Diana, Princess of Wales: Biography from Answers.com

Lady Diana Frances Spencer (1961-1997) married Prince Charles in 1981 and became Princess of Wales. Retaining her title after the royal couple divorced in 1996, Diana continued her humanitarian work. She died in a tragic car accident in 1997.

Lady Diana Spencer began enchanting the public and international press shortly before July 29, 1981, wedding to Prince Charles of Wales, heir to the British throne, in a ceremony that was broadcast worldwide. The media's obsessive fascination with the Princess of Wales hardly waned over the years and at times became frenetic, particularly in the mid-1990s as her marriage to Prince Charles became increasingly unstable.

On February 29, 1996, the Princess announced that she had agreed to a divorce. True to her high-profile image, in March of 1996 Diana suggested to Charles that they announce their divorce on television; according to The Daily Telegraph, Diana argued that such an appearance "would help the nation as much as themselves." After some stalling, Prince Charles agreed to the request and a hefty financial settlement of almost $23 million, plus $600,000 a year for the maintenance of Diana's private office. Diana, meanwhile, lost her title of Her Royal Highness and right to the throne, but kept the moniker Princess of Wales and continued to live in Kensington Palace. Just over a year after the divorce, Diana was killed in a car accident in Paris.

Rumors about the stability of Charles and Diana's marriage surfaced repeatedly over the years. Many royal watchers say the union was destined for trouble because the fairy tale wedding raised expectations that most couples would find impossible to meet. Others cited the difference in the couple's ages and interests, and Charles's long-time friendship with Camilla Parker Bowles, a woman he had once asked to marry him.

Diana Frances Spencer was born on July 1, 1961, in Norfolk, England, the third of the Lord and Lady Althorp's four children. She grew up at Park House, a mansion in Norfolk located next door to the royal family's Sandringham estate. One of Diana's playmates was Prince Andrew, Charles's brother. Diana's mother, the Honorable Frances Shand-Kydd, is the daughter of a wealthy Anglo-Irish baron. Lady Fermoy, Diana's grandmother, was for years chief lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother. Diana's father, the Viscount Althorp who became an earl in 1975, was a remote descendant of the Stuart kings and a direct descendant of King Charles II (1630-1685). The Spencers have served the Crown as courtiers for generations and are related to the Sir Winston Churchills and at least eight U.S. presidents, including George Washington, John Adams, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Diana's younger brother Charles is Queen Elizabeth's godson, and her father was the late Queen Mary's godson and former personal aide to both King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

Diana, a quiet and reserved child, had a relatively happy home life until she was eight years old, when her parents went through a bitter divorce, and her mother ran off with the heir to a wallpaper fortune. Her father eventually won the custody battle over their son and three daughters. Diana, who remained close to her mother, subsequently became depressed. In 1976 the Earl Spencer married Raine Legge, the daughter of British romance novelist Barbara Cartland. Apparently, the Spencer children and their stepmother had a stormy relationship.

Diana's academic career was unremarkable. She was tutored at home until the age of nine, when she was sent to Riddlesworth Hall in Norfolk. Her "major moment of academic distinction," according to People, was when she won an award for taking especially good care of her guinea pig, Peanuts. At the age of 12, Diana began attending the exclusive West Heath School in Sevenoaks, Kent, where she developed a passion for ballet and later Prince Charles. She hung his picture above her cot at the boarding school and told a classmate, as reported by People," I would love to be a dancer - or Princess of Wales."

Diana became bored with academics and dropped out of West Heath at the age of 16. Her father sent her to a Swiss finishing school, Chateau d'Oex. She became homesick within a few months and returned to Norfolk. For a while she hired herself out as a cleaning woman, eventually finding work as a kindergarten teacher's aide. Her father bought her a three-bedroom flat not far from fashionable Sloane Street and Knightsbridge, where Diana helped her three roommates with housekeeping and cooking duties.

Although Prince Charles had known Diana, literally the girl next door, for virtually all of her life, he regarded her as a playmate for his younger brothers. He later dated Diana's older sister, Lady Sarah, who eventually became Mrs. Neil McCorquodale. Lady Sarah reintroduced Charles and Diana at a 1977 pheasant hunt at Althorp. "[Diana] taught him how to tap-dance on the terrace," a family friend once told McCall's. "He thought she was adorable … full of vitality and terribly sweet." Charles was struck by "what a very amusing and jolly and attractive 16-year-old she was," Time reported. Diana concluded that the prince was "pretty amazing."

Charles thought Diana was too young to consider as a marriage prospect, however, and the romance didn't bloom for another three years. In July of 1980 Diana visited the royal family's Balmoral Castle in Scotland to see her sister, Lady Jane, who was married to Robert Fellowes, the queen's assistant secretary. Once again Diana ran into Charles, and the two walked and fished together. Charles was quoted as saying in Time, "I began to realize what was going on in my mind and hers in particular." Diana was invited back in September.

Soon afterward, reporters began to suspect the nature of her relationship with Charles and began to hound Diana mercilessly, photographing her with the prince at her London flat and once while holding one of the children at the nursery school where she taught. To her horror, the sun behind her back clearly outlined her thighs through her skirt in a photo that has since been reprinted many times. At one point Diana's mother fired off a letter to the London Times, demanding, "Is it necessary or fair to harass my daughter daily?," as quoted in Time.

