Masaryk university Brno Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature The death of Diana, Princess of Wales - an accident or a conspiracy? bachelor thesis Brno 2006 Supervisor: Written by: Paul Nicholas Clifford, Dip. Ed. , A. C. P. Lenka Krejčiříková
I hereby declare that I worked on this thesis by myself and that I used only the sources listed in the bibliography. I agree that the thesis be deposited with the Library of the Faculty of Education of the Masaryk University in Brno and made accessible for study purposes.
Brno, 7 June 2006 Lenka Krejčiříková
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I would like to thank Mr Paul Nicholas Clifford, Dip. Ed. , A. C. P. for his kindness and valuable advice.
2 CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...………………………………………………..………….……… 4 1. EARLY LIFE….……………………………………………………….....……...… 5 1. 1. Introduction of Diana Frances Spencer, her family background, childhood and teenage years 2. THE ROYAL MARRIAGE AND THE PRINCESS OF WALES´S NEW ROLES………...... ……………....… 9 2. 1. The expectations of the British monarchy 2. 2. The Princess of Wales´s expectations of the marriage 2. 3. The Princess of Wales´s new roles 2. 3. 1. Role of the spouse of the Prince of Wales 2. 3. 2. Role of the mother of the crown princes 3. DIVORCE – THE END OF A FAIRYTALE...... 13 3. 1. The causes for divorce 3. 2. The consequences of the divorce 4. CHARITY WORK…………………………………………………….….…...... 17 4. 1. The Princess of Wales´s support of charity projects 4. 1. 1. AIDS 4. 1. 2. Landmines 5. THE DEATH OF DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES AND ITS CONSEQUENCES..…..……………………………...………………... 19 5. 1. The circumstances of the death 5. 2. The reaction of the British Royal Family and public to the death 5. 3. The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales 5. 4. Conspiracy theories 5. 5. Inquest findings 5. 6. The impact of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on the individual members of the family and on the monarchy as a whole 6. THE LIFE GOES ON..…....………………………………………………………. 35 6. 1. The course of life without Diana, Princess of Wales in the British Royal Family and perspectives on the future CONCLUSION..……………………………………………………………………… 36 RESUMÉ……………………………………………………………………………… 37 BIBLIOGRAPHY……….…………………………………………………………… 38 LIST OF APPENDICES……………………………………………………………… 41
3 INTRODUCTION
Without peradventure the majority of people have at least once in their lifetime heard about Diana, Princess of Wales. As a young girl she won fame overnight by getting married the Prince of Wales, the successor to the British throne. Straightaway after their wedding, she became the centre of media interest and started to be pursued by paparazzi until they hunted her down to death in the end. Over the years she built a position of a pre eminent female celebrity of her generation. By thousands of people all around the world she was passed for an authority, a fashion icon, she was idolatrized and the world esteemed her highly for her enthusiastic involvement in AIDS issues, and the international campaign against landmines.
She has always made considerably efforts to help the sick and needy but when she was badly in need of the medical emergency service, her environment failed to provide it properly. Her admirers are clear about that she did not deserve to die in such a terrible accident and insist that the car crash be investigated duly and the culprits be penalized.
The aim of my bachelor thesis is to attempt to trace up who is to be blamed for the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. At the same time, I would like to take occasion to pay a tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, a notable personality who has done much for others in a little time she was granted to live through. The first four minor chapters of the thesis will be devoted to recapitulating of her life, starting with her youth, through the marriage and divorce, underlining her charity achievements, up to her untimely death. The fifth chapter is supposed to create the most extensive part of the thesis and will be focused on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. In this chapter, the important details of Diana, Princess of Wales´s death will be gathered, the circumstances of the car accident will be described. Further, I am going to discuss the potential motives for the crime, develop the conspiracy theories and controvert the inquest findings. I will do my best to ascertain whether Diana, Princess of Wales´s death was inevitable or if it could have been precluded. The last chapter shall handle with the future of the British monarchy in connection with the changes that are to come next.
4 1. EARLY LIFE
1. 1. Introduction of Diana Frances Spencer, her family background, childhood and teenage years
Diana Frances Spencer was born on 1 July 1961 at Park House near Sandringham, Norfolk. She was the youngest daughter of the then Viscount and Viscountess Althorp, now the late Earl Spencer and the late Hon. Mrs Frances Shand Kydd, daughter of the 4th Baron Fermoy. The parents did not make much of Diana´s birth because it ruined their expectations of having a son. Luckily, the birth of Charles, Diana´s brother, in 1964 came up to these expectations.
Diana had a happy childhood until her parents´ divorce in 1969. Diana´s father, Lord Althorp, who was fourteen years older than his wife, liked a peaceful, rural life in a country house and enjoyed playing with his children every evening before they went to bed. With the birth of his son, Lord Althorp recaptured his lost self confidence, and knowledge of having finally a long desired heir made him as happy and satisfied as never before. On the contrary, Diana´s mother started to feel bored and oppressed in her marriage. She married very young, gave birth to four children and the monotonous family life seemed ordinary and depressing to her. She was a young woman sighing for adventure and extraordinary experience. She was only thirty years old and wanted to lead a lively social life where visiting parties and theatres was the order of the day. In 1967, Diana´s mother fell in love with Peter Shand Kydd and left her husband and four children in order to live with her new lover in London. Diana´s older sisters, Sarah and Jane, were crushed by the separation of their parents, but Diana being only six years old at that time did not much realize the consequences of the failure of her parents´ marriage.
During her parents´ fierce divorce over Lady Althorp´s adultery with Peter Shand Kydd, Diana´s mother sued for custody of her children. Thanks to Lady Althorp´s mother´s testimony against her daughter during the trial, Lord Althorp achieved a great success when all children were placed in his custody. At that time, this was something wholly extraordinary in Great Britain. For a long time, Lady Althorp could not reconcile with the fact that she had been depicted as an unreliable and frivolous mother.
5 Undoubtedly, the divorce of Diana´s parents had a negative influence on all daughters and their growing up. After the divorce, the children did not keep in touch with their mother for some time and spent most of time with their father, who tried to repair the loss of the mother to his children. A lot of governesses changed in the family because the girls were stubborn and did not want to obey anybody else but their father. On the other hand, in disregard of their father´s effort the children did not appreciate the life in the country and did not share their father´s liking for country hobbies. Diana was not interested in bird watching, fishing, shooting, hunting, stalking and similar hobbies offered by the country life.
The only exception was pony riding, which Diana adored. Unfortunately, when she was ten years old, she fell from a pony and broke her arm. The fall caused Diana´s loss of self assurance and since that accident she refused to ride a horse. It took a very long time before she dared ride a horse again. More or less, she had no other choice but to overcome her fear and ride a horse again. A horse riding was one of the most favourite hobbies of her husband and through it the couple could strenghten its precarious marriage.
Diana missed her mother who should have conducted her life, broadened her horizons, deepened her education and interest in life. Nobody supported Diana´s effort to discover outside world, to read books, to play an instrument and that is why she spent much of her time alone and suffered emotionally. Such emotional privations can be considered as one of the reasons of Diana´s later troubles in her relationship with the Prince of Wales. Unlike Diana, the Prince of Wales was not educated in such an isolation. His parents led him to meet all domains of life. He visited theatres, circuses, ZOOs, museums, and sport events regularly and his horizons broadened in a natural way. Diana´s lack of experience, contradictions in family background and solitude in childhood were causes of problems at the beginning of her marriage with the Prince of Wales.
On the death of her paternal grandfather, Albert Spencer, in 1975, Diana acquired the courtesy title of The Lady Diana Spencer and moved from her childhood home at Park House to her family´s sixteenth century ancestoral home of Althorp. When Lady Diana was fifteen years old, her father married Raine, Countess of Dartmouth. Their father´s second wife and the three daughters did not catch each other´s eye, especially because
6 of the fact that the Spencer sisters did not approve of Raine´s decision to sell the family antiques to finance the reconstruction and renovation of the Althorp House.
