Life of Diana Frances Spencer

Contents

Introduction

The present work is devoted to Diana Frances Spencer, a woman from the last century, who sticks out, to have been a leader for people all over the world. With the dawn of a new millennium upon us we need more women like Princess Diana to step up and become leaders in this changing world.

Diana made a difference. "She had the world genuflecting before her. Ronald Reagan was a nervous wreck in her presence, John Travolta was left starry-eyed after a dance with her, Luciano Pavarotti cried for her, Andre Agassi stood in silence for her, Gianni Versace designed for her, Elton John sang for her and cried with her. She was the best thing that happened to a tiny island since the Beatles" [42].

The principle aim of this work is to follow the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, circumstances of her tragic death, public activity, her great influence on  public opinion about principle aspects of modern life, her place in British culture etc. Current work in this direction is intended to provide lots of biographical data, facts, opinions and theories concerning this outstanding figure of present day British history, person who created this history.

This work consists of several parts. It begins with the introduction that represents the problem under discussion. There are three principle chapters, as follows:

• Life of Diana Frances Spencer;
• Death of Diana, Princess of Wales;
• Princess Diana in public;
• Diana, Princess of Wales as a symbol of British culture.

In the first chapter it is supposed to give basic information about Diana Frances Spencer, the main events of her life, her "transformation" from a noble girl into Princess of Wales. This chapter consists of three paragraphs. Each of them is devoted to a separate period of Diana's life: childhood, education and marriage.

The second chapter has very complex structure of four paragraphs as it concerns that tragic event which still after more than eleven years has no clear explanation and lots of mystery around – car crush on 30 August 1997 that cut Lady Di's life short. The first paragraph gives brief overview of those fatal events. When Diana, Princess of Wales tragically died in that senseless accident, the world lost one of the most important and respected public figures in the world. So, in the second paragraph public mourning is depicted. The third paragraph deals with those conspiracy theories that arose right after Diana's death. And the last fourth paragraph rises the questions that were under discussion during the inquest of this case.

"Even though more than ten years has passed since her death, Diana still has an influence and impact through the Princess Diana charity work programs" [32]. That's why the third paragraph of the course paper below is devoted to Lady Di public and charity work and the legacy she left. That is one of the main reasons why this woman became well-known and admired all over the world. She was not just a wife of the Prince but a celebrity who use her fame and glory to actively campaign for the less fortunate in the world, especially the children. Two separate paragraphs describe her activities concerning charity work and AIDS awareness, and landmines conclusion. And the third paragraph gives a brief description of the legacy.

And the last chapter is devoted to the title problem: what place does Princess Diana take in the culture of Great Britain? In the first paragraph the main pieces of art associated with Lady Di are enumerated. Unfortunately, most of pictures, films and monuments were created after that fatal car crush, and mostly inspired by such senseless death. The matter in the second paragraph is about love and great respect people pay to her. The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, addressing the nation on the Sunday morning following the accident, dubbed her "The People's Princess". "So she was, and so she is remembered" [48]. Though her official titles and styles are as follows:

• The Honourable Diana Frances Spencer (1 July 1961 – 9 June 1975);
• The Lady Diana Frances Spencer (9 June 1975 – 29 July 1981);
• Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales (29 July 1981 – 28 August 1996),
• Diana, Princess of Wales (28 August 1996 – 31 August 1997).

Posthumously, as in life, she is most popularly referred to as "Princess Diana", a title she never held. 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, mentioned above, she is also often referred to as the People's Princess [22].

And it's interesting to know that Diana's full style, 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 [22].

The title, given to her by the Prime Minister, is constantly proved by different polls and lists of popularity. In 2002 (5 years after death) Diana was ranked 3rd in the 100 Greatest Britons poll. The US Biography channel list of the 100 most important people places Princess Diana at number 73, not only three places above the Beatles, but seven above Queen Elizabeth I.

The results of the work are given in the conclusion at the end of the paper.

The last part of the present work is the list of used literature (or bibliography). It shows the sources of the information that were used. They helped to review and analyze the problem in all its complexity and immensity.

Chapter 1. Life of Diana Frances Spencer

A public figure from the announcement of her engagement to Prince Charles, Diana Frances Spencer remained the focus of near-constant media scrutiny in the United Kingdom and around the world up to and during her marriage, and after her subsequent divorce. Her sudden death in a car crash was followed by a spontaneous and prolonged show of public mourning. Contemporary responses to Diana's life and legacy have been mixed but a popular fascination with the Princess endures.

