The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Royals fight back
ANYONE WHO remembers picking up a newspaper or switching on the television 15 years ago will no doubt recall the mood across the UK. The People’s Princess had been taken away at the age of just 36, leaving behind her two young sons. The outpouring of grief which followed was unprecedented. Seas of floral tributes, books of condolence being signed and letters written to the young princes sympathising with their loss. Such was the power Diana had. From the beginning, it had been a doomed marriage. After a whirlwind engagement Prince Charles and Lady Diana Frances Spencer found themselves leaving St Paul’s Cathedral the most popular couple of the moment. The fairy tale was not to last. After only five years of marriage, the couple had grown apart. Charles’s duties meant there were large periods of separation, Diana was dogged by illness and extra-marital affairs ensued on both sides.
By the time the couple divorced in 1996, Diana had become something of a style icon and had built on her natural affinity with the helpless, the ill, and the suffering, associating herself with a number of charitable causes and organisations.
In life, she was a “people person” and in death, she brought out the public’s humanity. Her willingness to show emotion encouraged others to do so and this demonstrated to the Royal Fa m i ly the kind of f igurehead the public wanted.
The slow response of the Wi n d - sors, who were holidaying at Balmoral in Royal Deeside, coupled with an empty flagpole at Buckingham Palace was seen as a sign of disrespect. More people watched Diana’s funeral than her wedding in 1981.
With the family reputation in tatters, the royals realised it was time for a public relations re-think. Like any successful business organisation, the British Monarchy relies on popularity and good press to survive. The death of Diana was a significant turning point.
As the media had become more intrusive, it infiltrated the messy private lives of the royals. By the 1990s PrincessAnne was divorced and so were PrinceAndrew and Fergie, meanwhile Windsor Castle had suffered a terrible fire.
On the cusp of a new millennium, Prince Edward married Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999. Next came The Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002, with celebratory events proving successful in reconnecting the public with its Royal Family.
It was also a time of great sadness for the monarch, as her younger sister Margaret and mother – The Queen Mother – both died that year within a matter of weeks. Throughout, she remained stoic and mindful of her public duty and the Queen Mother’s funeral was an occasion for public mourning and reflection. Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles finally became husband and wife in 2005, more than 30 yyears after their romance first began.b They wed in a small privatepr civil wedding and well-wishers turned ouout to greet the couple.
In 202006, The Queen celebrcelebrated her 80th birthdbirthday and she and the DDuke of Edinburgburgh’s diamond wedding anniversary came the following year.
By this time, the publicpublic’s attention had well aand truly turned to PrinPrince William and his longlong-term girlfriend Kate MidMiddleton, whom he met whilwhile studying in St Andrews. Hopes of a wedding were high, but the young prince appeared to wanwant to take things slowly instead of repeating the mistake his parents made by choosing the wrong partner. When the pair f inally married last year, it was a ceremony to rival all others – and one that placed the public at the centre of the celebrations. This occasion was followed closely by The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the events for which have also proved a success.
Professor TC Smout, Historiographer Royal for Scotland and emeritus professor of history at StAndrews University, believes the Royal Family has succeeded in reinstating a healthy image after the events of 15 years ago.
He said: “The royal family did not immediately know how to react and did not quite judge the public mood and I think there was a great deal of private distress, which was perhaps underrated at the time, not least by Charles and his two sons.
“I think The Queen herself was deeply moved by this but somehow they managed to contrive to give the impression at the time they didn’t really care that much. They were completely caught off guard and deeply shaken by it.
“After that, they made quite a serious attempt to reconnect with the public. I think they realised the damage that had been done by this. They might have felt they got a bit of an unfair deal by the public but nevertheless they knew they had a problem and they did their very best to overcome it.
“Lots of very good things happened for them after that, including the successful time that Prince William had at the University of St Andrews. When he graduated, The Queen appeared as a very affectionate grandmother coming to see her grandson get his degree.
“By and large, the Royal Family managed to avoid more faux pas. They will never be without them, as recent events with Harry have demonstrated – they are an accidentprone family!”
Prof Smout agrees The Queen has remained constant over the year: “She has been very calm and confident but I don’t think anybody who has ever encountered her would say she was aloof. She appears rather aloof but is not in reality.
“I think just about everybody was amazed by the fun she had at the Olympics. The Queen as a new Bond Girl is not something any of us had anticipated would happen!”
So now to the future, and if events involving Prince Harry in Las Vegas last week are anything to go by, the royals will no doubt continue to be caught doing things that bring unwanted media attention.
At present, all eyes are on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who appear to be settling into married life well. Comparisons have been made between Kate and Diana, but William has made it clear his wife is not stepping into anyone’s shoes.
When the pair announced their engagement, Kate called Diana “an inspirational woman”, saying she wished they had met, butWilliam’s response was: “No one is trying to fill my mother’s shoes, what she did was fantastic. It’s about making your own future and your own destiny and Kate will do a very good job of that.”