Lady Diana was educated first at a preparatory school, Riddlesworth Hall at Diss, Norfolk, and then in 1974 she went as a boarder to West Heath, near Sevenoaks, Kent. She came to school with a label of a shy, undemonstrative and average girl, who was not particularly talented for anything. Surprisingly, Lady Diana showed a special talent for music as an accomplished pianist, dancing, ballet and she excelled in sports, too. (en.wikipedia.org)
The director of West Heath school, Ruth Rudge, remembers Lady Diana as a girl who adored children and made contacts with them very easily. „I remember that Lady Diana spent many hours in the centre for disabled children near school. She was the kind of a girl who knew what was necessary to do and did not mind doing it“, she recollects. (Davies, 1998, p. 36)
Lady Diana gained the school´s award for the girl giving maximum help to the school and her schoolfellows. Ironically, she did not show much interest in her own school results. Lady Diana was convinced that it was beyond her powers to succeed in studies as her sisters, regardless how much she tried and how hard she worked. For this reason, she did not make necessary effort to pass the exams successfully. In 1977 Lady Diana left West Heath Girls´ school and went to finish the school at the Institut Alpin Videmanette in Rougemont, Switzerland. (en.wikipedia.org) At first, Lady Diana was excited about the journey. But she soon realized that she was alone in a foreign country, felt unhappy and missed her home. She decided to run away and she did so six weeks after her arrival, without passing any of her missing exams. Her stay here was not so useless as it may seem because she became a good skier here and made use of this knowledge later in her marriage. Lady Diana was aware of an unflattering fact that she lacks appropriate education and she regretted it in later life for many times.
After the return home, Lady Diana bought a flat in Coleherne Court, West London, which she financed from her legal portion. She shared the flat with three ex schoolmates with whom she went to parties, cinemas and led a vivid social life. For a while she looked after a child of an American couple, and she worked as a kindergarten teacher at the Young England School in Pimlico. This part of life belongs to the happiest moments
7 in Lady Diana´s life, unless bearing in mind her later honeymoon. She had a nice place to live, a job she loved and rollicked with her roomates. She was able to earn her living and led a carefree life. But her happiness was not to take for a long time and was replaced by hectic preparations for „the wedding of the century“. From that moment, Lady Diana´s life got a new dimension and for the rest of her life she had to adjust all her action to the court and royal needs.
8 2. THE ROYAL MARRIAGE AND THE PRINCESS OF WALES´S NEW ROLES
2. 1. The expectations of the British monarchy
The Prince of Wales, being still single in his mid thirties, was under increasing pressure of his surroundings to find a suitable bride, marry her and guarantee an heir to the monarchy. In order to gain the approval of his family and their advisors, any potential bride had to have an aristocratic background, could not have been previously married, should be Protestant, and, preferably, a virgin. (en.wikipedia.org) The Prince of Wales dated several young ladies, including Sarah Spencer, Lady Diana Spencer´s older sister. Many of the candidates were beautiful, educated, and high born. The Prince of Wales enjoyed their company but he was never entirely sure that he had found the right woman worth holding a role of the future queen and being strong enough to carry the onus of royal duties with him. Camilla Parker Bowles, the Prince of Wales´s former girlfriend, did not fulfill the qualifications defined by the family, and had been dismissed as a potential spouse for the heir to the throne some years before. Ironically, it was very Mrs. Parker Bowles who helped the Prince of Wales select the 19 year old Lady Diana Spencer as a potential bride.
Lady Diana´s family, the Spencers, had been close to the British Royal Family for decades. Her maternal grandmother, Ruth, Lady Fermoy, was a long time friend, and a lady in waiting to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Lady Diana Spencer seemed to be an ideal candidate, fulfilling all of the qualifications. She was a young, unexperienced woman with an untarnished reputation, a flawless past and appeared easy to shape for the future role of the Princess of Wales. The Prince of Wales had to consider the choice very carefully. He was afraid of making a wrong decision because the choice was to be lifelong, influencing the rest of his life and the whole monarchy. Bearing this in his mind, he had only one attempt and it had to be appropriate. For him, as the head of Church of England, a divorce would be out of question. After a few months of wooing, Lady Diana Spencer accepted the Prince of Wales´s marriage proposal. On 24 February 1981 it was officially announced that the Prince of Wales was to marry Lady Diana Spencer.
The wedding took place at St. Paul´s Cathedral in London on Wednesday 29 July 1981 in front of 3,500 invited guests and an estimated one billion television viewers around
9 the world. Hundreds of thousands of people were bordering the route from Buckingham Palace to the Cathedral. Lady Diana Spencer was the first Englishwoman to marry an heir apparent to the throne since 1659. Upon her marriage, Lady Diana Spencer became Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales and was ranked as the most senior royal woman in the United Kingdom after the Queen and the Queen Mother. (en.wikipedia.org)
The situation in the United Kingdom was not very favourable for arranging such a pompous event as a royal wedding. At that time, there were 3 million unemployed people, economy of the country was in depression and a terrorist organisation IRA was active. Having considered all the circumstances, the Royal Family finally decided not to spoil the biggest and most important day in life of the Prince of Wales and not to begrudge him the pleasure of the wedding. Simultaneously, the wedding celebrations should serve the public to feel proud about their country and let them forget about their everyday worries and troubles at least for a while.
The newly married couple spent their honeymoon at the Royal Yacht HMY Britannia, making a 12 day cruise through the Mediterranean sea to Egypt. Both young people enjoyed the journey to much extent as there were no photographers chasing them in order to take some photographs. The Prince and Princess of Wales looked to be happy, relaxed and infatuated with each other. Watching them, no one doubted that the Prince of Wales had made a good choice having married Lady Diana Spencer. Sad to say, the happiness of the young couple was not to take forever.
The Prince and Princess of Wales made their principal home at Highgrove House near Tetbury, Gloucestershire and shared an apartment in Kensington Palace. It was taken for granted, that the Princess of Wales would follow the protocol and behave according to the rules set out by the Royal Family. When she moved to Kensington Palace, she had no idea how to treat the servants, how to lead a conversation with guests at suppers with the Queen at Balmoral or Windsor castle, how to handle the media. The Princess of Wales had never done these matters before and she desperately needed somebody to give her helpful instructions how to tackle the duties connected with her new position.
Unfortunately, there was nobody within the Royal Family who would give her a helpful hand except her husband. He tried to help her in the beginning but because of the fact that he was fully occupied with his official duties, his support was insufficient. The
10 members of the Royal Family did not show much interest in the Princess of Wales´s feelings and troubles. They only watched carefully all her action and criticised what she had done wrong. Reportedly, she did not receive much appreciation for her perfoming and effort. In other words, she was left to cope with her new status on her own.
2. 2. The Princess of Wales´s expectations of the marriage
The Princess of Wales came from a divorced background and thanks to this she wanted her own marriage to work. She tried very hard to make it work and thought that the fact she loved her husband would be enough to assure a happy and working marriage. She was convinced she was prepared for everything and had the knowledge of what was coming up. The Princess of Wales wanted to share everything with her husband and make a good team with him. Her wish to spend as much time with the Prince of Wales as during their honeymoon proved hard to realize if not impossible in common life. The Prince of Wales had to perform a great deal of royal duties, his daily plan was organized in every detail and well ahead.
2. 3. The Princess of Wales´s new roles 2. 3. 1. Role of the spouse of the Prince of Wales The Princess of Wales was expected to be a model spouse to the Prince of Wales, which in concrete terms included her ability to tolerate all his drawbacks, have sympathy for his role of the crown prince, and be a loyal partner supporting all deeds of her husband all the time. Easy the task may seem, it soon showed problematic for the Princess of Wales to carry it out. The Princess of Wales could not get used to the strict observations of the protocol and kept on avoiding all the formalities as often as possible. It came to the worst that she even refused to accompany her husband during receptions and state calls. In the process, she was fed up with all the handshaking, making speeches, listening to boring harangues, ceremoniousness and servility.
