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea , London....
in Kensington GardensKensington GardensKensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, is one of the Royal Parks of London, lying immediately to the west of Hyde Park. It is shared between the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The park covers an area of 111 hectares .The open spaces...
, London - The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial WalkDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial WalkThe Diana,Princess of Wales Memorial Walk is a long circular walking trail in London, England, dedicated to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales. It goes between Kensington Gardens, Green Park, Hyde Park and St. James's Park in a figure-eight pattern, passing five sites that are associated with...
, a circular path between Kensington Gardens, Green ParkGreen Park-External links:*...
, Hyde Park and St James's Park, London.
In addition, there are two memorials inside Harrods
Harrods
Harrods is an upmarket department store located in Brompton Road in Brompton, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air...
department store, at the time owned by Dodi Al-Fayed's father Mohamed Al-Fayed
Mohamed Al-Fayed
Mohamed Abdel Moneim Al-Fayed is an Egyptian businessman and billionaire. Amongst his business interests are ownership of the English Premiership football team Fulham Football Club, Hôtel Ritz Paris and formerly Harrods Department Store, Knightsbridge...
, in London. The first memorial consists of photos of the two behind a pyramid-shaped display that holds a wine glass still smudged with lipstick from Diana's last dinner as well as an 'engagement' ring Dodi purchased the day before they died. The second, unveiled in 2005 and titled "Innocent Victims", is a bronze statue of the two dancing on a beach beneath the wings of an albatross. The Flame of Liberty
Flame of Liberty
The Flame of Liberty in Paris is a full-sized, gold-leaf-covered, replica of the new flame at the upper end of the torch carried in the hand of the Statue of Liberty at the entrance to the harbor of New York City since 1986...
, erected in 1989 on the Place de l'Alma in Paris, above the entrance to the tunnel in which the fatal crash later occurred, has become an unofficial memorial to Diana.
Memorabilia
Following Diana's death, the Diana Memorial Fund was granted intellectual property rights over her image. In 1998, after refusing the Franklin MintFranklin Mint
The Franklin Mint is a private corporation founded by Joseph Segel in 1964. The private mint operated from Wawa, Pennsylvania but that operation has now closed...
an official license to produce Diana merchandise, the fund sued the company, accusing it of illegally selling Diana dolls, plates and jewellery. In California, where the initial case was tried, a suit to preserve the right of publicity may be filed on behalf of a dead person, but only if that person is a Californian. The Memorial Fund therefore filed the lawsuit on behalf of the estate and, upon losing the case, were required to pay the Franklin Mint's legal costs of £3 million which, combined with other fees, caused the Memorial Fund to freeze their grants to charities.
In 1998, Azermarka
Azermarka
Azermarka is the Azerbaijani state company responsible for the production and sale of Azerbaijani postage stamps. It is not to be confused with the Azerbaijan Post Office, Azerpost, which is a separate organisation....
issued postage stamps with both Azeri
Azerbaijani language
Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
and English captions, commemorating Diana. The English text reads "Diana, Princess of Wales. The Princess that captured people's hearts".
In 2003, the Franklin Mint counter-sued; the case was eventually settled in 2004, with the fund agreeing to an out-of-court settlement, which was donated to mutually agreed charitable causes.
Today, pursuant to this lawsuit, two California companies continue to sell Diana memorabilia without the need for any permission from Diana's estate: the Franklin Mint and Princess Ring LLC.
Diana in contemporary art
Diana has been depicted in contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
since her death. Some of the artworks have referenced the conspiracy theories, as well as paying tribute to Diana's compassion and acknowledging her perceived victimhood.
In July 1999, Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin
Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
created a number of monoprint drawings featuring textual references about Diana's public and private life, for Temple of Diana, a themed exhibition at The Blue Gallery, London. Works such as They Wanted You To Be Destroyed (1999) related to Diana's bulimia, while others included affectionate texts such as Love Was On Your Side and Diana's Dress with puffy sleeves. Another text praised her selflessness – The things you did to help other people, showing Diana in protective clothing walking through a minefield in Angola – while another referenced the conspiracy theories. Of her drawings, Emin maintained "They're quite sentimental . . . and there's nothing cynical about it whatsoever."
