Diana Princess of Wales

Diana Frances Spencer was the youngest daughter of Edward John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, later John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, and his first wife, Frances Spencer, Viscountess Althorp (formerly the Honourable Frances Burke Roche).She was born at Park House, Sandringham in Norfolk, England and baptised there at St. Mary Magdalene Church by the Rt. Rev. Percy Herbert (rector of the church and former Bishop of Norwich and Blackburn); her godparents included John Floyd (the chairman of Christie's). She was the third child to the couple, her four siblings being The Lady Sarah Spencer (born 19 March 1955), The Lady Jane Spencer (born 11 February 1957), The Honourable John Spencer (born and died 12 January 1960), and Charles Spencer (born 20 May 1964). Her parents' reasonably acrimonious divorce in 1969 (over Lady Althorp's affair with wallpaper heir Peter Shand Kydd), Diana's mother took her and her younger brother to live in an apartment in London's Knightsbridge, where Diana attended a local day school. That Christmas the Spencer children went to celebrate with their father and he subsequently refused to allow them to return to London and their mother. Lady Althorp sued for custody of her children, but Lady Althorp's mother's testimony against her daughter during the trial contributed to the court's decision to award custody of Diana and her brother to their father. On the death of her paternal grandfather, Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer in 1975, Diana's father became the 8th Earl Spencer, at which time she became Lady Diana Spencer and moved from her childhood home at Park House to her family's sixteenth-century ancestral home of Althorp.In 1976 Lord Spencer married Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of romantic novelist Barbara Cartland, after he was named as the "other party" in the Dartmouths' divorce. During this time Diana travelled up and down the country, living between her parents' homes—with her father at the Spencer seat in Northamptonshire, and with her mother, who had moved to the Island of Seil off the west coast of Scotland. Diana, like her siblings, did not get along with her new stepmother.Diana was born into the Spencer family. On her mother's side, Diana had Irish, Scottish, English, and American ancestry. One of her great-grandmothers was the New York heiress Frances Work. On her father's side, she was a descendant of King Charles II of England through two illegitimate sons:* Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Grafton, son by Barbara Villiers, 1st Duchess of Cleveland * Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond and Lennox, son by Louise de Kérouaille, 1st Duchess of PortsmouthShe was also a descendant of King James II of England through an illegitimate daughter, Henrietta FitzJames. Henrietta's mother was Arabella Churchill, the sister of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. Her other notable ancestors included Robert I (the Bruce) and Mary, Queen of Scots (an aspect of family history in which Diana expressed great interest); Mary Boleyn; Lady Catherine Grey; Maria de Salinas; John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater; and James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby.The Spencers had been close to the British Royal Family for centuries, rising in royal favour during the 1600s. Diana's maternal grandmother, Ruth, Lady Fermoy, was a long-time friend and a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.Diana was first educated at Silfield School in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, then at Riddlesworth Hall in Norfolk and at West Heath Girls' School (later reorganised as the New School at West Heath, a special school for boys and girls) in Sevenoaks, Kent, where she was regarded as a poor student, having attempted and failed all of her O-levels twice. In 1977, at the age of 16, she left West Heath and briefly attended Institut Alpin Videmanette, a finishing school in Rougemont, Switzerland. At about that time, she first met herDiana moved to London before she became seventeen. An apartment was purchased for her at Coleherne Court in the Earls Court area, and she lived there until 1981 with three flatmates.Prince Charles' love life had always been the subject of press speculation, and he was linked to numerous glamorous and aristocratic women. In his early thirties, he was under increasing pressure to marry. Legally, the only requirement was that he could not marry a Roman Catholic; a member of the Church of England was preferred. In order to gain the approval of his family and their advisers, any potential bride was expected to have a royal or aristocratic background, be a virgin, as well as be Protestant. Diana met these qualifications.Their engagement became official February 24, 1981 with the heir to the throne presenting the princess with a walnut-sized £30,000 ring consisting of 14 diamonds and a sapphire.The 20-year-old princess married at St Paul's Cathedral, which offered more seating than Westminster Abbey which was previously used for royal nuptials, on 29 July 1981 in what was widely billed as a "fairytale wedding" watched by a global