Diana, Princess of Wales
- "Diana Spencer" redirects here.
| Diana | |
|---|---|
| The Princess of Wales | |
| File:Diana, Princess of Wales.jpg | |
| Spouse | HRH Charles, Prince of Wales |
| Issue | |
| Prince William of Wales Prince Henry of Wales | |
| Full name | |
| Diana Frances Mountbatten-Windsor | |
| Titles | |
| Diana, Princess of Wales HRH The Princess of Wales Lady Diana Spencer The Hon Diana Spencer | |
| Royal House | House of Windsor |
| Father | Edward, Earl Spencer |
| Mother | Frances, Viscountess Althorp |
| Born | 1 July 1961 Park House, Sandringham |
| Baptised | St. Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham |
| Died | 31 August 1997 Paris, France |
| Buried | 6 September 1997 Althorp Park, Northampton, Northamptonshire |
| Occupation | Charity |
Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances Mountbatten-Windsor, née The Lady Diana Spencer) (July 1, 1961 – August 3, 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, and heir to the British throne. Her two sons, Prince William of Wales and Prince Henry of Wales are, respectively, second and third in line to the British throne.
From her marriage in 1981 to her divorce in 1996, she carried the title Her Royal Highness, The Princess of Wales. After her divorce from the Prince of Wales in 1996, Diana lost the resulting Royal Highness honorific (see style.)1 As the former wife of the heir to the throne she received a moniker based on her personal name. Elizabeth II, under British law, (letters patent) then bequeathed to her the official title, Diana, Princess of Wales. In the press and to the public she is most popularly referred to as Princess Diana.
An iconic presence on the world stage, Diana was beloved by her British subjects and admired the world round for her far reaching charity work. She was pre-eminently the most admired and sought after celebrity of her time: a fashion icon, an image of feminine beauty, admired and emulated for involvement in AIDS issues, and the international campaign against landmines. She was the darling of the media; the camera captured endless pictures of her almost shy, guileless expression. She was on the cover of People magazine more than any other person of her era. Her life story generated articles, books, television movies, and endless speculation about her love life.
The princess delivered a much needed human touch to the reticence of reigning British royalty. She was often referred to as the accessible princess and was the first known celebrity to be photographed touching a patient with AIDS. The aristocracy, many of them noted for their philandering perhaps more than for their philanthropy needed not only a face lift of their public persona but real reform as well. The modernization of the monarchy would prove to be a daunting task for young Royals like Diana.
Ultimately mounting pressures and a blow-by-blow account by the press of Charles and Diana’s divorce left no private moment unexposed for them. At one point even their telephone transmissions (to others) were tape recorded. Despite the public scrutiny, Diana’s growing disenfranchisement from the Royal family, and her personal struggles she continued forward with her charity work. Diana was remarkably privileged in life, however, she suffered losses herself during childhood and always imbued empathy to those less fortunate. She used her prestige and power to advantage where and when she could especially for women and children.
Her detractors have insistently pointed to her many deficiencies including her battles with bulimia and depression. During her protracted divorce proceedings tabloids and scandal sheets often had a field day with the "War of the Waleses”. Ironically the hounding of Princess Diana by the press was a contributing factor in her tragic death in a car accident, when her driver sped away from a paparazzi car.
Early Life
I think I'm going to cut a very different path from everyone else.... I knew I was going somewhere different. young Diana
Diana Frances Spencer was born as the youngest daughter of Edward Spencer, Viscount Althorp, and his first wife, Frances Spencer, Viscountess Althorp at Park House on the Sandringham estate. Partially American in ancestry - a great-grandmother was the American heiress Frances Work - she was also a descendant of King Charles I.
Diana’s parents divorced when she was around 13years of age. The divorce of her parents was traumatic and Diana's childhood suffered from it as did her siblings. Diana’s mother, Lady Althorp, had an affair with wallpaper heir and businessman Peter Shand Kydd which precipated the divorce from Diana's father and resulted in her losing custody of her children, Jane, Sarah, Diana and Charles. When Diana’s grandfather died, Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer, in 1975, Diana's father became the 8th Earl Spencer, and she acquired the title of The Lady Diana Spencer. The family, minus its mother's presence, moved from her childhood home at Park House to her family's sixteenth-century ancestral home of Althorp. A year later Lord Spencer married Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of the romance novelist Barbara Cartland The Spencer children’s adjustment to their new home and a new stepmother in a short period would prove to be a tumultuous time for them.