In 2005 Martin Sastre
Martin Sastre
Martín Sastre is a film director and contemporary media artist working with film, video, sculpture, photography and drawing, considered one of the best known Latin American Artists of his generation.-Biography:...
premiered during the Venice Biennial the film Diana: The Rose Conspiracy
Diana: The Rose Conspiracy
Diana, The Rose Conspiracy is a 2005 short film directed by Uruguayan media artist Martin Sastre. It is based on a fictional day when the world discovers Lady Di did not die in Paris and has a new undercover life in a dangerous favela on the outskirts of Montevideo, Uruguay...
. This fictional work starts with the world discovering Diana alive and enjoying a happy undercover new life in a dangerous favela
Favela
A favela is the generally used term for a shanty town in Brazil. In the late 18th century, the first settlements were called bairros africanos . This was the place where former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Over the years, many freed black slaves moved in...
on the outskirts of Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
. Shot on a genuine Uruguayan slum and using a Diana impersonator from São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, the film was selected among the Venice Biennial's best works by the Italian Art Critics Association.
In 2007, following an earlier series referencing the conspiracy theories, Stella Vine
Stella Vine
Stella Vine is an English artist, who lives and works in London. Her work is figurative painting with subject matter drawn from either her personal life of family, friends and school, or rock stars, royalty and celebrities.After a difficult relationship with her stepfather, she left home and in...
created a series of Diana paintings for her first major solo exhibition at Modern Art Oxford
Modern Art Oxford
Modern Art Oxford is an art gallery established in 1965 in Oxford, England. From 1965 to 2002, it was called The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford.-Foundation:...
gallery. Vine intended to portray Diana's combined strength and vulnerability as well as her closeness to her two sons. The works, all completed in 2007, included Diana branches, Diana family picnic, Diana veil and Diana pram, which incorporated the quotation "I vow to thee my country". Immodesty Blaize
Immodesty Blaize
Immodesty Blaize is a British burlesque dancer who performs internationally. She was crowned Reigning Queen of Burlesque in June 2007 at the Las Vegas Burlesque Hall of Fame formerly known as Exotic World.- Rise to fame :Her ethnic heritage is Croatian, Russian and Irish...
said she had been entranced by Diana crash, finding it "by turns horrifying, bemusing and funny". Vine asserted her own abiding attraction to "the beauty and the tragedy of Diana's life".
Later events
On 13 July 2006 Italian magazine ChiChi (magazine)
Chi is an Italian weekly gossip magazine, based in Segrate, Milan, Italy.It's published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, the biggest Italian publishing company.-Photo of Princess Diana:...
published photographs showing Diana amid the wreckage of the car crash, despite an unofficial blackout on such photographs being published. The editor of Chi defended his decision by saying he published the photographs simply because they had not been previously seen, and he felt the images are not disrespectful to the memory of Diana. Fresh controversy arose over the issue of these photographs when Britain's Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
broadcast them during a documentary in June 2007.
1 July 2007 marked a concert
Concert for Diana
Concert for Diana was a concert held at the then new Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom in honour of Diana, Princess of Wales, on 1 July 2007, which would have been her 46th birthday; 31 August that year brought the 10th anniversary of her death...
at Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium
The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...
. The event, organised by the Princes William and Harry, celebrated the 46th anniversary of their mother's birth and occurred a few weeks before the 10th anniversary of her death on 31 August.
The 2007 docudrama
Docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
Diana: Last Days of a Princess
Diana: Last Days of a Princess
Diana: Last Days of a Princess is a television movie broadcast in the United States by TLC on August 12, 2007 and subsequent dates. It also has aired on Five, UKTV History, UKTV Drama in Great Britain, RTÉ in Ireland, ProSieben in Germany, TF1 in France, RTP in Portugal, Channel 7 Australia,...
details the final two months of her life.
On an October 2007 episode of The Chaser's War on Everything
The Chaser's War on Everything
The Chaser's War on Everything is an Australian television satirical comedy series broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation television station ABC1. It has won an AFI Award. The cast perform sketches mocking social and political issues, and often feature comedic publicity stunts...
, Andrew Hansen
Andrew Hansen
Andrew John Hansen is an Australian comedian and musician, best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser...
mocked Diana in his "Eulogy Song", which immediately created considerable controversy in the Australian media.
Contemporary opinions
Diana was revealed to be a major source behind Andrew Morton's Diana: Her True Story, which had portrayed her as being wronged by the House of Windsor. Morton instanced Diana's claim that she attempted suicide while pregnant by falling down a series of stairs and that Charles had left her to go riding. Tina Brown opined that it was not a suicide attempt because she would not intentionally have tried to harm the unborn child.
