More than 20 years have passed since Princess Diana died in a car accident, but new facts about her life continue to appear regularly in the press. In the InStyle review - all the most interesting and unexpected things about the “Queen of Hearts”.
1. She was the fourth of five children in the family
Princess Diana had two sisters, Sarah and Jane, and a younger brother, Charles. Another Spencer child, a boy named John, was born in January 1960 and died a few hours later.
2. Her parents divorced when she was 7 years old.
Diana's parents, Francis Shand Kydd and Earl John Spencer, separated in 1969.
3. Diana's grandmother served at court
Ruth Roche, Lady Fermoy, Princess Diana's maternal grandmother, was the Queen Mother's personal assistant and companion. They were very friendly, and Lady Fermoy often helped her in organizing holidays.
4. Diana grew up on Sandrigham Estate
Sandrigham House is located in Norfolk and belongs to the royal family. On its territory there is Park House, where Princess Diana's mother was born, and then Diana herself. The princess spent her childhood there.
5. Diana dreamed of becoming a ballerina
Diana studied ballet for a long time and wanted to become a professional dancer, but she was too tall for this (Diana’s height is 178 cm).
6. She worked as a nanny and teacher
Before meeting Prince Charles, Diana was a nanny. She later became a teacher in kindergarten. At that time, Diana received about five dollars an hour.
7. She was the first royal bride to have a paid job
And Kate Middleton is the first to have a higher education.
8. Prince Charles first dated her older sister
It was thanks to her sister Sarah that Diana met her future husband. “I introduced them, became their Cupid,” Sarah Spencer later said.
9. Prince Charles was a distant relative of Diana
Charles and Diana were each other's 16th cousins.
10. Before the wedding, Diana saw Prince Charles only 12 times
And he became the initiator of their wedding.
11. Her wedding dress broke all records
The ivory wedding dress created by designer duo David and Elizabeth Emmanuel made history. More than 10 thousand pearls were used to embroider the dress, and the train was almost 8 meters long. By the way, this is the longest train among all princess wedding dresses.
12. Diana deliberately left out part of her wedding vows
Instead of the traditional promise to “obey” her husband, Diana vowed only to “love him, comfort him, honor him and protect him, in sickness and in health.”
13. She was the first royal to give birth in hospital.
Before her, representatives of the royal family practiced only home births, so Prince William became the first future monarch to be born in a hospital.
14. She practiced parenting methods that were unconventional for royalty.
Princess Diana wanted her sons to live ordinary lives. “She made sure that William and Harry experienced everything: Diana took them to the cinema, made them stand in lines, bought food at McDonald's, rode roller coasters with them,” said Patrick Jephson, who worked with Diana in for six years.
15. She had many famous friends
Diana was friends with Elton John, George Michael, Tilda Swinton and Liza Minnelli.
16. ABBA was her favorite band
It is known that Diana was a big fan of the Swedish pop group ABBA. The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William paid tribute to Diana by playing several ABBA songs at their 2011 wedding.
17. She had an affair with a bodyguard
Barry Mannaki was part of the royal security team, and in 1985 he became Princess Diana's personal bodyguard. After a year of service, he was removed due to his too close relationship with Diana. In 1987, he crashed on a motorcycle.
18. After the divorce, her title was taken away from her
Princess Diana has lost her title "Her Royal Highness". Prince Charles insisted on this, although Queen Elizabeth II was not against leaving Diana the title.
19. She invited Cindy Crawford to Kensington Palace
Diana invited supermodel Cindy Crawford to tea to please Prince Harry and Prince William, who were then teenagers. In 2017, on the anniversary of Diana's death, Cindy Crawford shared a throwback photo of the Princess of Wales on Instagram. “She asked if I could come and have tea with her the next time I was in London. I was nervous and didn't know what to wear. But when I walked into the room, we immediately started chatting as if she were a regular girl,” Crawford wrote.
20. She is buried on her family's island
Diana is buried at the Spencer family estate of Althorp in Northamptonshire. The estate has been in the Spencer family for over 500 years. The small island also houses a temple on the Oval Lake, where anyone can pay tribute to the princess.
Prince Harry, like his older brother Prince William, would probably give a lot to see their mother Princess Diana at their own wedding.
Both princes had a hard time experiencing the loss of their mother, but they kept a bright memory of her in their hearts and on such an important day for both - their wedding day, they probably remembered her too.
