Photo size: 12.50 x 9 cm.
Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances;
[a]née Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), was the first wife of
Charles, Prince of Wales, who is the eldest child and
heir apparent of
Queen Elizabeth II.
Diana was born into a family of British nobility with royal ancestry as The Honourable Diana Spencer. She was the fourth child and third daughter of John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer and the Honourable Frances Shand Kydd. She grew up in Park House, situated on the Sandringham estate, and was educated in England and Switzerland. In 1975, after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer, she became Lady Diana Spencer.
Her wedding to the Prince of Wales on 29 July 1981, held at St Paul´s Cathedral, reached a global television audience of over 750 million people. While married, Diana bore the titles Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, Countess of Chester, and Baroness of Renfrew. The marriage produced two sons, the princes William and Harry, who were then respectively second and third in the line of succession to the British throne. As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of the Queen and represented her at functions overseas. She was celebrated for her charity work and for her support of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. From 1989, she was the president of Great Ormond Street Hospital for children, in addition to dozens of other charities.
Diana remained the object of worldwide media scrutiny during and after her marriage, which ended in divorce on 28 August 1996. Her death in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997 and her funeral were accompanied by intense public mourning.
Diana was born on 1 July 1961, in Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk.[2] She was the fourth of five children of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (1924–1992) and his first wife, Frances (née Roche; 1936–2004).[2] The Spencer family have been closely allied with the British Royal Family for several generations.[3] Both of Diana´s grandmothers had served as ladies in waiting to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.[4] The Spencers were hoping for a boy to carry on the family line, and no name was chosen for a week, until they settled on Diana Frances, after her mother and Diana Russell, Duchess of Bedford, her distant relative who was also known as "Lady Diana Spencer" before marriage and was a prospective Princess of Wales.[2] On 30 August 1961, Diana was baptised at St. Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, by the Clerk of the Closet, Percy Herbert.[5] Her godparents were her father´s friend John Floyd (chairman of Christie´s), her father´s cousin Alexander Gilmour, Lady Mary Colman (niece of the Queen Mother), and family friends Sarah Pratt and Carol Fox.[6] Diana had three siblings: Sarah, Jane, and Charles.[7] An infant brother, John, died shortly after his birth in 1960.[8] 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".[2] The experience was described as "humiliating" by Diana´s younger brother, Charles: "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."[5] Diana grew up in Park House, situated on the Sandringham estate.[9] The Spencers leased the house from its owner, Queen Elizabeth II. The Royal Family frequently holidayed at the neighbouring Sandringham House, and Diana played with Princes Andrew and Edward as a child.[10]
Diana was eight years old when her parents divorced,[11] after her mother had an affair with Peter Shand Kydd. The two were married in 1969.[12] Diana lived with her mother in London during her parents´ separation in 1967. However, during Christmas holidays that year, Lord Althorp refused to let Diana and her brother Charles return to London with Lady Althorp. Shortly afterwards, Lord Althorp won custody of Diana and her brother with support from his former mother-in-law, Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy.[13] In 1972, Lord Althorp began a relationship with Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of Alexander McCorquodale and Barbara Cartland.[14] They married at Caxton Hall, London in 1976.[15] Diana became known as Lady Diana after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer in 1975, at which point her father moved the family from Park House to Althorp, the Spencer seat in Northampton.
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, first met Lady Diana since November 1977 when he and Lady Sarah were dating,[27] but he 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. This was followed by an invitation to Balmoral (the Royal Family´s Scottish residence) to meet his family a weekend in November 1980.[28][29] Lady Diana was well received by the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, and 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.
Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981, after Lady Diana selected a large engagement ring consisting of 14 solitaire diamonds surrounding a 12-carat oval blue Ceylon sapphire set in 18-carat white gold, similar to her mother´s engagement ring.[30] The ring was made by the then Crown jewellers Garrard but, unusually for a ring for a member of the Royal Family, it was not unique; it was featured in Garrard´s jewellery collection. In 2010 the ring became the engagement ring of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.[31] It was copied by jewellers all over the world.[32] The Queen Mother gave Lady Diana a sapphire and diamond brooch as an engagement present.[33]
Following the engagement Lady Diana left her job at the kindergarten and lived at Clarence House, then home of the Queen Mother, for a short period.[34] She then lived at Buckingham Palace until the wedding.[34] Her first public appearance with Prince Charles was in a charity ball in March 1981 at Goldsmiths´ Hall, where she met Princess Grace of Monaco.[34][35]
Twenty-year-old Diana became 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.[36] Widely described as a "fairytale wedding", it was watched by a global television audience of 750 million while 600,000 people lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the couple en route to the ceremony.[30][37]
At the altar, Diana accidentally reversed the order of Charles´s first two names, saying "Philip Charles" Arthur George instead.[37] 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.[38] Diana wore a dress valued at £9,000 with a 25-foot (7.62-metre) train.[39][40] Music and songs used during the wedding included the "Prince of Denmark´s March", "I Vow to Thee, My Country", "Pomp and Circumstance No.4", and "God Save the Queen".