Charles proposed to Diana at dinner in his Buckingham Palace apartment on February 3, 1981. Diana was the first British citizen to marry the heir to the throne since 1659, when Prince James - later James II - married Lady Anne Hyde. In addition, Diana was an Anglican, presenting no legal obstacles to marriage with the man who, as king, would head the Church of England. Her past was pristine, a matter of great importance to the royal family. A well-known saying soon made the rounds in the press: Diana had a history, but no past.

According to a Time interview with the royal couple, Charles said the courtship was conducted "like a military operation" on national television. He proposed over dinner for two before Diana's February 6 departure for a vacation in Australia. "I wanted to give Diana a chance to think about it - to think if it was going to be too awful. If she didn't like the idea, she could say she didn't. … But in fact she said …." Diana interrupted, "Yes, quite promptly. I never had any doubts about it." When Diana returned from her trip, Charles asked the Earl Spencer for his daughter's hand. Diana resigned her teaching post and moved into the palace's Clarence House with the Queen Mother, where she was instructed in royal protocol.

The Archbishop of Canterbury and 25 other clerics officiated at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana on July 29, 1981. A congregation of 2,500 and a worldwide TV audience of about 750 million watched the ceremony under the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. Five mounted military police officers led Diana in her glass coach from Clarence House to St. Paul's. Two million spectators - whose behavior was kept in check by 4,000 policemen and 2,228 soldiers - jammed the processional route.

Soon afterward, Diana's professional life became an endless round of ceremonial tree plantings, introductions, and public appearances. She was scheduled for 170 official engagements during the year following the royal wedding. In their first seven years of marriage, the Prince and Princess of Wales made official visits to 19 countries and held hundreds of handshaking sessions. But Diana was shielded from the press, never making any public statements - except for those approved by the palace - or giving a private interview to any reporter.

There seemed to be no doubts about Charles and Diana's love for each other in those early days. "Diana seems absolutely floating on air when she's around the Prince - squeezing his hand, nuzzling his cheek or leaning her head on his shoulder," Rita Lachman, a close friend of the Spencers, observed in McCall's. "And although the Prince's training has made his behavior more restrained, it is obvious how he feels about her." Later developments would make it appear that the relationship was rocky even before the marriage, but the public would only see the fairy tale facade.

On November 5, 1981, the palace announced that the Princess of Wales was expecting a child. Charles was present when his wife gave birth at London's St. Mary's Hospital 11 months after the royal wedding. Dr. George Pinker, Queen Elizabeth's gynecologist, attended the birth. Prince William, nicknamed Wills, was born in June of 1982. A second son, Harry, was born two years later in September of 1984. Diana was said to be a doting mother, trying to raise the children as normally as possible, away from the glare of publicity.

After giving birth, Diana dropped 30 pounds from her 5-foot 10-inch frame, according to a People correspondent, "leaving it lean and elegant - a splendid rack for the designer rags she assembled with impressive taste. Almost overnight a pretty girl was transformed into a statuesque belle." Around that time, reports alleging that Diana suffered from anorexia nervosa first began to surface.

Over the years, Diana immersed herself in numerous charitable causes. She became involved in such social issues such as homelessness and drug abuse, visited leprosariums in Nigeria and Indonesia, shook hands with patients at an AIDS ward in a Middlesex Hospital, and once visited victims of an IRA (Irish Republican Army) bombing in Northern Ireland. In 1990, People noted, Diana was the patron of 44 charities, making more than 180 visits on their behalf the previous year. "I don't just want to be a name on a letterhead," the princess was quoted as saying in the Saturday Evening Post.

In 1989 Diana became a patron of Relate, Britain's leading marriage counseling agency. She once addressed a crowd at Relate's Family of the Year ceremony, as quoted in People: "Marriage offers stability, and may be that is why nearly 7,000 couples a week begin new family lives of their own. Sadly, for many, reality fails to live up to expectations. When that happens, most couples draw on new reserves of love and strength."

Ironically, Diana's own marriage apparently had been ailing for years. Rumors about marital problems surfaced just a few years after the wedding. The couple's first public spat, at a pheasant hunt at the queen's Norfolk estate, was followed two days later by another public row. The fairy tale turned into a soap opera, according to a British gossip columnist who characterized the situation as "Dallas in the palace." Many reports alleged that Charles quickly became disenchanted with his bride and that he was henpecked and obsessed with organic gardening and spiritualism. Diana was said to be bored, temperamental, self-absorbed, and clothes-mad.

Over the next few years Charles and Diana's widely varying intellectual and social interests became apparent: He was an intellectual who preferred to read philosophical and thought-provoking literature, while Diana was partial to romance novels. Charles enjoyed polo and horseback riding; Diana once fell off a horse and had lost any passion she had for riding. He enjoyed opera; she preferred ballet and rock music. The media began tracking the number of days the two spent apart, noting Charles's lengthy stays away from home. Diana once said in public, People reported, that being a princess "isn't all it's cracked up to be." Buckingham Palace maintained a stony silence.

The public's fascination with Diana fueled the media's insatiable hunger for sensational news about the princess. Coverage of the royal family was said to be more critical and crudely inquisitive than at any time since the early nineteenth century. As Suzanne Lowry, a writer for London's Sunday Times once wrote, according to Time: "What Diana clearly didn't understand when she took that fateful step [of marrying Charles] was that she could never get back into that nice, cozy private nursery again. … As James Whitaker [the London Mirror's royal watcher] might say to Diana with a nudge, 'You didn't know you were marrying us too, did you?"'