Royal biographer Sarah Bradford commented, "The only cure for her (Diana's) suffering would have been the love of the Prince of Wales, which she so passionately desired, something which would always be denied her. His was the final rejection; the way in which he consistently denigrated her reduced her to despair." Diana herself commented, "My husband made me feel inadequate in every possible way that each time I came up for air he pushed me down again ..."
Diana herself admitted to struggling with depression, self-injury, and bulimia, which recurred throughout the early years of her marriage. One biographer suggested Diana suffered from borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder is a personality disorder described as a prolonged disturbance of personality function in a person , characterized by depth and variability of moods.The disorder typically involves unusual levels of instability in mood; black and white thinking, or splitting; the...
.
In 2007, Tina Brown wrote a biography about Diana as a "restless and demanding ... obsessed with her public image" and also "spiteful, manipulative, media-savvy neurotic." Brown also claims Diana married Charles for his power and had a romantic relationship with Dodi Fayed to anger the royal family, with no intention of marrying him.
Titles and styles
- 1 July 1961 – 9 June 1975: The Honourable Diana Frances Spencer
- 9 June 1975 – 29 July 1981: The Lady Diana Frances Spencer
- 29 July 1981 – 28 August 1996: Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales
- in Scotland: 29 July 1981 – 28 August 1996: Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Rothesay
- 28 August 1996 – 31 August 1997: Diana, Princess of Wales
- in Scotland: 28 August 1996 – 31 August 1997: Diana, Duchess of Rothesay
Posthumously, as in life, she is most popularly referred to as "Princess Diana", a title she never held.The style "Princess Diana", although often used by the public and the media during her lifetime, was always incorrect. With rare exceptions (such as Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester
Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester
Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester was a member of the British Royal Family, the wife and then widow of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the third son of George V and Queen Mary.The daughter of the 7th Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry, Scotland’s largest landowner, her brothers Walter and...
) only women born to the title (such as The Princess Anne
Anne, Princess Royal
Princess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
) may use it before their given names. After her divorce in 1996, Diana was officially styled Diana, Princess of Wales, having lost the prefix HRH
Royal Highness
Royal Highness is a style ; plural Royal Highnesses...
Still, she is sometimes referred to (according to the tradition of using maiden names after death) in the media as "Lady Diana Spencer", or simply as "Lady Di". After Tony Blair's famous speech she was also often referred to as the People's Princess.
Diana's full title, while married, was Her Royal Highness The Princess Charles Philip Arthur George, Princess of Wales & Countess of Chester, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, Countess of Carrick, Baroness of Renfrew, Lady of the Isles, Princess of Scotland.
After her divorce and until her death Diana, Princess of Wales continued to be a Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
British princess
This is a list of British princesses from the accession of King George I in 1714. This article deals with both princesses of the blood royal and women who become princesses upon marriage....
without the style Royal Highness
Royal Highness
Royal Highness is a style ; plural Royal Highnesses...
. As the mother of the future Sovereign
Sovereign
A sovereign is the supreme lawmaking authority within its jurisdiction.Sovereign may also refer to:*Monarch, the sovereign of a monarchy*Sovereign Bank, banking institution in the United States*Sovereign...
, she was accorded the same precedence she enjoyed whilst being married to The Prince of Wales
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
. This situation made the Princess the first non royal British princess in history.
Honours
British honours- Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth IIRoyal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth IIThe Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II is a high honour bestowed as a mark of personal esteem on titled female members of the British Royal Family for personal service to Queen Elizabeth II. It is not automatically awarded and there is no public announcement of the honour...
Foreign honours
- Grand Cross of the Order of the CrownOrder of the Crown (Netherlands)The Order of the Crown is a house order of the Dutch Royal House of Orange-Nassau. The order came into being as a result of Queen Juliana's reorganization of The House Order of Orange in 1969. The 18 classes of the House order were no longer felt to be appropriate in the ever more egalitarian...
, bestowed by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1982
Legacy
- Diana's interest in supporting and helping young people led to the establishment of the Diana Memorial AwardDiana Memorial AwardThe Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Award for Inspirational Young People was established in 1999 by a board chaired by the then Chancellor, Gordon Brown, who felt that the award would reflect the personal interest of Diana, Princess of Wales in helping and supporting young people.-Purpose:The...