After becoming Princess of Wales, Diana automatically acquired rank as the third-highest female in the United Kingdom Order of Precedence (after the Queen and the Queen Mother), and was fifth or sixth in the orders of precedence of her other realms, following the Queen, the relevant viceroy, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Prince of Wales. Within a few years of the wedding, the Queen extended Diana visible tokens of membership in the Royal Family; she lent the Princess a tiara and granted her the badge of the Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II.[42]
The couple made their homes at Kensington Palace and at Highgrove House, near Tetbury. On 5 November 1981, the Princess´ first pregnancy was officially announced, and she frankly discussed her pregnancy with members of the press corps.[43] 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.[44] In the private Lindo Wing of St Mary´s Hospital in Paddington, London, on 21 June 1982, under the care of Pinker,[44] the Princess gave natural birth to her and the Prince´s first son and heir, William Arthur Philip Louis.[45] 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.[46]
A second son, Henry Charles Albert David, was born on 15 September 1984.[47] 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.[48] Persistent suggestions that Harry´s father is not Charles but James Hewitt, with whom Diana had an affair, have been based on alleged physical similarity between Hewitt and Harry. However, Harry had already been born by the time the affair between Hewitt and Diana began.[49][50]
Even her harshest critics agree that the Princess of Wales was a devoted, imaginative and demonstrative mother.[51] Diana gave her sons wider experiences than are usual for royal children.[52][53] 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 organised her public duties around their timetables.
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. The funeral saw the British television audience peak at 32.10 million, one of the United Kingdom´s highest viewing figures ever, while millions more watched the event around the world.
Charles, Prince of Wales (Charles Philip Arthur George;[fn 1] born 14 November 1948), is the eldest child and heir apparent of Queen Elizabeth II. Known alternatively in Scotland as Duke of Rothesay and in South West England as Duke of Cornwall,[2] he is the longest-serving heir apparent in British history, having held the position since 1952.[3] He is also the oldest person to be next-in-line to the throne since Sophia of Hanover (the heir presumptive to Queen Anne), who died in 1714 at the age of 83.[4]
Charles was born at Buckingham Palace as the first grandchild of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. He was educated at Cheam and Gordonstoun Schools, which his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, had attended as a child, as well as the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. After earning a bachelor of arts degree from Trinity College, Cambridge, Charles served in the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976.
In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer and they had two sons: Prince William (born 1982) later to become Duke of Cambridge, and Prince Harry (born 1984). In 1996, the couple divorced, following well-publicised extra-marital affairs. Diana died in a car crash in Paris the following year. In 2005, Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, who uses the title Duchess of Cornwall.