2. 3. 2. Role of the mother of the crown princes
It was evident that the couple had to guarantee an heir to the throne to the monarchy, preferably a male one. The Princess of Wales became pregnant soon after the wedding and the whole United Kingdom was in anticipation of an heir to the throne. During the Princess of Wales´s pregnancy, everybody wondered whether the baby was
11 going to be a boy or a girl. It was the most important mission of the Princess of Wales to give birth to a male heir to the throne and she knew it. The fate was well disposed towards the couple when two sons were born and the Royal Family heaved a sigh of relief. Prince William was born on 21 June 1982 and Prince Henry on 15 September 1984. The Princess of Wales later admitted that both her pregnancies had been very demanding periods of her life. It was caused by an enormous pressure put on her by the surroundings and the media concerning the sex of an unborn baby, especially during the first pregnancy. Consequently, it was a great relief for her to find out that the new born child was a son.
Having realized, that she had fulfilled successfully her paramount duty to guarantee a male heir to the throne to the monarchy, The Princess of Wales became more self confident and calmer. As she had always loved children, she got a new impulse in life and devoted much of her energy to the upbringing of her children, successors to the throne.
12 3. DIVORCE – THE END OF A FAIRYTALE
3. 1. The causes for divorce Although the marriage may have seemed to be happy and working in an early stage, it did not take for a long time when the first indications of disagreements between the Prince and Princess of Wales occured. Both, the Prince and Princess of Wales were aware of the fact that their marriage did not head for the right direction and that it was not fulfilling the role determined by the Royal Family at the beginning and expected by the public. A dissatisfaction with the course of marriage was apparent but the couple could not share their opinions on the causes of the troubles. Neither the Princess of Wales, nor the Prince of Wales were willing to admit that they were to blame for the incompatibility between them and tried to lay blame on each other. The Princess of Wales saw the main problem in the amount of time her husband spent with his advisors when solving state affairs. She was convinced that due to his official duties the Prince of Wales did not devote enough time to her. In her opinion, he should have preffered her to his official duties, but that was out of question taking into consideration that the Prince of Wales had been educated to put official duties above all other in his life. The Princess of Wales was not able to tolerate that or rather she did not want to and in that matter took a quite unyielding stance. She felt that she was pushed aside and naturally hated her husband´s work and his advisors. She spared no effort to make the Prince of Wales get rid of his nearest advisors, among others of Edward Adeane, the Prince of Wales´s secretary, of Stephen Barry, Gentleman of the Chamber, of Oliver Everett, deputy of the Prince of Wales´s secretary. The Prince of Wales met her wife´s requirements rather than having to listen to her complaints of his unconcern about her and lack of understanding. From his childhood he was inculcated with principles of having an honour duty to the Crown and British people. His personal life was adjusted to that idea and it never crossed his mind to make objections to it. No wonder that it was more and more difficult for him to endure the Princess of Wales´s bad moods and caprices through which she expressed her resentment against the royal traditions.
13 Soon after the wedding, the Prince of Wales found out that the life with his spouse would not be as easy as he had presupposed. At the time of engagement, they both were infatuated with each other and ignored each other´s drawbacks. When the honeymoon went by and the couple was confronted with the reality and exposed to the problems of married life, then suddenly to their bilateral surprise, they were not able to get along well. The Prince of Wales was not delighted to ascertain that his spouse was not so obedient and answerable to him as she should have been. She longed to continue doing things she would do in the past, like going shopping with her friends, watching soap operas, listening to pop music etc. In his opinion, she as the Princess of Wales should have shown more interest in political and economic affairs, industry and issues concerning British government.
A disharmony like that was resulting from the couple´s difference in age. The Prince of Wales was thirteen years older than the Princess of Wales and more experienced than she was. He was realizing fully the importance of his mission and behaved according to that. When he had been leading a single life, he had an opportunity to live it up provided he had saved his face. After the period of diversion, which took several years, the Prince of Wales was ready to set up house and lead a common life of an heir apparent. But that was not the case with the Princess of Wales. She got married too young to accept the role of a subordinate and doting wife.
The Princess of Wales was not as well educated as the Prince of Wales and her level of intelligence did not reach the Prince of Wales´s, too. Their mutual conversation was influenced in a negative way by these factors and the fact was that they did not find many subjects to talk about except their children and royal duties.
To the detriment of their marriage, the Prince and Princess of Wales never developed common interests. The Prince of Wales liked horse riding, fox hunting, shooting, had a mania for polo, alternative medicine, literature, history, architecture, homeopathy, and philosophy. Unfortunately, his wife did not share any of these interests with him. The Princess of Wales had a liking in ballet, dancing, pop music, and fashion – fields far apart from her husband. The Prince of Wales was disenchanted with the Princess of Wales unpredictable behaviour and moods. He was not used to it and did not know how to cope with it.
14 In his effort to tackle this major problem, he appealed, among others, to Mrs. Camilla Parker Bowles, his former girlfriend, hoping that she could give him a helping hand. It is worth mentioning, that the Prince of Wales had never interrupted his relations with her and during the marriage she would be by. Mrs. Parker Bowles´s interference in the marriage naturally incurred the Princess of Wales´s displeasure. In a television interview with Martin Bashir she admitted that Mrs Parker Bowles had been a factor in the breakdown of her marriage, saying „there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.“ (Bashir, 1995)
To be honest, it is necessary to remark on the Princess of Wales´s behaviour in the mid 1980´s, too. Feeling unsatisfied in her marriage, she found solace in visiting parties and clubs accompanied by The Duchess of York. This kind of entertainment meant a good opportunity for the Princess of Wales to flirt with young men and she derived benefit from it. When her love affair with the riding instructor of her sons, James Hewitt, came out, she had no other choice but to admit it. The way of life the Princess of Wales led could not be passed unnoticed by the media. The photographers followed every step the Princess of Wales made trying to catch her doing something shocking and undignified for a person in her position.
Another problem for the marriage was that the Princess of Wales became loved by the people and they celebrated her as a heroine, a goddess, as a model for youth and beauty. The Prince of Wales became ever more jealous and this resulted in harming the marriage, too. 3. 2. The consequences of the divorce When the situation in the marriage became untenable, the Prince and Princess of Wales agreed on a legal separation and it was announced on 9 December 1992. The Princess of Wales based her household and her office at Kensington Palace, while the Prince of Wales was based at St James´s Palace and continued to live at Highgrove House. Reportedly, it was not the Princess of Wales´s wish to divorce but when her husband asked her, she supported the idea. The divorce of Diana Frances Mountbatten Windsor and Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten Windsor was finalised on 28 August 1996. The Prince and Princess of Wales continued to share equal responsibility for the upbringing of their children.