, awarded to youths who have demonstrated the unselfish devotion and commitment to causes advocated by the Princess. - In 2002, Diana was ranked 3rd in 100 Greatest Britons100 Greatest Britons100 Greatest Britons was broadcast in 2002 by the BBC. The programme was the result of a vote conducted to determine whom the United Kingdom public considers the greatest British people in history. The series, Great Britons, included individual programmes on the top ten, with viewers having further...
poll, outranking The Queen and other British monarchs. - On 30 August 2007 Peruvian photographer Mario TestinoMario Testino-Early Life:Testino grew up in Lima, the eldest son of a businessman. When he was young he wanted to be a priest. Testino recalls being unpopular at school because of his flamboyance. He was good at math and went on to study economics at Universidad del Pacífico, where his insistence on wearing...
announced that on 20 November he would auction a signed photo of Diana for the benefit of the Peru earthquake (in London by Phillips de Pury & Co). The photo appeared in a 1997 Vanity FairVanity Fair (magazine)Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
issue, and shows Diana wearing a black dress. - The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial PlaygroundDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial PlaygroundThe Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground is a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales in Kensington Gardens, in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea , London....
was erected in Kensington GardensKensington GardensKensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, is one of the Royal Parks of London, lying immediately to the west of Hyde Park. It is shared between the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The park covers an area of 111 hectares .The open spaces...
at a cost of £1.7 million. - The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial WalkDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial WalkThe Diana,Princess of Wales Memorial Walk is a long circular walking trail in London, England, dedicated to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales. It goes between Kensington Gardens, Green Park, Hyde Park and St. James's Park in a figure-eight pattern, passing five sites that are associated with...
was dedicated to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales. It stretches between Kensington Gardens, Green Park, Hyde Park and St. James's Park. - On 6 July 2004, The Queen officially opened the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial FountainDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial FountainThe Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain is a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales. It was designed to express Diana's spirit and love of children. It is located in the southwest corner of Hyde Park in London, just south of the Serpentine Lake and east of the Serpentine Gallery...
. It is located in the south-west corner of Hyde Park in London. - In 1999 the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Award for Inspirational Young People was established.
- Diana's family announced in 2010 they would auction art and horse-drawn carriages that once belonged to Althorp House.
- Fashion designers David and Elizabeth EmanuelDavid Emanuel (fashion designer)David Emanuel is a Welsh fashion designer who is, perhaps, best known for having designed the wedding dress worn by Diana, Princess of Wales in 1981.-Early years:Born and brought up in Bridgend , David Emanuel excelled in music...
, responsible for much of Diana's clothes, including her wedding dress, announced in May 2010 they were auctioning 30 lots of clothing, measurements, and related items.
Ancestry
Diana by birth is a member of the Spencer familySpencer family
The Spencer family are a British noble family descended in the male line from Henry Spencer, claimed to be a descendant of the cadet branch of the ancient House Le Despencer , male-line ancestor of the Earls of Sunderland, the later Dukes of Marlborough, and the Earls Spencer...
, one of the oldest and most prominent noble families in Britain which currently holds the titles of Duke of Marborough, Earl Spencer
Earl Spencer
Earl Spencer is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain that was created on 1 November 1765, along with the title Viscount Althorp, of Althorp in the County of Northamptonshire, for John Spencer, 1st Viscount Spencer, a great-grandson of the 1st Duke of Marlborough...
and Viscount Churchill
Viscount Churchill
Viscount Churchill, of Rolleston in the County of Leicester, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1902 for the Conservative politician Victor Spencer, 3rd Baron Churchill...
. The Spencers claimed to have descended from a cadet branch of the powerful medieval Despenser family, but its validity is still being questioned. Diana's noble ancestors include the legendary John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and Prince of Mindelheim
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Prince of Mindelheim, KG, PC , was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs through the late 17th and early 18th centuries...
, his equally famous wife, the powerful and influential Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough
Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough
Sarah Churchill , Duchess of Marlborough rose to be one of the most influential women in British history as a result of her close friendship with Queen Anne of Great Britain.Sarah's friendship and influence with Princess Anne was widely known, and leading public figures...
, Britain's first Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford
Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC , known before 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain....
, Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, 2nd Duke of Alba
Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, 2nd Duke of Alba
Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez, 2nd Duke of Alba was a Spanish nobleman, military leader and politician....
, one of the most powerful men of his era, Maria, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh
Maria, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh
Maria Walpole , the Countess Waldegrave and Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh, was a member of the British Royal Family, the wife of Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh...
, and Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey
Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey
Field Marshal Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, KG, GCB, GCH, PC , styled Lord Paget between 1784 and 1812 and known as The Earl of Uxbridge between 1812 and 1815, was a British military leader and politician, now chiefly remembered for leading the charge of the heavy cavalry against...
. She is also a distant relative of the dukes of Abercorn
Duke of Abercorn
The title Duke of Abercorn was created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1868 and bestowed upon James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Abercorn.This article also covers the Earls and Marquesses of Abercorn, all named after Abercorn, West Lothian, in Scotland.-History:...
, Bedford
Duke of Bedford
thumb|right|240px|William Russell, 1st Duke of BedfordDuke of Bedford is a title that has been created five times in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1414 in favour of Henry IV's third son, John, who later served as regent of France. He was made Earl of Kendal at the same time...
, Richmond
Duke of Richmond
The title Duke of Richmond is named after Richmond and its surrounding district of Richmondshire, and has been created several times in the Peerage of England for members of the royal Tudor and Stuart families...
, Devonshire
Duke of Devonshire
Duke of Devonshire is a title in the peerage of England held by members of the Cavendish family. This branch of the Cavendish family has been one of the richest and most influential aristocratic families in England since the 16th century, and have been rivalled in political influence perhaps only...
, Gordon
Duke of Gordon
The title Duke of Gordon has been created once in the Peerage of Scotland and again in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.The Dukedom, named after the Clan Gordon, was first created for the 4th Marquess of Huntly, who on 3 November 1684 was created Duke of Gordon, Marquess of Huntly, Earl of Huntly...
and most of the members of the British aristocracy.
Diana's ancestry also connects her with most of Europe's royal houses. Diana is five times descended from the House of Stuart
House of Stuart
The House of Stuart is a European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of Great Britain and Ireland...
from Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
's four illegitimate sons James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC , was an English nobleman. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II and his mistress, Lucy Walter...
, Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton
Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton
Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton KG was the illegitimate son of King Charles II by Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine....
, Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans
Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans
Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans, KG was an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England by his mistress Nell Gwynne.-Life:...
and Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond
Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond
Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, 1st Duke of Lennox, 1st Duke of Aubigny was the illegitimate son of Charles II of England and his mistress Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth....
, and from James II
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
's daughter, Henrietta FitzJames, Countess of Newcastle
Henrietta FitzJames
Henrietta FitzJames , the Dowager Lady Waldegrave and titular Countess of Newcastle, was an illegitimate daughter of James Stuart, Duke of York, afterward James II, King of Great Britain, by his mistress, Arabella Churchill, herself sister of the Duke of Marlborough.Henrietta was sister to the...
, an ancestry she shares with the current Dukes of Alba
Dukes of Alba
Duke of Alba is a Spanish title of nobility accompanied with the dignity Grandee of Spain. In 1472 the title Count of Alba de Tormes, inherited by García Álvarez de Toledo, was elevated to the title Duke of Alba by King Henry IV of Castile....
. From the House of Stuart, Diana is a descendant of the House of Bourbon
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
from the line Henry IV of France
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
and of the House of Medici from the line of Marie de' Medici
Marie de' Medici
Marie de Médicis , Italian Maria de' Medici, was queen consort of France, as the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the House of Bourbon. She herself was a member of the wealthy and powerful House of Medici...
. She is also a descendant of powerful Italian noble families such as that of the House of Sforza
House of Sforza
Sforza was a ruling family of Renaissance Italy, based in Milan.-History:The dynasty was founded by Muzio Attendolo , called Sforza , a condottiero from Romagna serving the Angevin kings of Naples...
who ruled as the Dukes of Milan from the line of the legendary Caterina Sforza, Countess of Forlì
Caterina Sforza
Caterina Sforza, Countess of Forlì was an Italian noblewoman, the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan and Lucrezia Landriani, the wife of the courtier Gian Piero Landriani, a close friend of the Duke...
