Penny Junor - Charles - Victim or villain?

Several people did try to give Diana some help, Michael Colborne and Susan Hussey amongst them, but Diana was not altogether receptive. She didn’t want to be told what to do and when. In the past when she had not wanted to do something, with the indulgence of divorced parents, she had never been coerced. Accepting the discipline of royal life did not come easily.

The Family and their courtiers all took what they did so much for granted, they assumed that, being a Spencer, Diana would have no problems and would know what to expect. She was, after all, a member of one of the most aristocratic families in Britain and had lived from the age of thirteen in one of the most traditionally run stately homes in England. Her brother is the Queen’s godson, one of her sisters is the Duke of Kent’s goddaughter. Her father had been equerry to the Queen. Both her grandmothers had been ladies-in-waiting to the Queen Mother; and both the Spencers and the Fermoys had been close friends of the Royal Family for several generations. It was not an unreasonable assumption that Diana would know what royal life was all about. That was partly why she had seemed so tailor-made for the role. But she was lost, and no one realised.

When she went to spend the weekend at Royal Lodge at Windsor, for example, no one had thought to tell her that if she wanted to go out for a walk in the Great Park she had to tell someone where she was going. She returned to find the whole place in turmoil, alarms going and her policeman on the verge of heart failure. The following Monday morning she told Colborne what had happened and said she didn’t know how she was going to cope.

‘This is going to be your life,’ he said. ‘You’re never going to be on your own again. And you’re going to change. In four to five years you’re going to be an absolute bitch, not through any fault of your own, but because of the circumstances in which you live. If you want four boiled eggs for breakfast, you’ll have them. If you want the car brought round to the front door a minute ago, you’ll have it. It’s going to change you. Your life is going to be organised. You open your diary now and you can put down Trooping the Colour, the Cenotaph service, Cowes Week, the Ascots. You can write your diary for five years ahead, ten years, twenty years.’

Gradually the truth began to dawn and Diana recognised that what he was saying was true, and from that moment she began to look increasingly apprehensive. But she was on a giant roller coaster with the wedding just weeks away and preparations to be made before then. There were also presents to be acknowledged and people thanked. They were pouring into Michael Colborne’s office from all over the world, and Diana wrote most of the thank you letters herself, in her distinctive large, rounded hand.

One Friday afternoon, about two weeks before the wedding, a package was delivered to the Privy Purse door, which the footman brought up to Michael Colborne’s office. He opened it and found a number of things he had ordered on the Prince’s behalf to give as gifts to various friends. The Prince has always been a great giver of presents, particularly jewellery, as a means of thanking people. Amongst various pieces, one of which was for Dale, Lady Tryon, and another for Lady Susan Keswick, and another for Lady Cecil Cameron – all good friends – was a bracelet for Camilla Parker Bowles. It was a gold chain with a blue enamel plate, engraved with the initials GF. They stood for Girl Friday, which was the Prince’s nickname for Camilla.

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