There’s one royal tradition the late Princess Diana could never abide by: summer vacations at Balmoral. Queen Elizabeth II adored the grey stone castle set amidst green meadows in the north of Scotland. King Charles loved it just as much, and spent every summer here with Queen Camilla.
Diana, on the other hand, never found the immense estate to her liking, finding it “stifling,” a revelation that was made in Marie Claire by Paul Burrell, Diana‘s personal assistant and confidant. According to him, from “day one,” the Princess of Wales found the place “full of ghosts from the past,” preventing her from “integrating as a modern woman.” “She was living in the real world,” he explained, where there were homeless people, HIV and AIDS, and landmines. None of this fit within the walls of Balmoral Castle.
Diana and Prince Charles at Balmoral in May 1981Central Press/Getty Images
The Princess of Wales abhorred the unchanging “routines” to which the royal family had been accustomed since “the time of Queen Victoria.” In particular, the former butler cites the initiation to stag hunting. A ritual during which a novice hunter must smear his face with the blood of the first animal he shoots. “She found it worthy of a Victorian novel,” he explained. In his autobiography Spare, Prince Harry recalled this rite and the “infernal smell” of blood that made him “jump” his breakfast from his stomach.
Princess Diana with Prince William and Prince Harry at Balmoral in August 1987Julian Parker/Getty Images
The princess dreamed of a “more relaxed and informal” Scottish vacation and dinners “in jeans.” Balmoral didn’t allow for this. “Breakfast is at 9 o’clock. If you’re downstairs at 10, you’ve missed it,” explained Paul Burrell. Lunch is served at 1 p.m., tea at 5 p.m. and “you had to be there for a cup of tea.” “Dinner is at 8.15 p.m. Woe betide you if you come down badly dressed, at the wrong time, for the wrong event! It’s very, very formal,” he insisted. Diana took it in her stride, trying to “adapt” and “make friends,” recalled her former confidant. “She wanted to fit in, to be loved, to be accepted” in a burst of love for her husband. “Diana was trying to please Charles, so her years at Balmoral were made to please him.”
According to this royal family insider, Balmoral’s much-criticized centuries-old traditions may be numbered. “William is a catalyst for change,” he said. The future sovereign is already “planning” a crown free of the weight of “pomp, pageantry and excess”. “He will be the king of the people.”
Originally published in Vanity Fair France