VASILE ALECSANDRI NATIONAL COLLEGE

Princess
Diana
The queen of
hearts
Coordinating teacher:

Student:

Oana Jugariu

Munteanu Diana Ioana

XII F

2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword..3
Chapter 1. Early life.4
Chapter 2. Education and career.5
Chapter 3. Marriage to the Prince of Wales.6
3.1. Engagement and wedding...7
3.2. Children.......8
3.3. Problems in the marriage.9
Chapter 4. Personal life after the divorce...................10
Chapter 5. Death.................................11
Conclusion..12
Bibliography...13

FOREWORD
Princess Diana is one of my favourite celebrities. This is why I decided to do my research
paper about her, like a tribute to everything she meant and still means to me and all the
people who found hope and a role model in her.
Characterizing Princess Diana with any sweeping generalizations is an exercise in futility.
Though it remains a pleasant notion to remember Diana for the enormous humanitarian
impact she made on the world, it is not realistic to sketch her picture solely by those efforts.
The princess was an enigmatic figure who led a complex life.
In her lifetime she accomplished many great things. She worked on numerous charity
projects; she was also one of the most photographed people during her lifetime. A particular
thing that I liked very much at her was her elegance. She was the only celebrity I have ever
seen with natural and elegant manners. She was polite with everybody nearby, including
media, the citizens waiting to greet her and the under-privileged she was visiting.
She had the ability to handle almost every problem, just by caring for everybody at each
event. She always smiled pleasantly. She made everybody feel comfortable, including the
audiences watching her in the TV programmes! How powerful her charm has been!
The Princess was well known both for her support of charity projects and her sense of style.
She was also credited with considerable influence for her campaigns against the use of
landmines and helping the victims of AIDS. In fact, Princess Diana was the first high-profile
celebrity to be photographed touching a person infected with the HIV virus. She visited
landmine survivors in hospitals, toured demining projects run by the HALO Trust, and
attended nine awareness education classes about the dangers of landmines immediately
surrounding homes and villages. One of the reasons that Princess Dianas charity work is so
special is because she truly believed in participating in helping, not just giving money. The
Princess fought for so many different causes that one can really tell how much she cared for
humanity in general and how she sincerely wanted to end suffering wherever it occurred.
Princess Diana even said, I understand people's suffering, people's pain, more than you will
ever know yourself
Heroines are allowed to make mistakes too. Dianas adulterous marriage brought her down to
the level of any other ordinary person. The Princess admitted she had been depressed, selfmutilated and bulimic. This allows the public, especially women, to empathize with the way
she was feeling. Dianas demonstration of how to overcome an obstacle and the way she
turned a helpless life into one of aiding others, shows why people look up to her and idealize
[Link] Diana was such a realistic woman, she inspired other women to live up to their
potential. She cared for all children, no matter what. She was like a universal mother. Her
love for children was evident in her social work and also in her own family life. Diana placed
much value on the family unity. Princess Diana stresses how much she appreciates families.
Princess Dianas ability to be a good mother made her a genuine heroine.

EARLY LIFE
Diana was born on 1 July 1961, in Park
House, Sandringham, Norfolk. She was the fourth of five
children of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (19241992)
and his first wife, Frances.
The Spencers have been closely allied with
the Royal Family for several generations. They were
hoping for a boy to carry on the family line, and no
name was chosen for a week, until they settled on
Diana Frances, after her mother and Diana Russell,
Duchess of Bedford, her distant relative who was
also known as "Lady Diana Spencer" before marriage
and was a prospective Princess of Wales.
The future princess, with her parents and siblings Sarah, Jane and

Diana had three siblings: Sarah, Jane, and Charles.

Charles, at home circa 1970.
She had an infant brother, John, who died a year
before she was born. The desire for an heir added strain to the Spencers' marriage, and Lady Althorp was
reportedly sent to Harley Street clinics in London to determine the cause of the "problem". The
experience was described as "humiliating" by Diana's younger brother, Charles: "It was a dreadful time
for my parents and probably the root of their divorce because I don't
think they ever got over it." Diana grew up in Park House, which was
situated near to the Sandringham estate.

In !967, Diana plays with her

brother, Charles, near the grounds
of Park House.

Diana was eight years old when her parents divorced, after her mother
later had an affair with Peter Shand Kydd. She lived with her mother
in London during her parents' separation. Shortly afterwards, Lord
Althorp won custody of Diana with support from his former motherin-law, Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy. Diana was educated at
Riddlesworth Hall near Diss, Norfolk, and attended boarding school
at The New School at West Heath, in Sevenoaks, Kent. In 1973, Lord
Althorp began a relationship with Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the
only daughter of Alexander McCorquodale and Barbara Cartland.
Diana became known as Lady Diana after her father inherited the title
of Earl Spencer in 1975.

