Twenty years ago today Diana, Princess of Wales died at the age of 36. She was the daughter of the 8th Earl Spencer and 15 times great-granddaughter of King Henry VII. She was the ex-wife of Prince Charles, also 15x-great-grandchild of Henry VII.
Diana’s line comes from Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VII. Charles traces his ancestry from Henry VII’s heir, Henry VIII. Her family therefore is nobility while his is royalty. Her sons, however, are royals and direct heirs to the British throne.
Spencer Family Tree – from Edward IV
18th century Lady Diana Spencer
A several times great-aunt, and name-sake, of Diana’s almost took the same path from nobility to royalty. (See her highlighted in chart.) That earlier Lady Diana Spencer‘s grandmother tried to arrange her marriage to Frederick, heir apparent of George II. But instead he married Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. Frederick died before his father and so his son George became the next king, George III.
Frederick, 1st Duke of Edinburgh
While Frederick was Prince of Wales, his grandfather George I created the title of Duke of Edinburgh for him. George, his son, inherited the title but it “merged into the Crown” when he became king in 1760.
Two more times the title was created and died out before King George VI re-created it for Philip Mountbatten in 1947. In order for it to pass to Prince Philip’s youngest son Edward, as is planned (instead of to eldest son Charles as it would through rules of primogeniture), it will likely have to officially end and be re-created once more.
So had history played out differently, another Lady Diana Spencer would have been in line to be Queen.
But ‘our’ Lady Diana is the only Spencer who actually married into the top echelon of the Royals. The People’s Princess, PM Tony Blair called her, “queen of people’s hearts,” she hoped to be. A fairy tale princess she certainly was.
- See my Royalty for when Charles and Diana visited St. John’s on their Canadian tour in 1983.