. Diana also descends from the House of Wittelsbach via morganatic line from Frederick V, Elector Palatine
Frederick V, Elector Palatine
Frederick V was Elector Palatine , and, as Frederick I , King of Bohemia ....
and of the House of Hanover
House of Hanover
The House of Hanover is a deposed German royal dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , the Kingdom of Hanover, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
via Sophia von Platen und Hallermund, Countess of Leinster and Darlington
Sophia von Kielmansegg, Countess of Darlington
Sophia Charlotte von Kielmansegg, Countess of Darlington and Countess of Leinster was a German-born British courtier and a half-sister of George I of Great Britain.-Early life:...
, the illegitimate daughter of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Ernest Augustus was duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruled over the Principality of Calenberg subdivision of the duchy. He was appointed prince-elector, but died before the appointment became effective...
and the half sister of George I
George I of Great Britain
George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698....
. Diana also descends from the House of Toledo of the original dukes of Alba and Medina Sidonia
Dukes of Medina Sidonia
The dukes of Medina Sidonia are grandees of Spain, holding the oldest dukedom extant in the kingdom, first awarded by King John II of Castile in 1455...
.
Issue
| Name | Birth | Marriage | Issue | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prince William, Duke of Cambridge | 21 June 1982 | 29 April 2011 | Catherine Middleton | |
| Prince Harry of Wales Prince Harry of Wales Prince Henry of Wales , commonly known as Prince Harry, is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and fourth grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh... |
15 September 1984 | |||
See also
- Burrell affairBurrell affairThe Burrell affair was a scandal in 2002 which arose from a number of allegations about the behaviour of the British Royal Family and their servants...
- Concert for DianaConcert for DianaConcert for Diana was a concert held at the then new Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom in honour of Diana, Princess of Wales, on 1 July 2007, which would have been her 46th birthday; 31 August that year brought the 10th anniversary of her death...
- Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial FundDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial FundThe Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund is an independent grant-giving foundation established in September 1997 after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, to continue her humanitarian work in the United Kingdom and overseas...
- Diana, Princess of Wales: TributeDiana, Princess of Wales: TributeDiana, Princess of Wales: Tribute is a 1997 two CD release in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales with participation of a great number of renowned artists...
- Diana - The People's PrincessDiana - The People's PrincessDiana – The People’s Princess is a limited-run, traveling exhibition located at the Branson Exhibition Center at 3950 Green Mountain Drive in Branson, Missouri....
(exhibition) - SquidgygateSquidgygateSquidgygate refers to the pre-1990 telephone conversations between Diana, Princess of Wales and a close friend, James Gilbey, and to the controversy surrounding how those conversations were recorded. During the calls, Gilbey affectionately called Diana by the names "Squidgy" and "Squidge"...
- The New School at West HeathThe New School at West HeathThe New School at West Heath is an independent school in Sevenoaks, in southeast England. It caters for children for whom mainstream schooling has become insufficient, for varying reasons...
(Mr Al-Fayed's memorial to Diana) - Elisabeth of BavariaElisabeth of BavariaElisabeth of Austria was the spouse of Franz Joseph I, and therefore both Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. She also held the titles of Queen of Bohemia and Croatia, among others...
External links
- Concert for Diana
- Princess Diana: The Best Photos – slideshow by Life magazine
- Trampling on Diana's grave: Outrage as C4 to show image of princess dying
- DIANA – The crash investigator and the mystery driver
- 9th Earl Spencer's Eulogy for Princess Diana Text, audio, video at American Rhethoric
- Prince Harry's Memorial Remarks on the 10 Year Anniversary of Diana's Death Text, audio, video at American Rhethoric
- Funeral and Eulogies for Princess Diana at Internet-esq.com.
- Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund official website of Theworkcontinues.org.
- "Diana Remembered" at PeoplePeople (magazine)In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
magazine - HM Coroner of Surrey: The Official Inquest Into The Deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales & Dodi Al Fayed at Surreycoroner.info.
- Lord Stevens' Operation Paget Report Into The Death of Diana, Princess of Wales—published 14 December 2006 at Police.uk.
- The Goddess of Domestic Tribulations by Theodore Dalrymple Essay on the cultural significance of Princess Diana. Theodore Dalrymple. City Journal at City-journal.com.
- "Ten Years On: Why Princess Diana Mattered". TIME.
- BBC mini-site Diana One Year On pictures of Diana, Panorama interview video extracts, coverage of the funeral, how the UK newspapers reported her death