Diana, Princess Of Wales

 

Diana, Princess Of Wales

 

                                           this image credited by - https://en.wikipedia.org/

February 24, 1981, in the white and gold ballroom of Buckingham palace, as the notes National Anthem died away, the Lord Chamberlain came center stage and said that the Queen had commanded him to make a special announcement. Lord Maclean, in a manner that befits royalty, announced, “It is with great pleasure that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh announce the betrothal of their beloved son, the prince Wales, to Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of Earl Spencer and the Honorable Mrs. Shand-Kydd”. This was indeed an illustrious moment in the history of the British royalty as Lady Diana was chosen by the exclusive royal family of Britain to be the future Queen of England.

 

On July 29, 1981 midst the pomp, glamour and much glitterati, Lady Diana walked down the aisle of St. Paul’s Cathedral with Prince Charles, the heir apparent to the British throne. Lady Diana became Her Royal Highness, the princess of Wales. It was a fairy-tale wedding that struck the very picture of romance. The world applauded and cheered as the starry-eyed nineteen-year-old princess, with a warm style and stunning looks, waved to them as her royal carriage passed the heavily-packed London streets. She was an instant success.

 

Earl Spencer held a position as Viscount Althrop, King George VI’s equerry between 1950 and 1952, and equerry to the Queen for two years after her accession in 1952. It was in 1954 he married the Honorable Frances Ruth Burke Roche, the younger daughter of the 4^th Baron Fermoy. Diana was the couple’s third daughter. She was born at Park House, in a rambling Victorian mansion, in the grounds of the Sandringham Estate, the Royal family’s house. It was only till the age of seven that Diana enjoyed a happy childhood. Matrimonial strife between her parents ended in a divorce. She was then sent to a boarding school. In 1975, on the death of her grandfather, her father inherited the title and became the 8^th Earl Spencer. They moved to Althrop, in Northampton shire. Diana became ‘Lady’ Diana. Two years later, her father remarried and Diana went off to a finishing school in Switzerland. She felt homesick and was back before the year was over. It was in 1977 at a shooting party that she met Prince Charles for the first time. Little did they know that destiny had more plans for them than was afforded by this casual meeting. It was two years after this that Prince Charles started taking more than a casual interest in this unaffected 18-year-old girl. She was a marked contrast to the more worldly girls in his circles.

 

At first their marriage seemed happy enough. Within a span of three years, Diana gave birth to two sons, Price William of Wales and Prince Anrew. The four of them presented a picture of a happy family. Princess Diana had all that the future Queen of England must possess. She became an obsession with the media. Her gorgeous looks with a model-perfect figure matched by a warm elegance became a perfect story for the print world across the globe. She was always in the news, sometimes as ‘shy Di’, sometimes as ‘Disco Di’ and other times as ‘Caring Di’ or ‘Crusading Di’. So powerful was her appeal with the masses that many a time her charisma and charm overshadowed the more sober Prince Charles. Her fanfare was phenomenal and she gained a tremendous amount of applause when she associated herself with unfashionable and controversial issues like leprosy and AIDS. She soon gained the stature of a model lady pf the 20^th century. She became an icon.

 

Unfortunately, this idyllic state did not last. Hints of strained relations between the couple became apparent. In December 1990, separation of the royal couple was announced by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons and in 1996 they were divorced. Diana’s title of Her Royal Highness was taken away and she came to be addressed as merely Diana, Princess of Wales. This move by the royal household earned them a poor reputation as the world opinion was with their very own Diana. In a candid BBC interview she said that what she wanted most was to be not the Queen of England but the Queen of people’s Hearts. And that she definitely was.

 

It would indeed be difficult to delineate the causes of the failure of this marriage which started with so much of hope and optimism. The formality of the monarchy which Diana found stifling together with the hounding media are surmised to be the two major causes of the breakup of this marriage of the century. Prince Charles, tutored to keep the proverbial tight upper lip, could not perhaps understand the spontaneousness of the girl he had married. They were two kind but different types of people, tied together in a set of circumstances made painful by fate.

 

The divorce could not rob Diana of the charm that she was endowed with. Her popularity never flagged, though there were articles every now and then about some clandestine romance that she was supposed to be having. But all was quelled when Prince Charles too confessed of having a relationship with his companion of many years, Camilla Parker-Bowles. The public, she was a lone brave mother of the royal household trying desperately to bring the much-needed contemporaries into the portals of the British monarchy. The people identified and sympathized with her.

 

Though no longer the wife of heir apparent to the British throne, Diana had a significant role to play as the mother of the future heirs of the country. She decided to forge a new bond with the public that gave her so much adulation. She focused on causes that gave her so much adulation. She focused on causes that needed her attention. Her association with the AIDS trust, Leprosy Mission, Cancer hospitals and the British Red Cross won her many laurels. She was a symbol of refreshing New Royalty that even shield away from wearing gloves when shaking hands!

 

Thus, when on August 30, 1997 the world heard of Diana’s death in a car crash at Paris, there was gloom that spread in all the corners of the world. There was a common outpouring of grief as people participated in what seemed a global loss. It was history in the making. They all mourned the snatching away of one so young and irreplaceable. Ironically, it was on this fateful day that Diana had truly found personal happiness. That evening her companion and friend Dodi al-Fayed, the eldest son of the owner of Harrods had presented Diana with a fabulous diamond-studded ring that commemorated the start of a new life together. Diana put it on the third finger of her right hand. She had been on the threshold of a new life when both Dodi and she were killed in the car crash.

 

Diana’s tragic death put an end to an era that had just started to take shape. It reinforced the finality of death and the contrasting elusiveness of life. People from all over thronged to the iron gates of Kingston Palace, the official residence of the Princess and paid their heartfelt tribute in flowers and messages. Even 45 condolence books were a measure less for recording the monumental grief of these people who mourned her death as one does a close friend.

 

In her death. Diana has been canonized with all the people who, In their short but meaningful lives, have left an unquenchable void. Diana’s close friend and famous singer Elton John’s first line of his song “A Candle in the Wind” poignantly captures the essence of Diana’s impact on the world. When bidding farewell he says, “Goodbye, England’s Rose.” With the death of Diana, a contemporary icon faded away but from these ashes was a legend of a princess that will live on …………