television audience of 750 million. At the altar Diana mispronouced Charles' name. The wedding started at 11:20 A.M. BST, and Diana wore a gown valued at £9000 with 25 foot train and the finest lace.Prince William was born on 21 June 1982 (21:03) at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, West London, England.As a male-line grandchild of the British monarch and son of the Prince of Wales, he is styled "His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales". As a child, he was affectionately called by his parents Wombat, Camel, or Wills.He was baptised by then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie, on 4 August 1982, on the 82nd birthday of his paternal great grandmother Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The baptism took place in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace. His godparents are: former King Constantine II of Greece, Sir Laurens van der Post, Princess Alexandra, the Duchess of Westminster, Lord Brabourne and Lady Susan Hussey.Prince Harry was born on 15 September 1984, at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, in central London, England, and was christened on 21 December of the same year at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie. His godparents were his uncle, the Duke of York; Lady Sarah Chatto; Lady Vestey; Mrs. William Bartholomew; the portrait painter, Mr. Bryan Organ; and Mr. Gerald Ward.In the late 1980s, the marriage of Diana and Charles fell apart, an event at first suppressed, then sensationalised, by the world media. Both the Prince and Princess of Wales allegedly spoke to the press through friends, each blaming the other for the marriage's demise. Charles resumed his old, pre-marital affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. Asked what part Camilla Parker-Bowles had played in the break-up of her marriage, Diana commented during the BBC programme Panorama, "Well there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded." Diana had an affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt. She confirmed this during the Panorama television interview. Charles had confirmed his own affair over a year earlier in a televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby. The Prince and Princess of Wales were separated on 9 December 1992. While she blamed Camilla Parker-Bowles for her marital troubles, as early as October 1993, Diana was writing to a friend that she believed her husband was now in love with Tiggy Legge-Bourke and wanted to marry her. On 3 December 1993, Diana announced her withdrawal from public life.In December 1995, the Queen asked Charles and Diana for "an early divorce". This followed shortly after Diana's accusation that Tiggy Legge-Bourke had aborted Charles's child, causing Tiggy to instruct Peter Carter-Ruck to demand an apology. Two days before this story broke, Diana's secretary Patrick Jephson resigned, later claiming that Diana had "exulted in accusing Legge-Bourke of having had an abortion".The divorce was finalised on 28 August 1996Diana received a lump sum settlement of around £17,000,000 along with a legal order preventing her from discussing the details.Days before the decree absolute of divorce, Letters Patent were issued by Queen Elizabeth II containing general rules to regulate the titles of people who married into the Royal Family after divorce. In accordance with those rules, as she was no longer married to the Prince of Wales, and so had ceased to be a Royal by-marriage, Diana lost the style, Her Royal Highness and instead was styled, Diana, Princess of Wales. Prince William has stated that, when he becomes king, he will issue a royal warrant bestowing the style of Her Royal Highness on his deceased mother.After the divorce, Diana retained her apartment in Kensington Palace, completely redecorated, and it remained her home until her death.She publicly dated the respected heart surgeon from Pakistan, Hasnat Khan, who was called "the love of her life" , for almost two years, before Khan ended the relationship due to cultural differences.She soon after began her relationship with Dodi Al-Fayed. These details were confirmed by witnesses at her inquest in November/December 2007.After her divorce, Diana worked particularly for the Red Cross and campaigned to rid the world of land mines. Her work was on a humanitarian rather than a political level. She was extremely aware of her status as mother of a future King and was prepared to do anything to prevent harm to her sons. She pursued her own interests in philanthropy, music, fashion and travel—although she still required royal consent to take her children on holiday or to represent the UK abroad. Without a holiday or weekend home, Diana spent most of her time in London, often without her sons, who were with Prince Charles or at boarding school. She assuaged her loneliness with visits to the gym and cinema, private charity work, incognito midnight walks through Central London and by compulsively watching her favourite soap operas (EastEnders and Brookside) with a 'TV dinner' in the isolation of her apartment. The alternative 'court' she cultivated was sometimes seen as unconventional and controversial.Included within it were numerous New Age healers and spiritualists, the