Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning and most popular monarch in British history, generally excelled at knowing exactly what her people wanted from her. But the first days of September 1997 brought a notable exception, when her lack of a response to Princess Diana’s sudden death in a car crash sparked intense backlash from the grieving British public.
This controversy is all familiar territory for The Crown creator Peter Morgan, whose Oscar-winning 2006 movie The Queen chronicles the week following Diana’s death from the perspective of Queen Elizabeth (played by Helen Mirren). Episode 4 of The Crown’s sixth season, titled “Aftermath,” focuses on the Queen and royal family’s uncharacteristic failure to read the public mood, and how they were ultimately forced to relent in the face of overwhelming anger.
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How long did The Queen take to respond to Diana’s death?
The Queen, and the royal family more broadly, remained silent for several days following the news of Diana’s death. This was, in a sense, not surprising—the royals had always exemplified the British stiff upper lip, and showing public emotion was not part of the playbook. But this time, their approach put them out of step with the British people, who were united in open grief with strangers crying and hugging in the streets. In fact, Diana’s death is often talked about as the moment Britain shed its “keep calm and carry on” approach and became more comfortable with emotions, a shift that coincided with the end of 18 years of Conservative government. People no longer wanted a stoical, silent monarch in the face of tragedy, and the Queen was eventually forced to adapt.
On the evening of Sept. 5, five days after Diana’s death, the Queen finally addressed the nation. Speaking from Buckingham Palace, she expressed her own grief and sadness, and implied that the royal family’s silence up to this point had been because their focus was on supporting Diana’s young sons, William and Harry.
“We have all been trying in our different ways to cope,” she said. “It is not easy to express a sense of loss, since the initial shock is often succeeded by a mixture of other feelings: disbelief, incomprehension, anger—and concern for those who remain. We have all felt those emotions in these last few days. So what I say to you now, as your Queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart.”
The Queen went on to express her own admiration and respect for Diana, noting how “in good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness,” and noting both her accomplishments, her commitment to helping others, and her love for her sons.
“This week at Balmoral, we have all been trying to help William and Harry come to terms with the devastating loss that they and the rest of us have suffered,” she continued. “No one who knew Diana will ever forget her. Millions of others who never met her, but felt they knew her, will remember her. I for one believe there are lessons to be drawn from her life and from the extraordinary and moving reaction to her death. I share in your determination to cherish her memory.”
Did the royal family not want Diana to have a public funeral?
The day after the Queen’s speech, Diana was honored in a royal ceremonial funeral —another concession to public pressure, since she was no longer a member of the royal family. Although it has long been rumored that the royals opposed Diana being given a public funeral, this has been denied both by the palace and by Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer.
“To suggest that there were divisions between royal officials and me in the period after my sister’s death is so far from the truth as to be laughable,” Spencer told Press Association at the time. “We were united in the aim of giving Diana a suitable funeral, and all arrangements up to and including the service were agreed amicably between the Lord Chamberlain‘s office and myself,” he said.
The palace reportedly also offered to restore Diana’s royal title to her posthumously, but her family declined, according to CNN.
Did Tony Blair really coin the phrase “the people’s Princess”?
The Queen’s initial silence was all the more deafening because the prime minister, Tony Blair, made an public statement within hours of Diana’s death. Speaking in the pouring rain alongside his wife and three children, Blair was visibly emotional as he paid tribute to the princess. “I feel like everyone else in this country today. I am utterly devastated,” he said, calling Diana a “wonderful and warm human being” and highlighting how much good she had done. “She touched the lives of so many others in Britain and throughout the world with joy and with comfort… With just a look or a gesture that spoke so much more than words, she would reveal to all of us the depth of her compassion and her humanity.”
Blair concluded his speech with a line that would become famous: “She was the People’s Princess, and that is how she will stay, how she will remain in our hearts and our memories for ever.”
The People’s Princess is now such a familiar name for Diana that it’s easy to assume she was referred to as such when she was alive. But in fact, Blair coined the phrase for the first time in his speech, meaning that Diana herself was never aware of the moniker.
It’s not entirely surprising that Blair was so quick to respond; he and Diana had known each other well for several years, long before he was elected. Alastair Campbell, a close Blair ally who served various roles in his cabinet including press secretary, recalled that Diana attended a number of dinners with Blair’s inner circle, and that she “really felt she was part of the whole new Britain” that the Labour government represented after years of Conservative party rule.
Did Philip really tell the boys he’d walk with the casket if they did?
Given how young Diana’s sons were when she died—Prince William was 15 and Prince Harry was 12—the question of what role they should play in her funeral was deeply contentious. When it was suggested that the boys walk behind Diana’s casket during the procession, several people were aghast, in particular Diana’s brother Charles Spencer. According to Harry’s recollection in his memoir, Spare, an alternative plan was proposed where William would do the walk without Harry. But this was shot down by the powers that be, and in any case, Harry refused to let William walk alone. “I didn’t want Willy to undergo an ordeal like that without me,” he wrote. “Had the roles been reversed, he’d never have wanted me—indeed, allowed me—to go it alone.”
Prince Philip was reportedly one of the adults who was most opposed to the idea. According to ABC News, he blew up at a meeting with government officials when it was first suggested, shouting: “ “F— off. We are talking about two boys who have just lost their mother.” But in the end, he resigned himself to the plan, and reportedly told the boys: “I’ll walk if you walk.”
Both William and Harry have described the walk as one of the most difficult things they’ve ever done. In the 2017 BBC documentary Diana: 7 Days, William opened up about his memory of the occasion. “I felt if I looked at the floor and my hair came down over my face, no one could see me,” he said. “It wasn’t an easy decision, and it was a sort of collective family decision to do that. There is that balance between duty and family, and that’s what we had to do.”
Harry has been more unguarded about the trauma of that day. “My mother had just died, and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television,” he told Newsweek in 2017. “I don’t think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don’t think it would happen today.”
Did the Queen really bow at Diana’s casket?
Just as The Crown depicts, the Queen broke royal protocol in a significant way during Diana’s funeral. As the funeral procession passed by the royal family, the Queen bowed her head. Per The Washington Post, “It was not a quick bow, nor a shallow one. The woman accustomed to being bowed by the world now lowered her head and humbly honored the princess.” It’s almost unheard of for the monarch to bow to anyone, and the gesture mollified the public’s anger, creating a sense that the Queen was truly mourning alongside the nation.
