Where Diana Once Played
Charles, 9th Earl Spencer, unveils the latest collection of furniture from Althorp Living History, a line inspired by pieces from his ancestral home
Charles, 9th Earl Spencer, unveils a furniture line based on Althorp, his ancestral home
CHARLES SPENCER is exhausted, but he isn’t letting it show. We’re standing off to one side of the Kennedy Galleries showroom in Toronto on an unseasonably hot evening in May. It’s only four days after the Royal Wedding, and he tells me that, by evening’s end, he’ll have travelled from California to Toronto and back to London within a 24-hour window. Yet, he appears remarkably lively for a man running on only a few hours sleep, eyes alert and a glass of white wine held precariously at the base with two fingers. I catch myself wondering about his secret to staying attentive in the face of so many strangers despite the jet lag. Cracking a smile, he says, “I didn’t realize this would be one of two highlights of my week.”
Although the nuptials of his nephew Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is on the tip of everyone’s tongue, Charles, 9th Earl Spencer,
makes only fleeting references to a “happy occasion” when prodded for details. He’s actually on hand to discuss other matters, namely the Althorp Living History furniture collection. A new collection of the line will be released this month in anticipation of its 15th anniversary milestone next year. The line is inspired by pieces from his family’s renowned estate in Northamptonshire. Situated approximately an hour and a half outside London, the 90-room property is also the final resting place of his sister, Diana. This thought brings to mind Charles’ fiery eulogy at her funeral in 1997, which you may recall planted a flag for her Spencer heritage. “Diana ... proved in the last year th that t she h needed dd no royal l title titl to t continue to generate her particular brand of magic. ...” Most controversially, he also pledged to her memory, “That we, your blood family,” would continue to raise her beloved sons in the manner she had desired “so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.”
Now 21 years later, resplendent in a black suit and royal blue paisley tie, the 54-year-old Lord Spencer cuts a striking figure, standing head and shoulders above everyone in the room. As we chat, I notice he has the tendency to lean in slightly when talking, lending a conspiratorial air to our conversation. He also gives you his undivided attention, eyes never wandering around to scan the room until our tête-à-tête has concluded. It’s a skill that probably served him well in his years as an on-air correspondent for NBC Nightly News and The Today Show. It could also be surmised that such charms led to his three marriages and seven children, but I digress … My brush with the
aristocratic Englishman was shortlived as people started closing in on us, eager for their own chance to mingle with a bona fide earl.
And why not? Such an encounter is the perfect cocktail party anecdote given the current obsession with all things British. No doubt this renewed interest began with the international successes of Downton Abbey and The Crown, ramped up with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and further amplified by the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate in 2011. Similar marriage mania took hold when Harry announced his engagement to Meghan, whose wedding was also “must-see” TV. Lord Spencer and his current wife, Canadian-born Countess Karen Spencer, made their own grand entrance at Windsor, but it was his children from his first marriage who turned heads. His 27-year-old daughter, Kitty, wore a gorgeous floral Dolce & Gabbana gown (she’s a “friend” of the brand who regularly walks the runway for the label). His son, Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp, made his own dashing appearance with his movie-star-handsome looks, and the rabid British tabloids wasted no time in decreeing him the most eligible royal now that Harry is off the market.
The Spencer and Windsor families were enmeshed long before Charles married Diana. Their grandmother was the Queen Mother’s lady-in-waiting, and Diana originally met the prince while he was dating her eldest sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale. The other Spencer sibling, Lady Jane Fellowes – whose husband was the Queen’s private secretary – represented the Spencers at her nephew’s wedding – giving a reading and standing with the family to wave the couple off on their carriage ride through Windsor.
But now, it’s all about Althorp. The imposing estate with its cavernous rooms and lush gardens has been the home of the Spencer family for a remarkable 19 generations. Purchased in 1508 by John Spencer (who was knighted by King Henry VIII in 1519, likely for services rendered as sheriff and for funding the parish church), the sizeable plot of land was procured with money generated from the family’s prosperous sheep-rearing business. The Spencer peerage (created in 1765) also boasts the earldom of Sunderland and the Churchill barony, making Diana Spencer and former Prime Minister Winston Churchill the most prominent members of the family. (So what exactly is a peerage, you ask? Briefly, it’s a