1.1 Сhildhood and teenage years

Diana was the youngest daughter of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, later the 8th Earl Spencer, and his first wife, Frances, Viscountess Althorp (formerly the Honourable Frances Burke Roche, and later Frances Shand Kydd). She was born at Park House, Sandringham in Norfolk, England on 1 July 1961 at 6.45 in the evening, and was baptised 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 1955), The Lady Jane Spencer (born 1957), The Honourable John Spencer (died 12 January 1960), and The Honourable Charles Spencer (born 1964). Following her parents' 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 with 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. Together with her two elder sisters Sarah (born 1955), Jane (born 1957) and her younger brother Charles (born 1964), Lady Diana continued to live with her father at Park House, Sandringham, until the death of her grandfather, the 7th Earl Spencer. In 1975, the family moved to the Spencer family seat at Althorp (a stately house dating from 1508) in Northamptonshire, in the English Midlands.

In 1976 Lord Spencer married Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of romantic novelist Barbara Cartland. 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 stepmother.

1.2 Education

Diana was first educated at Silfield School, Kings Lynn, Norfolk, then at Riddlesworth Hall in Norfolk and at West Heath Girls' School (later reorganized 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 [3]. At school she showed a particular talent for music (as an accomplished pianist), dancing and domestic science. Her outstanding community spirit was recognized with an award from West Heath for the girl giving maximum help to the school and her schoolfellows. In 1977, at the age of 16, she left West Heath and briefly attended Institut Alpin Videmanette, a finishing school in Rougemont, Switzerland. At about that time, she first met her future husband, who was dating her sister, Lady Sarah. Diana reportedly excelled in swimming and diving, and longed to be a ballerina. She studied ballet for a time, but she was too tall to become a professional.

Diana moved to London before she turned seventeen, living in her mother's flat, as her mother then was living most of the year in Scotland. An apartment was purchased for her for 50,000 pounds, as an 18th birthday present by her father Earl Spencer [5; 21], at Coleherne Court in the Earls Court area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and she lived there until 1981 with three flatmates.

Getting established in London, she took an advanced cooking course, and worked first as a dance instructor for youth, until a skiing accident caused her to miss three months of work, and also left some permanent injury. She then got a job as a kindergarten assistant at the Young England School in Pimlico, did some cleaning work for her sister Sarah and several of her friends, and worked as a hostess at parties [4].

1.3 Marriage: engagement, wedding and divorce

Prince Charles' love life had often been the subject of press speculation, and he was linked to many glamorous and aristocratic women, including Diana's older sister Lady Sarah Spencer. Charles had also dated Lady Davina Sheffield, Scottish heiress Anna Wallace, the Honourable Amanda Knatchbull (granddaughter of Earl Mountbatten), Susan George (actress), Lady Jane Wellesley, wealthy heiress Sabrina Guinness, and Camilla Shand, among others [38]. 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.

As neighbours at Sandringham until 1975, Prince Charles' and Lady Diana’s families had known each other for many years. So Prince Charles had known 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 together at a country weekend, where she watched him play polo. The relationship developed as he invited her soon afterwards for a sailing weekend to Cowes, aboard the royal yacht Britannia. This was followed by an invitation to Balmoral Castle, the Windsor family's Scottish home, to meet his family. Diana was well received at Balmoral by Queen Elizabeth, by Prince Philip, and by the Queen Mother. The couple then had several dates in London. The prince proposed on 6 February 1981, and Diana accepted, but their engagement was kept secret for the next few weeks [21]. But it became official on 24 February 1981, with the heir to the throne presenting the princess-to-be with a walnut-sized £30,000 ring consisting of 14 diamonds surrounding a sapphire [38]. Diana accepted the proposal immediately.

The 20-year-old became a princess when she married Prince Charles 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". The wedding started at 11:20 A.M. BST and drew a global television and radio audience estimated at around 1,000 million people, and hundreds of thousands of people lining the route from Buckingham Palace to the Cathedral [49]. A worldwide media event, the wedding affirmed Diana's value as an internationally marketable personality whose image soon appeared not only in magazines, newspapers, and television programs across the globe, but also adorned an unending stream of merchandise ranging from postage stamps to coffee mugs [48].

The marriage was solemnised by the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Runcie, together with the Dean of St Paul's; clergy from other denominations read prayers. Music included the hymns 'Christ is made the sure foundation', 'I vow to thee my country', the anthem 'I was glad' (by Sir Hubert Parry), a specially composed anthem 'Let the people praise thee' by Professor Mathias, and Handel's 'Let the bright seraphim' performed by Dame Kiri te Kanawa. The lesson was read by the Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr George Thomas (the late Lord Tonypandy).