Charles´s interests encompass a range of humanitarian and social issues: he founded The Prince´s Trust in 1976, sponsors The Prince´s Charities, and is patron of numerous other charitable and arts organisations. Charles has long championed organic farming for which he established the Duchy Home Farm, run by the Duchy of Cornwall, which produces ingredients for the Duchy Originals brand which he founded in 1990. Charles has sought to raise world awareness of the dangers facing the natural environment, such as climate change. As an environmentalist, he has received numerous awards and recognition from environmental groups around the world.[5][6][7][8] He has been outspoken on the role of architecture in society and the conservation of historic buildings. Subsequently, Charles created Poundbury, an experimental new town based on his theories, in Dorset in 1993. He has authored a number of books, including A Vision of Britain: A Personal View of Architecture in 1989 and the children´s book The Old Man of Lochnagar in 1980. He has also promoted alternative medicine, including homeopathy, which has attracted substantial criticism from the medical community.[9][10]
Charles was born at Buckingham Palace on 14 November 1948,[11][12] at 9.14 pm (GMT), the first child of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and first grandchild of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, baptised him in the palace´s Music Room on 15 December 1948, using water from the River Jordan. The Prince´s godparents were: the King (his maternal grandfather); the King of Norway (his cousin, for whom the Earl of Athlone stood proxy); Queen Mary (his maternal great-grandmother); Princess Margaret (his maternal aunt); Prince George of Greece and Denmark (his paternal great-uncle, for whom the Duke of Edinburgh stood proxy); the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (his paternal great-grandmother); the Lady Brabourne (his cousin); and the Hon David Bowes-Lyon (his maternal great-uncle).[13] As the child of a daughter of the sovereign, Charles would not usually have been accorded the titles of a British prince or the style Royal Highness. Instead, he would have taken his father´s secondary title, Earl of Merioneth, as a courtesy title. However, on 22 October 1948, George VI had issued letters patent granting a royal and princely status to any children of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, making Charles a royal prince from birth.[14]
When Charles was aged three his mother´s accession as Queen Elizabeth II made him her heir apparent. As the sovereign´s eldest son, he automatically took the titles Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland,[15] in addition to being a prince of the United Kingdom. Charles attended his mother´s coronation at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953, seated alongside his grandmother and aunt. As was customary for royal offspring, a governess, Catherine Peebles, was appointed and undertook his education between the ages of five and eight. Buckingham Palace announced in 1955 that Charles would attend school rather than have a private tutor, making him the first heir apparent ever to be educated in that manner.[16]
Although Charles first met Lady Diana Spencer in 1977—while visiting her home, Althorp, as the companion of her elder sister, Sarah—he did not consider her romantically until mid-1980. While sitting together on a bale of hay at a friend´s barbecue in July, he mentioned Mountbatten´s death, to which Diana replied that Charles had looked forlorn and in need of care during his uncle´s funeral. Soon, according to Charles´s chosen biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, "without any apparent surge in feeling, he began to think seriously of her as a potential bride", and she accompanied Charles on visits to Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House.[46]
Charles´s cousin, Norton Knatchbull (Amanda´s eldest brother), and his wife told Charles that Diana appeared awestruck by his position and that he did not seem to be in love with her.[47] Meanwhile, the couple´s continued courtship attracted intense press and paparazzi attention. When Prince Philip told him that the media speculation would injure Diana´s reputation if Charles did not come to a decision about marrying her soon, and realizing that she was a suitable royal bride (according to Mountbatten´s criteria), Charles construed his father´s advice as a warning to proceed without further delay.[48]
Prince Charles proposed to Diana in February 1981 and they married in St Paul´s Cathedral on 29 July. Upon his marriage, Charles reduced his voluntary tax contribution from the profits generated by the Duchy of Cornwall from 50% to 25%.[49] The couple made their homes at Kensington Palace and at Highgrove House, near Tetbury, and had two children: Princes William (born 21 June 1982) and Henry (known as "Harry") (born 15 September 1984). Charles set precedent by being the first royal father to be present at his children´s births.[16] Persistent suggestions that Harry´s father is not Charles but James Hewitt, with whom Diana had an affair, have been based on a physical similarity between Hewitt and Harry. However, Harry had already been born by the time the affair between Hewitt and Diana began.
The engagement of Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles was announced on 10 February 2005; he presented her with an engagement ring which had belonged to his grandmother.[59] The Queen´s consent to the marriage (as required by the Royal Marriages Act 1772) was recorded in a Privy Council meeting on 2 March.[60] In Canada, the Department of Justice announced its decision that the Queen´s Privy Council for Canada was not required to meet to give its consent to the marriage, as the union would not result in offspring and would have no impact on the succession to the Canadian throne.[61]
Charles is the first member of the Royal Family to have a civil, rather than religious, wedding in England. Government documents from the 1950s and 1960s, published by the BBC, stated that such a marriage was illegal,[62] though these were dismissed by Charles´s spokesman,[63] and explained to be obsolete by the sitting government.[64]
The marriage was to take place in a civil ceremony at Windsor Castle, with a subsequent religious blessing at St George´s Chapel. However, because a civil marriage at Windsor Castle would oblige the venue to be available to anyone wishing to be married there, the location was changed to Windsor Guildhall. On 4 April the originally scheduled date of 8 April was postponed by one day, to allow Charles and some of the invited dignitaries to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II.[65]
Charles´s parents did not attend the civil marriage ceremony; the Queen´s reluctance to attend perhaps arising from her position as Supreme Governor of the Church of England.[66] The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh did attend the service of blessing, and held a reception for the newlyweds at Windsor Castle afterwards.[67] The blessing, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, at St George´s Chapel