15 The Princess of Wales, though being the mother of the second and third in line to the throne, was no longer regarded as a member of the Royal Family. The Princess lost the style Her Royal Highness and title Princess of Wales and became instead Diana, Princess of Wales (Princess of Wales acting as her surname, not a royal title). After the divorce, Diana, Princess of Wales had to think about the way her life would go and a role she would like to accept in the future. (en.wikipedia.org)
16 4. CHARITY WORK
"The worst illness of our time is that so many people have to suffer from not ever being loved" (Diana, Princess of Wales, www.princess diana.com ) 4. 1. The Princess of Wales´s support of charity projects 4. 1. 1. AIDS Members of the Royal Family were always participants in charitable organisations, opened homes and hospitals. The Prince of Wales was involved in many charity projects but it was not the focus of his attention. When Diana, Princess of Wales discovered that people welcomed her beneficence and involvement in charity projects, she decided to use her media popularity to bring attention to the needs of the forgotten and needy of the world. She championed a number of charitable causes, including AIDS awareness and homelessness. In April 1987 Diana, Princess of Wales shocked the world because she was the first high profile celebrity to be photographed touching a person infected with the HIV virus. She sat on the sickbed of a man with AIDS and held his hand. Her deed was disapproved of the Royal Family and Diana, Princess of Wales was accused of risking and threatening the health of her sons, successors to the throne. At that time, it was still widely believed that AIDS could be contracted through casual contact. Having done this, Diana, Princess of Wales showed the world that people with AIDS deserved not isolation, but compassion. Her action changed world opinion on AIDS sufferers, and helped give hope to people with AIDS. 4. 1. 2. Landmines
Diana, Princess of Wales also focused her attention on the worldwide menace of landmines. Perhaps her most widely publicized charity appearance was her visit to Angola in January 1997. As an International Red Cross VIP volunteer she visited landmine survivors in hospitals, and toured de mining projects run by the HALO Trust. Her interest in landmines was focused on the injuries they evocate, especially to children. In August 1997 she visited Bosnia with the Landmine Survivors Network and toured a minefield, in helmet and flak jacket. She is very much credited for her influence on the governments of the United Kingdom and other 121 nations, in their signing of the Ottawa Treaty in December 1997 which created an international ban on
17 the use of anti personnel landmines. (www.landmines.org.uk)
All her visits abroad, although for charity purposes, had to be negotiated and approved of the Royal Family, even after the divorce, which made Diana, Princess of Wales´s position more difficult. Diana, Princess of Wales´s arrangement for the sick and poor has always been an object of the Buckingham Palace criticism. To the displeasure of the Royal Family, Diana, Princess of Wales often took the small Princes with her to hospitals and AIDS centres to show them the suffering of the sick.
During her marriage Diana, Princess of Wales was a president or patron of over 100 social institutions and charitable organizations. Following her divorce, Diana, Princess of Wales resigned most of her charity and other patronages. She remained as patron of Centrepoint, English National Ballet, Leprosy Mission and National AIDS Trust, and as President of the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street and of the Royal Marsden Hospital. After her death, the Diana, Princess of Wales Fund was established to carry on her work by making grants to help the poor and dispossessed in the United Kingdom and abroad, including those affected by landmines.
18 5. THE DEATH OF DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 5. 1. The circumstances of the death Diana, Princess of Wales noted Dodi Fayed for the first time in 1987 and they later encountered at several social gatherings. But only after her divorce from the Prince of Wales in August 1996, they fell deeply in love and developed an intimate relationship. Diana, Princess of Wales was free again and nothing prevented them from spending a lot of time together, enjoying each other´s presence and whispering words of love. Dodi Fayed was the very opposite to her former husband. She found with him everything she had lacked with the Prince of Wales. Dodi was always ready to give ear to her, adore her beauty, rain gifts on her, share her interests and console her in her moods. Being with him, she did not have to feign and could be herself. In other words, they were head over heels in love. Diana, Princess of Wales also watched with pleasure that Dodi´s relationship with her sons was very good. They all spent a holiday together in Saint Tropez in July 1997.
On the fateful night, 30 August 1997, the couple was dining in the Ritz Hotel in Paris, one of the hotels owned by Dodi´s father, a multimillionaire Mohamed Al Fayed. Dodi endowed Diana, Princess of Wales with an exquisite engagement ring and they agreed on announcing their engagement to the public in the near future. The couple wanted to have a dinner in a cosy corner of the restaurant but the pack of tiresome photographers prevented them from doing so. The indefatigable paparazzi kept on standing for hours in front of the hotel in order to capture a photograph of the prominent couple. They were fully aware of the fact that a picture like that would make them a fortune and did not hesitate to hunt after compromising details in the relationship of the two.
Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi were bothered by the paparazzi´s pestering and decided to leave the Ritz Hotel for Dodi´s private villa. Dodi arranged evading tactics with the hotel staff in order to bewilder the paparazzi waiting on the hotel forecourt. The couple usually travelled by Mercedes 600 but that night Dodi´s personal chauffeur took the limousine and drove it from the main entrance, turned round after a few kilometres and returned back to the hotel. While the paparazzi were chasing the empty limousine, Dodi and Diana, Princess of Wales took an inconspicuous model, a Mercedes 280 S. Shortly after the midnight the couple was ready to go. They chose the
19 back exit which led out on to the narrow street Rue Cambon. Dodi instructed the security man at the hotel, Henri Paul, to drive the Mercedes 280 S. Henri Paul had primarily thought he would spend a free evening because he was not on duty that night. But when Dodi asked him to drive the car, he as a loyal employee could not refuse Dodi´s request.
Diana, Princess of Wales´s bodyguard Trevor Rees Jones sat in the front seat, Dodi and Diana, Princess of Wales in the back. It is worth mentioning, that only the bodyguard fastened the seat belt, which later saved his life. The car drove away to weave in and out through the traffic of night Paris. Nearly immediately the paparazzi started chasing the Mercedes 280 S with the prominent passangers. There was a small number of more experienced paparazzi who had not been tricked by Dodi´s camouflage with the decoy car, and who were patiently on the watch near the back exit of the Ritz Hotel. At the Place de la Concorde they grew larger in numbers as they probably stayed in contact using mobile phones. The paparazzi presumed that the couple´s destination would be the Fayeds´ residency at the bank of the river Seine. George F. Canon falsifies this theory in his book and suggests his own, claiming that „Dodi has owned a small flat at Rue Arséne Houssaye that has been under wraps from almost all his surroundings for years and Dodi was going to spend the last night in Paris with Diana, Princess of Wales there.“ (Canon, 1997, p. 28) His theory, however, cannot be taken as reliable because no other evidence either to confirm or disprove his assertion was found.
Wherever the limousine steered for, the fact remains that it was pursued in various vehicles by nine French photographers and a motocycle courier. The driver Henri Paul speeded up because he wanted to outdrive the paparazzi under all conditions. With squeeking tyres he accelerated away. He took the fast road Cours la Reine at the harbour of the river Seine, drove through Cours Albert 1 er and headed for the tunnel under the Place de Alma. The speed limit here is 50 kilometer per hour but he drove full 180. Shortly after the entrance to the tunnel he completely lost control of the heavy car. The car struck a glancing blow to the right hand wall, lurched from side to side and finally crashed at high speed into the 13th concrete pillar. It was exactly 0:25 a.m. on Sunday morning, 31 August 1997. (www.princessdiana.com)
The driver Henri Paul was dead at the scene. The bodyguard Trevor Rees Jones lay in a critical position on the passenger side. He was unconscious, but alive. Dodi Fayed lost
20 his life at the scene of the accident. Diana, Princess of Wales, who was sitting next to her lover, lay crunched up in the back, her head was clamped between the two front seats. She was still breathing and miraculously she had hardly any bleeding wounds. At the time of the accident, Dr. Frederic Mailliez was driving on the opposite carriageway. When he saw the crash, he stopped his car, took his emergency bag and ran to the crashed car. He did not know who the passengers were. He recognised that the driver and the man sitting at the left back seat were both dead. He noticed that the second man at the front had received severe external injuries, so he first gave the bodyguard medical attention. Diana, Princess of Wales made rowing movements with her arms, indicating she was not receiving enough oxygen. The doctor laid an oxygen mask over her mouth. (www.princessdiana.com)
The paparazzi reached the scene of the accident closely after the collision. They took notice that some of the passengers were alive and needed help. One of the photographers called an ambulance and Dr. Frederick Mailliez did it later on as well. Some of the paparazzi were taken aback by seeing the casualties and hesitated to take photographs. But some bloodthirsty photographers were fiercely taking pictures of groaning Diana, Princess of Wales. The ambulance came at 0:32 a.m. but it took almost an hour until the victims could be taken out of the wreck. The car had to be first cut open using metal shears.