While some of Charles and Diana's problems were blamed on incompatibility, many royal watchers speculated that trouble stemmed from the attention lavished on Diana, while Charles was largely ignored. When the prince delivered a serious speech, for example, the newspapers would mention it briefly below a large photo of Diana in her latest fashion. One longtime insider revealed in People, "The problems of the marriage have come out in the open because Di's self-confidence has developed. She now appreciates her own incredible sexuality and the fact that the world is at her feet. This adoration used to terrify her. Now she quite enjoys the effect she has."

Media coverage of the royal family only increased after Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson in July of 1986. As People characterized it: "After five years in a corset of decorum, Di was ready to bust loose, and fun-loving Fergie was just the girl to help her unlace. … Soon the merry wives of Windsor were cutting up in public." Charles reportedly scolded Diana once for "trashing the dignity of the royal family," People reported, and Diana chided him for being "stuffy, boring and old before his time." The princess eventually tired of the antics and settled down.

In June of 1991, young Prince William sustained a skull fracture after being hit in the head with a golf club. Diana spent two nights with her son in the hospital, while Charles reportedly dropped in once, on his way to an opera. From that point on, Time pointed out, the "tabloids have smelled blood." A month later, Charles and Diana spent her 30th birthday apart. The press relished the news, ignoring the fact that Diana sported a new gold and mother-of-pearl bracelet the next day.

One of three biographies of Diana published in 1992, Andrew Morton's Diana: Her True Story alleged that Diana attempted suicide five times in the early 1980s - the first only six months after the wedding, while she was pregnant with William. The episodes were characterized as cries for help rather than serious attempts to end her life. Morton's book, along with the others, also claimed that Diana suffered from bulimia.

Morton's biography, sympathetic to Diana, is said to be the most damaging to the prince, portraying Diana as a martyr with a cold fish for a husband. The book was given more credence than others because, as Newsweek reported, the "revelations were unusually specific, extraordinarily well sourced and … they [made] sense in light of Charles and Diana's recent public behavior." Rumors surfaced that Diana collaborated with Morton - or at least approved the project, giving close friends and relatives permission to be interviewed. Diana's father, who died of a heart attack on March 29, 1992, had sold dozens of her childhood photographs to Morton's publisher.

Amid rumors in the fall of 1992 that a Wales separation announcement was forthcoming came intense media scrutiny of Diana's male friendships. A retired bank manager contacted the Sun in 1990, offering a tape recording of a chummy 1989 cellular telephone conversation between a man - supposedly Diana's close friend, James Gilbey - and a woman he believed to be Diana. The press subsequently resurrected old tales about an alleged dalliance between Diana and her riding instructor, Major James Hewitt. These claims were spelled out in Anna Pasternak's book Princess in Love. On December 9, 1992, it was formally announced that the royal couple was separating.

In 1993 Diana announced that due to exhaustion from the intense media scrutiny, she would be withdrawing from public life, though she would continue her charity work. For the next two years, with a few exceptions, she kept a fairly low media profile. During this time she sought government advice about how she might have some role as an ambassador for Britain, but no firm arrangements were made.

In 1994, Prince Charles granted a wide-ranging television interview to Jonathan Dimbleby, which was broadcast at the same time that Dimbleby's biography of Charles appeared in bookstores. In an uncharacteristically frank interview, Charles admitted his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, though he claimed this relationship began only in 1986, after his marriage with Diana had completely broken down. However, after the couple's divorce was announced in 1996, it seemed apparent that Charles had carried a torch for Camilla Parker Bowles since before his marriage to Diana, and it was speculated that he would marry her.

In November of the following year, Diana responded with a frank interview of her own, on BBC's Panorama program. The interview was particularly controversial because Diana had informed Queen Elizabeth of the interview only after it had already taken place, and just days before it was scheduled to be broadcast. The interview drew the largest viewing audience in Panorama's 43-year history - 21.1 million viewers, from a total British population of 57 million. Typically, Diana's interview drew more attention than Charles' had; only 14 million people had watched his interview the year before.

According to a front page story in the Daily Telegraph, "her composure and fluency could have rivalled that of a statesman." While the BBC stated that Diana had not been given editorial control over the program, she was obviously well-prepared for the difficult questions. The Daily Telegraph's media correspondent pointed out that "no question took her by surprise, and no answers were fluffed. Some of the toughest ones produced distinctly unspontaneous lines, such as 'Well there were three of us in the marriage so it was a bit crowded,"' referring to Charles's long-standing affair with Bowles.

The Panorama interview seemed to put to rest any possibility of a reconciliation between the Prince and Princess of Wales. Shortly thereafter, the Queen took the unprecedented step of asking the couple to consider a divorce. On February 29, 1996, Diana gave her consent to a divorce - though again she violated protocol by not informing the Queen first. It was announced in July of 1996 that the royals had worked out the divorce terms. Diana would continue to be involved in all decisions about the children and the couple would share access to them, she would remain at Kensington Palace, and would be known as Diana, Princess of Wales - loosing the prefix H.R.H. (Her Royal Highness) and any right to ascend to the British throne. However, she kept all of her jewelry and received a lump-sum alimony settlement of almost $23 million, and Charles agreed to pay for the annual maintenance of her private office.

Diana continued her diplomatic role as Princess of Wales after the divorce. She visited terminally ill people in hospitals, traveled to Bosnia to meet the victims of land mines, and met Mother Teresa in New York City's South Bronx in June 1997. Romantically, the press linked her with Hasnat Khan, a Pakistani-born heart surgeon and Dodi al Fayed, whose father owned Harrods Department Store in London. However, her number one priority remained her two sons.

