Did the Queen act appropriately in the days following Diana's death?


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The Queen did, the people didn´t.
Very succinct Menarue.
Fleet Street/Wapping would have just as quickly turned their attention to the heartless and uncaring grandmother who had abandoned her distraught grandsons in the wilds of Scotland while she pandered to the crowds in London. Instead of "Why aren't you with your people?" screaming headlines, it would have been "Why aren't you with the boys?"
Sad but true Warren. I admire her for recognising she was in a no-win situation and making the right decision.

Once the media stirred the pot all the old angers and resentements seem to come to the fore all the while neglecting to cover the care and protection she gave her grandsons in their hour of need. Truth to tell, I think the whole affair became an evil juggernaut. No one could imagine the devastation it could or would cause.
 
So she was just doomed. Rather whether the storm with family.

I have to take away my statement because I just don't feel that she did the right thing. Traditionally, yes, but the right thing no. I think if she would have said something from Balmoral along the lines of "I am being a grandmother first, the children need looking after" I don't think the public backlash would have been that harsh.

And also, I feel that the media couldn't have stirred something up if there wasn't anything to stir up in the first place. Charles knew her death was going to be huge, Tony Blair knew her death was going to be huge. It seems that only Buckingham Palace thought that people would just say, "She was good, she was a mother, let's move on." President Clinton honored her, Nelson Mandala honored her and yet the Queen and the rest of the Royal Family went on as if nothing had happened. Let us not forget that Harry once asked his father in church, when there was no mention of Diana, "Are you sure mummys dead?"

Now, this is all assumption, as you can see, but I just had to say it. I think this is becoming one of those "Let's agree to disagree" kind of thing.
 
I actually do find myself agreeing with you in a sense, because as I recall the only official statement in the early part of that week (correct me if I'm wrong) from the palace was on the day Diana died when confirming the death and saying how shocked etc the Queen and PoW were. Some further recognition or confirmation from Balmoral using meaningful words during that week would have been welcome. Silence is not always the best policy. I have to say as a general principal, it would be useful if statements and announcements from the palace were a little more noteworthy than just a couple of lines cobbled together from a list of standard sentances (if that's what they do!)
 
And also, I feel that the media couldn't have stirred something up if there wasn't anything to stir up in the first place. Charles knew her death was going to be huge, Tony Blair knew her death was going to be huge. It seems that only Buckingham Palace thought that people would just say, "She was good, she was a mother, let's move on." President Clinton honored her, Nelson Mandala honored her and yet the Queen and the rest of the Royal Family went on as if nothing had happened. Let us not forget that Harry once asked his father in church, when there was no mention of Diana, "Are you sure mummys dead?"
I very much doubt that anyone at that time thought or knew(?) her death was going to be 'huge'. Nor do I think anyone said/thought she was good, she was a mother etc, the immediate family would have been too busy coping with the grief of their sons. Blair just saw a chance to earn some Brownie points with the public, after the media started it's wind up.

You seem to be mistaking sayings/quotes from the film and/or books as facts, they are not as far as we know, since nobody concerned, (HM or Harry) have made statements.:flowers:
 
Perhaps Harry and HM have not made a statement, however, Harry asking the question 'Are you sure Mummy's dead?' was overheard by other parishoners in the church who then spoke to the media.
 
Perhaps Harry and HM have not made a statement, however, Harry asking the question 'Are you sure Mummy's dead?' was overheard by other parishoners in the church who then spoke to the media.
That's the problem scooter, but I am sure you will help me out, I can't find any source to back that up. :flowers:
 
OK, I'll have a look....I have not been to the Diana Bookcase for a while :)
 
Perhaps Harry and HM have not made a statement, however, Harry asking the question 'Are you sure Mummy's dead?' was overheard by other parishoners in the church who then spoke to the media.

Having sat in that Church with HM present during a service, I doubt very much that, if he did say anything like that, he could have been overheard.

The Royal party sit to one side of the Church, away from the rest of the congregation. As the Church is in the traditional shape of a cross, they sit in the right hand "arm" of the cross, to the side & slightly in front of the altar, but there is a gap between those seats and the rest of the congregation.

Only known locals are allowed in the closest seats - the front few rows, at right angles to the Royal pews. Any "casual" visitor unknown to the Church Wardens is guided and restricted to sitting around half-way back in the body of the Church, and therefore the Family would have been distanced from the kind of stranger who may be indiscreet. The locals would rather strangle their granny than let slip any unguarded royal words...
 
I was reading Diana by Sarah Bradford and it said that Tony Blair knew that "this was going to be an outpouring greif". Also, if you were to read to the next page you will see that tiny litte story of Harry asking his father if his mother was dead.
If the Royal Family came out and acknowledged that Harry said that I think it would make them look quite foolish. But we are getting off track here and I will try to steer us back to it.
I don't think she (The Queen) was bullied. She overruled senior courtiers in staying at Balmoral. HM was not in London to see the outpouring of greif for Diana, Princess of Wales. I think a perfect quote was from a journalist in the documentary titled "The Windsors". He said "there was simply something in the air. Like when a football team loses. There was a way this could go that could involved riots." She really wasn't bullied until Tony Blair said "Look, you have to come down here. There is no other choice. The country is crying and need their Queen." Of course he didn't say that, but I think that is what it was summed up to.
 
