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When Princess Diana's marriage was unravelling and she was being attacked from all sides, she would try to fortify herself with the mantra: 'Remember you're a Spencer.' Diana may have been abandoned by the Royal Family, but no one could deny her own deeply aristocratic lineage. The Spencers are one of Britain's oldest dynasties, and Diana's union with Prince Charles had represented the summit of several centuries of social mountaineering. Though the heir to the throne has taken most of the blame for the failure of his marriage, the first part of Channel 4's The Spencers – Diana's Dynasty shows that the seeds of the princess's emotional turmoil were sewn long before the break-up, in her own troubled upbringing.
Royal connections.
On the surface, Diana's childhood was one of privilege and material comfort. Her family can trace their line back to William the Conqueror. For more than 400 years, the magnificent 13,000-acre Althorp estate in Northamptonshire has been the family seat. They built their huge fortune on wool-spinning in Tudor times, but by the middle of the last century there was little money left other than in property.
Diana's father Johnnie, who would become the eighth Earl Spencer, managed to keep a toehold in high society as a royal equerry. He was effectively an elevated servant, but at least this allowed him to hobnob with the Windsors – very important for a man to whom status mattered enormously. So it was a surprise to some that his chosen bride was Frances, daughter of Lord and Lady Fermoy, who was considered a little beneath him on the society ladder. Frances's socially-ambitious mother, though, was very well connected: she was a lady-in-waiting and very close personal friend to the Queen Mother. Frances and Johnnie's wedding was billed as one of the social events of 1954, with the Queen and Princess Margaret among the guests. Lady Fermoy gave the newlyweds Park House, her home on the Sandringham estate, and the Spencers became close neighbours of the Royal Family.
Unhappy families.
After Frances gave birth to two daughters, Sarah and Jane, Johnnie was desperate for a male heir. In 1960, they had a son, John, who died after just 11 hours, and Diana arrived on 1 July 1961. It was another three years before Charles, the future ninth Earl, was born and Johnnie finally got the son he craved.
Frances soon became unhappy and when Diana was six, she left the family home for London and the arms of her lover, wallpaper magnate Peter Shand Kydd. There ensued a battled for custody of the children. When it came to court, Johnnie had an extraordinary ally – Frances's mother, Lady Fermoy. Determined to drive the Spencer dynasty on, she sided with her son-in-law, testifying against her daughter. Johnnie Spencer won the day.
Close in age, Diana and Charles were deeply affected by their parent's bitter divorce. School holidays were spent being shuttled between their father and mother. There was no doubt, in his father's eyes at least, that Charles was the chosen one. He received much more attention than his three older sisters.
None of the Spencer siblings took to their father's second wife Raine, daughter of the romantic novelist Barbara Cartland. Behind her back the children called their bouffant-haired stepmother 'Acid Raine'. She alienated them even more when she fired staff, sold off art treasures to prop up the cash-strapped estate, and redecorated Althorp to her own flamboyant taste. The children suffered a further blow when Johnnie had a stroke. They had to accept that Raine was now firmly in charge.
Chosen to be queen.
The elder sisters Sarah and Jane left the family home to live in London. It was Sarah who first caught the eye of Prince Charles and she was tipped as a royal bride. However, in 1980 it emerged that it was the youngest and most naïve Spencer girl who was actually in his sights. The formidable combination of the Queen Mother and Lady Fermoy worked behind the scenes to help engineer the union and Diana and Charles became engaged in February 1981. For Johnnie, it was a dream come true: one of his daughters was a future Queen. According to friends, though, Diana felt like a sacrificial lamb; just a few days before she married, she had deep misgivings.
The royal wedding of 29 July 1981 was dressed up as a fairytale. Diana soon produced two sons, William and Harry – the required 'heir and a spare'. But the marriage was rapidly heading for an unhappy ending.
Within six years, Diana and Charles were leading separate lives and she had begun an affair with James Hewitt. An extraordinarily tough, volatile, sexy woman began to emerge. To many, it seemed her Spencer traits were breaking through as she stepped out of the shadows of her husband's oppressive family.
The ruthless Earl.
Johnnie died in March 1992, and Charles Spencer, at 27, became the ninth Earl. His stepmother's days within the dynasty were numbered; her belongings were removed from Althorp in black bin liners.
Raine's swift departure showed that Charles could call upon the ruthless Spencer streak when he felt the need – just as he would some years later when he reminded the world that his sister had belonged to the House of Spencer, not the House of Windsor.
Part 2.Charles Spencer's speech at his sister Princess Diana's funeral on 6 September 1997 was a historic moment. The passionate eight-minute eulogy, heard by a world audience of nearly three billion people, made him as famous as Diana for a short period. The second part of Channel 4's The Spencers – Diana's Dynasty records how the head of the Spencer clan made certain the world knew that Diana's sons, heirs to the British throne, were as much a part of his ancient family as the House of Windsor.
