Earl Charles Spencer, who turns 61 on May 20, has always insisted that he meant no offence by what he said at Princess Diana‘s funeral at Westminster Abbey in 1997.
But there must be a reason both the late Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip refused to clap at the end of his eulogy.
As Charles started speaking, sunshine shafted through a window in the historic venue and lit up Diana’s coffin.
Addressing his late sister, he said: ‘On behalf of your mother and sisters, I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.
‘We fully respect the heritage into which they have both been born and will always respect and encourage them in their royal role but we, like you, recognise the need for them to experience as many different aspects of life as possible to arm them spiritually and emotionally for the years ahead. I know you would have expected nothing less from us.
‘William and Harry, we all cared desperately for you today. We are all chewed up with the sadness at the loss of a woman who was not even our mother. How great your suffering is, we cannot even imagine.
‘I would like to end by thanking God for the small mercies he has shown us at this dreadful time. For taking Diana at her most beautiful and radiant and when she had joy in her private life. Above all we give thanks for the life of a woman I am so proud to be able to call my sister, the unique, the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana whose beauty, both internal and external, will never be extinguished from our minds.’
When he finished, you could hear a pin drop.
As Earl Charles Spencer delivers his eulogy, a shaft of light came through a window in the ceiling and lit up Diana’s coffin
An ITV documentary, Diana: The Day Britain Cried, which aired in 2017, revealed Earl Spencer’s eviscerating speech was, unsurprisingly, received poorly by senior members of the Royal Family, including the late Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip who did not applaud.
But the reaction from the millions of mourners lining the Mall, crammed in front of huge screens in Hyde Park and sitting at home on their sofas could not have been more different.
As described by royal author Robert Lacey in his book Battle of the Brothers: ‘The clapping swept down Constitutional Hill, through people’s radios and the TV screens, until it reached the abbey and scudded inside through the huge open doors.
‘The applause invaded the church itself, rolling irrestisbly up the aisle.
‘People are not supposed to clap at funerals, but this congregation put their hands together wholeheartedly – and eyewitnesses remember Diana’s two sons both joining in with the applause. Elizabeth II and her husband, however, did not clap.’
The awkwardness of the moment was encapsulated by Martin Neary, Westminster Abbey’s musical director, when he told the documentary: ‘I felt a great sympathy for what she had suffered but at the same time I was shocked by some of things which were said.
‘The princes actually applauded at the end, although the senior members of the Royal Family did not.’
Sir Malcom Ross, one of the Queen’s right-hand men who was responsible for the funeral arrangement, admitted: ‘It was my mistake to leave the doors of the Abbey open.
Thousands gather in London’s Hyde Park to watch Diana’s funeral
People block out the sunshine as they watch Princess Diana’s coffin enter Westminster Abbey
Mourners hug each other in the crowd gathered on the Mall for the funeral of the People’s Princess
‘What that meant was that when Lord Spencer made his remarks the audience outside applauded, which, in fact, started the audience inside applauding.’
Sir Ross recalled the speech ‘grating’ on him as he thought the Earl was ‘having a little bit of a go at the Royal Family’.
He added, rather unconvincingly: ‘Fine. I don’t think anybody took offence.’
Earl Spencer later said that he had rehearsed the inflammatory speech, writing in The Guardian: ‘I read it to Diana’s coffin, in the chapel at St James’s Palace, and at the conclusion heard a whisper that sounded like satisfaction in that sad, sad, place.’
The Earl has also claimed he was lied to about his sister’s funeral procession.
In 2017, he said he had been told by royal officials that his nephews wanted to walk behind Diana’s coffin in the funeral procession, after he had raised concerns about it.
Describing the moment as the ‘most horrifying half hour of my life’, he revealed he still has nightmares about the ‘harrowing’ experience.
However the Earl acknowledged that the walk would have been ‘a million times worse’ for William and Harry.
Earl Charles Spencer (centre) joins Prince Philip, Prince William, Prince Harry and Prince Charles behind Diana’s coffin
Charles described it as the ‘most horrifying half hour of my life’,
But the Earl acknowledged it was ‘a million times worse’ for William, who was 15 at the time, and Harry (pictured), who was just 12
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today Programme, he slammed the insistence that the boys follow the coffin as a ‘very bizarre and cruel thing’.
He added: ‘Eventually I was lied to and told they wanted to do it, which of course they didn’t but I didn’t realise that.’
In a private ceremony, Diana was buried on an island in the middle of a lake called the Oval, which is part of the Pleasure Garden at Althorp House in Northamptonshire.
The People’s Princess was dressed in a black Catherine Walker dress and black tights and was holding a rosary in her hands which had been a gift from Mother Theresa of Calcutta, a confidante of Diana, who had died the day before her funeral.
The original plan was for Diana to be buried in her family vault at a nearby church but this was changed by Earl Spencer as he wanted her grave to be inaccessible to the public and a place for her sons to mourn in peace.
In Spare, Harry detailed doing just that. He described rowing wife Meghan across the lake to visit his mother’s grave for the first time with her.
Thankfully when the boat got stuck in the mud, his uncle Charles was on hand to give them ‘a little push’.
Harry wrote in his bombshell memoir: ‘I led Meg up the path, around a hedge, through the labyrinth. There it was, looming: the grayish white oval stone.
Diana’s funeral is carried into Westminster Abbey for her funeral on December 13, 2006
A letter from William and Harry to ‘Mummy’ sits on top of the coffin
Crowds throw flowers as Diana’s coffin is transported to Althorp House
Diana’s memorial in Althorp House, Northamptonshire
A young Charles gazes up at his sister Diana at Park House in Sandringham, Norfolk
‘No visit to this place was ever easy, but this one… Twenty-fifth anniversary. And Meg’s first time. At long last I was bringing the girl of my dreams home to meet mum.
‘We hesitated, hugging, and then I went first. I placed flowers on the grave. Meg gave me a moment, and I spoke to my mother in my head, told her I missed her, asked her for guidance and clarity.
‘Feeling that Meg might also want a moment, I went around the hedge, scanned the pond. When I came back, Meg was kneeling, eyes shut, palms against the stone.
‘I asked, as we walked back to the boat, what she’d prayed for. Clarity, she said.
‘And guidance.’
