A public figure from the announcement of her engagement to Prince Charles, Diana was born into an old, aristocratic English family with royal connections, and remained the focus of worldwide media scrutiny before, during and after her marriage, which ended in divorce on 28 August 1996. This continued following her death in a car crash in Paris along with her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul on 31 August 1997, and in the subsequent display of public mourning a week later. Contemporary responses to Diana's life and legacy are mixed but popular interest in the Princess endures.
Diana also received recognition for her charity work and for her support of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. From 1989, she was the president of the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.
Contents
* 1 Early life
* 2 Royal descent
* 3 Education
* 4 Relationship with the Prince of Wales
o 4.1 Engagement and wedding
o 4.2 Children
o 4.3 Charity work
o 4.4 Problems and separation
o 4.5 Divorce
* 5 Personal life after divorce
o 5.1 Landmines
* 6 Death
o 6.1 Conspiracy theories and inquest
o 6.2 Tribute, funeral, and burial
+ 6.2.1 Memorials
o 6.3 Memorabilia
o 6.4 Diana in contemporary art
o 6.5 Recent events
* 7 Contemporary opinions
* 8 Titles, styles, honours, and arms
o 8.1 Titles and styles
o 8.2 Honours
o 8.3 Arms
* 9 Legacy
* 10 Ancestry
* 11 See also
* 12 Notes
* 13 References
* 14 Further reading
* 15 External links
Early life
Diana Frances Spencer was born at Park House, Sandringham in Norfolk, England, the youngest daughter of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (later the 8th Earl Spencer) and his first wife Frances Spencer, Viscountess Althorp (formerly the Honourable Frances Burke Roche, and later Frances Shand Kydd). Her father was of British descent and counted the 1st Duke of Marlborough among his forbears. Her mother, who was of English and Irish descent, was a daughter of the 4th Baron Fermoy. Diana had a younger brother, Charles, and two elder sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes. She was baptised on 30 August 1961 at St. Mary Magdalene Church by the Rt. Rev. Percy Herbert (rector of the church and former Bishop of Norwich and Blackburn), with godparents that included John Floyd (the chairman of Christie's).
Diana was eight years of age when her parents were divorced in 1969, after much acrimony and as a result of her mother having an affair with a married man. Initially, her mother took Diana and her younger brother to live in an apartment in London's Knightsbridge, where Diana attended a local day school. However, Diana's father gained custody of the children after a court battle which saw Frances' mother, Baroness Fermoy, denouncing her own daughter as being an unfit mother. Shortly afterwards, following the divorce of her lover from his wife, Frances married him and moved to the Island of Seil on the west coast of Scotland. Henceforth, Diana and her sisters were raised by their father, but did often visit their mother.
Later, in 1976, their father followed in their mother's footsteps by having an affair with a married woman, Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, daughter of Alexander McCorquodale and Barbara Cartland. He later married Raine after she and her husband were divorced. Neither of Diana's parents had any children by their second spouses. Diana and her elder sisters did not get on well with either their step-mother or their step-father.
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