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Diana, Princess of Wales, (Diana Frances; née Spencer;1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. Their sons, Princes William and Henry (Harry), are second and third in line to the thrones of the United Kingdom and fifteen other Commonwealth Realms.
A public figure from the announcement of her engagement to Prince Charles, Diana 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.
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Everyone needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back.
The Guardian, December 9, 1995, p. 2.
She won't go quietly, that's the problem. I'll fight to the end, because I believe that I have a role to fulfil, and I've got two children to bring up.
ibid.
I'd like to be a queen of people's hearts, in people's hearts, but I don't see myself being Queen of this country. I don't think many people will want me to be Queen.
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I do things differently, because I don't go by a rule book, because I lead from the heart, not the head, and albeit that's got me into trouble in my work, I understand that.
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Encyclopedia
Diana, Princess of Wales, (Diana Frances; née Spencer;1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. Their sons, Princes William and Henry (Harry), are second and third in line to the thrones of the United Kingdom and fifteen other Commonwealth Realms.
A public figure from the announcement of her engagement to Prince Charles, Diana 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. The long awaited Coroner's Inquest concluded in April 2008 that Diana had been unlawfully killed by the driver and the following paparazzi.
Early life
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 on August 30th, 1961 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 fourth 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.
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 stepmother.
Royal descent
Diana was born into the Spencer family. On her mother's side, Diana had English, Irish, Scottish, American and Armenian ancestry. One of her great-grandmothers on her mother's side was the New York heiress Frances Work. She was also a descendant of the Dukes of Devonshire. On her father's side, she was a descendant of King Charles II of England through four illegitimate sons:
She was also a descendant of King James II of England through an illegitimate daughter, Henrietta FitzJames. The descent is as follows:
Henrietta's mother was Arabella Churchill, the sister of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, therefore she was related to all eleven Dukes of Marlborough. She was also related to Sir Winston Churchill. Other notable ancestors included Robert the Bruce; King Henry IV of England; Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester; 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. Her father had served as an equerry to King George VI and to Queen Elizabeth II.
In August 2007, the New England Historic Genealogical Society published Richard K. Evans' The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales, for Twelve Generations.
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. Her outstanding community spirit was recognized with an award from West Heath. 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 at 5'10" 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, 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, did some cleaning work for her sister Sarah and several of her friends, and worked as a hostess at parties.
Marriage
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 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. 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.
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.
Engagement and wedding
Their engagement 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. Diana accepted the proposal immediately.
The 20-year-old became the Princess of Wales 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" watched by a global television audience of 750 million. At the altar Diana accidentally reversed the order of Charles' names, saying Philip Charles Arthur George instead. She also did not say she would "obey," which caused a sensation at the time. 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.
, 1985]]
Children
On 5 November 1981, Diana's first pregnancy was officially announced, and she frankly discussed her condition to the press.In the private Lindo wing of St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington on 21 June 1982, Diana gave birth to her first son and heir, William.There was some controversy in the media when she decided to take William, still a baby, on her first major overseas visit to Australia and New Zealand. A second son, Harry was born a little over two years later on 15 September 1984.Diana was a devoted mother and lavished her sons with love, cuddles and affection.They came first and foremost in her life. It was she who chose their schools, their clothes and planned their outings. She also negotiated her public duties around their time-tables.
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Problems and separation
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." During the Panorama television interview, shown on 20 November 1995, Diana confirmed she had an affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt. 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.
Divorce
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". 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. 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.
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. This was confirmed by the Deputy Coroner of the Queen’s Household, Baroness Butler-Sloss, who after a pre-hearing on 8 January 2007 ruled that: "I am satisfied that at her death, Diana, Princess of Wales continued to be considered as a member of the Royal Household." This appears to have been confirmed in the High Court judicial review matter of Al Fayed & Ors v Butler-Sloss. 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 Royal Family and the other was not."
Personal life after divorce
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 the 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 pursued her own interests in philanthropy, music, fashion, entertaining 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.
, eldest son of Prince Charles and Diana]]
, youngest son of Prince Charles and Diana]]
Charity 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. Diana was a supporter of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a campaign that went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.
AIDS awareness
In April 1987, the Princess of Wales was one of the first high-profile celebrities to be photographed touching a person infected with HIV at the 'chain of hope' organization. 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':
Landmines
In January 1997, pictures of the Princess touring an Angolan minefield in a ballistic helmet and flak jacket were seen worldwide. It was during this campaign that some accused the Princess of meddling in politics and declared her a 'loose cannon.' In August 1997, just days before her death, she visited Bosnia with the Landmine Survivors Network. 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. 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:
The United Nations appealed to the nations which produced and stockpiled the largest numbers of landmines (China, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States) 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".
