Royal row between King Charles and Earl Spencer

[Viviennemary]

Buckingham Palace said they don't usually comment but they can't stay silent. Apparently Prince Charles said at the time of Diana's death rest assured we'll forget her soon enough. Which is pretty horrendous. Charles has more or less said grief had clouded Earl Spencer's judgement and memory.

I don't know why he has waited nearly 30 years to come out with this.

When she died I was living in a small town in the Midlands and so we got the first editions of the papers - one of them which had obviously gone to print before her death was announced had a picture of her with Dodi in Paris and a headline about how her behaviour was bringing shame on Britain and the Royal Family.
Of course the next day the same paper was all "We've Lost The People's Princess" stuff.

Which is why I don’t fully understand why the public supported the eventual marriage of Charles and Camilla , given how appallingly they treated her.

I can’t not stand KC, not that I know him obviously. But I don’t believe for once second he made such a disparaging comment.

I feel sorry for all of them tbh.
Imagine having family members publicly divulge things that may or may not have been said in private and in grief. I'd be horrified wether what was said was true or not.
Sometimes ,when i read posts on here about family fall outs ,i often wonder what the other sides recollections are.
Because as the late great HMQ said ...recollections may vary.
The truth is unless we were present ,we will never know the truth of this.

I didn’t realise this. Thank you for the clarification.

As you said who knows 🤷‍♀️
I'm glad though that Charles has issued the statement. Too many people have thought he was a pushover.

We only have Harry's word for what happened. He said they had been told to do it. Their uncle intervened and called it barbaric. Permission was sought to get them out of it. Permission granted re Harry but denied re William. Harry decided not to leave William to do it alone.

Why would you expect two different people to react in the same way ? 🤷‍♀️

This. They are all human beings and it was indeed a shock to everyone. The situation with Diana had been difficult before she died (although I still think she and Charles were friendly at this stage) and lots of people were trying to come to terms with what had happened and maybe even apportion blame. The situation was unprecedented and it was being dealt with on the fly and with several oars being stuck in (eg Tony Blair), when at the end of a day it was a family trying to make sense of sudden loss. No wonder things were fraught and there was potential for disagreement and misunderstanding

Agreed.

He fought for her to have a state funeral. The RF didn't want the boys to walk - that was Tony " I'm a friend of the people" Blair.

If he'd been afraid of being bored, then surely the simplest thing would have been to support the private funeral. Or he could easily have said as ex-husband he shouldn't be walking.

I remember the time very clearly. Yes I think Princess Di was mentioned in the prayers in a "we pray for those grieving" type way, but a big thing was not made about it, and I would say a sensible option would have been not to mention it when the princes were there - just as I remember a friend requesting similar after her husband died because she didn't want to break down or have sympathetic looks. My fil deliberately avoided church the two weeks after my mil died, having been a absolutely every week without fail, again because he didn't want to be put on the spot when it would be mentioned.

I remember Charles S speech, and at the time wondered how uncomfortable it made the Princes feel. It was their family too he was attacking.
I'd also be interested to know how much he's actually done for them in the years after... I don't think much.

He lied. People do

I remember the same newspapers who had heavily scrutinised and criticised her relationship with Dodi Al Fayed completely changing their tune and insisting that as the mother of the future king she should have a state funeral.

My FIL was an estate worker at Balmoral, as was my late husband for a while. My FIL and MIL were invited to the Queen's coronation. I have the official letter instructing FIL to wear his military medals and coronation medal - I came across it after DH died.

DH was furious at the approbation being heaped on the Queen for staying at Balmoral with her grandsons: "Don't they understand? They're telling her to come 'home'...She is 'home'."

She was keeping her grandsons in a safe space, and the view that the Queen saw Balmoral as her home is, I think borne out by her decision to make it her final home. It's well known that one of the properties on the estate was being converted to accessible accommodation.

i recall DH telling me that the Queen's father, George VI, was known to have a helluva temper but he absolutely adored the Queen and the Queen Mother: he and his parents had nothing but kindness from them. (My MIL received a lovely letter of condolence from Clarence House when my FIL died. We passed the original to my stepson; I have a photocopy somewhere.)

DH only knew Charles as a boy, but one of DH's school friends worked so long at Balmoral that he had two long-service medals.

When the friend retired, he expected to get one of the retirement cottages on the estate, but one of the estate managers told him that this was no longer happening - it would be up to the friend to and his ancient mother to find their own accommodation. (This was around the time that the estate had started looking at using some of the peripheral properties as holiday lets.)

The friend wrote to the then Prince Charles. Charles sorted it out. The friend and his mother were given access to one of the retirement cottages.

Joining late having listened to some discussion of this on the radio.

All feels like a mountain out of a mole hill. Two privileged, spoilt and entitled men, used to having everything their own way, have an argument in the middle of a personal tragedy, which became a national crisis and a world wide media sensation. They say some stupid unforgivable things to one another, any reasonable person would leave it in the past.

Did KC say it, who knows, he would have been bloody stupid to think it let alone say it, anyone could see she would not be soon forgotten, she was not soon forgotten after divorce, she would not be soon forgotten in death. She will always be a future king, kings mother, in life or death. These people are not forgotten. So it was likely taken out of context either deliberately or unintentionally due to the high feelings at the time.

Neither man is a complete villain, but both, by continuing the feud will create more media attention and hurt others.

If he did say it, then he screwed up Royally.

Hmm that story seems to have been debunked. Also seems unlikely that two 18 year olds on a gap year would have gotten engaged, especially given how long William waited with his now wife.

Which other aristos are on the list of women who turned down marriage to William?

@MargaretThursday at the time the media said it was Charles idea for the boys to walk behind the coffin. Obviously none of us was there so don't know, but that was very widely reported at the time.

I was talking about the Sunday service the boys attended after their mother's death. Diana's death was not mentioned at all during the service. Not even in prayers. Yes nearly every other church service that Sunday said at a minimum prayers for the boys and family of princess Diana.

It is perfectly possible two 18 year olds decided to get engaged. It sounds exactly the kind of thing two 18 year olds enjoying a gap year would do.

That sort of nails it for me. I don't want to be riled up and dragged into something against my will by damaged and repressed people, and that's the problem with the continued existence of the Royal Family. Constitutionally, an increasing number of people are saying, "Enough is enough." I just don't want this.

And the more tawdry it becomes, and the more impoverished the UK seems to be heading, the worse the eventual crisis is likely to be.

(Also btw Jecca Craig is not an aristo.)

Truthfully I think the kindest thing is to abolish they monarchy.

Ok - but given you claimed I think that he had tried to get “multiple aristos” to marry him and have so far come up with one story which is disputed, and nvolves someone who is not an aristo, please do continue to provide some evidence.

I can easily believe he said it, he's known to have a right temper, especially when he's not getting his own way.

The older I get, the sorrier I feel for Diana, and I'm glad she's not been completely erased. And I say that as a life long republican.

Hear hear.

Some 18 year old's yes. No me. Probably not boring steady William who takes an age to make a decision and has had a lifetime of being told the importance of every decision he makes. What with being the future king and everything. 😂