We decided to remember what Diana, Princess of Wales, looked like when she married Prince Charles on July 29, 1981. The wedding ceremony took place at St Paul's Cathedral because it has more seating than Westminster Abbey, where all royal weddings usually take place. Diana walked to the altar in a luxurious dress by fashion designer David Emanuel with a long eight-meter veil and was incredibly happy and in love with her prince.
Getty Images
On April 29, 2011, the eldest son of Charles and Diana, Prince William, married Kate Middleton. Their wedding took place in Westminster Abbey. The Duchess of Cambridge Catherine wore a white dress made for her by British designer Sarah Burton (creative director of the House of Alexander McQueen), the dress was made of satin and consisted of a lace bodice self made and a satin skirt. The veil was held in place by a Cartier tiara lent to Catherine by Queen Elizabeth II. The piece previously belonged to Queen Mother Elizabeth and was given to Elizabeth II on her 18th birthday.
Getty Images
May 19, 2018 younger son Charles and Diana - Prince Harry married American actress Meghan Markle. The wedding ceremony took place in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. Meghan walked down the aisle arm in arm with Prince Charles, wearing White dress from the House of Givenchy, designed by British designer Clare Waight Keller and wearing the Bandeau tiara, which once belonged to Queen Elizabeth II’s grandmother, Queen Mary, and was created in 1923. The tiara was also lent to Meghan by Her Majesty.
Getty Images
By the way, did you notice the similarity in the dates of each of these weddings, each of them features the number 9. Kate and William chose the same date as Diana and Charles, and Meghan and Harry chose the 19th, which is also very symbolic, isn’t it ?
Here are three beautiful brides, what do you say, which one do you like best?
Getty Images
Three Royal Brides: Diana, Catherine and Meghan
July 29, 1981 lady Diana Spencer She finally became Princess Diana when she married Prince Charles. The couple's wedding ceremony is still considered a certain model with which all other weddings taking place in the royal family are inevitably compared.
The common people of Great Britain cried with happiness, looking at the beautiful bride and the dashing, brave groom. No one even thought that marriage to Charles would turn into a complete nightmare for Diana.
As you know, Princess Diana was very suspicious. The beauty understood perfectly well that Charles did not really love her.
Trying in any way to become more attractive in the eyes of the groom, an aristocrat before the wedding tortured myself with diets. As a result, the beautiful dress had to be heavily re-sewn: the bride’s waist decreased by 10 centimeters!
Journalists sympathetic to the princess tend to expose her fiancé cold-blooded monster, without any doubt, destroyed the life of a fragile beauty. In fact, as you know, Charles didn’t really want a wedding with Lady Spencer either.
If it were his will, the prince would immediately marry Camilla. According to eyewitnesses, before the wedding day, Charles locked himself in his chambers and sobbed there all night...
Luxurious Wedding Dress Diana is still the envy of thousands of brides. Pearl trim, seven and a half meters long train, soft milky color - real beauty!
Few people know that Lady Di had a lot of problems with her dress on her wedding day. When the bride got out of the carriage in front of St. Paul's Cathedral, it suddenly became clear that her luxurious outfit was all wrinkled! The beauty's friends and assistants were able to rectify the situation with great difficulty.
In addition, in the haste of preparation for the wedding, Diana managed to spill her favorite perfume on her dress. If the folds of the crumpled outfit were still somehow smoothed out, then it was simply impossible to remove the stain.
Fortunately, the perfume spilled onto the hem, and during the ceremony the embarrassment was at least hidden from prying eyes. But all these adventures cost Diana considerable nerves..
Perhaps it was precisely because of the above-mentioned disturbances that Lady Di allowed serious mistake. The woman forgot in what order the numerous names of her betrothed were to be mentioned.
Therefore, Diana swore allegiance not to Charles Philip Arthur George, but to Philip Charles Arthur George. The wits later slandered: they say, the beauty took an oath to the groom’s father!
Let me note right away: Diana’s wedding consisted not only of annoying mistakes and unfortunate accidents. For example, a freedom-loving woman found time to reconsider the traditional marriage vow.
The part where we talk about " obedience to husband"Lady Di simply threw it away. Tellingly, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle later followed her example.
And then the life of the obstinate princess was taken by a terrible accident, in which even now they are looking for traces of the intervention of the British royal family. But in people’s memory, the inimitable Queen of Hearts will forever remain young and beautiful!
