An earl’s daughter at last. The Queen Mother was delighted, especially as Diana’s grandmother — Ruth, Lady Fermoy — was one of her ladies-in-waiting. The Queen and Prince Philip also felt that Diana ticked all the boxes: white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, aristocratic and without a known past. Her uncle, Lord Fermoy, trumpeted that she had never had a lover. The royal couple were also hopeful that this development would bring to an end their eldest son’s dangerous entanglement with the wife of Major Andrew Parker Bowles.
All seemed to be going swimmingly in Charles’s latest courtship. While Diana was caught up in the excitement of it all, however, members of her family sounded notes of caution. Her grandmother articulated her concerns: ‘Darling, you must understand that their sense of humour and lifestyle are very different and I don’t think it will suit you.’ It was a diplomatic way of saying that she had doubts about Diana and her suitability as Charles’s wife and consort, but also a warning that, even though she may be a member of the aristocracy, there was still a social and cultural divide between royalty and the upper classes.
There was also the looming presence of Mrs Parker Bowles, which was a matter of concern for both Diana and the Queen. In November 1980, Bob Edwards, editor of the Sunday Mirror, ran a story suggesting that Lady Diana had secretly joined Prince Charles on board the royal train in a siding at Holt, Wiltshire. Acting on the personal instructions of the Queen, the palace denounced the story and demanded a retraction. Edwards refused, quoting an ‘impeccable source’. Diana knew that she hadn’t been on the royal train, but had a pretty good idea who had been: Camilla Parker Bowles. The scales were beginning to fall from her eyes. Unbeknownst to the Queen and her Court, another ultimately calamitous narrative was developing.
During what turned out to be a fevered Christmas and New Year at Sandringham, the influx of national and international media was such that the Queen herself felt under siege. She could not even ride out without being photographed. It was so frustrating that at one point she snapped, shouting at photographers to go away. It was a measure of her impotence and anger that her holiday was being interrupted in this unruly manner. The cause of the Queen’s unease was the innocent presence of Lady Diana Spencer in the house party — again at the invitation of Her Majesty — in early January 1981. As Diana later told me: ‘The Queen was fed up.’
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