Diana, Princess of Wales was freed, alive, from the wreckage, and after some delay due to attempts to stabilize her at the scene, she was taken by ambulance to the La Pitie Salpetriere Hospital. Here she underwent two hours of emergency surgery. The surgeons opened her chest and discovered a torn vein, together with massive inner bleeding. They managed to close the vein but suddenly her heart stopped. The doctors tried to bring Diana, Princess of Wales back to life using heart massage. The fallacious fight lasted until shortly before four o´clock in the morning. Despite attempts to stabilize her, her internal injuries were too extensive and the doctors had to agree that they had lost the fight. The death has won and at 3:57 a.m. the doctors pronounced Diana, Princess of Wales dead.
5. 2. The reaction of the British Royal Family and public to the death
The Queen, her husband Prince Philip, Prince Charles and the young Princes William
21 and Harry were spending a few days in Scotland at Balmoral Castle. For the time being, they had no idea of a tragedy that affected their family. During the Sunday night, 31 August 1997, Prince Charles was informed by the telephone about his former wife´s terrible accident. He stayed awake for the rest of the night to find out how Diana, Princess of Wales was. At 5:00 BST the Prince of Wales was briefed on Diana, Princess of Wales´s passing. He fell into shock and could hardly speak a word. Then, he went to his mother´s chambers and told her the terrible news. The Queen was completely at a loss. After spending some time alone, the Prince of Wales was facing the most difficult job of his life: he had to wake his sons and tell them the gruesome truth. „Your mother has died“ he said in a low and soft voice and gathered the sons in his arms. (Canon, 1998, p. 70) The Princes William and Harry were still half asleep and it took quite a while until they could understand what their father was talking about.
The same morning the Royal Family attended a regular Sunday Mass at a church near Balmoral. The mass took place a few hours after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales but her name was not even mentioned. The Princes had to bear the onlookers and the many press photographers. We can barely anticipate which feelings the children of the dead mother had to bear.
The Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales´s elder sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes left for Paris to collect Diana, Princess of Wales´s body. It was subsequently repatriated to the United Kingdom in the evening of Sunday, 31 August by a BAe 146 aircraft of the Royal Squadron. Upon arrival at RAF airport in Northolt, the coffin, draped with a Royal Standard, was removed from the aircraft and transferred to a waiting hearse. Then the coffin was taken to private mortuary in London, so that the necessary legal formalities could be completed. Shorly after midnight, the coffin was moved to the Chapel Royal in St James´s Palace, where it lay privately until the funeral on Saturday, 6 September 1997, in Westminster Abbey. The Diana, Princess of Wales´s family and friends visited the Chapel to pay their respects. (www.royal.gov.uk)
When the news of the Diana, Princess of Wales´s death became known in the early hours of Sunday morning, the first floral tributes started to arrive at Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace. In the following days people literally laid a carpet of flowers and cards in the gardens of the palace. Her family´s estate of Althorp was so crowded
22 with mourning people and flooded with flowers that the public was asked to stop arriving there for safety reasons. At the same time, books of condolence were opened at St James´s Palace. London witnessed the extraordinary sight of people of all ages, class and race queuing for hours to write their own personal tribute to a much loved Diana, Princess of Wales. Over 175,000 letters and 150,000 cards were received at Kensington Palace and 200,000 letters and tributes at St James´s Palace. Each one had to be opened and recorded because many of them contained donations of money for the newly established Memorial Fund. (www.dianacelebration.com)
The reaction of the members of the Royal Family was not so hearty as the public would it desire to be. The British citizens mourned over Diana, Princess of Wales´s death and expected the Royal court to do as well. The Royal Family´s rigid adherence to protocol was interpreted by the public as a lack of compassion and caused unprecedented resentment and outcry. The Queen´s refusal to fly the Union Flag at half mast resulted in a sharp criticism of the media. „Where is our Queen? Where is our flag?“ the newspaper asked. (Canon, 1998, p. 90) The Queen reluctantly did it a few days later. The fact that the Queen did not deliver any speech to the grief stricken nation made the people feel very angry against her. In public opinion, she should also show her anticipation in the general mourning.
The Prince of Wales was the only member of the Royal Family who openly showed his grief over the death of Diana, Princess of Wales which he shared with his sons. His shocking sincerity was much appreciated by the public but in all the reaction of the Royal Family continued to be regarded as cold and abstract. The Queen was in the end forced to leave Balmoral and return to London as the public pressure kept on growing. Moreover, she agreed to a television and radio broadcast to the nation on 5 September 1997. At the urging of the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, what was to be a recorded piece became a live broadcast. It was also recommended to the Queen to make her speech more „human“. The British sovereign was dressed in black and in her long awaited speech she apart from other things declared „Diana, Princess of Wales was an exceptional person and I fully share your resolution to retain her in your memories.“ (Canon, 1998, p. 93)
A sharp debate, concerning the organisation of the Diana, Princess of Wales´s funeral, aroused within the Royal Family. The public took an opinion that Diana, Princess of
23 Wales deserved a state burial but the Queen spurned to honour her former daughter in law with a state burial. The public opinion was strongly supported by the opinions of the Prime Minister Tony Blair and by the Prince of Wales. Being always obedient and subordinate to his mother, he for this once revolted against her will and insisted that Diana, Princess of Wales be honoured with a state burial. Yet as the public pressure grew ever stronger, she admitted that there would be a unique ceremony for a remarkable woman.
5. 3. The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales The funeral took place on Saturday, 6 September 1997. The mourning procession followed the coffin from the Chapel Royal in St James´s Palace along the Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey. The Prince of Wales, The Princes William and Harry, The Prince Philip and Earl Charles Spencer led the procession. The funeral service started with the national anthem and then many speeches of prominent guests followed. Among others, The Prime Minister Tony Blair, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Lady Jane Fellowes and Earl Charles Spencer gave their speeches in order to worship Diana, Princess of Wales´s memory.
During his speech, Earl Charles Spencer time after time struggled with the tears. He wrote the text himself and had not consulted on it with the Royal Family beforehand. He wanted to prevent anything being struck from his text. From an extraordinary and very personal viewpoint he paid tribute to his deceased sister. His speech, however, contained a hardly hidden critique of the English royal court. Diana, Princess of Wales was depicted as a person with a natural nobility and someone who proved in months prior to her death, that she needed no Royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic. He also promised to protect the two Princes from the coldness of the palace. Here is an excerpt from his tribute:
”I stand before you today, the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning before a world in shock. We are all united not only in our desire to pay our respects to Diana but rather in our need to do so. For such was her extraordinary appeal that the tens of millions of people taking part in this service all over the world via television and radio who never actually met her, feel that they too lost someone close to them in the early hours of Sunday Morning.
……Today is our chance to say thank you for the way you brightened our lives, even though God granted you but half a life. We will all feel cheated always that you were taken from us so young and yet we must learn to be grateful that you came along at all.
24 Only now that you are gone do we truly appreciate what we are now without and we want you to know that life without you is very, very difficult.
……I would like to end by thanking God for the small mercies he has shown us at this dreadful time. For taking Diana at her most beautiful and radiant and when she had joy in her private life. Above all we give thanks for the life of a woman I am so proud to be able to call my sister, the unique, the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana, whose beauty, both internal and external, will never be extinguished from our minds.”
(Earl Charles Spencer, www.dianacelebration.com/exhibition/tribute.htm )
Throughout his speech, the congregation broke into spontaneous applause for several times and the etiquette was disregarded. Elton John, a famous rock music singer, performed his hit „Candle in the Wind“ in a re written version dedicated to the late Diana, Princess of Wales. The service was televised live throughout the world, and loudspeakers were placed outside the church so the crowds could hear the proceedings. After the funeral service, the coffin was taken by road to the family estate at Althorp for a private interment. There were only four people present: the Princes William and Harry, the Prince of Wales and Earl Charles Spencer. Diana, Princess of Wales was buried in sainted ground on an island in the middle of a lake called the Round Oval.