As Diana spent more time with Fayed, the paparazzi hounded the couple, who could not go anywhere without cameras following close behind. On August 31, 1997, the paparazzi followed the couple after they dined at the Ritz Hotel in Paris (owned by Fayed's father). The combination of the pursuing paparazzi, driving at a high rate of speed, and having a drunk driver behind the wheel, all played into the automobile accident which claimed Princess Diana's life. Some witnesses stated that photographers frantically snapped pictures and obstructed police officers and rescue workers from aiding the victims. The driver and Fayed died at the scene; Princess Diana died from her injuries a few hours later.

Photographers on the scene faced possible charges under France's "Good Samaritan" law, which requires people to come to the aid of accident victims on public roads. However, several blood tests showed that driver Henri Paul was legally drunk. Legal experts believed that the investigation into Diana's death was likely to take months, possibly years, to determine how much the paparazzi, alcohol, and speed were to blame.

The world mourned for "the people's princess" with an outpouring of emotion and flowers. People waited up to eight hours to sign condolence books at St. James Palace, and 100,000 people per day passed through Kensington Palace, where Diana lived. Her mother, Francis Shand Kydd stated, "I thank God for the gift of Diana and for all her loving and giving. I give her back to Him, with my love, pride and admiration to rest in peace."

However, Britons and the British press soon lashed out at the royal family, who did not share in the public grieving. Headlines begged the family to "show us you care." Truly surprised by the backlash, Queen Elizabeth II went on live television the day before the funeral. It was only the second time in the queen's 45-year reign that she had appeared on live TV, not counting her annual Christmas greeting. She spoke as "your queen and as a grandmother," and stated "I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being."

Diana's funeral was held in Westminster Abbey on September 6th. Her sons, Princes Willam and Harry, her brother, Earl Spencer, her ex-husband, Prince Charles, and her ex-father-in-law, Prince Philip, as well as five representatives from each of the 110 charities she represented, followed the coffin during part of the funeral procession. Elton John re-wrote the song "Candle in the Wind" and sang "Goodbye England's Rose" for his close friend. It was estimated that 2.5 billion people watched Princess Diana's funeral on television, nearly half the population of the world. One royal watcher stated, "Diana made the monarchy more in touch with people."

Diana
Princess of Wales; Duchess of Rothesay (more)

The Princess of Wales at The Leonardo Prize, 1995
Spouse	Charles, Prince of Wales (m. 1981, div. 1996)^[1]
Issue
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge Prince Harry of Wales
Full name
Diana Frances^{[N 1]}
House	House of Windsor
Father	John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer
Mother	Frances Shand Kydd
Born	(1961-07-01)1 July 1961 Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk
Died	31 August 1997(1997-08-31) (aged 36) Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, in Paris, France
Burial	6 September 1997 Althorp, Northamptonshire
Religion	Anglican (Church of England)

Early life

TRH The Prince and Princess of Wales after the wedding of The Duke and Duchess of York

Diana was born in the late afternoon on July 1, 1961, in Sandringham, Norfolk.^[4]^[5] She was the fourth of five children of the Viscount and Viscountess Althorp (née Frances Roche, later Shand Kydd).^[4] The Spencer family was hoping for a male heir to carry on the Spencer title (their third child, a boy, died soon after birth).^[5]^[6] The Spencer family is one of Great Britain's oldest and most important families, closely allied with the royal family for several generations.^[7] 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.^[5] Diana has three siblings: Sarah, Jane, and Charles;^[4]^[6] and was baptised at Sandringham church; her younger brother, Charles, was baptised at Westminster Abbey with Elizabeth II as principal godparent.^[8] Diana also had an infant brother, John, who died a year before she was born.^[6] According to Andrew Morton's biography of Diana, the infant John Spencer was so deformed and sick he only survived 10 hours after his birth.^[5] 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".^[5] 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."^[8] Diana grew up in Park House, which was situated near to the Sandringham estate.^[6] Diana was only seven years old when her parents were separated.^[9] Her estranged mother, Frances, had an affair with Peter Shand Kydd.^[6] In Morton's book, he describes Diana's remembrance of Lord Althorp loading suitcases in the car and Frances crunching across the gravel forecourt and driving away through the gates of Park House.^[5] Diana lived with Frances in London during her parents' separation, but during the Christmas holidays by the end of the year, Lord Althorp refused to let Frances to return with Diana to London. Shortly afterwards, Lord Althorp eventually won custody of Diana with support from his mother-in-law, Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy.^[4] Diana was first educated at Riddlesworth Hall near Diss, Norfolk, and later attended boarding school at The New School at West Heath,^[4] in Sevenoaks, Kent. In 1973, Lord Althorp began a relationship with Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of Alexander McCorquodale and Barbara Cartland.^[10] Diana received the title of Lady after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer on 9 June 1975. Lord Spencer and Lady Dartmouth were married at Caxton Hall, London on 14 July 1976. As Countess Spencer, Raine was unpopular with Diana.^[6] 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.^[4] Diana had apparently played with 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.^[4]^[11]

Education

Coleherne Court, London (left)

In 1968, Diana was sent to Riddlesworth Hall, an all-girls boarding school.^[12] 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 Heath) in Sevenoaks, Kent, where she was regarded as a poor student, having attempted and failed all of her O-levels twice.^[12] However, she showed a particular talent for music as an accomplished pianist.^[13] Her outstanding community spirit was recognised with an award from West Heath. In 1977, 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 in a relationship with her older sister, Sarah. 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 too tall for the profession.