Body language reading specialist Judy James looked at the wedding from a professional point of view. Comparing it with other weddings in the royal family, she explained why she considered this event very romantic, the site shares.
Royal wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles
About 750 million people around the world watched the couple's wedding ceremony. No one could even imagine how their union would end. Everyone was waiting for a strong and successful family life. It couldn't be any other way.
According to the expert, all circumstances pointed precisely to this. Charles' softening face as he looked at his wife, gentle touches testified to affectionate feelings. Then many British were sure that Charles chose an innocent and young girl because she won his heart. Diana's movements indicated that from a shy girl she had become a real princess. Lightness, grace and embarrassment as Charles kissed her hand.
This event was truly grandiose. More than 3,500 famous guests from all over the world came to London. It was billed as a fairytale wedding or the wedding of the century. This day was even declared a national holiday.
The wedding of Diana and Charles became the most expensive in British history and was, as they say, on a grand scale. Just look at the incredible, at that time, princess dress with an eight-meter train.
Having compared the wedding of Charles and Diana with the weddings of Kate Middleton and Prince William, as well as Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, the expert confidently claims that they are inferior to the former in romance. For example, Megan's body "spoke" of confidence and joy. Harry, with his entire appearance, showed excitement and anxiety from happiness. They balanced each other's feelings, but could not compete with the visual and tactile contact of Charles and Diana.
We remind you that the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana took place on July 29, 1981. Charles and Diana had two sons - Princes William and Harry. After 11 years, the couple separated, and a few years later they officially divorced. Despite the body language reading expert's opinion, the wedding wasn't quite as romantic.
Princess Diana won the love and respect of her people. For this popularity in society, she acquired the unofficial title of "People's Princess."
There is another wedding in the Windsor family: Prince Harry, the youngest son of Crown Prince Charles, is marrying American actress Meghan Markle. 65 million Britons and several hundred million people from other countries will be glued to their screens in the hope of seeing a colorful and magnificent ceremony - and, of course, they will not be disappointed in their expectations. But someone will probably expect something completely different - embarrassment and blunders, without which, despite the strict rules governing royal weddings, such events are not always possible.
SERGEY MANUKOV
The most expensive wedding
According to Bridebook magazine, which, as its name suggests, specializes in weddings and everything connected with them, Harry and Meghan's wedding will cost $2,760,974. This, of course, is only direct expenses: the cost of the church ceremony, flowers, decorations and the wedding itself. reception, which will be paid for by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles. The bride, by the way, is a fairly famous actress and a far from poor girl, intends to pay for the wedding dress herself. According to British tabloids, a Ralph & Russo outfit costs from $100 thousand to $180 thousand. For comparison: the price of an average wedding dress in the UK is $2100. However, Megan will probably pay much less than the actual cost of the outfit, because she will receive a decent discount: dressing the bride of the royal grandson for the wedding is an excellent advertisement for any couturier.
As for the British taxpayers, you can't envy them - they have to pay for security measures that will cost an order of magnitude more than the wedding itself. The British press gives different figures, but without much risk of error we can say that the measures will be quite comparable to those taken at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Then the bill amounted to $32 million.
On the one hand, Harry’s wedding is in all respects significantly inferior to his brother’s wedding, because Will, as Prince Charles’s eldest son is called, is second in line to the British throne, and Harry, after the recent birth of another nephew, has moved even further away from the throne and is now only sixth in line applicants. But, on the other hand, security measures for 100 thousand people who can come to Windsor Castle in the hope of catching a glimpse of the bride and groom will be taken more seriously, because seven years ago the world and Great Britain were much calmer. Here it is enough to recall that the bride’s mother is African-American, and the groom has served in the British army for ten years, has been on business trips to Afghanistan twice and boasted that he killed the Taliban.
However, a significant number of zeros does not cause much indignation even among the most thrifty Britons. Firstly, the monarchy enjoys considerable respect here, and secondly, Harry’s wedding should bring about $680 million to the British economy thanks to the influx of tourists.
Despite the approximate estimates of wedding expenses, it is interesting to compare Harry's wedding with other royal weddings. CBS News estimates that, for example, the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, then Dame Diana Spencer, in July 1981 cost about $70 million in today's prices.
In terms of expenses, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II is far from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi: the cost of the wedding of Mohammed and Salama in the same 1981, for which he rented a 20,000-seat stadium and which lasted a week, is estimated at $100 million
And the most expensive for five and a half centuries has been the marriage of the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, who married Margaret of York, sister of the English kings Edward IV and Richard III.