On a day of Diana, Princess of Wales´s burial, Buckingham Palace offered to Earl Charles Spencer to return the title Her Royal Highness to the late Diana, Princess of Wales. The offer came from the Queen and the Prince of Wales, and was conveyed by Sir Robert Fellowes, the husband of Diana, Princess of Wales´s sister Lady Jane Fellowes. The offer was refused by Earl Charles Spencer with the justification that it would not have been Diana, Princess of Wales´s wish to have the title back after her death.
5. 4. Conspiracy theories Diana, Princess of Wales claimed that there was a plot to kill her in an accident made to look like a car accident. She expressed the idea in a handwritten letter only 10 months before she died. She gave it to her butler Paul Burrell with orders that he should keep it as „insurance“ for the future. At the time the letter was written Diana, Princess of Wales was plagued by insecurities and even believed that her Kensington Palace apartments
25 were bugged. Paul Burrell revealed the letter in his book „A Royal Duty“ published in 2003. Diana, Princess of Wales predicted: „I am sitting here at my desk today in October, longing for someone to hug me and encourage me to keep strong and hold my head high. This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous. My husband is planning ´an accident´ in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for him to marry.“ (Burrell, 2004, p. 344)
In Burrell´s book the words „my husband“ were blanked out XXXXX and „him“ was replaced with „Charles“ because of the Prince of Wales´s interests. The full version was revealed only later in newspapers. Except from writing the letter to Paul Burrell, Diana, Princess of Wales expressed her fears in a heart to heart chat at Kensington Palace with Ingrid Seward, a royal biographer just two months before her death.
Immediately after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, many speculations and conspiracy theories emerged. Some of them were based on relevant evidence and logical arguments while some were pure guesswork presented by gutter press. Let us have a detailed look at them and analyse them from a different standpoints to find out their accuracy.
Among the most frequently cited theories belongs the theory of a royal plot to get rid of Diana, Princess of Wales. The Royal Family is suspected to have ordered Diana, Princess of Wales´s assassination with British Secret Services MI5 or MI6. Two main possible motives are presented. One of them was mentioned in Diana, Princess of Wales´s prediction – her death would make the path clear for Prince Charles to marry Mrs. Camilla Parker Bowles. This does not seem very probable because after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales people adored her even more than throughout her life and glorified her as a martyr. That being supposed, they would hardly accept Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles as the Prince of Wales´s new spouse. During the Prince of Wales´s first marriage, the public openly preffered Diana, Princess of Wales to Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles. The former was seen as a victim and the latter as an invader and violator to the royal couple´s marriage.
The fact is that the Royal Family could have not fully estimated the public reaction to
26 the Diana, Princess of Wales´s death and were convinced they could cope with it. As we have later witnessed, the Royal Family did underestimate the public reaction and failed to act properly. In addition, it would have been more profitable for Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles if Diana, Princess of Wales had stayed alive and had married an Egyptian Dodi Fayed. It would have been more probable that she would have been condemned by the public for marrying a Muslim. But one never knows….
It is also highly unlikely that the Prince of Wales would have ordered Diana, Princess of Wales´s assassination. She was the mother of his sons and he knew very well how much they loved her. Ordering her assassination, the Prince of Wales would have wounded his sons´ feelings above all. Be it as it may, the Prince of Wales does not look like someone having a heart to do so.
Another possible motive why the Royal Family could have been interested in Diana, Princess of Wales´s death is her alleged intention to marry Dodi Fayed and moreover to give a birth to his child. A future like this was a ´nightmare´ for some members of the Royal Family as it would have discredited the monarchy. The relationship between Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed was a thorn in Prince Philip´s flesh in particular. It was absolutely unacceptable for the monarchy that the successors to the throne should have a Muslim step father or Muslim step siblings. Based on some medical reports, Diana, Princess of Wales was pregnant at the time of her death but the sources very close to her strongly rejected the information as fabricated.
A potential marriage of Diana, Princess of Wales with Dodi Fayed had also one aspect, more or less a political one. The rumour is that Dodi Fayed in fact did not love Diana, Princess of Wales and he used her only as a means for being granted a British citizenship. Dodi´s father Mohamed Al Fayed had never been granted a British citizenship although he had struggled for it for years. He hoped that marrying Diana, Princess of Wales, his son would be granted the British citizenship and would ensure to his father an access to British elite. It is necessary to observe that the Fayeds were not welcome in the United Kingdom although or maybe because of that Mohamed Al Fayed was a successful businessman.
Supposedly, it is not worth examining the theory that Diana, Princess of Wales was killed by landmine producers who felt themselves aggrieved over her campaign against
27 using landmines. We will also not take into consideration a sporadic theory claiming that the crash was aimed at killing Dodi Fayed, not Diana, Princess of Wales because of his dirty business practices. Both theories are highly unlikely and we will rather draw attention to French inquest findings.
5. 5. Inquest findings
An inquest of French authorities into the car accident started in the days after the accident. It was necessary to hear out all the witnesses, gather the evidences, analyse the testimonies, conclude the causes of accident and denominate the culprits. It was no easy task because many evidences were opposing each other and too many people were involved in the accident.
In 1999, a French investigation concluded the Mercedes 280 S driven by Henri Paul had come into contact with another vehicle (a white Fiat Uno) in the tunnel. However, the driver of that vehicle has never come forward, and the vehicle itself has not been found. The investigators drew a conclusion that the crash was an accident brought on by an intoxicated driver attempting to elude pursuing paparazzi at high speed. Notwithstanding, there are so many inconsistencies in the official account that the subject has been left wide open for speculation.
The conclusion that the driver Henri Paul was drunk was arrived at due to an analysis of blood samples, which revealed his blood to contain a level of alcohol (1,87 g/l) three times over the French legal limit (0,5 g/l). Pictures recorded by the security cameras at the Ritz Hotel, taken just before the couple´s departure, were made public in response to these claims and appear to show Henri Paul to be walking straightly and ostensibly non affected by the large amount of alcohol he was claimed to have consumed. The blood samples also revealed an alarmingly high level of carbon monoxide, so much so, that it has been claimed it would have made Henri Paul unable to stand, let alone drive a car. (www.englishmonarchs.co.uk)
Some people maintain this strongly indicates that the samples had been tampered. The parents of Henri Paul sought permission to carry out their own independent tests on the blood samples of their son, along with DNA tests to definitely prove or disprove they are his. To the displeasure of Henri Paul´s family advocate, the permission was denied them. If there was everything all right with the blood samples and they were really
28 Paul´s, then there was nothing to worry about and the permission could have been granted, couldn´t it? Or did the police know something that could not be made public?
Small traces of tiaprise – used to treat pain or aggression, often in chronic alcoholics and a therapeutic dose of fluoxetine, the key active ingredient in the anti depressant Prozac were also found in the blood samples. (www.prisonplanet.com) There exists a conjecture that the person who took Henri Paul´s head off the car horn after the crash injected him with a syringe containing a cocktail of alcohol and other drugs. But it sounds at least too risky and complicated. It would have still been much easier to mix up the samples in the laboratory, wouldn´t it?
The parents of Henri Paul keep affirming that their son was no alcoholic but some of his friends and workmates from the Ritz Hotel admit he was fond of drinking and from time to time spent an evening at the hotel bar. The question arises that if Henri Paul really was drunk at the night of the car accident, then why Dodi Fayed or the bodyguard Trevor Rees Jones have allowed him to drive a car? Their lives were at stake and it was up to them to be conscious and not put their lives into the hands of an obviously drunk chauffeur.