:previous:
On whether the Queen was bullied, we will have to differ. Every news broadcast and TV station here constantly showed the recreational grievers in London, demanding the return of the Royal Family from Scotland. IMO, they all put their wants before the needs of the boys and their family.

You seem to be quoting sections from the film, regarding senior courtiers and Blair, none of which is know, but the comparison to the reaction of the fans at a football match was quite good, IMO.

The film was fiction mixed with a few facts.

I am not doubting for one moment that Harry did indeed ask his Dad, if she was really dead. It is the question many children ask of a remaining adult when a parent has died. But as I have said, IMO, you are mixing known fact with fiction.
 
Having sat in that Church with HM present during a service, I doubt very much that, if he did say anything like that, he could have been overheard.
Nice to have an "informed opinion". :flowers:

The locals would rather strangle their granny than let slip any unguarded royal words...
A little drastic perhaps but nontheless probably true. They don't call the Scots "staunch" for nothing! :D
 
A little drastic perhaps but nonetheless probably true. They don't call the Scots "staunch" for nothing! :D
Most Scots, especially those in the villages revere the elderly, especially their grannies, so they wouldn't consider strangling them!

Incomers however might sell their stories and even in a tight knit community, 'there is always one'!:flowers:
 
:previous: OK, so no strangled grannies . . . . . but what about strangled journos? :D
 
:previous:
On whether the Queen was bullied, we will have to differ. Every news broadcast and TV station here constantly showed the recreational grievers in London, demanding the return of the Royal Family from Scotland. IMO, they all put their wants before the needs of the boys and their family.

You seem to be quoting sections from the film, regarding senior courtiers and Blair, none of which is know, but the comparison to the reaction of the fans at a football match was quite good, IMO.

The film was fiction mixed with a few facts.

I am not doubting for one moment that Harry did indeed ask his Dad, if she was really dead. It is the question many children ask of a remaining adult when a parent has died. But as I have said, IMO, you are mixing known fact with fiction.

Acutally all of that if from the documentary the Windsors and Sarah Bradford's book Diana. None it comes from the movie. I believe people were already laying flowers down before the press attacked the RF and already shedding tears as well. The press made it bigger, yes, but the emotions were already there.
 
Acutally all of that if from the documentary the Windsors and Sarah Bradford's book Diana. None it comes from the movie. I believe people were already laying flowers down before the press attacked the RF and already shedding tears as well. The press made it bigger, yes, but the emotions were already there.

There were certainly flowers been laid before the press turned on the RF. As I remember events:

death announced
people laying flowers
people accusing press of killing Diana
press turns on RF


Because of the accusations made by the original few who were laying flowers the press were able to create a situation where more people felt they had to do the same thing and also turn on the RF.
 
Acutally all of that if from the documentary the Windsors and Sarah Bradford's book Diana. None it comes from the movie. I believe people were already laying flowers down before the press attacked the RF and already shedding tears as well. The press made it bigger, yes, but the emotions were already there.
David Starkey is very good but neither he nor Bradford were there at Balmoral to be able to say what was actually said. They can postulate but that is all it can be.:flowers: David Starkey also made this comment
What Diana did is kill the sort of monarchy that had been created in 1917. A monarchy based on notions of public decency, self restraint, commitment in marriage and so on. And that all goes out of the window with Diana
:flowers:Yes some people laid flowers but at that time they were blaming the media (not themselves of course), the media very carefully turned it around to put the blame of HM and the Royal Family. Then complete and utter madness followed where the press and people put their needs before the needs of two young boys and the rest of the Royal Family.
 
David Starkey is very good but neither he nor Bradford were there at Balmoral to be able to say what was actually said. They can postulate but that is all it can be.:flowers:
I would like to be able to say that they didn't intend to mislead the public in their various books/articles but Fiction always outsells Non-Fiction. :censored:

These jackals create a fantasy and try to sell it as fact. It never ceases to amaze me how incredibly gullible some people are. They never seem to actually want to apply the acid test:

Who wrote this? = :eek:

Did they witness this personally? = :nonono:

Are they credible?" = :pigsfly:

The fact that so many are fully paid up memebers of the 'Flat Earth Society' seems to be completely irrelevant! :doh:
 
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Most Scots, especially those in the villages revere the elderly, especially their grannies, so they wouldn't consider strangling them!

Incomers however might sell their stories and even in a tight knit community, 'there is always one'!:flowers:

Precisely my point - having witnessed how protective and respectful (yet not grovelling) everyone in that church was towards HM, I just cannot believe that anyone there would pass on such remarks. Everyone who came to the service with HM present, who was not a regular at the services of the Church, was gently but firmly directed well out of "earshot" yet still welcomed into the congregation.

