Chapter Six ‘Blood Family…’ #2
I led them to where the grave had been dug.
We then began what is recorded in Anglican Church records as ‘the Service for the Consecration of a Grave at Althorp in the Diocese of Peterborough for the Interment of the Body of Diana, Princess of Wales’.
That is a lot of words to describe a brief exercise in spiritual alchemy.
In this the bishop took an outlying piece of Althorp’s formal garden and gave it a new, divine significance.
This was designed to bestow upon it God’s everlasting protection.
I read aloud the petition handed to me by the chaplain: ‘To the Right Reverend Father in God Ian, By Divine Permission Lord Bishop of Peterborough,’ I began.
‘Whereas our sister Diana, Princess of Wales died on the 31st day of August 1997, and whereas a piece of land situate [sic] in Althorp Park in the County of Northampton and marked on the plan annexed to this Petition has been properly prepared for the interment of our said sister according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, now therefore we Charles Edward Maurice Earl Spencer of Althorp, within your Lordship’s Diocese, humbly request your Lordship to set apart from all profane and common uses the said piece of land and to consecrate the same as a grave for the interment of our said sister Diana, Princess of Wales. ’
The bishop replied: ‘I am ready for your request. The Lord be with you.’
He told me and his chaplain to join him in saying: ‘O Father of all, we pray to thee for thy servant Diana, Princess of Wales. Grant her thy peace, let light perpetual shine upon her, and in thy loving wisdom and almighty power take her unto Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.’
The bishop walked deliberately to the four corners of the grave, using his staff to mark the ground with the sign of the Cross. As he did this, he said: ‘The blessing of the Eternal God be upon this place to sanctify it and keep it holy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.’
He then returned to the spot at which he had started the service to confirm that this ‘piece of land’ was now and for ever ‘a resting place for the remains of Diana, Princess of Wales: in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
‘Hear the words of the Scripture,’ he continued.
‘I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me: “Write, from henceforth blessed are the dead who die in the Lord: Even so, saith the Spirit. For they rest from their labours.” ’
I thought of Diana’s many labours and felt comforted that at least these were now at an end.
She had endured more than enough to deserve to rest in peace.
There had been many times when I had seen her exhausted by having to be ‘on’ during her plentiful public engagements.
But she also had to absorb the less obvious toil of being a figure that so many revered and expected so much from.
Even the most well-meaning could, inadvertently, sap her inner resources.
*
The Blessing followed, concluding that short, sad service, leaving the island ready to receive Diana’s mortal remains, where they could lie protected by me and my successors for ever.
I thanked the bishop and his chaplain for their time and kindness before heading back to my office for a catch-up on the phone about my family’s hopes for the service.
While going through the guest list, Robert Fellowes mentioned in passing ‘…and all the national newspaper editors will be there.’
‘Not the tabloid ones, though?’ I immediately asked, assuming the answer would be ‘Of course not.’
Instead, Robert said: ‘Well, yes, of course. All the Fleet Street editors always get invited to these sorts of services.’
‘But they can’t come to this one, surely, Robert? I mean, they killed her.’
‘I’m afraid they’ve already been invited.’
I was flabbergasted, being sure that Diana would not want them there, given how she had been pursued to her death. I found out the switchboard phone numbers of each tabloid newspaper, rang them up, and asked to be put through to the editor.
In each subsequent conversation I introduced myself, said I understood that they had been invited to the funeral, and explained that this was obviously a mistake. They should therefore please not come.
I have a handwritten record of what I relayed to one of the editors at this time – Stuart Higgins, of the Sun – since I reported it to one of my family by fax:
I called Higgins. He isn’t in, so I left this message:
On behalf of my family, I ask that neither you nor any representative from your newspaper attend the Service on Saturday.
We were devastated to hear that the tabloid press had been invited to the Abbey and would much prefer it if nobody from that section of the media was at the final service for Diana, for obvious reasons.
I could tell that the ones I got through to personally at this time were all slightly confused as to how to react to what I was saying.
In those days tabloid editors were quite fearsome figures, used to throwing their weight around in the newsroom.
Many had a boorish public persona, which they basked in.
They also had privileges that went with their office, and no doubt saw attending the funeral of the lady they had tortured (and whose life, I believed, some of them had helped to end) as one of those ex officio benefits.
They realized they were unable to be rude to the brother of the much-mourned princess and, although clearly highly surprised by my call, they each agreed not to come.
The only one who sounded surly, as opposed to merely confused or embarrassed, was Piers Morgan of the Mirror, who snarled with annoyance before he hung up.
I assumed Morgan must be feeling particular guilt because, four years earlier, he and his Sunday Mirror counterpart had published photographs taken with hidden cameras by a gym owner. They were of Diana working out in a leotard.
This was such an intolerable invasion of her privacy that Diana instructed lawyers to sue the Mirror Group and to block further use of the images.
Meanwhile, a Dutch newspaper splashed one of the pictures on its front page, and an American tabloid bought a selection of them with which to titillate its readers.
The gym owner eventually made ￡300,000 from his salacious, stolen images.
For a while it had looked as though the Mirror Group would be brazen enough to allow the case to go to court, calculating that whatever their newspapers lost financially at trial would be more than recouped through global publicity.
No member of the Royal Family had been in the witness box in England since 1891, when a previous Prince of Wales had appeared as a witness in a friend’s libel case.
The offending publications would have Diana at the mercy of their barristers, possibly for days, with the world hanging on her every word.
Despite significant public outrage at the pictures, and loss of revenue when some major companies withdrew their advertising from the Mirror Group, Morgan’s triumphant spokesman boasted that sales of his paper and of the Sunday Mirror had each risen by more than a hundred thousand copies since splashing the intrusive shots.
But, after that, public curiosity turned into general revulsion and both papers’ circulation dropped significantly.
This commercial setback persuaded the Mirror Group to fold.
It agreed to pay Diana’s legal costs, of around ￡1 million, and was obliged to further acknowledge its guilt by making donations of ￡200,000 to her chosen charities.
In the immediate aftermath of Diana’s death, Morgan was one of four tabloid editors named, shamed and photographed in an article looking at who might be held responsible for the paparazzi’s role in the fatal car crash in Paris.
It must have been an extraordinary sensation for this powerful quartet to be on the receiving end of a good newspaper kicking.
They were used to dishing out such treatment, without ever receiving it in return.
But these were extraordinary times. People were furious that Diana had been taken from them, and they were looking for people to blame.