Now this wedding would probably be called the wedding of the century. The Scotsman estimates it is worth $200 million in today's dollars.
The wedding of Charles and Margaret took place in early July 1468 in Bruges, where princes, nobles and church prelates came from all over Europe. It lasted ten days and consisted of countless parades, balls and banquets. The celebration was accompanied by an indispensable attribute of those times - knightly tournaments, in which the most famous knights of Europe took part. Their armor and weapons were decorated with gold and silver and sparkled in the sun, as did the harness of their horses, covered with gilded blankets. By the way, the groom himself also took part in the tournament, who was not called Brave for nothing.
The wedding of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York remains the most expensive royal wedding in history.
As numerous chroniclers and eyewitnesses noted, the most impressive event of the multi-day celebrations was the entry of the future duchess into Bruges. She was accompanied by an impressive - at least one and a half thousand people - retinue in brocade and velvet. A crowd of trumpeters and heralds loudly announced the arrival of the bride. The procession moved slowly from the city gates to the ducal palace along the carpeted streets. Margarita was wearing a robe trimmed with ermine. Her blond head was crowned with a crown decorated with numerous diamonds and pearls (the crown has been preserved and is now in Aachen).
The walls of the houses that the procession passed were decorated with banners and tapestries, and there were flowers in the windows. Spectators looked out from behind them, paying the owners of the houses a crown, a lot of money at that time. Everyone wanted to see the bride of the Duke, who surpassed many European kings in power and wealth. Charles ordered that fountains be built throughout the city, from which wine flowed freely day and night. Red and white wine flowed from the bows of the stone archers guarding the entrance to the ducal palace. In the center of the courtyard stood a gilded pelican, from whose chest wine and honey flowed.
Along the way to the palace, Margarita and her retinue and numerous spectators were entertained by theatrical performances and pantomimes, in which more than 75 actors and dancers from all over the Netherlands took part. That memorable day was only somewhat overshadowed by bad weather: the wind blowing from the North Sea drove the clouds, and it often rained.
Despite the bad weather, the entry of Margaret of York into Bruges was so magnificent that it quickly became a legend. It is now regularly recreated in modern Bruges by actors and ordinary residents dressed in medieval clothes.
Lush banquets were held in the palace every day. The ceiling of the main hall was draped with white and blue silks. Many eyewitnesses did not have enough words to describe the abundance of food, wine and gold, silver and bronze dishes served, which cost a fortune.
Learn from other people's mistakes
Of course, the wedding of Harry and Meghan will not attract as much attention as the wedding of his older brother, but still he would do well to be careful and not repeat the mistakes made by other famous couples at the altar. For example, he and Megan should be very careful with wedding ring, so as not to make the mistake of Kate, William's wife. She wanted the ring to fit snugly on her finger, so she chose a ring slightly smaller than her usual size. As a result, the groom had to work hard at the altar, putting it on the bride’s finger. Since then, by the way, according to close friends of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the story of the “naughty” ring is often the subject of jokes in the conversations of the spouses.
There is a danger of making a mistake with the size of not only the ring, but also the wedding dress. Here we recall a much older story - Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of the French King Louis XVI. The royal tailor made a mistake with the size: the wedding dress was too small. The error appeared too late. Despite all their efforts, the maids of honor were unable to close the gap between the rows of diamonds on the bride’s back. To avoid further embarrassment, I had to urgently drape the gap with another fabric.
By the way, that wedding in Vienna was also remembered for the absence of... the groom. At the altar, Louis was replaced by his elder brother Ferdinand. Marie Antoinette met her husband a few weeks later in Versailles. The second wedding took place on May 16, 1770. The bride “distinguished herself” once again by putting a large blot on the marriage contract that half covered her long name.
But let's return to our time. Prince Harry should remember another mistake of his older brother: on the eve of his own wedding, Prince William slept, as he himself admitted in one of the interviews, for only half an hour and, naturally, the next day he was sleepy throughout the ceremony and often yawned.
Harry should also learn the text of his wedding vow better so as not to stumble at the altar, as his father did when he married Diana Spencer.
Megan shouldn’t relax either: blunders, as we know, happen to brides too. For example, Diana mixed up Charles' name while saying her vows. True, in fairness, it should be recalled that, firstly, of course, she was very worried, and secondly, the groom, as befits a crown prince, has an overly long name. It is not surprising that in this state Diana called him “Philip Charles” instead of “Charles Philip.”