Determined young man.
Even from an early age, Charles had shown a single-mindedness well beyond his years in protecting his and the family's interests.
Charles quickly took against his flamboyant stepmother Raine after she married Johnnie and began to stamp her distinctive style on Althorp, the family's Northamptonshire seat.
After Oxford University, Charles worked as a royal correspondent at the American TV network NBC, but this career was short-lived as he found his privacy becoming increasingly important.
When Johnnie died, son-and-heir Charles inherited the £85 million estate, including nearly 200 cottages and farmhouses, even though he had three older sisters. Raine never returned to the house and within days, her possessions were removed. Charles was now well established as the lord of the manor.
Troubled marriage.
In 1989, after a brief romance, Charles married Victoria Lockwood, an international fashion model and Tatler Girl of the Year. Within six months the marriage was in trouble. Ironically for a man who came to despise the media, the cause was Charles's affair with a journalist called Sally-Ann Lasson. She had known Spencer before his marriage and thought he would leave Victoria for her. When he didn't, Lasson told her story to the press.
The repentant earl patched up his marriage and over the next five years he and Victoria had four children – three daughters and finally, in 1994, a son-and-heir, Louis.
Family rifts.
At around the same time, his sister Diana's marriage was over in all but name. Diana had always been close to her brother but they fell out after she asked him if she could use a cottage at Althorp. The house she wanted was just inside the estate walls. Concerned over security, Charles turned her down, causing a rift with his sister that resulted in them not speaking to each other for six months.
Spencer's own marriage was also in trouble. Victoria was ill from an eating disorder and when she entered a clinic her problems became front-page news. Charles wanted to escape the British media and in 1996 he moved his family to Cape Town, South Africa. He bought an £800,000 house on a private estate while Victoria and the children moved to a bungalow nearby. Charles soon became involved with another woman, Chantal Collopy, a married socialite with two children, but their relationship was short-lived.
Then came Diana's death and that speech (written in just an hour and a half) from the pulpit of Westminster Abbey. In a sideswipe at the assembled royal family, Charles proclaimed that Diana's blood family would continue to do all they could to steer the two young princes, William and Harry, in the way she had planned. Later that day, he ensured his sister was buried as a Spencer, not a Windsor: according to Diana's former butler Paul Burrell, the earl removed the royal standard from her coffin and draped it with his own family's flag.
Unwanted attention.
In the eyes of many, he was the hero of the day. Soon, though, Fleet Street was pursuing him again, this time en masse to Cape Town for his divorce case. His wife had a powerful ally in her fight for a fair settlement – Chantal Collopy, her husband's former mistress. Charles agreed to give Victoria £1.8 million shortly before the two women were due to give evidence.
A somewhat bruised Charles Spencer returned to live at Althorp, Diana's resting place. He borrowed £3 million to convert a stable block into a permanent museum to his sister. All profits were to go to charity and within five years, £800,000 was raised for the Diana Memorial Fund.
Charles's sister Sarah was a trustee of the fund. Paul Burrell was the
fund-raising manager, but he found himself out of a job, reportedly because
the Spencers didn't want him.
Burrell's revenge came four years later, in 2002 at the Old Bailey, when
he was cleared of stealing hundreds of Diana's possessions. The trial
turned out to be almost as much of an ordeal for the Spencer family as
the Burrells. The court heard how Diana had fallen out with her brother;
also, how Diana wasn't on speaking terms with her mother Frances when
the princess died.
Two decades on from the celebrated marriage of a Spencer into the House of Windsor, what had seemed at first to be an illustrious new chapter in the history of one of England's great families ended in bitterness and recrimination.
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.
Althorp.
www.althorp.com/home/index.asp
Website of the Spencers' family home featuring a history of the family
since the 1400s, information about the house and gardens (including visiting
details) and a celebration of Diana.
The Royal Family: Diana Princess of Wales.
www.royal.gov.uk/output/page151.asp
A biography of Diana with sections on her death, childhood and teenage
years, marriage and family, and public role. Also includes the Queen's
message to the nation at the time of her death and details of the funeral
arrangements.
A Remembrance of Princess Diana.
www.britannia.com/diana/article4.html
Full text of Charles, Earl Spencer's eulogy to Diana, read at her funeral
in September 1997.
Diana: The work continues.
www.theworkcontinues.org
The site of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, which gives grants
to charities in the UK and around the world, champions causes and raises
new money to support this work.
Special Report: Princess Diana
www.time.com/time/daily/special/diana/readingroom/9295/920413.html
Article from Time magazine written in 1992 that looks at Diana's
father's sudden death and the relationships within the Spencer family,
covering Charles Spencer's extra-marital affairs.