The Princess was the first Englishwoman to marry an heir to the throne for

300 years (when Lady Anne Hyde married the future James II from whom the Princess was descended). The bride wore a silk taffeta dress with a 25-foot train designed by the Emanuels, her veil was held in place by the Spencer family diamond tiara, and she carried a bouquet of gardenias, lilies-of-the- valley, white freesia, golden roses, white orchids and stephanotis. She was attended by five bridesmaids including Princess Margaret's daughter Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones (now Lady Sarah Chatto); Prince Andrew (now The Duke of York) and Prince Edward were The Prince of Wales's supporters (a Royal custom instead of a best man). Diana was just 20. Under the watchful eyes of her mother, and on the reassuring arm of her father, Diana prepared to take her wedding vows. She showed nerves only once, when she struggled with getting her husband's many names in the right order: at the altar she accidentally reversed the order of Charles' names, saying Philip Charles Arthur George instead [22]. She also did not say she would "obey," which caused a sensation at the time [38].

The Prince and Princess of Wales spent part of their honeymoon at the Mountbatten family home at Broadlands, Hampshire, before flying to Gibraltar to join the Royal Yacht HMY BRITANNIA for a 12-day cruise through the Mediterranean to Egypt. They finished their honeymoon with a stay at Balmoral.

The Prince and Princess made their principal home at Highgrove House near

Tetbury, Gloucestershire, and shared an apartment in Kensington Palace.

The Princess of Wales had two sons. Prince William Arthur Philip Louis was born on 21 June 1982 and Prince Henry (Harry) Charles Albert David on 15 September 1984, both at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, in London. The Princess had seventeen godchildren.

In the early 1990s, 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 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" [22]. During the Panorama television interview, shown on 20 November 1995, the Princess spoke of her unhappiness in her personal life and the pressures of her public role. Diana revealed that she had suffered from post-natal depression after her first son, Prince William, was born. She admitted to self-injuring due to the pressure she felt trying to adapt to her role as Princess of Wales, but said it backfired since rather than getting her the help she needed, it made people believe she was attention-seeking and unstable. She also confessed to secret binging and purging of food to help her deal with her marriage problems, including the fact that her husband was still in love with a former girlfriend, Camilla Parker Bowles.

In December 1992 it was announced that The Prince and Princess of Wales had agreed to separate. The Princess based her household and her office at Kensington Palace, while The Prince was based at St James's Palace and continued to live at Highgrove.

In December 1995, the Queen asked Charles and Diana for "an early divorce" [3]. On 20 December 1995, Buckingham Palace publicly announced that the Queen had sent letters to Charles and Diana advising them to divorce. The Queen's move was backed by the Prime Minister and by senior Privy Councillors, and, according to the BBC, was decided after two weeks of talks [22]. Prince Charles immediately agreed with the suggestion. In February 1996, Diana announced her agreement as well.

The divorce was finalised on 28 August 1996.

Diana received a lump sum settlement of around £17 million along with a legal order preventing her from discussing the details [9].

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. Buckingham Palace issued a press release on the day of the decree absolute of divorce was issued, announcing Diana's change of title.

Buckingham Palace stated that Diana was still officially a member of the Royal Family, since she was the mother of the second- and third-in-line to the throne. The Prince and Princess continued to share equal responsibility for the upbringing of their children.

Chapter 2. Death of Diana, Princess of Wales

There once was a young lady called Di

Who used to be terribly shy

But how she made her mark

In this world so dark

Oh, why did she have to die?

– Mourner Dennis Abbot's tribute

2.1 Circumstances of the car crush

On 30 August 1997, the former Princess of Wales arrived in Paris with Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed (Dodi Fayed), the son of Mohamed al-Fayed. They had stopped there on route to London, having spent the preceding nine days together on board Mohamed Fayed’s yacht, the ‘Jonikal’, on the French and Italian Riviera. They had intended to stay overnight. Mohamed Fayed was and is the owner of the Hôtel Ritz in Place Vendôme, Paris. He also owned an apartment in rue Arsène Houssaye, a short distance from the hotel and located just off the Avenue des Champs Elysées.

Henri Paul, the Acting Head of Security at the Ritz Hotel, had a plan to elude the paparazzi. A decoy vehicle left the Ritz first, attracting a throng of photographers. The Princess and Dodi Fayed would then depart from the hotel's rear entrance.