The paparazzi who were chasing the Mercedes 280 S soon became a butt of criticism and were blamed for the death of three innocent people. Seven photographers were put under arrest and interrogated by the police. They were later accused of involuntary manslaughter and not giving first aid to people in danger. In 2002, they were cleared of the charges. Three of them, namely Christian Martinez, Fabrice Chassery, and Jacques Langevin were also accused of breaching French privacy laws but in November 2003 they were cleared of the accusation. Despite the fact that the photographers were cleared of all charges, an irrefutable fact remains that the driver Henri Paul was forced to go at a mad pace to get rid of the intrusive paparazzi.
The Spencers family accepted the French inquiry findings „without reservation“, believing Diana, Princess of Wales died in a car accident. On the contrary, Dodi´s father, Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, refuses to accept the French inquiry findings and believes that his son and Diana, Princess of Wales were murdered in a plot arranged by British Secret Services. He has spent thousands of pounds pursuing his own investigations. His theory does not seem to be very fitting because all the arrangements
29 for the journey to Dodi´s flat that night were changed at the last minute on Dodi´s orders – the car, the driver, the route.
The French police finished the investigation in 2002, concluding that the accident was caused by a drunk chauffeur driving too fast and colliding with another car in the tunnel.
On 6 January 2004, seven years after the tragic accident, an inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales opened in London, held by Michael Burgess, the coroner of The Queen´s Household. After two year investigation, the official inquiry concluded in March 2006 that Diana, Princess of Wales had died in a simple car accident. There was no evidence she had been killed unlawfully. Lord Stevens, former Metropolitan Police chief, and his team of ten detectives have found no evidence to contradict the French findings.
However, the British inquest has not ended yet. The latest news of British investigation team from May 2006 reveal previously unknown facts about Henri Paul. The chauffeur is said to have had a three hour meeting with British and French spies on the night of the tragedy. During the meeting, he was told to drive the second car carrying Dodi and Diana, Princess of Wales rather than one of the Ritz security staff. He was also instructed to take a route through Paris that would take the pair on a longer journey than necessary to get to Dodi´s apartment. Henri Paul was paid 2000 pounds in cash for this mission by both French and British intelligence services. By giving Henri Paul a detailed route to follow, it is said the spies knew exactly where the Mercedes 280 S would be at all times.
Lord Stevens´s investigation also revealed that when Mr Burgess had the wrecked Mercedes 280 S shipped to England in July 2005, the car was incomplete! The right front door of the car was destroyed in a fire in a secure attic storeroom in the Palais de Justice in Paris in 1999. Its loss was kept quiet by French authorities and when it was revealed, the French judge insisted the fire be an accident. The right front wing was crushed on the orders of a French judge carried out on 17 June 2003. Unfortunately, French procedure permits the destruction of objects once all legal actions have terminated. Needless to say, the loss of the car parts prevented the British experts from examining the wrecked car properly. (www.princessdiana.com)
30 There is a summary of the known evidence that indicate there was something wrong with the accident. These are things that were never explained and which deserve an explanation, no matter how long it will take to uncover the truth:
• just before the Mercedes 280 S entered the tunnel every police radio in Paris enigmatically died, preventing a quick response which could have saved Diana, Princess of Wales´s life, • just before the Merceders 280 S entered the tunnel every security camera in the tunnel mysteriously ceased to operate, preventing the detectives from ever seeing record of what caused the crash,
Of course, the drop out of the technical equipment could have been caused purely by chance but is not a failure of two important devices too much for one moment?
• the crime scene was completely cleaned within hours after the crash, which prevented the detectives from preserving important evidences. The tunnel was opened a few hours after the accident,
Why did the French police allow the scene of the crime to be cleared before a proper investigation and reservation of evidences proceeded?
• the brakes of the Mercedes 280 S could have been tampered or any part of the vehicle sabotaged,
Why did the French police refuse Daimler Benz´s offer to send their own engineers to help with the investigation?
• Diana, Princess of Wales was still alive after the crash. The slow speed of the ambulance and the fact that it passed several nearer hospitals before reaching its destination, the La Pitie Salpetriere Hospital, ensured Diana, Princess of Wales was nearly dead upon arrival.
Was it really indispensable to transport the wounded to the La Pitie Salpetriere Hospital? The choice of the hospital was later justified by the assertion that the La Pitie Salpetriere Hospital disposed of the best medical equipment from all nearby hospitals. But of what avail is it if the patient is dead upon the arrival to the hospital? It may be
31 interesting to compare two different opinions on first aid medical treatment – one of a French and the other of an American doctors.
Dr. Fréderic Mailliez, the first doctor to treat Diana, Princess of Wales after the accident, shows up the French medical routine „The French doctors attempt to stabilize the patient at the scene of the accident and only then the patient is transported to the hospital.“ Dr. David Wasserman clears up the American routine which is different from a French one. The American doctors prefer a quick transportation of the patient to the hospital and treating their injuries there to stabilizing the patient at the scene of the accident. Dr. Wasserman claims that „using our routine we save more lives than ever before.“ (Sancton & MacLeod, 1998, p. 38 39)
• the driver of a white Fiat Uno known to have been involved in the accident, has never come forward, or been traced, although scratches of its paint were found on the wreckage of the Mercedes 280 S,
Why has the driver chosen not even to draw out the details to the French police – something he/she could have done anonymously?
The collision of Mercedes 280 S with the white Fiat Uno could have been pre planned and performed deliberately but there also may not have been anything suspicious about the car and its involvement in the crash – it could have been a genuine accident. It is possible that the car had been stolen and the driver decided not to stop. It is also possible that the car was being driven by someone who was an illegal immigrant or did not have legal documents – or even someone who was banned from driving or drunk that night. (www.fantompowa.net) One thing is clear: unless the driver of the white Fiat Uno is found, speculations will continue about the motives and identity of the driver. It can be openly stated that the police has been facing a pretty difficult task. Nowadays, it seems impossible for the detectives to trace the driver after so many years provided too many things could have happened since 1997, such as the driver might have died in years following the accident.
• multiple eyewitnesses reported a mysterious flash of light immediately before the crash. Many people insist that this was a laser directed at the driver to cause temporary blindness leading to the crash,
32 • after the crash it was revealed that Henri Paul had huge amounts of money deposited in a bank – far in excess of what he would have been able to earn working at the Ritz Hotel,
Is it true or fiction that Henri Paul was an MI6 agent?
• Diana, Princess of Wales, Dodi Fayed, and Henri Paul were not wearing the seat belts when the car crashed. Trevor Rees Jones, the only survivor, had his seat belt on, although the bodyguards usually do not fasten the seat belts,
Had the bodyguard known in advance that the car was going to crash?
The British security expert Richard Cuerdon referring to the car accident said: „He (Trevor Rees Jones) is the evidence of the fact that it was possible to survive the lethal crash“ and added that „hypothetically if Diana, Princess of Wales had been wearing the seat belt she would have had the same or maybe a higher chance to survive the accident.“ (Canon, 1997, p. 48 49)
There are many other ifs in the case, such as:
If Diana, Princess of Wales, had not fell in love with Dodi Fayed………If the couple had not travelled to Paris…….If the driver had not speeded in order to elude the pursuing paparazzi………If the driver had not been drunk that night…………Diana, Princess of Wales could be still alive today.
5. 6. The impact of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on the individual members of the family and on the monarchy as a whole
It is an indisputable fact that the death of Diana, Princess of Wales touched the lives of members of the Royal Family in a negative respect. It goes without saying, that her death was a bad blow for the Princes William and Harry first of all. The cruel death deprived them of their beloved mother and they suffered most from the Royal Family in the days following the death and burial of Diana, Princess of Wales. The grief was worsened by the fact that her death was completely unexpected and it came out of the blue. From day to day, the Princes were left in hands of their reserved grandmother and an indecisive father. Those two members of the Royal Family were responsible for the Princes´ upbringing.