Diana’s wedding dress also didn’t go smoothly. Taffeta, as it soon became clear, was not very suitable for carriage travel. In addition, she did not take into account that an almost eight-meter train is difficult to accommodate in the carriage. As a result, when the bride entered St. Paul's Cathedral, the dress was hopelessly wrinkled.
Queen Elizabeth II will apparently lend Meghan a tiara on her wedding day. On the eve of the ceremony, the bride better check it out so as not to get into trouble, as happened to Elizabeth herself, then still the Crown Princess, at her own wedding on November 20, 1947.
We are talking about the famous tiara made for Queen Mary in 1919.
On the morning of the wedding day, the tiara broke in the hands of the hairdresser who was styling the bride's hair.
Accompanied by a heavy police presence, the jewel was urgently taken to the royal jewelers. The tiara was repaired at the House of Garrard jewelry workshop and was delivered back before the ceremony began. By the way, for Princess Anne, Elizabeth’s daughter, who got married wearing the same tiara, everything went off without an emergency.
On the eve of the wedding, Elizabeth II almost found herself without a tiara, which was barely repaired before the ceremony began.
Photo: Keystone Pictures USA/DIOMEDIA
Meghan Markle will certainly be able to remain calm so as not to repeat the mistake of one of her distant predecessors, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. When she married the heir to the British throne, Prince Frederick of Wales, in 1736, Augusta became so excited that she vomited directly on her future mother-in-law, Queen Caroline, wife of the English King George II. Despite this embarrassment, the ceremony continued as if nothing had happened, to the sounds of the wedding hymn “Sing unto God” specially written by Handel.
This, by the way, was a typical royal marriage not of love, but of convenience. After the complex marriage alliance between England and Prussia broke down, crown prince agreed to marry anyone in order to receive additional support from parliament and gain financial independence from his father.
During the visit of the English royal couple to Hanover, Caroline advised her husband to go to the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha to look at the princesses who lived there. George II followed her advice and found Princess Augusta, by the way, a second cousin of the Russian Empress Catherine II, quite suitable for the role of daughter-in-law, who would eventually become Queen of Britain. Negotiations between George and Duke Frederick II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg did not last long. The Duke, of course, could not refuse the offer of the powerful English king. It’s not difficult to understand - Augusta was... the 15th child. In total, he had 18 children, of whom only nine survived - seven sons and two daughters.
The British Crown Prince, for his part, also agreed with his father's choice. The fate of Frederick and Augusta was sealed. Despite the choice of George II, Augusta could hardly be considered a suitable candidate for the role of Princess of Wales. The princess was 16 years old and knew neither English nor French. She was advised to take an accelerated language course, but Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst, her mother, considered this unnecessary, because the British royal family was from Germany and all its representatives knew very well German. She turned out to be right. During the wedding ceremony, Queen Caroline translated everything for the bride.
The young princess's excitement was understandable. She first saw her future husband, who was 13 years older than her, on April 25, 1736 in Greenwich, where she arrived on the royal yacht William and Mary. There was no time to get to know the future spouse better - the wedding took place on May 8 in the Royal Chapel of St. James's Palace in London.
Before the wedding, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha barely knew her fiancé, Prince Frederick of Wales.
Photo: Print Collector/Getty Images
By the way, despite such an unpromising start, the marriage turned out to be quite successful. Frederick and Augusta had nine sons and daughters. Last daughter- Caroline Matilda was born three months after her father's unexpected death in 1751.
Hate at first sight
Let's remember perhaps the most scandalous wedding in the history of the Windsor family - Prince George of Wales, who became the British king in 1820 under the name George IV, and the German princess Caroline of Brunswick, by the way, who was his cousin. Here the signs, unfortunately, did not deceive.
Caroline was the daughter of Charles Wilhelm Ferdinand of Brunswick, who ruled the German principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and the British Princess Augusta, the eldest daughter of Frederick and Augusta mentioned above.
George received the unofficial title “First Gentleman of England” for his excellent education and ability to win over his interlocutors. However, his obnoxious character and extravagant behavior clearly did not live up to his nickname. This discrepancy was especially evident in his personal life.
Big fan female beauty, Georg really did not want to marry his cousin Caroline, a woman, to put it mildly, not very beautiful. And he burst into tears in front of the courtiers when no one supported his objections to this marriage. The future king agreed to marry only after his father, King George III, promised to help him pay off his debts, which amounted to a huge amount at that time - £630 thousand.