At around 12:20 a.m. on 31 August 1997, the Princess and Dodi Fayed left the Ritz to return to the apartment in rue Arsène Houssaye. They were the rear passengers in a Mercedes-Benz S280 W140, registration number "688LTV75", driven by Paul. Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Fayed family's personal protection team, was in the front passenger seat. They left from the rear of the hotel, the Rue Cambon exit. After crossing the Place de la Concorde they drove along Cours la Reine and Cours Albert 1er (the embankment road running parallel to the River Seine) into the Place de l’Alma underpass. At around 12:23 a.m. at the entrance to the tunnel, their driver lost control; the car swerved to the left of the two-lane carriageway before colliding head-on with the thirteenth pillar supporting the roof at an estimated speed of 105 km/h (65 mph) [20]. It then spun and hit the stone wall of the tunnel backwards, finally coming to a stop. The impact of the crash reduced the car to a pile of wreckage. There was no guard rail between the pillars to prevent this.

As the casualties lay seriously injured or dead in their wrecked car, the photographers continued to take pictures. The critically injured Diana was reported to repeatedly murmur the words, "oh my God", and after the photographers were pushed away by emergency teams, the words "leave me alone" [16].

Dodi Fayed and Henri Paul both died at the scene. Dodi Fayed had been sitting in the left rear passenger seat and appeared to be dead. Nevertheless, fire officers were still trying to resuscitate him when he was pronounced dead by a doctor at 1:30 a.m. Henri Paul was declared dead on removal from the wreckage. Both were taken directly to the Institut Médico-Légal (IML), the Paris mortuary, not to a hospital. Autopsy examination concluded that Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed had both suffered a rupture in the isthmus of the aorta and a fractured spine, with, in the case of Henri Paul, a medullar section in the dorsal region and in the case of Dodi Fayed a medullar section in the cervical region.

Trevor Rees-Jones was still conscious and had suffered multiple serious injuries to the face. The two forward passengers' airbags had functioned normally. None of the car's occupants were wearing seat belts, according to several reports, although some reports later claimed that Rees-Jones had worn his.

The Princess, who had been sitting in the rear right passenger seat, was still conscious. It was first reported that she was crouched on the floor of the vehicle with her back to the road. It was also first reported that a paparazzo who saw Diana described her as bleeding from the nose and ears with her head rested on the back of the front passenger's seat; he tried to remove her from the car but her feet were stuck. Then he told her that help was on the way and to stay awake; there was no answer from the princess, just blinking. In June 2007 the Channel 4 documentary “Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel” claimed that the first person to touch Diana was Dr. Maillez, [16] who chanced upon the scene. He reported that Diana had no visible injuries but was in shock and he supplied her with oxygen.

When the police arrived, the seven paparazzi on the scene were arrested. Diana was taken by ambulance to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, but the ambulance stopped for almost one hour in the street, just hundreds of metres from the hospital as they attempted to stabilize her, arriving there shortly after 2:00 a.m. [20]. Despite attempts to save her, her internal injuries were too extensive: her heart had been displaced from the left to the right side of the chest, which tore the pulmonary vein and the pericardium. Despite surgery, the damage was irreparable. Two hours later, at 4:00 that morning, the doctors pronounced her dead. At 5:30, her death was announced at a press conference held by a hospital doctor, Jean-Pierre Chevènement, France's Interior Minister, and Sir Michael Jay, Britain's ambassador to France.

Many have speculated that if Diana had worn a seat belt, her injuries would have been less severe [16]. This speculation was likely fueled by early media reports stating that Trevor Rees-Jones was the only car occupant to have worn a seat belt. However, these reports proved incorrect: both the French and the British investigations concluded that none of the occupants of the car was wearing a seat belt at the time of the impact [35]. Trevor Rees-Jones was taken to the same hospital as the Princess of Wales for emergency treatment.

Later that morning, Chevènement, together with Lionel Jospin (the French Prime Minister), Bernadette Chirac (the wife of the then French President, Jacques Chirac) and Bernard Kouchner (French Health Minister), visited the hospital room where Diana's body lay and paid their last respects. After their visits, the Anglican Archdeacon of France, Father Martin Draper, said commendatory prayers from the Book of Common Prayer.

At around 2:00 p.m., Prince Charles and Diana's two older sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, arrived in Paris; they left with her body ninety minutes later.