Death
On 31 August 1997, Diana died after a car crash in the Pont de l'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 in order to elude the paparazzi. Their black 1994 Mercedes-Benz S280 crashed into the thirteenth pillar of the tunnel. The two-lane tunnel was built without metal barriers in front of the pillars. None of the four occupants wore seat belts.
The journalists, 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 while driving. He drove at high speed in order to evade the pursuing journalists. Tests showed he had consumed amounts of alcohol three times that of the French legal limit. 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 serious damage to her heart with subsequent internal bleeding. She was eventually, after considerable time, transported by ambulance to the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, suffering two episodes of cardiac arrest on the way. 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.
An eighteen month French judicial investigation concluded in 1999 that the car crash that killed Diana was caused by Paul, who lost control of the car at high speed while intoxicated.
Since February 1999, Dodi's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed (the owner of the Hôtel Ritz, for which Paul worked) has claimed that the crash was a result of a conspiracy, and has since contended that the crash was orchestrated by MI6 on the instructions of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Fayed's claims that the crash was a result of a conspiracy were dismissed by a French judicial investigation, and Operation Paget, a Metropolitan police inquiry that concluded in 2006.
An inquest headed by Lord Justice Scott Baker into the deaths of Diana and Dodi Fayed began at the Royal Courts of Justice, London on 2 October 2007 and was a continuation of the original inquest that began in 2004. A jury decided on 7 April 2008 that Diana had been unlawfully killed by the grossly negligent driving of chauffeur Henri Paul and press photographers. The following day Mr. Fayed announced he would end his 10 year campaign for the sake of the late Princess of Wales' children.
Tribute, funeral, and burial
Diana's funeral took place in Westminster Abbey on 6 September 1997. The previous day, following a week long absence from the public eye, Queen Elizabeth II paid tribute to her former daughter-in-law in a live television broadcast:
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. The same day, Fabio Piras, a Sardinian tourist, was given a one week prison sentence for having taken a teddy bear that a member of the public had put down among the flowers at St James's Palace as a tribute to Diana (this was later reduced to a £100 fine, a reduction that led to him being punched in the face by a member of the public when he left the court.) The next day, Maria Rigociova, a 54-year-old secondary school teacher, and Agnesa Sihelska, a 50 year old communications technician, were each given a 28 day jail sentence for having taken eleven teddy bears and a number of flowers from the pile outside St. James' Palace in accordance with Slovakian funeral customs. This, too was later reduced to a fine (of £200 each) after they had spent two nights in jail.
The reaction to Diana's death was criticised at the time as being "hysterical", "credulous" and "irrational", 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."
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.
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.
Memorials
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 Queen 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, owned by Dodi Al-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. 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.
Memorabilia
Following Diana's death, the Diana Memorial Fund was granted intellectual property rights over her image. 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. 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.
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.
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
Diana has been depicted a number of times in contemporary art since her death.
In July 1999, British artist Tracey Emin, at the height of her Turner Prize fame, created a number of monoprint drawings inspired by the public and private life of Diana for a themed exhibition called Temple of Diana held at The Blue Gallery, London. Works such as They Wanted You To Be Destroyed (1999) related to Diana's bulimia eating disorder, while other monoprints included affectionate texts such as Love Was On Your Side and a description of Diana's dress with puffy sleeves. Other drawings highlighted The things you did to help other people written next to a drawing by Emin of Diana, Princess of Wales in protective clothing walking through a minefield in Angola. Another work was a delicate sketch of a rose drawn next to the phrase, It makes perfect sence to know they killed you (with Emin's trademark spelling mistakes) referring to the conspiracy theories surrounding Diana's death. Emin herself described the drawings saying they "could be considered quite scrappy, fresh, kind of naive looking drawings" and "It's pretty difficult for me to do drawings not about me and about someone else. But I have did have a lot of ideas. They're quite sentimental I think and there's nothing cynical about it whatsoever."
British artist Stella Vine provoked media controversy in 2004 when Charles Saatchi bought Hi Paul can you come over I'm really frightened (2003), a painting by her of Diana, Princess of Wales. The work's title came from the thick red text painted across the canvas, a reference to Diana's butler Paul Burrell. Vine painted as many as 30 paintings of Diana, having become fascinated by conspiracy theories into the Princess' tragic car crash which she had read on the Internet. Vine destroyed many of these paintings soon after they were created. She put them in a skip as she didn't have enough space to dry nor store the wet paintings. The only one she kept was later added to Saatchi's collection.
Vine said she was upset that some people, including her relatives, didn't like her image of Diana, as she believe it was not a disrespectful picture but it was in fact a self portrait as much as depiction of Diana: "The picture is about two women. One who lived in Kensington Palace. And the other who lives down the Whitecross Street. "I look at the picture," says Vine, "and I also see myself."" In 2005, a new Vine painting of Diana, Murdered, pregnant and embalmed (2005), was bought by George Michael for £25,000, reported in The Sun newspaper which condemned it as "sick".