Diana moved to London in 1978, 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. Diana also spent time working as a nanny for an American family living in London.^[14]

Marriage to the Prince of Wales

The Prince and Princess of Wales with Sandro Pertini

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.^[15]

Engagement and wedding

Charles and Diana's wedding commemorated on a 1981 British Crown

Main article: Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer

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.^[16] The ring was made by the then Crown jewellers Garrard but, unusual 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).^[17]

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.^[16]^[18] At the altar Diana accidentally reversed the order of Charles's first two names, saying "Philip Charles" Arthur George instead.^[19] 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.^[20] Diana wore a dress valued at £9000 with a 25-foot (8-metre) train.^[21]

Children

On 5 November 1981, the Princess' first pregnancy was officially announced, and she frankly discussed her pregnancy with members of the press corps.^[22] After Diana fell down a staircase at Sandringham in January 1982, 12 weeks into her first pregnancy, the royal gynaecologist Sir George Pinker was summoned from London. He found that although she had suffered severe bruising, the foetus was uninjured.^[23] In the private Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London on 21 June 1982, under the care of Pinker,^[23] the Princess gave natural birth to her and the Prince's first son and heir, William Arthur Philip Louis.^[24] 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.^[25]

A second son, Henry Charles Albert David, was born two years after William, on 15 September 1984.^[26] 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.^[27]

Even her harshest critics agree that the Princess of Wales was a devoted, imaginative and demonstrative mother.^[28] 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.^[28]

Charity work and patronage

Although in 1983 she confided in the then-Premier of Newfoundland, Brian Peckford, "I am finding it very difficult to cope with the pressures of being Princess of Wales, but I am learning to cope,"^[29] 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.^[30] Also following her divorce she remained patron of Centrepoint (homeless charity), English National Ballet, Leprosy Mission and National Aids Trust. ^[31]

During her final year Diana lent highly visible support to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a campaign which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, only a few months after her death.^[32]

Problems and separation

From left to right, TRH The Prince and Princess of Wales, the United States First Lady Nancy Reagan, and United States President Ronald Reagan in November 1985.

Dual Cypher of Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales

President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan have tea with Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, 9 November 1985.

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^[33] 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,^[34] 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.^[35] 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".^[36]^[37]

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.^[38] 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.

Princess Margaret burnt "highly personal" letters that Diana wrote to the Queen Mother in 1993 because she thought they were considered to be "so private". A biographer named William Shawcross wrote: "No doubt Princess Margaret felt that she was protecting her mother and other members of the family". He considered Princess Margaret's action to be "understandable, although regrettable from a historical viewpoint".^[39]

Divorce

The Princess of Wales at the Cannes film festival in 1987

The Princess of Wales was interviewed for the BBC current affairs show Panorama^[40] 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."^[41]

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.^[42] 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.^[42] 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".^[43]

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.^[44] 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.^[35]

Diana received a lump sum settlement of around £17 million along with a clause standard in royal divorces preventing her from discussing the details.^[45]

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.^{[N 2]} 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".^[46]

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."^[47] This appears to have been confirmed in the High Court judicial review matter of Al Fayed & Ors v Butler-Sloss.^[48] 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."^[48]

Personal life after divorce

Diana, Princess of Wales meeting with Sri Chinmoy, May 1997 at her Kensington Palace apartments

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.

Prince William comforted her, and he was said to have wanted to let her have the style of Her Royal Highness again. He was reported to have said: "Don't worry, Mummy, I will give it back to you one day when I am King."^[49]

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,^[50] for almost two years, before Khan ended the relationship.^[51]^[52] Khan was intensely private and the relationship was conducted in secrecy, with Diana lying to members of the press who questioned her about it. 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 seeing Dodi 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.

Landmines

In January 1997, pictures of Diana touring an Angolan minefield in a ballistic helmet and flak jacket were seen worldwide. It was during this campaign that some accused her of meddling in politics and declared her a 'loose cannon'.^[53] In August 1997, just days before her death, she visited Bosnia with Jerry White and Ken Rutherford of the Landmine Survivors Network.^[54] 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.^[55] 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:

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.^[56]

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".^[57]

Death

Main article: Death of Diana, Princess of Wales

On 31 August 1997, Diana was fatally injured in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, which also caused the deaths of her companion, Dodi Fayed and the driver, Henri Paul, acting security manager of the Hôtel Ritz Paris. Millions of people watched her funeral.^[58]

Conspiracy theories and inquest

Main article: Death of Diana, Princess of Wales conspiracy theories

The initial French judicial investigation concluded the accident was caused by Henri Paul's drunken loss of control.^[59] As early as February 1998, Dodi's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed (who was also the owner of the Paris Ritz, for which Paul had worked) publicly maintained that the crash had been planned,^[60] accusing MI6 as well as The Duke of Edinburgh.^[61] An inquest in London starting in 2004 and continued in 2007–2008^[62] attributed the accident to grossly negligent driving by Henri Paul and to the pursuing paparazzi.^[63] On 8 April 2008, the day following the final verdict of the inquest, Al-Fayed announced he would end his 10-year campaign to establish that it was murder rather than an accident, stating that he did so for the sake of the late princess's children.^[64]

Tribute, funeral, and burial

Funeral cortege of Diana, Princess of Wales. Her coffin was transported on a gun carriage

Main article: Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales

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 Palace 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.^[65] 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."^[66]

Memorials

The first of two memorials to Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed in Harrods

"Innocent Victims", the second of two memorials in Harrods.