2.2 Funeral and public reaction

The sudden death of Diana Princess of Wales at the end of August 1997 sparked off a massive display of emotion in the world, especially in Britain. The event provided the opportunity for the expression of what appeared to be a short-term and superficial, but undoubtedly sincere, manner by a large number of people. “An emotion felt throughout the countryside was that many people saw themselves in some way connected to this public figure and able to grieve for her as if she were an acquaintance” [16]. However, there remained clear borderlines between what the public, who thought they knew her, and the immediate family who did.

The sudden and unexpected death of a very popular royal figure brought statements from senior figures worldwide and many tributes by members of the public. In reaction to the death people left public offerings of flowers, candles, cards and personal messages. By 10 September, the pile of flowers outside Kensington Gardens was five foot deep in places and the bottom layer had started to compost [45; 36].

The reaction to Diana's death was criticised at the time as being "hysterical", "credulous" and "irrational" [45; 38], criticisms that were repeated on the 10th anniversary, when Jonathan Freedland expressed the opinion that "It has become an embarrassing memory, like a mawkish, self-pitying teenage entry in a diary... we cringe to think about it" [16]. Other media experts spoke of `a world in mourning', of `seven long days of tragedy when Britain, and the world, lost and found its heart', and of a `great, yawning, black hole of grief that has opened around all of us after the death of Diana' (Hamilton; Olsson) [28].

The Princess’s funeral brought together a gathering of the powerful (English royalty) and the beautiful (Hollywood’s finest), and the poor. More than a million mourners crowded the streets of London to toss flowers upon her casket. Even as it was happening before their eyes, no one could believe it was real. In the days and weeks that followed her death, everyone was trying to figure out what she had meant and why the world was responding to her death with such grief. Was it her flaws, her failures, her struggles with her weight and her self-esteem, and her refusal to be inhibited by them? Was it her good works and the way she touched the common people, the handicapped, drug addicts, and lepers. Could it have been the way she broke away from her failing marriage and reinvented herself as a single mother but still the “Queen of Hearts” [16]?

Diana's funeral saw a widespread outpouring of grief at her passing. It was attended by all members of the royal family. Her sons, William and Harry, walked behind her casket along with their father, Prince Charles, and grandfather, Prince Philip together with Diana's brother, Earl Spencer. During the service, Elton John sang a new version of "Candle In The Wind", his hit song initially dedicated to Marilyn Monroe. The title of the remake version was changed to "Candle in the Wind 1997" and the lyric to refer to Diana. The burial occurred privately, later the same day. The Prince of Wales, Diana's sons, her mother, siblings, a close friend, and a clergyman were present. Diana's body was clothed in a black long-sleeved dress designed by Catherine Walker, which she had chosen some weeks before. A set of rosary beads was placed in her hands, a gift she had 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 [16].

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, 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.

The island is in an ornamental lake known as The Round Oval within Althorp Park's gardens. A path with thirty-six oak trees, marking each year of her life, leads to the Oval. Four black swans swim in the lake. In the water there are water lilies, which, in addition to white roses, were Diana's favourite flowers.

On the southern verge of the Round Oval sits the Summerhouse, previously in the gardens of Admiralty House, London, and now adapted to serve as a memorial to Diana. An ancient arboretum stands nearby, which contains trees planted by Prince William of Wales and Prince Henry of Wales, other members of her family, and Diana herself.

Diana's death was met with extraordinary public expressions of grief, and her funeral at Westminster Abbey on 6 September drew an estimated 3 million mourners and onlookers in London [16], as well as worldwide television coverage, which overshadowed the news of the death the previous day of Mother Teresa in Calcutta.

Members of the public were invited to sign a book of condolence at St James Palace. Throughout the night members of the Women's Royal Voluntary Service and the Salvation Army combined to provide support for people queuing along the Mall [16]. More than one million bouquets were left at her London home, Kensington Palace, while at her family's estate of Althorp the public was asked to stop bringing flowers, as the volume of people and flowers in the surrounding roads was said to be causing a threat to public safety.

The reaction of the British Royal Family to the death of Diana caused unprecedented resentment and outcry. The Queen was in residence at Balmoral Castle. Her initial decision not to return to London or to mourn more publicly was much criticised at the time.

The Royal Family's rigid adherence to protocol, and their concern to care for the Princess's grieving sons, was interpreted by some as a lack of compassion.

2.3 Conspiracy theories

Famous people meeting strange ends is a phenomenon that always seems to bring out the conspiracy theorists [19]. The death of Diana, Princess of Wales is no exception.

