Chapter 20 3. Members of the royal family and the princess

The spirit of the British royal family is embodied in the "troika" composed of the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. They are the soul of the Windsor family. Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret are the last generation of the royal family who are immune to real life. They have lived in a deep palace since childhood, isolated from the outside world, and have never had anything to do with them such as queuing, shopping, and installment payments.They just sit peacefully where society's expectations and rules allow them, year after year. Responsibility, duty and sacrifice have forged the teachings of their existence.They lived in the way expected by the royal family and the public in these unfathomable terms, and licked the loneliness of being so high in the eyes of others.

"Never complain, never explain" is the core belief of the Windsor royal family. As an outsider, Diana saw more clearly the gap between the outside world and the royal family.They don't want to face the harsh reality, but only remember the past scenery; they disdain the life of common people, and they can only close themselves in a reserved and noble position.Incomparably lonely and incomparably holy, this is the way the family has chosen for themselves. The core figure of this troika is undoubtedly Queen Elizabeth.The respected queen mother once insisted on staying in London to encourage her husband and soldiers and civilians during World War II. Hitler cursed her as "the most terrible woman in the world".

Diana was able to enter Buckingham Palace with the support of the Queen Mother.She once advised her grandson Charles to pay attention to Miss Diana Spencer: "Look at how gentle she is, how sweet, how innocent!" The queen mother has always been a supporter of Diana's royal love. However, the Queen Mother soon couldn't like the girl she had in mind. The queen mother originally expected that the princess should be beautiful in appearance, obedient and obedient, and quickly integrated into the royal family system.But Diana was far from what she imagined.Except for her beauty, everything is different from the Queen Mother's standard.She advocates freedom, does not stick to the rules and regulations of the royal family, and uses her charm to snatch the scene of her husband Charles.

On Diana's side, she believed that the Queen Mother was too formal, and the social activities she hosted were always serious and lifeless.Another thing that made her even more unacceptable was that she found that the queen mother seemed to approve of Camilla's affair with Charles in private.While Camilla lives at the Queen Mother's residence, the Prince can call her. The Queen Mother and Charles had a strong bond, and Diana was clearly left out. In contrast, Diana preferred Princess Margaret, who helped Diana the most in adapting to court life. When Diana entered the palace, she was extremely uncomfortable with life in the palace.Especially the cold and rigid atmosphere always made her feel suffocated, as if her youthful vigor was being sucked away little by little, and she became lethargic in a blink of an eye.

At this time, it was Princess Margaret who came to her and quietly told her the rules of the royal family to help her adapt to royal life.Diana said: "I admire Margaret very much, I like her very much, she has always been very good to me." For her mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth, Diana initially felt awe and respect. In the beginning, according to court etiquette, she had to salute meticulously every time she saw the queen.At other times of court life, she should avoid getting too close to the queen. But in subsequent one-on-one conversations, Diana was less reserved.They talked mostly about the strained relationship between the couple and Charles' state of mind.The queen found that Charles had no clear purpose in life, and his behavior was eccentric and capricious.The queen also believes that Charles, like Diana, has not been happy from this marriage.

As the head of a country, the queen has abided by her duties for 40 years, maintained the dwindling monarchy, and brought into full play the traditions and functions of the royal family.Diana was so impressed that despite her desperate desire to escape the royal marriage, she couldn't help saying to the honorable queen: "I will not let you down." One sweltering afternoon, Diana went to a garden party.Her friend handed her a fan, but Diana refused: "I can't do that. Because my mother-in-law is standing with a handbag, gloves, socks and leather shoes." The queen can perform on every occasion Diana couldn't help admiring and respecting her extremely strong self-control.

Although she is a rebel of the British royal family, even though her personality does not match what the Queen expects, she still trusts and admires the Queen's ability very much, and tries her best to get along with her so that she can maintain a relatively friendly relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Diana and her father-in-law, Prince Philip, were also more friendly.Perhaps the lonely prince can better understand Diana's status as a royal foil.On the marriage issue of the crown prince and his wife, he once reprimanded his son Charles, thinking that as long as Diana was given time and opportunity, everything would be fine.As a result, the father and son broke up unhappy.