Diana attended school at West Heath Girls' School Sevenoaks, Kent. Academics were not her strong suit and she reportedly failed all of her O-level examinations. However, her extracurricular talents, included singing, swimming and diving, and sports. She loved ballet and was known to be an excellent dancer. Her favorite band during her teen years was allegedly Duran Duran. In 1977, aged 16, she left West Heath and attended, a finishing school in Rougemont, Switzerland. Although not trained towards a career or in the practicalilties of a secular life she followed the suit of other young aristocracy who worked with children and at other domestic skills and prepared themselves for marriage. The young Diana could not have foreseen the challenges that awaited her in marriage given her nearly overnight entrance into royal life.
The man who would be King
The Prince's numerous romances provided unending fodder for the press throughout his young adulthood. There was growing public consternation among royal watchers as to whether Charles would ever settle down and get on with the business of producing heirs. Nearing his mid-thirties, he was under increasing pressure to marry. Legally, the only requirement was that he could not marry a Roman Catholic; a member of the Church of England was preferred. His great-uncle, who he shared a close relationship with, Lord Mountbatten of Burma (assassinated in 1979) had advised him to marry a younger woman who would look up to him. In order to gain the approval of his family and their advisors, any potential bride was expected to have a royal or aristocratic background, as well as be Protestant and, preferably, a virgin. Diana seemed to meet all of these qualifications. That a different standard of pre-marital purity was not held accountable for the future king did not seem to have any relevancy.
Diana was to meet her future husband while still a school girl and when he was dating her sister, Lady Sarah. Their romance began in earnest and furtively while she was an assistant at the "Young England Kindergarten" in Pimlico. There her pictured was snapped by photographer, John Minihan in her simple teacher's ensemble; she looked at once beguiling and unassuming. From that moment the young princess-bride-to-be managed to completely capture the attention of Brits, who were anxiously awaiting Charles to marry. 'Lady Diana', remarkably photogenic and natural in front of the camera, would have her life - perhaps by this single picture - be forever altered.
During Diana's and Charle's whirlwind courtship, one incident managed to cast a shadow: Charles gift to friend, Camilla Parker-Bowles then married to Andrew Parker-Bowles, of an engraved bracelet. The bracelet, discovered by Diana four days before their nuptials, signalled the intimate feelings Charles had for another woman, one who would eventually becomes his second wife. The knowledge of this relationship put Diana and Charles marriage on uneven footing from the beginning. In retrospect, pondering this dire portent, Diana would ruefully comment, "From the beginning there were three of us...." (in the marriage.)
The storybook wedding
I had tremendous hopes in my heart. Lady Diana
Diana was the first Englishwoman to marry the heir to the throne since 1659, when Lady Anne Hyde married the Duke of York and Albany, the future King James II (although, unlike Charles, James was heir presumptive and not heir apparent). Upon her marriage, Diana became Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales and was ranked as the third most senior royal woman in the United Kingdom after the Queen and the Queen Mother. Although she would not be Queen by birth, but instead through marriage, she would be referred to as Queen Consort.
Diana's family, the Spencers, had been close to the British Royal Family for decades. Her maternal grandmother, Ruth, Lady Fermoy, was a longtime friend and a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
Buckingham Palace announced the engagement on February 24, 1981, to much fanfare and public expectation. The wedding took place in St Paul's Cathedral in London on Wednesday, July 29, 1981, before 3,500 invited guests and an estimated 1 billion television viewers around the world. Among other performers, the acclaimed New Zealand soprano Kiri Te Kanawa sang Handel's "Let the Bright Seraphim" during the wedding ceremony, at the request of Prince Charles. Diana and Charles' wedding ceremony, from the much talked about romantic wedding dress to the retinue of bridesmaids and flower girls and down to each decorous detail, captured the imagination of the public as no other royal event during that time had or perhaps ever will.
Marriage and family life
They mean everything to me. Princess Diana, mother of Will and Harry
The Prince and Princess of Wales had two children within three years of their marriage, Prince William of Wales on June 21, 1982 and Prince Henry of Wales September 15, 1984 (known more affectionately as Will and Harry).
If the birth of the heirs were a cause for national rejoicing and a boon to the marriage, their aftermath was a time of difficulty for Diana as she struggled through postpartum depression. Her problems with bulimia resurfaced as well. Her much ballyhooed "suicide attempts" were later acknowledged by her as half hearted attempts to get the help she needed. Diana continued to adjust to her new role as wife, mother and royal icon. In the patriarchal tradition of the House of Windsor royal men were often known to be off hunting, riding, or attending to royal duties and Prince Charles was no exception. During this time many doctors were called upon to help Diana cope with some of the physical and emotional ailments that plagued her. Her best defense, however, proved to be her friends such as Sarah Ferguson, daughter of Prince Charles' polo manager, Major Ronald Ferguson. Sarah, later, in another highly publicized royal wedding, would marry Charles' brother Prince Andrew.