Nowadays there exist “Big Three Conspiracy Theories”:

• Faked Death
• MI6 Killed Di
• Target Dodi [35]

1. Faked Death

Fed up with the constant intrusions into her private life by the media, Diana, helped by the huge resources of Dodi, arranges a spectacular 'death' from which she can retreat into blissful isolation. One version of the theory claims that the crash was an attempt at a faked death that went horribly wrong.

Evidence:

a. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones still lives, but testimony from Mercedes auto experts says that it would have been almost impossible for anyone to have survived a crash in the tunnel in a car going at 121 mph. Maybe, as driver Henri Paul's lawyers claim, the car was not going that fast. Maybe the crash was faked by the army-trained Rees-Jones who had previously deposited Di and Dodi elsewhere.

b. Dodi's usual driver was not used. Mystery still surrounds Henri Paul, the security officer who stepped in at the last minute to drive the Mercedes S-280. It took a full two days for his name to be revealed, for instance. Co-workers at the Ritz Hotel say he kept himself to himself and never socialised with them. One version of this conspiracy has it that Paul simply did not exist, another that he was quickly whisked away from the hospital after being declared dead by doctors in cahoots with the Al Fayed family.

c. Just six hours before she died Di let slip to Daily Mail reporter Richard Kray that she was about to withdraw completely from public life.

Parts of it sound feasible but what about Di's two children? It is almost inconceivable that she would want to miss out on the rest of their lives. The chances of her coming back to see them without being noticed are surely slim, though plastic surgery permitting it might be prudent to look out for a similarly built 'nanny' appearing on the scene in the future.

2. MI6 Killed Di

Rogue elements in the British secret service decide that Di is a threat to the throne, and therefore the stability of the state. They take her out.

Evidence:

a. Recent revelations have shown that there are rogue elements in the secret service who act as more or less autonomous cells. Some of these have been revealed to have a pretty strange view of what constitutes a threat to the state. For instance, they have files on John Lennon, current British Home Secretary (Interior Minister) Jack Straw and they once tried to destabilise the 1970s Labour government. It is not inconceivable that the same agents who believed Lennon was capable of leading revolution also believed Diana was capable of fomenting popular unrest.

b. MI6 is suspected of bugging Diana throughout her years in the Royal limelight, and many believe they were behind the leaking of the 'Squidgygate' phone tapping tapes which damaged her image during the break up with Charles.

c. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was a former member of the crack Parachute Regiment, one of the most toughest in the British army. He also completed two stints in Northern Ireland and served in the Royal Military Police, just the kind of background that would have seen him come into contact with members of the secret service. Theorists cite the fact Rees-Jones survived the crash as evidence that he was in on the plot to snuff out the Diana threat.

Few doubt that the nutters at MI6 are capable of anything but surely even they would have had qualms about bumping off Diana, if only for the reason that her death might bring on the very things they most fear, the drift toward a republican state in the UK, as Charles loses still more popularity.

3. Target Dodi

Business enemies of Dodi and his father Mohammed Al Fayed assassinate Dodi, with the death of Di a magnificent cover for their operation.

Evidence:

Al Fayed has not got to the top without making some serious enemies along the way. The owner of Harrods fought a bitter battle for the top London store some years ago and has also been denied British nationality after question marks were raised about his business practise. His activities have included under the counter payments to Conservative MPs. as his oldest son and heir, Dodi would be an obvious target for anyone wanting to settle a score with Al Fayed.

With Di involved, the police operation is likely to be one of the biggest in Paris history so any assassin would be taking one hell of a risk by cutting the break cable, say, of Dodi's car. Then again, the day of the Jackal is a Paris story.

2.4 2007 inquest

An inquest into the deaths of Diana and Dodi started on 8 January 2007 under Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, largely prompted by theories of conspiracy and involvement of the British Royal Family and the SIS promulgated by the Al Fayed family and supposed inadequacies in the original French inquest.

On 24 April 2007, she stepped down, saying she lacked the experience required to deal with an inquest with a jury. The role of coroner for the inquests was to be transferred to Lord Justice Scott Baker. Lord Justice Scott Baker formally took up the role on 11 June [35].

On 27 July 2007, Lord Justice Scott Baker, following representations for the lawyers of the interested parties, issued a list of issues likely to be raised at the Inquest, many of which have been dealt with in great detail by Operation Paget.

