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.

I think the RF are stuffed. I wish they would just quietly go away.

The behaviour of some of the public was equally bizarre. Adults leaving teddies and crying inconsolably for a woman they had never met and knew very limited amounts about (no social media at the time). Public pressure on the royal family to act in publicly approved ways. It was like a mass madness.

I agree. I was embarrassed to be British that week. It was the very worst example of grief tourism and utter lunacy.

His speech was not "extremely damning." Far from it

Here it is. I thought it was beautiful and heartfelt
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/diana/spencerfull.html

You're not wrong, Noodledog, and that "lack of the same affection" is certainly coming home to roost now - which is why monarchists had better hope that William makes a better fist of things when the time comes

Yeah this kind of middle class sneering was recorded in the private eye. I am sure if mn had existed there would have been a sneering thread.

It wasn’t only Britain!

I was in Thailand: it was my last day at work. We heard around lunchtime & later that afternoon I was seeing Thai people coming up to random foreigners to condole with them, puzzling German & American tourists who hadn’t yet heard.

That evening I was in a restaurant which had a big screen TV & people (Thais & Japanese among them) were coming in, seeing what was on the screen, & bursting into tears.

On the day of the funeral I was in a big department store in Bangkok & the whole place was at a standstill while everyone watched the funeral.

I've always been a republican but these days I've started thinking that whatever we replaced them with would probably turn out to be even worse. But maybe I've just become too cynical....

Thank you for sharing that. I had forgotten some of it. And rereading it is clear he would never have included bits about what Prince Charles said to me that was horrible.

Thanks. That is interesting to know.

She was due to visit an AIDS project in Northern Thailand later that year.

And King Charles accompanied her sister to France to bring back Diana's body. As her ex he didn't need to do this.

Don’t you think it’s strange though that whenever challenged about anything the RF are never wrong, they’ve never made a mistake, they never admit to errors, they are immune to any criticism. And that’s aside from allegedly covering up for the activities of AMW for over a decade. It’s always everyone else who is wrong. This narrative is starting to wear a bit thin I must say. I used to be a monarchist but I no longer trust what they say.

I should add that some years later on I worked in the Middle East where a load of people were adamant the RF had her murdered in order to prevent her giving birth to Dodi’s son, who, i was assured, would have been a Muslim King of England…

He shouldn't have. He then refused Diana's mother permission to view the body.
The parents were next of kin.
And to be factual, both Diana's sisters went tonparis to accompany Diana's body.

Lord Mountbatten was known to ‘manage’ Charles’s romantic life and he was reported to have had a quiet word with Charles about Camilla, telling Charles that it was OK for him to ‘sow his wild oats’ with Camilla but that but he should choose a young, sweet, and ‘malleable’ (disgusting word in this context) innocent bride with no prior romantic history - criteria that Camilla, didn’t fit. Mountbatten wanted Charles to marry his own granddaughter Amanda Knatchbull, and he did actually propose to her in late 1979 but she turned him down, citing the pressures of life within the royal family as the reason.

President Farage.

shudder

he flew to Paris to bring her body home, she was the mother of the future king. He disliked her fame, it was one of the things that he struggled with as she was more popular than he was. The family were so out of touch the public shamed them into returning and then shamed them again into flying the flag at half mask - this things really shook the RF as they were so out of touch with how the public viewed them on their behaviour

the book is filled with a history from one persons view point, as for why he would publish something that may hurt other peoples feelings on how he saw the events unfurl - there are other memoirs from senior RF that may well hurt others in the family - its not anything new

But as her ex he felt entitled to stop her mother from seeing Diana’s body ?

Yes everyone else is mistaken, confused or crazy.

Sir Ian McClellan said that queen Elizabeth was rude to him.
William was rude to John bishop and Charles to rhod Gilbert.
Philip was rude to lots of people.

@BunnyBunbunbun

Have you actually read the statement ?

Because that statement does not include any denial that Charles said it .
If he really was innocent of the statement Charles could ignore it or clearly state that it was not true .
That was not what he did . He issued the usual snide waffle trying to imply that the Spencer was ‘confused’

I believe Charles Spencer . And if I had any doubt the rushed out smear attempt from the Windsors confirmed it for me .

I don’t believe a word Charles Spencer says. Never have done.

That’s a really interesting point Ukisgaslit
Great post. Very well spotted!

Yes, it was used in the classroom as in the book, Grammar in Context, written by Geoff Barton, who describes Spencer's eulogy as : "One of the finest speeches of the century"

He was delighted when the Earl gave permission to use his Westminster Abbey speech.
"Studying speeches in class can be a rather dull, arid affair, using texts from worthy people students have scarcely heard of," said Mr Barton.
"But Earl Spencer's speech has absolute relevance for our students. What's very striking is the way in which it is so cleverly crafted, so well constructed."

Its not about ‘affection’ for the Windsors or the queen .
It was ignorance .

Now we know how they have covered up for Andrew and other Epstein links - William’s much trumpeted Earth shot was cofounded by a close associate of Epstein - how could any decent person have any respect for them never mind affection .

Didn't Earl Spencer refuse to help Diana when she split from Prince Charles.
Then at her funeral was saying the royal family let her down.
Oh well he must be skint to write a book that will upset his Nephews.
Saying that what can he write that hadn't been written before.🤷‍♀️