The relationship between Diana and Princess Anne is a little delicate.Diana admired Princess Anne's self-reliance and pioneering spirit very much, and praised her efforts to break out of the princess's cage and create the Save the Children Foundation. When Prince Henry was born in September 1984, Diana did not let Princess Anne be Henry's godmother, but chose her good friend --- Caroline Bartholomew.The press made a big fuss, saying that this showed that Diana and Princess Anne's relationship was cold. Diana believed that Princess Anne was already the child's aunt, and there was no need to hold two roles.

Princess Anne never liked Diana. She stood on the side of her brother Charles and believed that all the unfavorable remarks in the newspapers were planned by Diana.She didn't even want to talk to the princess, and refused to pay attention to the princess on any occasion.The arrival of Diana not only encroached on Princess Anne's due position, but she also stole Princess Anne's dressing skills. She would often put on a brand new outfit to maximize her beautiful figure, or put on a Wearing a bikini swimsuit, sunbathing on the beach, not caring about the reporter's pursuit.This annoyed Annie, and Diana snatched all the glory she deserved.

In formal occasions, as long as Diana and Princess Anne appear at the same time, Princess Anne always stands as far away from Diana as possible. A commoner with aristocratic blood, Diana, the girl next door, her habits and hobbies determine her strangeness to the royal family. After all, she is an outsider and cannot integrate into the royal family.But Princess Anne has always been very familiar with the royal palace. She was born and raised here, and there is an irremovable barrier between her and Diana. It was the Duchess of York who had the same experience with Diana—Sarah, who was also of civilian origin.

The Duchess of York looked so youthful when she was on holiday at Balmoral five years ago.In just a few years, she was stripped of all her youthful vigor by the royal system, and was swallowed up step by step.Her life was no longer an art, but a mere burden.From clothing to choice of friends, she was all under the siege of the press without exception and had nowhere to breathe. In the indifferent royal family, the Duchess seeks sustenance from the outside world. She got acquainted with various people one after another. Some of these people used Torok cards to tell their fortunes, some used supernatural powers, and some used astrology or other methods of divination.The Duchess hopes to find a fairy way out of the royal "maze". There were days when the Duchess spent hours a day visiting fortune-tellers and astrologers.Perhaps in those prophecies, the Duchess of York could find some solace. In "Othello", Yago keeps prophesying that the royal family will be destroyed, but Yago in Buckingham Palace is the Duchess of York. For a period of time before the divorce in 1992, she always whispered, encouraged, and pleaded in Diana's ear, predicting the fate of the royal family and urging her to escape from this cage. Her plea should have been an attractive calling for a woman in despair, but Diana had come to trust her own judgment. She sadly watched her girlfriend fall into a situation similar to her own.In the royal family, they are isolated from the royal family. It was a pleasant evening in August, and the royal family enjoyed a barbecue on the lawn of Balmoral Castle.Everyone talked while eating, and for some reason, an argument arose, mainly against the Duchess of York, which made her leave in a huff.Diana tried to defend her, saying that no one would have imagined that life would be so difficult to adjust to when married to a member of the royal family, and that as time went on, the duchess became more and more unable to bear the constraints of the royal family.Diana even tried to make the queen understand that if the Duchess of York is restrained, one day she will leave.Sure enough, Sarah told her friends it was her last trip to Balmoral. Eight months later, she and Prince Andrew officially separated. Diana was amazed to see how quickly those around the Queen turned against the Duchess and pushed her on the wrong side of the royal family with a charge of misconduct.She was extremely sentimental about it. "The sword of Buckingham Palace is pointed at the Duchess," a reporter from London Broadcasting Corporation pointed out the situation at that time.At that time, Sarah had been accused of using the marriage with the royal family for personal gain, and she was also accused of using a public relations company to promote her departure from the royal family out of thin air. The Duchess shed tears amid endless accusations, and lived like a year. In August 1992, the "Daily Mirror" published photos of the Duchess of York and her lover on vacation in the south of France, which caused a lot of speculation. In May 1994, the Duke and Duchess of York divorced.If Diana is determined to break out of the siege, she is bound to experience what Sarah has suffered.