The issues identified were:

• "Whether driver error on the part of Henri Paul caused or contributed to the cause of the collision
• Whether Henri Paul's ability to drive was impaired through drink or drugs
• Whether any other vehicle caused or contributed to the collision
• Whether the actions of the Paparazzi caused or contributed to the cause of the collision
• Whether the road/tunnel layout and construction were inherently dangerous and if so whether this contributed to the collision
• Whether any bright/flashing lights contributed to or caused the collision and, if so, their source
• Whose decision it was that the Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed should leave from the rear entrance to the Ritz and that Henri Paul should drive the vehicle
• Henri Paul's movements between 7 and 10 pm on 30 August 1997
• The explanation for the money in Henri Paul's possession on 30 August 1997 and in his bank account
• Whether Andanson was in Paris on the night of the collision
• Whether Diana's life would have been saved if she had reached hospital sooner or if her medical treatment had been different
• Whether Diana was pregnant
• Whether Diana and Dodi Al Fayed were about to announce their engagement
• Whether and, if so in what circumstances, the Princess of Wales feared for her life
• The circumstances relating to the purchase of the ring
• The circumstances in which Diana's body was embalmed
• Whether the evidence of Tomlinson throws any light on the collision
• Whether the British or any other security services had any involvement in the collision
• Whether there was anything sinister about (i) the Cherruault burglary or (ii) the disturbance at the Big Pictures agency
• Whether correspondence belonging to the Princess of Wales (including some from Prince Philip) has disappeared, and if so the circumstances" [16].

The Inquests officially began on 2 October 2007 with the swearing of a jury of six women and five men. Lord Justice Scott Baker delivered a lengthy opening statement giving general instructions to the jury and introducing the evidence. The BBC reported that Mohammed Fayed, having earlier reiterated his claim that his son and Diana were murdered by the Royal Family, immediately criticised the opening statement as biased [35].

The inquest heard evidence from people connected with Diana and the events leading to her death, including Paul Burrell, Mohamed Al-Fayed, her stepmother, the survivor of the crash, and the former head of MI6 [16].

Lord Justice Scott Baker began his summing up to the jury on 31 March 2008 . He stated there was "not a shred of evidence" that the Duke of Edinburgh ordered the death of Diana, Princess of Wales or that the security services organized it [35]. After summing up, the jury retired to consider five verdicts, namely unlawful killing by the negligence of either or both the following vehicles or Henri Paul; accidental death or an open verdict. Lord Justice Scott Baker expected his summing up to conclude on Wednesday 2 April 2008. The jury decided on 7 April 2008 that Diana had been unlawfully killed by the grossly negligent driving of chauffeur Henri Paul and following vehicle. The cost of the death inquiry exceeded £12.5 million, with the coroner's inquest at £4.5 million, and a further £8 million spent on the Metropolitan Police investigation. It lasted 6 months and heard 250 witnesses, with the cost heavily criticised in the media [16].

Chapter 3. Princess Diana in public

After her marriage, The Princess of Wales quickly became involved in the official duties of the Royal family. She immediately began making public appearances, despite her awkwardness with being in the public eye. Her first tour with The Prince was a three-day visit to Wales in October 1981. The Princess's first official visit overseas on her own was in September 1982, when she represented The Queen at the state funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco. In 1983 she accompanied The Prince on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, and they took the infant Prince William with them. Prince William, with Prince Harry, again joined The Prince and Princess at the end of their tour to Italy in 1985. Other official overseas visits undertaken with The Prince included Australia (for the bicentenary celebrations in 1988), Brazil, India, Canada, Nigeria, Cameroon, Indonesia, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal and Japan (for the enthronement of Emperor Akihito). Their last joint overseas visit was to South Korea in 1992.

Early in their marriage, Diana and Charles were seen to be publicly affectionate; by 1986, their time apart and coolness when together were obvious.

The Princess's first solo overseas tour was in February 1984 when she travelled to Norway to attend a performance of Carmen by the London City Ballet, of which she was patron. The Princess subsequently visited many countries including Germany, the United States, Pakistan, Switzerland, Hungary, Egypt, Belgium, France, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Nepal.

3.1 Charity work, AIDS awareness

Diana became pregnant, giving birth to Prince William in 1982 and then to Prince Henry in 1984. Dropping in weight by thirty pounds after the birth of Prince William, she began to struggle with bulimia, but also became more popular as a fashion figure. Although the Princess was renowned for her style and was closely associated with the fashion world, patronising and raising the profile of younger British designers, she was best known for her charitable work.

