Diana, Princess of Wales
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Diana, Princess of Wales Diana Princess of Wales; Duchess of Rothesay Spouse Charles, Prince of Wales (29 July 1981 – 28 August 1996)[1] Issue Prince William of Wales Prince Henry of Wales Full name Diana Frances Spencer[N 1] House House of Windsor Father John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer Mother Frances Shand Kydd Born 1 July 1961(1961-07-01) Park House, Sandringham , Norfolk Died 31 August 1997 (aged 36) Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital , Paris, France Burial Althorp, Northamptonshire Diana, Princess of Wales, (Diana Frances;[2] née Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. Their sons, Princes William and Harry,[3] are second and third in line to the throne 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 worldwide media scrutiny before, during and after her marriage. This continued in the years following her death in a car crash and in the subsequent display of public mourning. Contemporary responses to Diana's life and legacy are mixed but popular interest with the Princess endures. Contents • 1 Early life • 2 Royal descent • 3 Education • 4 Relationship with the Prince of Wales ○ 4.1 Engagement and wedding ○ 4.2 Children ○ 4.3 Charity work ○ 4.4 Problems and separation ○ 4.5 Divorce • 5 Personal life after divorce ○ 5.1 Landmines • 6 Death ○ 6.1 Conspiracy theories and inquest ○ 6.2 Tribute, funeral, and burial 6.2.1 Memorials ○ 6.3 Memorabilia ○ 6.4 Diana in contemporary art ○ 6.5 Recent events • 7 Contemporary opinions • 8 Titles, styles, honours , and arms ○ 8.1 Titles and styles ○ 8.2 Honours ○ 8.3 Arms • 9 Legacy • 10 Ancestry • 11 See also • 12 Notes • 13 References • 14 Further reading • 15 External links Early life Diana was the youngest daughter of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (later the 8th Earl Spencer) who was of British descent and Frances Spencer, Viscountess Althorp (formerly the Honourable Frances Burke Roche, and later Frances Shand Kydd) who was of English and Irish descent. She was born at Park House, Sandringham in Norfolk, England on 1 July 1961, and was baptised on 30 August 1961 at St. Mary Magdalene Church by the Rt. Rev. Percy Herbert (rector of the church and former Bishop of Norwich and Blackburn), with godparents that included John Floyd (the chairman of Christie's). She was the fourth child to the couple, with older sisters Sarah (born 19 March 1955) and Jane (born 11 February 1957), as well as an infant brother, The Honourable John Spencer (born and died on 12 January 1960). The heir to the Spencer titles and estates, her younger brother, Charles, was born three years after her on 20 May 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. Every Christmas, the Spencer children returned to Norfolk with their mother, and Lord Althorp subsequently refused to allow them to return to London. Lady Althorp sued for custody, but her mother's testimony during the trial against her contributed to the court awarding custody of Diana and her brother to their father. On 14 July 1976, Lord Spencer married Raine , Countess of Dartmouth , the only daughter of romantic novelist Barbara Cartland and Alexander McCorquodale, after he was named as the "other party" in the Dartmouths' divorce. During this time Diana travelled between her parents' homes. Her father inherited the earldom and Spencer seat in Althorp, Northamptonshire on 9 June 1975, and her mother moved to the Island of Seil on the west coast of Scotland. Diana, like her siblings, did not get along with her stepmother. Royal descent On her father's side, she was a descendant of King Charles II of England through four illegitimate sons: • Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Grafton , son by Barbara Villiers, 1st Duchess of Cleveland • Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond and Lennox , son by Louise de Kérouaille • Charles Beauclerk , 1st Duke of St Albans , son by Nell Gwyn • James Crofts-Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth , leader of the famous Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, son by Lucy Walter She was also a descendant of King James II of England through an illegitimate daughter, Henrietta FitzJames , by his mistress Arabella Churchill . On her mother's side, Diana was Irish and Scottish, as well as a descendant of American heiress Frances Work, her mother's grandmother and namesake, from whom the considerable Roche fortune was derived.[citation needed] 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 2009, the New England Historic Genealogical Society published Richard K. Evans's The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales, for Twelve Generations. From her marriage in 1981 to her divorce in 1996 she was styled Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales. She was generally called "Princess Diana" by the media despite having no legal right to that particular honorific, as it is reserved for a princess by birthright rather than marriage. Education Diana was first educated at Silfield School , Kings Lynn, Norfolk, then at Riddlesworth Hall in Norfolk, and at West Heath Girls' School (later reorganised as the The New School at West Heath) in Sevenoaks, Kent, where she was regarded as a poor student, having attempted and failed all of her O-levels twice.[4] Her outstanding community spirit was recognised 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 then dating her eldest sister, Lady Sarah. Diana reportedly excelled in swimming and diving, and longed to be a professional ballerina with the Royal Ballet. She studied ballet for a time, but then grew to 5'10", far too tall for the profession. Diana moved to London before she turned seventeen, living in her mother's flat, as her mother then spent most of the year in Scotland. Soon afterward an apartment was purchased for £50,000 as an 18th birthday present, at Coleherne Court in Earls Court. She lived there until 1981 with three flatmates. In London she took an advanced cooking course at her mother's suggestion, although she never became an adroit cook, and worked first as a dance instructor for youth, until a skiing accident caused her to miss three months of work. She then found employment as a playgroup (pre- preschool) assistant, did some cleaning work for her sister Sarah and several of her friends, and worked as a hostess at parties.[5] Relationship with the Prince of Wales Prince Charles, Diana and Sandro Pertini . Prince Charles had previously been linked to Diana's older sister Sarah, and to Davina Sheffield, Scottish heiress Anna Wallace, the Honourable Amanda Knatchbull (granddaughter of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma), actress Susan George, Lady Jane Wellesley, heiress Sabrina Guinness and Camilla Shand , inter alia.[6] In his early thirties, he was under increasing pressure to marry. Under the Royal Marriages Act 1772, his marriage required the Queen's formal consent. Under the Act of Settlement 1701, royals must marry within the Church of England or forfeit their place in the order of succession to the throne. Diana's aristocratic descent, Church of England faith, presumed virginity and native Englishness appeared to render her a suitable royal bride. 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 at a country weekend, where she watched him play polo. The relationship developed as he invited her for a sailing weekend to Cowes aboard the royal yacht Britannia, followed by an invitation to Balmoral (the Royal Family's Scottish residence) to meet his family. There, Diana was well received by Queen Elizabeth II, by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and by the Queen Mother. The couple subsequently courted in London. The Prince proposed on 6 February 1981, and Diana accepted, but their engagement was kept secret for the next few weeks.[7] Engagement and wedding Main article: Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981, after Diana selected a large £30,000 ring consisting of 14 diamonds surrounding a sapphire, similar to her mother's engagement ring. [8] 20-year-old Diana became The Princess of Wales when she married Charles on 29 July 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral, which offered more seating than Westminster Abbey, generally used for royal nuptials. It was widely billed as a "fairytale wedding," watched by a global television audience of 750 million.[8][9] At the altar Diana accidentally reversed the order of Charles's names, saying Philip Charles Arthur George instead.[10] She did not say that she would "obey" him; that traditional vow was left out at the couple's request, which caused some comment at the time.[11] Diana wore a dress valued at £9000 with a 25-foot (8-metre) train.[12] The couple's wedding cake was created by Belgian pastry chef S.