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:

The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Gardens in Regent Centre Gardens Kirkintilloch
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park, London, opened by Elizabeth II
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens, London
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk, a circular path between Kensington Gardens, Green Park, Hyde Park and St James's Park, London.

In addition, there are two memorials inside Harrods department store, at the time owned by Dodi 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.^[67] 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.^[68] 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.^[69]

Memorabilia

Following Diana's death, the Diana Memorial Fund was granted intellectual property rights over her image.^[70] In 1998, after refusing the Franklin Mint an official license to produce Diana merchandise, the fund sued the company, accusing it of illegally selling Diana dolls, plates and jewellery.^[71] 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.^[72]

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.^[73]

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

Entrance to the Pont de l'Alma tunnel, where Diana, Princess of Wales had a fatal car-crash

The Lake at Althorp with the Diana memorial beyond

Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain, Hyde Park, London, UK

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)^[74] 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."^[75]

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.^[76]

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.^[77] Vine intended to portray Diana's combined strength and vulnerability as well as her closeness to her two sons.^[78] 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".^[79] Immodesty Blaize said she had been entranced by Diana crash, finding it "by turns horrifying, bemusing and funny".^[80] Vine asserted her own abiding attraction to "the beauty and the tragedy of Diana's life".^[78]

Later events

On 13 July 2006 Italian magazine Chi published photographs showing Diana amid the wreckage of the car crash,^[81] despite an unofficial blackout on such photographs being published.^[82]^{[N 3]} 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.^[82] Fresh controversy arose over the issue of these photographs when Britain's Channel 4 broadcast them during a documentary in June 2007.^{[citation needed]}

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.

When the tenth anniversary of her death arrived, Prince Harry paid tribute to her. He spoke of her, "But behind the media glare, to us, just two loving children, she was quite simply the best mother in the world.".^[83]

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.^[84]

The midnight-blue gown that Diana wore when she famously danced with John Travolta at the White House, which became known as the "Travolta dress", was sold for £510,000 in 2011.^[85]

Contemporary opinions

John Travolta and The Princess of Wales dancing at the White House

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,^[86] 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."^[87] 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 ..."^[87]

Diana stated that she had depression and that she self-harmed. She said she had bulimia nervosa from 1981 onwards.^[88] One biographer suggested Diana suffered from borderline personality disorder.^[89]

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.^[90]

Titles, styles, honours, and arms

Royal styles of The Princess of Wales (before her divorce)

Reference style	Her Royal Highness
Spoken style	Your Royal Highness
Alternative style	Ma'am

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

Posthumously, as in life, she is most popularly referred to as "Princess Diana", a title she never held.^{[N 4]} 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.^[91]

Royal Monogram

Diana's full title, while married, was: Her Royal Highness The Princess Charles Philip Arthur George, 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.

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.^[92]

Honours

British honours

Member of the Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II

Foreign honours

Grand Cross of the Order of the House of Orange, bestowed by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1982^[93]
Order of Al Kamal, 1982^[93]

Honorary military appointments

The Princess of Wales held the following military appointments:

United Kingdom

: Colonel-in-Chief of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment^[94]
: Colonel-in-Chief of the Light Dragoons^[94]
: Honorary Air Commodore, RAF Wittering^[95]

Arms

Arms of Diana, Princess of Wales

Notes	During her marriage, as the wife of the Prince of Wales, Diana used his arms impaled (side by side) with those of her father. After her divorce, she resumed her paternal arms with the addition of a royal coronet.

Adopted	1981

Crest	Coronet of the Prince of Wales

Escutcheon	Quarterly 1st and 4th gules three lions passant guardant in pale or armed and langed azure 2nd or a lion rampant gules armed and langued azure within a double tressure flory counterflory of the second 3rd azure a harp or stringed argent overall an escutcheon of Coat of Arms of the Principality of Wales, the whole differenced with a label of three points argent; impaled with a shield quarterly 1st and 4th Argent 2nd and 3rd Gules a fret Or overall a bend Sable charged with three escallops Argent.

Supporters	Dexter a lion rampant gardant Or crowned with the coronet of the Prince of Wales Proper, sinister a griffin winged and unguled Or, gorged with a coronet Or composed of crosses patée and fleurs de lis a chain affixed thereto passing between the forelegs and reflexed over the back also Or

Motto	DIEU DEFEND LE DROIT (God defends the right)

Symbolism	Prior to marriage, Diana had her own coat of arms, based on a very old coat of arms of the spencer family, which she inherited from her paternal ancestors or father. The Spencer coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The new arms also applied by her sisters too. The arms showed the coat of arms of the spencer family, the noble family, where they came from. It also included three escallops argent of the Spencer coat of arms.

Previous versions	Before her marriage, Diana used the arms of her father. Her previous coat of arms depicted a lozenge shaped shield of arms which hangs from a blue ribbon, this symbolised her unmarried state. This version of the coat of arms only used before her marriage.