Diana was often noted for her shyness while growing up. She was interested in music and dancing,
training in classical ballet. She also had a great interest in children. After attending finishing school at the
Institut Alpin Videmanette in Switzerland, she moved to London. She began working with children,
eventually becoming a nursery assistant at the Young England School. Diana had played with Princes
Andrew and Edward as a child while her family rented Park House, property owned by Queen Elizabeth
II and situated on the Sandringham Estate.

EDUCATION AND CAREER

In 1968, Diana was sent to Riddlesworth Hall School, an all-girls boarding school. While she was young,
she attended a local public school. She did not shine academically, and was moved to West Heath Girls'
School (later reorganised as The New School at West Heath) in Sevenoaks, Kent, where she was regarded
as a poor student, having failed all of her O-levels twice. She showed a particular talent for music as an
accomplished pianist. In 1977, she left West Heath and briefly attended Institut Alpin Videmanette, a
finishing school in Rougemont, Switzerland. At about that time, she first met her future husband, who
was then in a relationship with her older sister, Sarah. Diana also excelled in swimming and diving, and
longed to be a professional ballerina with the Royal Ballet. She studied ballet throughout her childhood
and teenage years, but then grew too tall for the profession.
Her first job, at the age of 17, was as a
nanny for Alexandra, the daughter of
Major Jeremy Whitaker and his wife
Philippa (van Straubenzee) at their Land
of Nod estate at Headley Down,
Hampshire. Philippa's brother, William,
was a close friend of Diana's.
Diana moved to London in 1978 and
lived in her mother's flat; her mother was
then spending most of the year in
Scotland. Soon afterwards, an apartment
was purchased for 100,000 as an 18th
birthday present, at Coleherne Court in
Earls Court. She lived there until
February 25, 1981 with three flatmates.
In London, she took an advanced cooking
Diana as a nanny with two kids in 1980, the year before she would marry Prince Charles.
course at her mother's suggestion,
although she never became an adroit cook. She worked as a dance instructor for youth until a skiing
accident caused her to miss three months of work. She then found employment as a playgroup (preschool) assistant, did some cleaning work for her sister Sarah and several of her friends, and acted as a
hostess at parties. Diana spent time working as a nanny for the Robertsons, an American family living in
London, and worked as a kindergarten teacher at the Young England School in Pimlico.

MARRIAGE TO THE PRINCE OF

WHALES
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, first met Lady
Diana since November 1977 when he and Lady
Sarah were dating, but he took a serious interest
in her as a potential bride during the summer of
1980, when they were guests at a country
weekend, where she watched him play polo.
The relationship developed as he invited her for
a sailing weekend to Cowes aboard the royal
yacht Britannia. This was followed by an
invitation to Balmoral (the Royal Family's
Scottish residence) to meet his family a
weekend in November 1980. Lady Diana was
well received by the Queen, the Duke of
Edinburgh, and Queen Elizabeth The Queen
Mother. The couple subsequently courted in London. The prince proposed on 6 February 1981, and Lady
Diana accepted, but their engagement was kept secret for the next few weeks.

Engagement and wedding

Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981, after Lady Diana selected a large engagement
ring consisting of 14 solitaire diamonds surrounding a 12-carat oval blue Ceylon sapphire set in 18-carat
white gold, similar to her mother's engagement ring. The ring was made by the then Crown jewellers
Garrard but, unusually for a ring for a member of the Royal Family, it was not unique; it was featured in
Garrard's jewellery collection. In 2010 the ring became the engagement ring of Catherine, Duchess of
Cambridge. It was copied by jewellers all over the world. The Queen Mother gave Lady Diana a sapphire
and diamond brooch as an engagement present.
Following the engagement Lady Diana left her job at the kindergarten and lived at Clarence House, then
home of the Queen Mother, for a short period. She then lived at Buckingham Palace until the wedding.
Her first public appearance with Prince Charles was in a charity ball in March 1981 at Goldsmiths' Hall,
where she met Princess Grace of Monaco.
Twenty-year-old Diana became Princess of Wales when she married the Prince of Wales on 29 July 1981
at St Paul's Cathedral, which offered more seating than Westminster Abbey, generally used for royal
nuptials. Widely described as a "fairytale wedding", it was watched by a global television audience of 750
million while 600,000 people lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the couple en route to the ceremony

Diana wore a dress valued at 9,000 with a 25-foot (7.62metre) train.

Children