Alas, hopes for resolution financial problems and remained hopeful. George was very dissatisfied when Parliament increased his allowance after his marriage to £125 thousand, but decided to take £65 thousand from it to pay off debts, plus £13 thousand income from the Duchy of Cornwall. In general, having become a family man, the crown prince only worsened his financial situation: as a bachelor he received £78 thousand, and after the wedding only £60 thousand.
The young people hated each other from the very first meeting. Georg, disappointed by the bride's appearance and the smell of sweat emanating from her, drowned his sadness with a large glass of brandy. Caroline also had aesthetic complaints about her future husband: she complained to one of her ladies-in-waiting that in the portrait the prince was much more handsome than in life. In addition, over time it turned out that George was already secretly married to Maria Fitzherbert, who was six years older than him.
Further more. The groom was late for his own wedding, which took place on April 8, 1795 in the Royal Chapel of St. James's Palace. He nearly fell while walking up the steps to the altar and refused to take his marriage vows until the king scolded him. To top it all off, the prince was so drunk that he could hardly stand on his feet. Three groomsmen repeatedly had to catch him by the arms to keep him from falling. At the same time, the groom looked not at the bride, but at his then mistress, Lady Jersey. The relationship with her, by the way, lasted until 1798, when he returned to Maria Fitzherbert.
Caroline also had her fair share of problems at the ceremony.
The silver velvet wedding dress, adorned with jewels and ermine, was so heavy that she could hardly stand in it, let alone walk.
The wedding night almost ended in fiasco. The Prince of Wales came to his wife drunk as a cobbler and sat down on the bedroom floor in front of the fireplace. Waking up at dawn and remembering his responsibilities, Georg fulfilled his marital duty.
Such a stormy start did not bode well. And so it happened - after the birth of their only child, Charlotte Augusta, on January 7, 1796, George actually abandoned his wife. In his hatred of her, he went so far that he even took away his own wedding gift - pearl bracelets - and gave them to Lady Jersey, who always wore them in the presence of Caroline, in order to annoy her once again.
The mistress, appointed by Georg as his wife's maid of honor, did everything to upset this marriage. By the way, she herself persuaded Georg to choose his cousin, a short, clumsy and slovenly girl, from all the contenders. Caroline, offended by her husband’s indifference and poor treatment, made mistake after mistake. Her scandalous behavior further increased the estrangement between her and her husband and destroyed her reputation.
For the next quarter of a century, Georg tirelessly searched for an opportunity to get a divorce. Caroline, despite mutual hatred, opposed the divorce. He forbade her to raise her daughter and allowed her to see the girl only occasionally in the presence of a nanny, and bequeathed the property to his mistress. The father-in-law felt sorry for Caroline, but his health was rapidly deteriorating. The prince's hands were finally untied after George III was officially declared incompetent due to insanity on February 6, 1811. For the next almost ten years, until the death of his father, George officially served as regent and ruled the kingdom.
Of course, the British knew about the turbulent life of the Prince Regent. Most of his subjects condemned him for his extravagance, and the Princess of Wales was considered an undeservedly offended wife. Thanks to Caroline, George IV became one of the most unpopular kings in English history.
To some extent, probably jealous of his wife's popularity, George ordered parliament to officially approve their divorce, accusing her of... infidelity. Caroline was very attached to the little boy whom she adopted and raised. The princess's ill-wishers claimed that this was her son from one of her many lovers. The lower house refused to approve the divorce, but the failure did not stop George from continuing to put pressure on his wife. She eventually left the country in the summer of 1814 for Italy, where her behavior and, in particular, her romantic relationship with a servant named Bartolomeo Pergami caused even more controversy than in Britain. In the Apennines, Caroline accidentally learned of her daughter’s death in the fall of 1817. When a courier who stopped at her house on the way to Rome told her the sad news, she fainted.
George renewed his efforts to get Parliament to recognize him as a free man. Caroline, meanwhile, traveled around Europe. During these travels, she was caught by the news of the death of her father-in-law on January 29, 1820, and that she had become queen of the British Empire. Alas, this only complicated her situation. Caroline returned to Britain for the coronation, but George forbade her to attend the ceremony in Westminster Abbey. The ban caused unrest in London.