Legacy

A message of condolence at Piccadilly Circus following her death

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.
In 2002, Diana was ranked 3rd in 100 Greatest Britons poll, outranking The Queen and other British monarchs.
On 30 August 2007 Peruvian photographer Mario Testino 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 Fair issue, and shows Diana wearing a black dress.^[96]
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground was erected in Kensington Gardens at a cost of £1.7 million.^[97]
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk 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 Fountain. 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.^[98]
Fashion designers David and Elizabeth Emanuel, 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.^[99]

Issue

Name	Birth	Marriage		Issue
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge	21 June 1982	29 April 2011	Catherine Middleton
Prince Harry of Wales	15 September 1984

Ancestry

Diana by birth was a member of the Spencer family, one of the oldest and most prominent noble families in Britain which currently holds the titles of Duke of Marlborough, 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 4th great-grandmother, Eliza Kewark, is often claimed to be Armenian.^[100]^[101] However, Kewark's exact ancestry is unknown; she is variously described in contemporary documents as "a dark-skinned native woman", "an Armenian woman from Bombay", and "Mrs. Forbesian".^[102] Possibly, Kewark was an Indian, and the family deliberately pretended she was Armenian to expunge the "stigma of what was then known as 'coloured blood'."^[103] 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 is a descendant of the famous Lucrezia Borgia (18 April 1480 – 24 June 1519), who was Princess of Salerno, Duchess of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio. 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.

Diana also descended from ancient noble and royal Gaelic families of Ireland from her mother's side. From her maternal great-great grandfather, Edmond Roche, 1st Baron Fermoy, Diana descends from both the O'Donovan family who ruled the Kingdom of Desmond until the 13th century and became semi-sovereign princes of Carbery from the line of Donal IV O'Donovan, Lord of Clancahill, the De Barry family, an ancient family of Cambro-Norman origins who descends from Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn, a Welsh prince and the O'Shaughnessy family, a family which descends from Guaire Aidne mac Colmáin, King of Connacht.

Ancestors of Diana, Princess of Wales

16. Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer

8. Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer

17. Adelaide Horatia Seymour

4. Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer

18. Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke

9. Margaret Baring

19. Louisa Emily Bulteel

2. John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer

20. James Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Abercorn

10. James Hamilton, 3rd Duke of Abercorn

21. Maria Anna Curzon-Howe

5. Cynthia Hamilton

22. Charles Bingham, 4th Earl of Lucan

11. Rosalind Cecilia Bingham

23. Cecilia Catherine Gordon-Lennox

1. Diana, Princess of Wales

24. Edmond Roche, 1st Baron Fermoy

12. James Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy

25. Elizabeth Caroline Boothby

6. Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy

26. Franklin H. Work

13. Frances Ellen Work

27. Ellen Wood

3. Frances Roche

28. Alexander Ogston Gill

14. William Smith Gill

29. Barbara Smith Marr

7. Ruth Sylvia Gill

30. David Littlejohn

15. Ruth Littlejohn

31. Jane Crombie

Notes

^ ^a ^b As a titled royal, Diana held no surname, but, when one was used while she was married to The Prince of Wales, it was Mountbatten-Windsor. According to letters patent dated February 1960, their official family name was Windsor.
^ Although it was asserted in 1996 that Diana would after the divorce be called "Lady Diana, Princess of Wales,", the Royal website in reporting her demise referred to her as "Diana, Princess of Wales".
^ The photographs, taken minutes after the accident, show her slumped in the back seat while a paramedic attempts to fit an oxygen mask over her face.
^ 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

References

^ "The Life of Diana, Princess of Wales 1961–1997". http://www.bbc.co.uk/politics97/diana/ob-divorce.html.
^ "Diana, Princess of Wales - Marriage and family". royal.gov.uk. http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/The%20House%20of%20Windsor%20from%201952/DianaPrincessofWales/Marriageandfamily.aspx. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
^ "Prince Harry's official website". Princeofwales.gov.uk. 11 February 2010. http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/personalprofiles/princewilliamprinceharry/princeharry/. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Princess Diana Biography". The Biography Channel. http://www.biography.com/articles/Princess-Diana-9273782. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Morton, p. 99
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Princess Diana: The Early Years". British Royals.info. http://www.britishroyals.info/diana/biography.html. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
^ Matten, p. 4
^ ^a ^b Morton, p. 100
^ Morton, p. 98
^ "Raine Spencer: Friend not foe". The Independent (London). 15 December 2007. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/raine-spencer-friend-not-foe-765302.html. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
^ BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/diana/ob-child.html.
^ ^a ^b Charles Nevin (1 September 1997). "Obituary: Haunted by the image of fame". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,768035,00.html. Retrieved 13 October 2008.
^ "Princess Diana – Childhood and teenage years". Royal.gov.uk. http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/The%20House%20of%20Windsor%20from%201952/DianaPrincessofWales/Childhood.aspx.
^ Diana: Her True Story, Commemorative Edition, by Andrew Morton (writer), 1997, Simon & Schuster
^ Diana: Her True Story, Commemorative Edition, by Andrew Morton, 1997, Simon & Schuster
^ ^a ^b "International Special Report: Princess Diana, 1961–1997". The Washington Post. 30 January 1999. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/diana/stories/glamor0901.htm. Retrieved 13 October 2008.
^ "Princess Diana's engagement ring". ringenvy.com. September 2009. http://www.ringenvy.com/engagement-rings/princess-dianas-engagement-ring. Retrieved 12 November 2010.
^ "Charles and Diana marry". BBC News. 29 July 1981. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/29/newsid_2494000/2494949.stm. Retrieved 13 October 2008.
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^ "Hope and Dignity: Landmine Survivors Network"
^ See Stuart Maslen and Peter Herby, "An international ban on anti-personnel mines: History and negotiation of the 'Ottawa treaty'", International Review of the Red Cross no 325, p. 693-713; see also "july10a". Old.icbl.org. http://old.icbl.org/media/1998/july10a.html. Retrieved 13 October 2008.
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^ Work illustrated on page 21 of Neal Brown's book Tracey Emin (Tate's Modern Artists Series) (London: Tate, 2006) ISBN 1-85437-542-3
^ Video footage and interview with Emin from The Blue Gallery exhibition is included in the 1999 ZCZ Films documentary Mad Tracey From Margate
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^ "Stella Vine: Paintings", Modern Art Oxford. Retrieved 8 December 2008.
^ ^a ^b Stella Vine's Latest Exhibition Modern Art Oxford, 14 July 2007. Retrieved 7 January 2009.
^ Nairne, Andrew and Greer, Germaine. "Stella Vine: Paintings", Modern Art Oxford, 2007. This was the first line of a favourite English hymn, which had been sung at Diana and Charles's wedding.
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^ Bradford, 307-8
^ ^a ^b Bradford, 189
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^ London Gazette: no. 50148. p. 8028. 10 June 1985.
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^ http://news.am/eng/news/70365.html
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^ Extract from The Real Diana, chapter 1, by Lady Colin Campbell at The Denver Post