In 2005 Uruguayan artist Martin Sastre premiered during the Venice Biennial the film Diana: The Rose Conspiracy, a fiction starting the day the World discovers Lady Di alive having a happy undercover new life in a dangerous favela in the outskirts of Montevideo, Uruguay. The film was shoot on a real Uruguayan slum with a Lady Di impersonator from Sao Paulo, Brazil and was selected between the Venice Biennial best works by the Italian Art Critics Association.
In 2007, Vine made a new series of Diana paintings for her first major solo exhibition at Modern Art Oxford gallery. Vine said she hoped the new paintings would show Diana's combined strength and vulnerability as well as her close relationship with her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. The new paintings included Diana branches (2007), Diana family picnic (2007), Diana veil (2007) and Diana pram (2007) which included the slogan I vow to thee my country. In September 2007, Immodesty Blaize said she had been entranced by Vine's painting Diana crash (2007) at Modern Art Oxford finding it "by turns horrifying, bemusing and funny". Vine said herself in 2007 that she had always been drawn to "the beauty and the tragedy of Diana’s life".
Recent events
On 13 July 2006 Italian magazine Chi published photographs showing the princess receiving oxygen in the wreckage of the car crash, despite an unofficial blackout on such photographs being published. The photographs were taken minutes after the accident, and show the Princess slumped in the back seat while a paramedic attempts to fit an oxygen mask over her face. The editor of Chi defended his decision by saying that he published the photographs for the very simple reason that they had not been seen before, and that he felt the images do not disrespect the memory of the Princess.
Fresh controversy arose over the issue of these photographs when Britain's Channel 4 broadcast them during a documentary in June 2007.
1 July 2007 marked a concert held by her two sons celebrating the 46th anniversary of her birth. The concert was held at Wembley Stadium and featured many well known and popular acts on the bill.
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.
Conspiracy theories
The circumstances surrounding the death of Diana have been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories, some perpetuated by Mohamed Al-Fayed, whose son, Dodi Al-Fayed also died in the accident. Fayed has contended that the crash was orchestrated by MI6 on the instructions of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Fayed has also accused the British and French intelligence, police and medical services, Henri Paul, Tony Blair, Robin Cook, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Rosa Monckton, Prince Charles, Lord Stevens, Lord Condon, Lord Mishcon, Lord Fellowes, Sir Michael Jay, and the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, The Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph of being involved in covering up or participating in her death.
In 2006 the results of an inquiry convened by Lord Stevens, former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Operation Paget, was published and dismissed all allegations of conspiracy as without foundation.
On 2 October 2007 an inquest began into her death and was scheduled to last for at least six months. During his summing up at the inquest, the coroner stated: "The conspiracy theory advanced by Mohamed Al Fayed has been minutely examined and shown to be without any substance". The jury decided on 7 April 2008 that Diana had been unlawfully killed by the grossly negligent driving of chauffeur Henri Paul and paparazzi photographers.
Contemporary opinions
An iconic presence on the world stage, Diana was noted for her sense of compassion, style, charisma, and high-profile charity work, as well as her difficult marriage to Prince Charles.
From the time of her engagement to the Prince of Wales in 1981 until her death after a car accident in 1997, Diana was one of the most famous women in the world—a pre-eminent celebrity of her generation. During her lifetime, she was often described as the world's most photographed woman. One biographer suggested that Diana was possibly suffering from Borderline personality disorder. Diana admitted to struggling with depression, and the eating disorder bulimia, which recurred throughout her adult life.
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." 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 ..."
Titles, styles, honours, and arms
Titles and styles
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.[The style "Princess Diana", though 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] 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 is also often referred to as the People's Princess.
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.
Honours
British honours
Foreign honours
Grand Officer, Order of the Crown (Netherlands)
Arms
Legacy
- 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 the 100 Greatest Britons poll, outranking Queen Elizabeth II and other British monarchs.
- On 29 August 2007 Peruvian photographer Mario Testino announced that on 20 November he would auction a signed photo of Diana for the benefit of 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. The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground was erected in Kensington gardens at a cost of £1.7 million. 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 Queen Elizabeth II 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.
Ancestry
See also
The Queen (2006 film) Stella Vine
Books
External links
- official website
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- Text, audio, video
- Text, audio, video
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- official website
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- from People Magazine
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- Essay on the cultural significance of Princess Diana
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- several articles
- An essay on how the media has dislocated the legitimate role of religious institutions in providing traditional forms of religious experience to the masses
- pictures of Diana, Panorama interview video extracts, coverage of the funeral, how the UK newspapers reported her death
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