Starting in the mid- to late 1980s, the Princess of Wales became very well known for her support of several charity projects. This stemmed naturally from her role as Princess of Wales—she was expected to engage in hospital visits where she comforted the sick and in so doing, assumed the patronage of various charitable organisations - and form an interest in certain illnesses and health-related matters. Initially, charities devoted to babies and child welfare were singled out for her attention, but soon Diana discovered other opportunities. She decided she wanted to help young people-closer to her own age-with drug and alcohol problems, then later the unprivileged, and the young homeless.

The young Princess of Wales unofficially came of age when she was twenty- six years old, married for nearly six years, and the mother of two young sons. That moment was a turning point in her life because she decided to become involved with AIDS, a subject shunned by "the great and the good" of British society. Overnight, Princess Diana changed from a young mum who liked to shop or listen to pop songs on her Walkman, to a mature young woman who had created a role for herself [48].

During her marriage, the Princess was president or patron of over 100 charities. The Princess did much to publicise work on behalf of homeless and also disabled people, children and people with HIV/Aids.

The metamorphosis came the day in April 1987 when Diana opened Britain's first purpose-built ward for AIDS sufferers, at London's Middlesex Hospital. Many were shocked at the fact that she didn't wear any protective clothing [22]. At that time the average Briton knew very little about AIDS. Some believed it could be caught and passed on by touch, kissing, or even hugging someone who was infected. The revelation that a royal, like Princess Diana, the mother of two young sons, one the heir to the throne, had taken such an enormous risk with a deadly disease shocked many people. She was one of the first high-profile celebrities to be photographed touching a person infected with HIV at the 'chain of hope' organization. The Queen's advisors argued strongly that the public would be unsympathetic and warned that becoming associated with AIDS charities could harm her position as the future Queen. They also feared it could weaken public sympathy for the Royal Family. Despite much criticism, Diana was determined. She contacted many charities to produce studies showing how innocent babies and mothers who has nothing whatsoever to do with homosexuality or drug addiction had caught the disease [21].

Five years later, in 1992, Buckingham Palace press spokesman Dickie Arbiter explained: "It's abundantly clear that Princess Diana is determined to break down prejudice about HIV. Nobody told her to adopt this cause. Everything she does is spontaneous and nothing is premeditated. It was her own decision to show someone infected with it [32]." This quote proves the kind heartiness of Princess Diana. It shows the only reason she did the community service was to help others. The point that must not be forgotten is that Diana does all this knowing that people are misjudging her, but she's got the sense and compassion to follow her own inner beliefs. Diana came far in helping others realize the truth about those with HIV and disproved the many stereotypes of the sick.

Her contribution to changing the public opinion of AIDS sufferers was summarised in December 2001 by Bill Clinton at the 'Diana, Princess of Wales Lecture on AIDS': “In 1987, when so many still believed that AIDS could be contracted through casual contact, Princess Diana sat on the sickbed of a man with AIDS and held his hand. She showed the world that people with AIDS deserve not isolation, but compassion and kindness. It helped change the world's opinion, and gave hope to people with AIDS” – Bill Clinton.

After AIDS, the charity Diana is most closely related to is Birthright, of which she became a patron of in 1984. Birthright is the appeal arm of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and it's aim is to raise funds for research into problems of the un born child, including stillbirth, infant death, and infertility. Before her support, Birthright had struggled for funds, and it's valuable research had been largely ignored when it came to handing out money. Since Diana came aboard, all that had changed.

"Her involvement with the charity has attracted stars from the entertainment world. Big names equal big money: They managed to raise $5,000,000 for the charity, which has helped it improve the survival rate of some premature infants by up to seventy percent. Diana can feel quite proud that the turnabout is due primarily to her enthusiasm, persuasion, and patronage [48]."

Princess Diana did more than fund raise for different charities. She actually met with the people who her hard efforts were assisting. This is just as bit as valuable as fund raising. Meeting with the Princess brings new hope to the suffering patients. "There is something quite moving about the way she talks with patients. Not only is she concerned about their problems, but she knows she is. She understands the joy of having a baby and the anguish if something goes wrong. She felt very lucky and privileged to have had one healthy child, says Vivienne Parry, one of the group's national organizers [32].

Supporting charities concerned with drug addiction is another of Diana's concerns. She never smoked and hardly drank herself. In 1987, she became patron of Turning Point, the largest national charity in Britain helping drug addicts, alcoholics, and mental-health outpatients.

Diana has not only proved her compassion for sufferers, but has also shown the courage to take risks she believes are worthwhile. Without publicity coverage, Diana would visit clinics-some on her own without detective protcetion- to meet and chat with the patients in an effort to help them kick their addiction and encourage them back to health.