feminist empowerment therapist Susie Orbach, well known personalities such as Gianni Versace, George Michael, Elton John, and Michael Barrymore with whom she would visit Soho nightclubs, bohemian members of the aristocracy such as Annabel Goldsmith, university students, several tabloid journalists and Stephen Twigg.When asked in an interview about the people whom she most admired, Diana replied that she had always admired Margaret Thatcher, Madonna and Mother Teresa as they were all strong women and at the front of their specific fields, being politics, entertainment and religion.On 31 August 1997, Diana died after a high speed car accident in the Pont d'Alma road tunnel in Paris along with Dodi Al-Fayed and the acting security manager of the Hôtel Ritz Paris, Henri Paul, who was instructed to drive the hired Mercedes-Benz through Paris secretly eluding the paparazzi. Their black 1994 Mercedes-Benz S280 (registration no. 688 LTV 75) crashed into the thirteenth pillar of the tunnel. The two-lane tunnel was built without metal barriers between the pillars, so a slight change in vehicle direction could easily result in a head-on collision with a tunnel pillar. None of the four occupants wore seatbelts.The paparazzi, who had been trailing the car, arrived at the Alma underpass at different stages. Serge Arnal, Christian Martinez and Stéphane Darmon appear to have arrived first, quickly followed by Serge Benhamou. Records supplied by mobile telephone operators Itinéris and SFR support Serge Arnal's claim that he attempted to call the emergency services. Film seized from the cameras of Christian Martinez and Serge Arnal showed that they were taking photographs of the car and/or the occupants almost immediately after arrival at the scene – there were no emergency services near the car visible in their photographs.Blood analysis showed that Henri Paul was illegally intoxicated with alcohol whilst driving. He drove at high speed in order to evade the pursuing paparazzi. Tests showed he had consumed amounts of alcohol three times that of the French legal limit. However suspicions were raised by the fact that the same blood sample contained twenty percent carbon monoxide. Such a high level of carbon monoxide would make even a healthy human being unable to drive a vehicle. There is doubt, therefore, that this sample belonged to Henri Paul as is claimed. Fayed's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, who was in the passenger seat, was closest to the point of impact and yet he was the only survivor of the crash. Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed were killed instantly, and Diana—unbelted in the back seat- slid forward during the impact and, having been violently thrown around the interior, "submarined" under the seat in front of her, suffering massive damage to her heart with subsequent internal bleeding. She was eventually, after considerable delay, transported by ambulance to the Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, but on the way she went into cardiac arrest twice. Despite lengthy resuscitation attempts, including internal cardiac massage, she died at 4 a.m. local time. Her funeral on 6 September 1997 was broadcast and watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide.Diana's funeral took place in Westminster Abbey on 6 September 1997. The previous day, Queen Elizabeth II paid tribute to her former daughter-in-law in a live television broadcast: “ Since last Sunday's dreadful news we have seen, throughout Britain and around the world, an overwhelming expression of sadness at Diana's death. .... I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being. In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness. I admired and respected her - for her energy and commitment to others, and especially for her devotion to her two boys. ... No-one who knew Diana will ever forget her. Millions of others who never met her, but felt they knew her, will remember her. I for one believe there are lessons to be drawn from her life and from the extraordinary and moving reaction to her death. I share in your determination to cherish her memory.”Diana's funeral saw a widespread and genuine outpouring of grief at her passing. It was attended by all members of the royal family. Her burial occurred privately, later the same day. The Prince of Wales, her sons, her mother, siblings, a close friend, and a clergyman were present. Diana's remains had been dressed in a black long sleeved dress designed by Catherine Walker; ironically she had chosen the dress a few weeks before. A set of rosary beads had been placed in her hands, a gift she received from Mother Teresa, who died the same week as Diana. Her grave is on an island within the grounds of Althorp Park, the Spencer family home.The original plan was for Diana to be buried in the Spencer family vault at the local church in nearby Great Brington, but her younger brother, Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer, said that he was concerned about public safety and security and the onslaught of visitors that might overwhelm Great Brington. He decided that he wanted his older sister to be buried where her grave could be easily cared for and visited in privacy by her sons and other relations.