Paul Burrell – The Whole Story
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2386149.stm
The late Princess Diana's butler, Paul Burrell, was cleared at the Old
Bailey of stealing from her estate. The BBC offers a comprehensive timeline
and in-depth analysis of the investigation and controversial trial.
Ex-mistress of Diana's Brother Talks about Affair
www.hannibal.net/stories/120197/mistress.html
Chantal Collopy gives an interview to Sky News where she talks of her
affair with Charles Spencer and her subsequent alliance with his estranged
wife, Victoria.
The Spencers: A personal history of an English family by Charles Spencer
(St Martins Press, 2000)
The ninth Earl Spencer presents the entire Spencer dynasty within the context
of British history.
Buy this book from Amazon.
Althorp: The story of an English house by Charles Spencer (St Martins
Press, 1999)
This account, by the ninth Earl Spencer, traces the 500-year history of the
family seat. Includes a candid description of his childhood.
Buy this book from Amazon.
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman (Flamingo, 1999)
Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire was one of the most flamboyant and
influential women of the 18th century. The great-great-great-great aunt of Princess
Diana, she was variously a compulsive gambler, a political savante and operator
of the highest order.
Buy this book from Amazon.
Blood Royal: The Story of the Spencers and the Royals by John Pearson
(HarperCollins, 2000)
The Spencers, like the Windsors, are a dynasty, and one of the most successful
families that England has produced. But how did a family of Tudor sheep farmers
from Northamptonshire reach the ranks of the upper aristocracy by the time of
the Restoration? Family characteristics emerge, as do family traditions and
attitudes to life. By the eighteenth century almost everyone who is anyone in
politics seems to be related to this overwhelming family.
Buy this book from Amazon.
Diana: Her true story in her own words by Andrew Morton (Michael O'Mara,
1998)
Originally published in 1992, this biography was produced with the full co-operation
and input of the Princess. Following her death, the book was fully revised to
contain new material and photographs and is designed to stand as a tribute to
her.
Buy this book from Amazon.
Diana by Julie Burchill (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1998)
Burchill explores every aspect of the 'Age of Diana', to develop a well rounded,
in-depth look at this iconic figure of our century. She sees Diana as a woman
betrayed by a using and adulterous husband, who escaped self-destructive urges
and eating disorders to settle into a mature sensuality.
Buy this book from Amazon.
The Bodyguard's Story: Diana, the crash, and the sole survivor by Trevor
Rees-Jones (Time Warner, 2001)
Rees-Jones was the bodyguard of Dodi Fayed and sole survivor of the notorious
car crash that killed Dodi, Diana and their driver, and he subsequently became
embroiled in recriminations and accusations from Mohamed Al Fayed. Here he tells
the story of the summer leading up to the fatal accident, describing a world
of paparazzi-dodging and an increasingly volatile situation between the press,
Dodi, Diana and their minders.
Buy this book from Amazon.
Death of a Princess: An investigation by Thomas Sancton and Scott MacLeod
(Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1998)
Within hours of Diana's death, conspiracy theories were flying, one such laying
culpability at the British government's door. Having conducted interviews with
Dodi's father and the paparazzi first on the scene, the authors argue that the
fatal accident was the result of poor judgement, coincidence and plain bad luck.
Buy this book from Amazon.
Diana: A celebration 1961-1997 (BBC World Publishing, 1997)
A commemoration of the life of Princess Diana. All profits from this video will
be donated to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
Buy this video from Amazon.
Diana, Princess of Wales 1961-1997: The people's princess (Warner Music
Vision, 1997)
A tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, presented by Trevor McDonald.
Buy this video from Amazon.
Diana, Princess Of Wales: The people's tribute (Telstar Video Entertainment,
1997)
A tribute to Diana.
Buy this video from Amazon.
Diana and Dodi: A true love story (Medusa Communications, 1998)
The story of the romance between Princess Diana and Dodi Fayad, which was cut
tragically short.
Buy this video from Amazon.
Princess Diana's Legacy (Odyssey Video, 1998)
Explores many themes including the work of the memorial fund set up in Diana's
name, the gap that has been left in public life, the arguments concerning media
intrusion and privacy and, above all, what the future holds for her two sons.
Buy this video from Amazon.
Diana: The people's princess 1961-1997 (Green Umbrella Productions,
2002)
An insight into the personality of one of the world's most famous women.
Buy this video from Amazon.
Produced to accompany parts 1 and 2 of The Spencers – Diana's Dynasty, an ITN Factual production, first screened on Channel 4 in March 2003.
Writer: David Rowe
Project managers: Caroline Sutton and Aleks Sierz
Editor: Mariette Jackson
Web designer: Alan (Fred) Pipes
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