The Murder of Princess Diana Read Online Free PDF Page A

their baby sister for her turn, should the chance arise.
    As it happened, Diana’s feelings and intentions were irrelevant. Charles had discovered a candidate for matrimony who fulfilled all the criteria defined by Camilla Parker Bowles, and it was this that had prompted his enthusiasm.
    Diana turned down his invitation to drive her back to London—another tip from her sisters was not to be too compliant—and Charles returned to Buckingham Palace alone, from where he telephoned his mistress to report his “find.” Lady Diana Spencer, he told her, had all the wifely attributes they were seeking: she was a virgin without a past, and came from good, blue-blooded breeding stock.
    Mrs. Parker Bowles immediately set about stage-managing the royal suitor’s next moves in the wooing of their chosen bride. After a night of Verdi at the Albert Hall, Diana was invited to Cowes week aboard the royal yacht Britannia, and the cruise to Scotland which traditionally followed. This trip and the following spell in Balmoral was the testing period with the royal family: Diana passed with flying colors. Even Prince Philip, who had despaired of his eldest son ever taking a wife, was fulsome in his approval. “She can provide the family with some height,” he commented—putting her about on a par with a brood mare. Yet this parental approval, though important, was insignificant to Charles compared with the real test.
    Mrs. Parker Bowles and her husband were part of the Balmoral house party, and this would be Camilla’s first chance to vet Diana in person. Her judgment, a rare miscalculation for Camilla, was that Diana was a mouse: ideal wife fodder who was incapable of breaking her stranglehold on the prince.
    Cheered by Camilla’s overwhelmingly favorable verdict, Charles sent Diana packing back to London escorted by, of all people, Andrew Parker Bowles, while he and his mistress—with typical lack of discretion—got on with their love affair.
    During this wooing period, Diana had to put up with weekend after weekend at Bolehyde as a guest of the Parker Bowleses and with Camilla’s neverending advice to her on how best to get along with Charles. She learned that it was Camilla who had helped Charles choose Highgrove, a nine-bedroom Georgian mansion set in 350 acres, which was small for the heir to the throne but perfect for the prince’s immediate needs. It was just a few minutes drive from the Parker Bowles house—and the woman with whom he had become totally besotted. It was Camilla, too, who had advised on its decoration. When Charles took Diana to the races, the chaperone he chose to be with them was Mrs. Parker Bowles. And it was to Camilla’s home that they returned afterward—not Highgrove.
    Diana was not the brightest girl in her class, but even she was capable, before long, of recognizing what was going on between her suitor and his friend’s wife. Despite this, she still had dreams of her own to fulfill, paramount being her vision of becoming Queen of England. So she said nothing and prayed that the affair would not become as obvious to the general public as it was to her. It is quite unforgivable that, at this stage, her mother, who knew exactly what the relationship was between Charles and Camilla, did not warn Diana off. She urged caution, as any mother might have done, but despite knowing everything she said nothing that really counted.
    Diana’s grandmother, Lady Fermoy, was more to the point. “I don’t think marrying into the royal family will suit you,” she told Diana. “Their sense of humor and their lifestyle are very different.” But by then it was already too late to protect her. Diana had been made painfully aware, courtesy of the Sunday Mirror on November 16, 1980, that her boyfriend—her first ever boyfriend—was sleeping with another woman.
    The Sunday Mirror exclusive was that on the night after attending Princess Margaret’s party at the Ritz Hotel with Charles, Diana had slipped down to