Princess Diana
in Memory

A young Camilla Parker Bowles

Reportedly, the Prince's former girlfriend (and later, his second wife) helped him select the 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer as a potential bride, who was working as an assistant at the Young England kindergarten in Pimlico. Buckingham Palace announced the engagement on 24 February 1981. Mrs. Parker Bowles had been dismissed by Lord Mountbatten of Burma as a potential spouse for the heir to throne some years before, reportedly due to her age (16 months the Prince's senior), her sexual experience, and her lack of suitably aristocratic lineage.

In June, 1982 the Princess of Wales gave birth to her first son, Prince William. In September, 1984 she gave birth to her second child, Prince Henry (known as "Harry"). The Royal family hoped that the birth of the sons would bring happiness to the relationship. Unfortunately, those hopes were in vain.

Charles and Diana continued to drift apart. The situation became even worse when the Princess came to realize that the heart of the Prince belonged to another woman - Camilla Parker-Bowles. "There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," Princess Diana remarked years later. Diana, in her turn, began to take horse riding lessons from Major Hewitt, a heart breaker from the high society. The scandalous photos and overheard telephone conversations of the husband and wife soon appeared in mass media.

By autumn of 1987, the couple began to spend practically all their time separately. In 1992, Princess Diana exposed the truth about her relationship with Prince Charles to the public by secretly collaborating with author Andrew Morton on his book Diana, Her True Story. In December of 1992, the prime minister John Major announced to the Parliament that Diana and Charles would be divorcing. Princess Diana kept the title Princess of Wales and continued to work for her favorite charities. She and Prince Charles had joint custody of their sons.

As the casualties lay seriously injured in their wrecked car, the photographers continued to take pictures

Dodi Fayed and Henri Paul were both declared dead at the scene of the crash. Trevor Rees-Jones was severely injured, but later recovered. Still alive, Diana was freed from the wreckage, and after some delay due to attempts to stabilize her at the scene, she was taken by ambulance to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, arriving there shortly after 2:00 am Despite attempts to save her, her internal injuries were too extensive. Two hours later, at 4:00 that morning, the doctors pronounced her dead. At 5:30, her death was announced at a press conference held by a hospital doctor, Jean-Pierre Chevènement (France's Interior Minister) and Sir Michael Jay (Britain's ambassador to France). Later that morning, Chevenement, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, the wife of the French President Jacques Chirac and French Health Minister Bernard Kouchner visited the hospital room where Diana's body lay and paid their last respects. After their visits, the Anglican Archdeacon of France, Father Martin Draper, said commendatory prayers from the Book of Common Prayer. At around 2:00 pm, the Prince of Wales and Diana's two sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, arrived in Paris to collect Diana's body. They left with her body 90 minutes later. From RAF Northolt the coffin was taken to a private mortuary in London, so that the necessary legal formalities could be completed. Shortly after midnight, it was moved to the Chapel Royal in St James's Palace, where it lay privately until the funeral on Saturday, 6 September, in Westminster Abbey. The Princess's family and friends visited the Chapel to pay their respects. Following the funeral service, the coffin then was taken by road to the family estate at Althorp for a private interment. The Princess was buried in sanctified ground on an island in the centre of an ornamental lake.

Princess Diana spent the last weeks of her life with her friend Dodi Al-Fayed, the 41-year-old eldest son of Egyptian billionaire Mohammed Al-Fayed, best known as the owner of Herrods, London's most famous and fashionable department store, as well as other high profile properties such as the Hotel Ritz in Paris.

On August 31, 1997, Princess Diana was killed in a high speed car accident along with Dodi and driver Henri Paul while attempting to flee the ever-present pack of paparazzi photographers seeking her image.

Diana very much admired Mother Teresa, with whom she shared a common love of poor and outcast people. When Mother Teresa was told of Diana's death, she described Diana as "a very great friend who was in love with the poor." Mother Teresa died the day before Princess Diana's funeral services.

Over a billion people watched Diana's funeral, and they are still watching still.
 

Luigi Baggi statue displayed at the Tate gallery

google.com/search?q=Diana+Madonna+statue

"And then, to underline it, as the carriage moves, Mother Teresa dies. Do you believe in signs?

The new myth had taken. It was a coronation - the Queen of Hearts - not a funeral.
The world heart had opened and made itself vulnerable to change. In the ancient and implacable tradition, it took innocent blood to seal it - Socrates, Christ, Joan of Arc, Lincoln, Gandhi, Kennedy, King - but we would never be as we were.
Myth runs things and we saw myth in the making. Myth is the disc operating system of humanity. It's the abstract which is more real than the specifics it controls. We choose it from our most deeply held feelings and we anoint ourselves with it."
Diana - Seedbearer of a New World Myth
A Diana essay by John Darling.

She Became an Icon
by Charles Cameron, Centerfor Millennial Studies
"A Princess who had been rejected by her Prince as Queen became more than that, she became an Icon. "

BBC - h2g2 - Diana, Princess of Wales, and the Power of Myth  
"She was a woman who was desperate for love, and who found little love in her private life. Yet the one thing that the press gave her was the privilege of being the person in the world most loved by strangers after her death."

Parallel Earths: Diana 2000
A ponderous review essay by Will Brooker for .cult-media.com