The royals even enter & leave via a side door, direct into their vehicles parked immediately outside, so there would not even be anyone who might have heard the remark as the group moved into or out of their seats - they simply do not pass anyone...
 
David Starkey is very good but neither he nor Bradford were there at Balmoral to be able to say what was actually said.

None of us will truly knows what happens. All the things we say here just projects the people's voices we chose to listen to.
 
I Agree with Mr Starky that the George V 1917 Stiff upper lip was better than the Diana Media Free for All. Diana did alot of good but not ALL good and as for the Queen she did the best she could.
 
I Agree with Mr Starky that the George V 1917 Stiff upper lip was better than the Diana Media Free for All. Diana did alot of good but not ALL good and as for the Queen she did the best she could.

Very notable summary, RoyalFan.

The Queen did the best she could with the resources available to her, which included her own life experience, and under trying circumstances. HM did "good," but not all good. HM has done so, always. In the final analysis, the Queen's life will be remembered for her constant devotion to her duty and her perception of what that entailed. I hope she lives to a greater age than did her mother.

Similarly, and as you stated, Diana of Wales did the best she could with the resources and life experience available to her as well, and under trying times. She did "good," but not all good.

In the end, such an epitaph could be more than others could claim, and since each of these women can, it's interesting to note.
 
I couldn't believe (now or then) how much agitation this caused people. I always thought that increasing the amount of stress on the family (Diana's children!) was horribly representative of just how selfish the public can be. I'd rather have a genuine reaction to a sudden loss any day then a scripted phony one.

And as far as I am concerned, HM does not make mistakes in matters of protocol.
 
I think everybody realized Diana's death was going to be huge, except perhaps the Royals. But from their perspective one can see why they thought it might not be a big deal. Diana's death had a response to it that was more like a response to the death of a celebrity than royalty. The Queen acted as she saw fit- it was sincere. She just acted as tradition dictates, which is what she always has done. I don't think she knew how big of a deal Diana's death would be either. I wouldn't criticize how she acted, not that she ever understood Diana because Diana and the Queen were two very different people. Earl Spencer made that speech which had some insincerity in it, in my view. But the Queen acted sincerely I think in her speech etc. I think she tried to understand Diana, but there was quite a gap between them.
 
I didn't expect to see people breaking down in the streets of London or the ocean of flowers outside Kensington Palace. I expected there to be tears and memorials, but I didn't expect what happened.:flowers:

I think everybody realized Diana's death was going to be huge, except perhaps the Royals.
 
I believe the Queen acted that week as a grandmother rather than a Queen. She was protecting her grand children who had just lost their mother. I wouldn't want my grandchioldren to be hounded by the press and to reveal what i personally felt about a death just because i'm quen. There is a right time to tell the public and a wrong. To go out and talk to the camera to return to london the day after your daughter-in-law, the mother of the future king died is a wrong one. Yes the public deserve her majesties support. But before her own son and grandsons. I don't think so. I applaud what her majesty did, for staying with her family and looking after them. Not leaving to attend to a country.
x
 
I defintely think the Royals were surprised about the public outpouring of grief for Diana, which does in part explain their reaction. As Mermaid1962 posted, even ordinary people didn't expect all that ourpouring of grief. The Royals ( The Queen, etc) didn't understand how much of a celebrity Diana was, because royalty is different than celebrity and their kind of fame, their definition of it didn't fit with Diana's type of fame. I was 11 when Diana died, but I wasn't surprised by the outpouring of grief because so many people related to her so easily- they mourned her as if she was family. The Queen and the Royal Family mourned too, but they've always been private about grief.
 
I love your ativar. You are in my opinion right about the public and the royals reactions about Diana, Princess of Wales' death.:rolleyes:
 
When I watched the movie "The Queen" (with Hellen Mirren), I saw that she didn't act like her heart said, but how a monarch should act. Diana was no longer a member of The Royal Family, so a State Funeral was not necessary. You see Queen Mother (played by Sylvia Syms) saying (not sure if she says with this same words, but it's something like this): "Do you think you predecessors would leave all because a band of hysterical carrying candles needed help with their grief?". These words make you think if she was wrong or right. Tradiction is no longer always healthy. But I think something was really unnecessary like put the flag at a half mast. Diana was not a queen.
 
When I watched the movie "The Queen" (with Hellen Mirren), I saw that she didn't act like her heart said, but how a monarch should act.
You do realise it is a total work of fiction don't you? The feelings and actions attributed to the Queen and the BRF, especially while still at Balmoral, are an interpretation of what the script writer "thought" "might" have happened. All quoted "conversations" are totally fictional. :ermm:

On a personal note, I believe the Queen acted first and foremost as a Grandmother, and a damned fine on at that! :flowers:
 
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