33 Diana, Princess of Wales got along well with some members of the Royal Family and they will definitely miss her. She maintained good relations with the Prince Andrew, Duke of York and his spouse. During her marriage, Diana, Princess of Wales, did not develop a close relation with her mother in law and their mutual communication did not go beyond the official level. The Queen did not approve of Diana, Princess of Wales´s behaviour very often and with Diana, Princess of Wales´s death the Queen could be sure that the rebellious former daughter in law would not wake snakes any more. Diana, Princess of Wales was not on good terms with the Prince Philip maybe thanks to the fact that he gave the Prince of Wales cold shoulder and Diana, Princess of Wales was sensitive enough to recognize that. The Prince Philip objected to Diana, Princess of Wales´s relationship with Dodi Fayed and luckily for him her decease terminated a threat to the monarchy in form of Diana, Princess of Wales´s potential marriage with Dodi.
The death of Diana, Princess of Wales shaked the monarchy foundations and even more weakened a shaky position of the monarchy in the public´s eyes. Two abortive marriages resulting in divorce caused monarchy trouble in past and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales harmed the monarchy reputation as well. As soon as first speculations and inquiry findings were made public, some people blamed the Royal Family for having conspired Diana, Princess of Wales´s assassination. The antipathy to the monarchy was fortified with the cold and halting reaction of the palace to her death which was considered by the public as a lack of respect to Diana, Princess of Wales´s memory. In years prior to death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the popularity of the monarchy within the public kept slightly decreasing but after her death it dropped alarmingly. There even appeared suggestions about abolishing the monarchy and declaring a republic.
34 6. THE LIFE GOES ON 6. 1. The course of life without Diana, Princess of Wales in the British Royal Family and perspectives on the future
Although the death of Diana, Princess of Wales made the path clear for the Prince of Wales to marry Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles, it took eight years before the wedding took place. There were not many people who believed that the Prince of Wales would ever remarry. However, the Prince of Wales has hoped against hope through the years that once he may be allowed to marry his true love and his dream has come true after 25 years of waiting. On 10 February 2005, it was announced by Clarence House that the Prince of Wales and Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles would marry on 8 April of that year, in a civil ceremony at Windsor Castle, with a subsequent religious blessing at the castle´s St George´s Chapel. The location was sequentially changed to the Guildhall in Windsor and the wedding was delayed for one day to 9 April because of the funeral of Pope John Paul II. After the marriage, Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles is styled Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall . Upon the Prince Charles´s accession to the throne, she would be known as Her Royal Highness The Princess Consort . (en.wikipedia.org)
No matter how hard and responsibly the Prince of Wales has been preparing for the role of a future king during his lifetime, it is not certain at all that he will ever have a chance to prove his qualities of a sovereign. The Queen has recently declared that she would reign until her death. It is more likely that the Prince of Wales will abdicate the throne for the benefit of Prince William and Prince William will become a king instead of his father. The public attention is thus drawn to the young Prince William. He is considered to be a promise for the future and expected to change the stiff royalistic traditions and put the Royal Family near the public. It may be the last chance for the monarchy to secure its running in the future.
35 CONCLUSION
There is no question that the case of tragic accident of Diana, Princess of Wales has been one of the most complicated issues that both the French and British investigation teams have ever been solving. In France, the accident inquiry lasted much longer than it had been expected on the score of an extreme amount of witnesses and other people involved in the accident. The British inquiry started in 2004 and for the time being fractional inquiry findings were disclosed this year. In the United Kingdom, an inquiry is always gone off in the event of a British citizen´s bereavement abroad. In addition, the French inquiry findings were considered to be unsatisfactory and the French police was accused of alleged suppressing the evidences.
Nevertheless, the inquiry into the Diana, Princess of Wales´s death by British investigation team continues and we will have to wait until the newest inquiry findings are published. But this is not expected before January 2007. No matter what the final inquiry findings will be, one fact is unchangeable – the car accident claimed the life of three innocent young people. A prospective punishment of the culprits will only be a moral satisfaction for the victims´ families.
I hope I managed to treat the issue well and the aim of the thesis was fulfiled at least partially. I do believe that the observations concerning the case presented here will be serviceable for future research work. However, the mystery of accident that resulted in the death of Diana, Princess of Wales has not been deciphered yet, and it is possible that it will stay unsolved evermore.
36 RESUMÉ
Tématem mé bakalářské práce je tragická smrt Diany, princezny z Walesu. Ani v průběhu devíti let od osudné autonehody se vyšetřovatelům nepodařilo s určitostí objasnit, zda byla její smrt způsobena obyčejnou dopravní nehodou nebo se Diana, princezna z Walesu stala obětí spiknutí svých nepřátel. Z tohoto důvodu jsem se rozhodla problematikou její předčasné smrti zabývat ve své bakalářské práci s cílem pokusit se proniknout do pozadí tohoto složitého případu.
První kapitola představuje Dianu jako mladou dívku a přibližuje její život před tím, než se stala manželkou prince z Walesu. Druhá kapitola se zabývá manželstvím královského páru a problémy, které se záhy po svatbě v manželství vyskytly. Třetí kapitola pojednává o odloučení a následném rozvodu královské dvojice, jejíž manželství již od začátku neplnilo svoji funkci a bylo odsouzeno k nezdaru. Ve čtvrté kapitole je oceněna princeznina angažovanost v charitativních projektech po celém světě.
Nejrozsáhlejší pátá kapitola je stěžejní kapitolou bakalářské práce a zaměřuje se na okolnosti a příčiny smrti Diany, princezny z Walesu. Je v ní podrobně popsán průběh osudné noci, kdy došlo k tragické autonehodě v Paříži, jsou zde prezentovány možné motivy spiknutí, analyzovány dosavadní výsledky vyšetřování a zkoumán dopad smrti Diany, princezny z Walesu na další chod monarchie. Poslední šestá kapitola se snaží odhadnout budoucí vývoj a směr, kterým se bude britská monarchie pravděpodobně ubírat.
37 BIBLIOGRAPHY BURRELL, Paul. Královská služba, [transl. Žižková, H.], 1 st publ. , Ostrava: Domino, 2004, 420 pages, ISBN 80 7303 193 0 CANON, George F. Tajemství života a smrti lady Diany , 1st publ. , Praha: ETC Publishing, 1997, 205 pages, ISBN 80 8600 50 6 DAVIES, Nicholas. Princezna a její manželské maléry , [transl. Škoda, F.], 1st publ. , Praha: Premiéra, a. s. , 1992, 232 pages, ISBN 80 85479 13 3 DAVIES, Nicholas. Princezna, která změnila svět , [transl. Hlínková, D.], 1st publ. , Plzeň: NAVA, 1998, 190 pages, ISBN 80 7211 026 8 DEMPSTER, Nigel; EVANS, Peter. Za branami paláce [transl. Volejníková, T.], 1st publ. , Praha: Lunarion, 1994, 238 pages, ISBN 80 85774 10 0 JEPHSON, Patrick D. Diana, princezna z Walesu , [transl. Michnová, D.], Praha: Columbus, 2003, 567 pages, ISBN 80 7249 134 2
SANCTON, Thomas; MACLEOD Scott. Smrt princezny: Pravda o Dianě, [transl. Klepáč, P. ; Vlasová, H.], 1st publ. , Praha: Ikar, 1998, 262 pages, ISBN 80 7202 367 5 Internet sources
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38 Kerr, Jane. Diana letter sensation: 'They Will Try To Kill Me' . London Mirror [online] c2003 [cit. 20. 10. 2003] available from:
39 Watson, Joseph P. Princess Diana Predicted Her Assassination. [online] c2003 available from:
40 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1: The Prince and Princess of Wales on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on their wedding day on July 29, 1981 (picture) Appendix 2: Diana, Princess of Wales arriving at the Royal Albert Hall for a gala performance of Swan Lake on June 3, 1997 (picture) Appendix 3: Althorp Park: the Oval and the Island – Diana, Princess of Wales´s final resting place (picture) Appendix 4: Althorp Park: Diana, Princess of Wales´s Temple (picture)
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