This failure completely undermined Caroline’s strength and health. Two weeks after her coronation, on August 7, 1821, she died at the age of 53 from a mysterious gastroenterological illness. It is possible that the cause of death was intestinal obstruction, but it is possible that she had cancer. Naturally, there were conspiracy theories according to which she was poisoned on the orders of her husband.
The throne could not resist true love
The complete opposite of this marriage was another Anglo-German alliance - between the niece of George IV, Queen Victoria, and the German Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The marriage was happy, probably because Victoria chose her husband herself and they had time to get to know each other. By the time of Albert's premature death in 1861, they had nine children, who eventually became intermarried with representatives of many European royal houses.
Victoria's 42 grandchildren included the kings of Greece, Norway and Romania, numerous German princes and grand dukes.
The history of the Windsor family has a romantic and Touching story another Prince of Wales, who sacrificed his crown for the love of a woman. Edward VIII, who received the original name Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David at baptism, became King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions and Emperor of India in January 1936, but already in March 1937 he abdicated the throne. The love for an American woman named Wallis Simpson was to blame for everything.
“I have found it impossible... to perform the duties of king without the help and support of the woman I love,” Edward declared in his act of abdication.
Edward met Wallis in New York in 1934. The novel developed at breakneck speed. Two years later, after the death of his father, George V, Edward announced his intention to marry Wallis, who at the time was divorcing her second husband. However, Parliament and the government did not consider that a divorced American woman was a suitable match for the man who rules the British Empire and heads the Church of England.
Edward was adamant. The throne went to him younger brother, Duke of York, who became King George VI. Wallis Simpson achieved the status of an officially free woman a few months after Edward's abdication, in May 1937. They married that same month and lived quite happily until Edward's death in 1972.
Marriage is stronger than war
Today, representatives of the Windsor family, judging by the sons of Prince Charles, who chose commoners as wives, as in the song, really can do anything. Although just a hundred years ago, marriages between representatives of royal families, including, of course, the Windsors, were carried out in strict accordance with strict laws and rules and were a powerful tool of global politics, often surpassing bloody wars in effectiveness.
Before the First World War, arranged marriages prevailed in royal families. An ideal example of such a diplomatic union is the history of marriages between representatives of the royal houses of Austria and Hungary. The Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke Maximilian I of Austria and the King of Hungary and Bohemia (modern Czech Republic) Vladislaus II (Ulaslo II) entered into a complex matrimonial agreement in 1506. The spouses were to become Ferdinand, the grandson of Maximilian and the son of the Spanish king Philip I, and Anna, the daughter of Vladislav, as well as Ferdinand’s very little sister, Maria, and the child who was being carried by Vladislav’s wife at the time of signing the agreement, provided, of course, that she gave birth son.
In the engraving of Hans Burgkmair, the royal marriage (of Emperor Maximilian I and the daughter of Charles the Bold, Maria) is just a mechanism in the “wheel of state”
The agreement was extremely important: just a decade and a half before its conclusion, the bloody war between Austria and Hungary ended, during which the Hungarians captured Vienna and a significant part of the Austrian possessions for several years. However, the implementation of the agreements depended not only on the wishes of Maximilian and Vladislav. Not only was the birth of a boy expected, but the parties to the agreement also had to live to marriageable age. And given the medical and hygienic conditions of the early 16th century, this was not so easy: infant mortality was high among royal children.
Nevertheless, Vladislav and especially Maximilian were lucky. The wife of the Hungarian king, Anna de Foix, gave birth to a son, who at the age of ten became king of Hungary and Bohemia under the name Louis II (Lajos II). All participants marriage contract They successfully survived the most dangerous period - early childhood, although Louis was a very weak child, and many doubted that he would survive. On July 22, 1515, two weddings were celebrated in St. Stephen's Cathedral, the main cathedral of Vienna. The luck of Ferdinand I (Maximilian died in 1519) did not end there. On August 29, 1526, the Hungarian army, led by Louis II, suffered a crushing defeat from the Turks at Mohács. The king drowned in a swamp, and his body was found only two months later.
Since Louis did not have a male heir, all Hungarian and Czech lands passed to his sister Anna, and therefore to her husband Ferdinand.
Thanks to dynastic marriages, foresight and, of course, luck, the Habsburgs united Austria, Hungary and Bohemia under their rule into the prototype of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which lasted four centuries.
In the 21st century, representatives of royal houses can afford such a luxury as a love marriage. And the story of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is fresh proof of this.