Bibliography

Morton, Andrew (1992). Diana: Her True Story In Her Own Words. New York, NY: Pocket Books.
Mattern, Joane (2006). Princess Diana (DK Biography). New York, NY: DK Publishing.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Diana, Princess of Wales

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"Official website of the British monarchy – Diana, Princess of Wales". Royal Household. http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/The%20House%20of%20Windsor%20from%201952/DianaPrincessofWales/Background.aspx.
Trampling on Diana's grave: Outrage as C4 to show image of princess dying
Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund official website of Theworkcontinues.org.
"Diana Remembered" at People magazine
HM Coroner of Surrey: The Official Inquest Into The Deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales & Dodi Al Fayed at Surreycoroner.info.
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
Works by or about Diana, Princess of Wales in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
Diana, Princess of Wales at the Internet Movie Database

Diana, Princess of Wales

Titles

Family

Charles, Prince of Wales (husband)
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (elder son)
Prince Harry of Wales (younger son)
John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer (father)
Frances Shand Kydd (mother)
Lady Sarah McCorquodale (sister)
Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes (sister)
Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer (brother)

Marital events

Charities

Death

Funeral Conspiracy theories Operation Paget

People	Dodi Fayed Henri Paul Trevor Rees-Jones

Memorials

Popular culture

Books	The Little White Car (2004) Princess Diana's Revenge (2006) The Diana Chronicles (2007)

Films	The Queen (2006) Diana: Last Days of a Princess (2007) The Murder of Princess Diana (2007) Unlawful Killing (2011)

Other	Henrietta Hunter Diana: Warrior Princess

v t e Charles, Prince of Wales

Titles	Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester Duke of Cornwall Duke of Rothesay Earl of Carrick Baron of Renfrew Lord of the Isles Prince and Great Steward of Scotland more

Family	Diana, Princess of Wales (first wife) Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (elder son) Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (daughter-in-law) Prince Harry of Wales (younger son) Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (second wife) Elizabeth II (mother) Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (father) Anne, Princess Royal (sister) Prince Andrew, Duke of York (brother) Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex (brother)

Events	Investiture of the Prince of Wales First wedding (guest list) Divorce Second wedding

Charities	The Prince's Charities/The Prince's Carities Canada Mutton Renaissance Campaign

Miscellaneous	Duchy Originals from Waitrose Poundbury

v t e Prince William, Duke of Cambridge

Titles	Duke of Cambridge Earl of Strathearn Baron Carrickfergus

Family	Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (wife) Charles, Prince of Wales (father) Diana, Princess of Wales (mother) Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (stepmother) Prince Harry of Wales (brother) Michael Middleton (father-in-law) Carole Middleton (mother-in-law) Pippa Middleton (sister-in-law) James Middleton (brother-in-law)

Events	Concert for Diana Wedding guests bridal gown 2011 Canadian Tour

Miscellaneous	Rosa 'Royal William' William & Kate William & Catherine: A Royal Romance Engagement announcement dress of Kate Middleton

v t e Princesses of Wales

*Camilla Shand (2005 – present) Lady 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 Brandenburg-Ansbach (1714–1727) · Catherine of Aragon (1501–1502) · Anne Neville (1470–1471) · Joan of Kent (1361–1376) · Eleanor de Montfort (pre-conquest) (c. 1252–1282)

* uses the title Duchess of Cornwall except of the title Princess of Wales.

v t e British princesses by marriage

1st generation	Princess Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach

2nd generation	Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha

3rd generation	Maria Walpole Anne Luttrell

4th generation	Duchess Caroline of Brunswick Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia The Princess Mary* Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld Duchess Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel

5th generation	Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg

6th generation	Princess Alexandra of Denmark Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont Princess Thyra of Denmark

7th generation	Princess Mary of Teck Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife* Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia

8th generation	Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark

9th generation	Birgitte Henriksen Katharine Worsley Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz

10th generation	Lady Diana Spencer Camilla Shand Sarah Ferguson Sophie Rhys-Jones

11th generation	Catherine Middleton

* also princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in her own right.

Authority control: PND: 118525123 | LCCN: n81073496 | VIAF: 107032638 | WorldCat

Persondata
Name	Wales, Diana, Princess of
Alternative names	Mountbatten-Windsor, Diana Frances; Spencer, Diana Frances
Short description	First wife of Charles, Prince of Wales
Date of birth	1 July 1961
Place of birth	Sandringham, Norfolk, England
Date of death	31 August 1997
Place of death	Paris, France

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