Diana, known to be a believer in the spiritual world, went so far as to consult with, on numerous occasions, astrologer Penny Thornton. A treasured book of Diana's, from which she received solace during this time, was The Prophet by Khahil Gibran.
Divorce: under a spotlight
In the mid-1980s, the marriage of Diana and Charles fell apart, an event at first suppressed, but then sensationalized, by the world media. Their disparate lives gave rise to friendships, alliances, and aired grievances on both sides. Diana's phone calls to long time friend James Gilbey were made embarrassingly public after they were recorded, purportedly by a private citizen, and made public. This infamous violation of privacy burdgeoned into a national scandal nicknamed Squidgygate. It was this betrayal of trust that would increase the paranoia of those in Diana's camp that claimed her every movement was being monitored by the British government and royal family. The seeds of suspicion were sewn for the varous conspiracy theories that were spawned after Diana's fatal car accident insinuating that the accident was actually a set up by British Intelligence.
The Prince and Princess of Wales were separated on December 9, 1992; their divorce was finalized on August 28, 1996. The Princess was required to relinquish the designation Her Royal Highness and instead was simply titled Diana, Princess of Wales. However, since the divorce, Buckingham Palace has maintained that Diana was officially a member of the Royal Family, since she was the mother of the second and third in line to the throne.
Legacy
Someone's got to go out there and love people and show it.Diana, Princess of Wales
Starting in the mid-to-late 1980s, the Princess of Wales became well known for her support of charity projects. This stemmed naturally from her role as Princess of Wales and also as an interested supporter of various health causes newly arisen in the United Kingdom. Diana, photographed with AIDS patients and at the site of landmines, was often pictured on her tours. Her ability to relate to people of various backgrounds and in all situations brought much needed attention to these causes.
AIDS
In April 1987, the Princess of Wales was photographed shaking the hand of patient infected with HIV. She never hesitated, as shown in countless pictures, to extend a warm touch to others no matter their rank or circumstances in life. Her contribution to changing the public opinion of AIDS sufferers was summarized in December 2001 by Bill Clinton at the 'Diana, Princess of Wales Lecture on AIDS', when he said:
- In 1987, when so many still believed that AIDS could be contracted through casual contact, Princess Diana sat on the sickbed of a man with AIDS and held his hand. She showed the world that people with AIDS deserve no isolation, but compassion and kindness. It helped change world opinion, and gave hope to people with AIDS with an outcome of saved lives of people at risk.
Diana also supposedly made clandestine visits to show kindness to terminally- ill AIDS patients. According to nurses, she would turn up unannounced, for example, at the Mildmay Hospice in London, with specific instructions that these visits were to be concealed from the media.
Landmines
Perhaps her most well-publicised charity appearance was her visit to Angola in January 1997, when, serving as an International Red Cross VIP volunteer [1], she visited landmine survivors in hospitals and toured de-mining projects run by the HALO Trust She also attended mine awareness education classes given on the dangers of mines immediately surrounding homes and villages.
The pictures of Diana touring a minefield, in a ballistic helmet and flak jacket, instigated worldwide reaction. In August that year, she visited Bosnia with the Landmine Survivors Network. Her interest in landmines was focused on the hazards they present to children playing unwittingly in areas where undetonated landmines are buried. Hidden landmines continue to create injury and danger long after a conflict in a war torn area has ceased.
She is believed[2] to have influenced (though only after and perhaps as a result of her death) the signing, in December 1997, of the Ottawa Treaty, which created an international ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines. Introducing the Second Reading of the Landmines Bill in 1998 to the British House of Commons, the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, 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. [3]
The use of landmines continues to draw controversy and is spoken out against by UNICEF, among others, concerned about their inadvertant affect on children. Although many nations have signed the Ottawa Treaty there are quite a few that refuse to sign because of their political belief that landmines are needed in the course of defense. Notably among those who haven't signed are the United States, China, and Russia among others.
After Diana's death donations that came pouring in were used to start the Princess Diana Memorial Fund first adminstered by her eldest sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale. The fund has bequeathed grants to global orginazations that are in alignment with Diana's own most cherished causes. Diana's interest in supporting and helping young people led to the establishment of the Diana Memorial Award, awarded to youths who have demonstrated the unselfish devotion and commitment to causes advocated by the Princess.
The controversial car accident
Diana was working hard to build happiness with her new life out of the royal limelight, her charity work, and new boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed when they were involved in a fatal car accident on August 30, 1997. Their driver,Henri Paul was believed to be fleeing a paparazzi car in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel when their Mercedes crashed on the thirteenth pillar of the tunnel.
