Royal row between King Charles and Earl Spencer 2

[Viviennemary]

Buckingham Palace have said they won't be commenting further on the book. But I expect plenty of others will be and it's not even published yet so I started this second thread. I really liked Diana and thought she got treated shabbily by Charles. But really writing a book of gripes 30 years later is not on imho. I noticed on the news Harry declined to comment on it. Sensible decision for once.

Exact same thing.

When did ES sound giddily elated after his ex wife died, as he is claiming that KC did

It can be said the Spencer’s ruined Diana’s’ life by forcing her into a marriage she didn’t want. Diana, as a teenager, should have been protected by her own family, they bear a lot of the responsibility for the misery of her adult life.

The same can be said for the RF forcing Charles into a marriage with someone he had nothing in common with and who reluctantly agreed to go through with it for no other reason than duty and protocol.

That was the catalyst for all that happened in their marriage.

I thought we were referring to him being a bad husband in the same way as the other Charles? Not specifically how he reacted

They haven’t

They covered up that Mountbatten was a pedophile for years.

Nothing has been worse than the Epstein links to the Windsors .

They are finished.
The demographics have not changed. Their only support is among the elderly - it’s literally dying off .

Absolutely - they were both victims of an archaic tradition. Give Charles a break from being the baddie.

I don't think Diana's family forced her into the marriage. Apparently Diana spoke to her sister about wanting to not go ahead with the wedding and herssister said 'it's too late to pull out, your face is on the tea towels'. And on all the souveneirs.

Diana wanted to pull out right before the wedding, as apparently Diana found out about Camilla not long before the wedding.

I can imagine how panicked Diana's sister would have felt. If she pulled out of the wedding at a late stage it would cause a national and international scandal.

Charles, while definitely pressured towards the marriage, knew about Camilla all along of course and was also older. He should have thought about dianas feelings more. He didn't. He saw 'young virgin' and ticked a box

But have you read what he said about the seriously ill Victoria Lockwood? Truly nasty.

Are all the people commenting here elderly then? How insulting, I’m barely 50!

But it makes their criticism less worthy of respect. If you read a book by Sarah Ferguson condemning other people for financial greed…wouldn’t you roll your eyes?

But it's not exactly the same though.

Earl spencers sister is dead and he writing a book in her memory coming up to her thirtieth anniversary

No one forced CS to marry his three ex-wives, whom he treated very badly. His daughters didn't invite him to their weddings.

I remember when Diana and Charles were married. We watched on TV in the US. I had older siblings around the same age as Diana who were in college and working. We were all confused that Diana, from an aristocratic family. had apparently received no career guidance from her family. After reading posts about her family, I am not surprised.

CS has a grudge against the Mountbattens because Lord Mountbatten supposedly warned his father away from the HMTLQ. After reading about CS's parents's marriage, I've decided that was probably the only praiseworthy action Mountbatten took in his life.

What year do you think they'll go? Do you think they'll be replaced by anything else or just nothing?

"We were all confused that Diana, from an aristocratic family. had apparently received no career guidance from her family. After reading posts about her family, I am not surprised."

Why were you surprised. She didn't have supportive, involved parents.

Neglect of children can happen at every level of society.

Her mother lost custody of the children and then appeared to focus more on her new husband.

Diana's father wasn't very involved with the children, his focus was more on his new partner Raine.

Diana didn't have a lot of people supporting her

Careful!…you might be classed as too elderly to ask that question!

Patrick Jephson, very rightly, says nothing in the piece you have linked about Diana's mental health.
He resigned from his role in early 1996, telling Diana that she couldn't treat people as she was doing.

I liked how he discussed the notion of 'forgivability', and how it is 'earned through sustained, modest hard work and emotional authenticity'.

I answered earlier on the other thread. However, I realise that there was tension at the time of Diana's death.
Technically, as Diana and K. Charles were divorced, the funeral would normally have been a private funeral organised by her Spencer family.
However, it is clear that the public seemed to demand something more than that so she was given a sort of State funeral, (or as near as can be).
So, I think there was tension between what the Spencer family wanted and what the Royal family (or state type funeral) demanded. (include officials, etc)
We heard at the time, that Charles S? did not like the gun carriage but it was explained that was what was available at the time. A private funeral would have meant a hearse, but for that section of the funeral, the draped coffin was wanted to be seen, etc
For example, when philip Philip died, he had time to have some of his ideas incorporated into his funeral, and wanted a green land rover (or whatever it was), and there was time for this to be planned, etc. But no one really expected Diana to die and as said, technically, after her divorce, and the fact she herself announced she was 'stepping back' from being a member of the Royal Family, I am guessing that any funeral was not planned in the same way.
We heard very close to the time, that K Charles was devastated. I always thought for rather selfish reasons, that it would make his marriage to Camilla less likely. I really think they were hoping Diana would remarry first, thus leaving the way for Charles to marry. OK, I don;t think they really liked Dodi Fayed, because he was little more than a playboy. I think her relationship with Hasnat Khan ( a surgeon) would have gone down a lot better.
I do remember a young relative walking behind the Queen Mother's coffin, and it seems to be something that lots of people do. In this I don't think the RF could ever win. If the princes walked behind the coffin, then they were too young, etc, but if they didn't, I expect Harry would have complained about that.
When the late Queen wanted to keep them at Balmoral, there was a clamour to bring them back.
Frankly, I think worse that walking behind the coffin, was going out to 'greet well-wishers', and 'admire' the floral tributes. On that occassion the had to actually talk and interact with people. I personally thought that was totally cringe.
I also well remember the engagement interview with Charles and Diana. I thought the question was stupid for a start, and Diana's answer rather odd. Charles said 'whatever IN love means'.

Yup. I've still got my 1953 red, white and blue propelling pencil. Ever so posh. An aunt gave it to me.

More info is coming out every day.

EC is now saying that KC 'went ballistic on the phone to him and had a go at the Earls whole family for not doing their duty well enough after Diana died'

That’s what was thought, but it seems the memoir of his sister is basically a settling of ancient scores.

I think it’s rather tasteless.

I think protecting pedophiles is a great deal worse

Oh the Spencer's and Royal Family will always be taking snipes and settling scores.

It's the soap opera that keeps on giving

Act 25: return of House of Spencer

In one of the two serialisations, Charles Spencer has written that Diana went to her father and told him she wanted to call off the engagement and her father would not allow her to. She then also had the pressure from her sisters.

Her family certainly insisted she went ahead with the marriage despite her not wanting to.

Victoria Lockwood had serious issues before she even met ES. Addiction and anorexia. They married after a very short courtship and then she had 4 children in quick succession.

If that happened, then that's very sad that she was pressured by her father too.

I was definitely pressured by my parents to make certain decisions at 18 and 19. I wish I'd been more confident at standing up for myself. Parents don't always know best. Maybe Dianas dad was afraid of the reaction that Diana would get if she pulled out.

But she should have been allowed to make her own decision

Hmm, I'm not sure that is a concrete statistic. People become more conservative as they age, so those who were republican or indifferent see the value of a peaceful, immediate transfer of power more as they grow older.

I'm not a monarchist, or a republican. If pushed, I'd say I'm a historian - one who looks at our current political landscape and runs scared of democracy in the age of social media.