Fayed's bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was closest to the point of impact and yet the only survivor of the crash, since he was the only occupant of the car who was wearing a seatbelt. Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed were killed instantly. Diana, unbelted in the back seat, slid forward and died later at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital hospital from internal bleeding. It was reported that cameramen from the Italian magazine Chi, at the horrific scene of the accident, still clambered for pictures of her. The British media publicly refused to publish the images, with the exception of The Sun. Her funeral on September 6, 1997 was broadcast and watched by over 1 billion people worldwide. Aggrieved admirers expressed remorse that Princess Diana could was not allowed more privacy in her personal life.
The death of Princess Diana has been the subject of widespread theories, supported by Mohamed Al-Fayed, whose son died in the accident. These were rejected by French investigators and British officials, who stated that the driver, Henri Paul, was legally drunk and on anti-depressants, a lethal combination. In 2004 the authorities ordered an independent inquiry by Lord Stevens, a former chief of the Metropolitan Police, and he suggested that the case was "far more complex than any of us thought" and reported "new forensic evidence" and witnesses Telegraph, May 2006.
Final resting place
Princess Diana's final resting place is located on the grounds of Althorp Park, her family home. [4] The original plan was for her to be buried in the Spencer family vault at the local church in nearby Great Brington, but Diana's brother, Charles, the 9th Earl Spencer, said that he was concerned about public safety and security and the onslaught of visitors that might overwhelm Great Brington. He decided that he wanted his sister to be buried where her grave could be easily cared for and visited in privacy by her sons and other relatives.
Lord Spencer selected a burial site on an island in an ornamental lake known as The Oval within Althorp Park's Pleasure Garden. A path with 36 oak trees, marking each year of her life, leads to the Oval. Four black swans swim in the lake, symbolizing sentinels guarding the island. In the water there are several water lilies. White roses and lilies were Diana's favorite flowers.[5] On the southern verge of the Round Oval sits the Summerhouse, previously in the gardens of Admiralty House, London, and now serving as a memorial to Princess Diana. [6] An ancient arboretum stands nearby, which contains trees planted by Prince William and Prince Harry, other members of her family and the princess herself.
Titles (British: Styles)
- The Honourable Diana Frances Spencer (July 1, 1961 – June 9, 1975)
- The Lady Diana Frances Spencer (June 9, 1975 – July 29, 1981)
- Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales (July 29, 1981 – August 28, 1996)
- Diana, Princess of Wales (August 28, 1996 – August 31, 1997)
The style "Princess Diana" was always incorrect, though often used by the public and the media. With rare exceptions, as in the case of Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, only women born to the title (such as Princess Anne) may use it before their given names. After her divorce in 1996, Diana was officially styled "Diana, Princess of Wales", based on Letters Patent issued by The Queen on the same date of the signature of the divorce settlement, although she could not be called "Her Royal Highness." Even the style "Princess of Wales" would have lapsed had Diana remarried.
During her marriage, her full title was Her Royal Highness The Princess Charles, Princess of Wales and Countess of Chester, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, Countess of Carrick, Baroness of Renfrew, Lady of the Isles, Princess of Scotland.
Lineage
Diana Spencer is a thirteenth cousin once removed from George W. Bush. John Dryden of Canons Ashby is the 14th grandfather of George W. Bush through his daughter Bridget Dryden. John Dryden of Canons Ashby is the 13th grandfather of Diana Spencer by his son Erasmus Dryden. [7]
Prior to her marriage, much research was done into Diana's lineage by genealogists. It was much publicized that her ancestry included links to individuals such as Hollywood screen legend Humphrey Bogart (who was her 7th cousin), and poet Edmund Spenser, the author of The Faerie Queen [8]. Actor Oliver Platt is more closely related; both he and Diana, Princess of Wales are descendants of Frances Work, a late 19th-century American heiress who was briefly the wife of the Hon. James Burke Roche, later 3rd Baron Fermoy.
Footnotes
See also
- Frances Shand Kydd Princess Diana's mother
- Spencer family
- British Royal Family
- Squidgygate
- Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund
- Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain
- The New School at West Heath, Mr. Al-Fayed's Princess Diana Memorial
- Burrell affair
- Diana Memorial Award
- The Queen (2006 film)
- Death of Diana
External links
- Last Will and Testament of Princess Diana
- Belfast Telegraph Inquiry set to shock
- Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund
- Diana, Princess of Wales illustrated
- The Royal Family Tree of Europe
- Princess Diana Death Documentary about the death of Diana.
- Tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales
- The Life of Princess Diana
- Critics
Camilla (styled Duchess of Cornwall)
Diana Spencer (1981–1997) · Mary of Teck (1901–1910) · Alexandra of Denmark (1863–1901) · Caroline of Brunswick (1795–1820) · Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1736–1751) · Caroline of Ansbach (1714–1727) · Catherine of Aragon (1501–1502) · Anne Neville (1470–1471) · Joan of Kent (1361–1376)
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