{"id":288101,"date":"2025-07-24T14:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T14:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/288101\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T14:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T14:18:10","slug":"princess-diana-felt-suffocated-by-this-archaic-royal-tradition-says-her-former-butler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/288101\/","title":{"rendered":"Princess Diana Felt “Suffocated” By This “Archaic” Royal Tradition, Says Her Former Butler"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s one royal tradition the late Princess Diana could never abide by: summer vacations at Balmoral<\/a>. Queen Elizabeth II<\/a> adored the grey stone castle set amidst green meadows in the north of Scotland. King Charles<\/strong><\/a> loved it just as much, and spent every summer here with Queen Camilla<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Diana, on the other hand, never found the immense estate to her liking, finding it \u201cstifling,” a revelation that was made in Marie Claire<\/a> by Paul Burrell<\/strong>, Diana<\/a>‘s personal assistant and confidant. According to him, from \u201cday one,\u201d the Princess of Wales found the place \u201cfull of ghosts from the past,\u201d preventing her from \u201cintegrating as a modern woman.\u201d “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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Diana and Prince Charles at Balmoral in May 1981Central Press\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Princess of Wales abhorred the unchanging “routines” to which the royal family had been accustomed since \u201cthe time of Queen Victoria.\u201d 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<\/a>, Prince Harry<\/strong><\/a> recalled this rite and the “infernal smell” of blood that made him “jump” his breakfast from his stomach.<\/p>\n

Princess Diana with Prince William and Prince Harry at Balmoral in August 1987Julian Parker\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The princess dreamed of a “more relaxed and informal” Scottish vacation and dinners \u201cin jeans.\u201d 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 \u201cyou had to be there for a cup of tea.\u201d “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 \u201cmake friends,\u201d recalled her former confidant. “She wanted to fit in, to be loved, to be accepted” in a burst of love for her husband. \u201cDiana was trying to please Charles, so her years at Balmoral were made to please him.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to this royal family insider, Balmoral’s much-criticized centuries-old traditions may be numbered. “William<\/strong><\/a> is a catalyst for change,” he said. The future sovereign is already “planning” a crown free of the weight of “pomp, pageantry and excess”. \u201cHe will be the king of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published in Vanity Fair France<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There’s one royal tradition the late Princess Diana could never abide by: summer vacations at Balmoral. Queen Elizabeth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[83380,7709,7730,7731,1760,9729,447,532,1412,8821,7710,519,448],"class_list":{"0":"post-288101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-balmoral","9":"tag-british-royal-family","10":"tag-charles","11":"tag-charles-iii","12":"tag-king-charles","13":"tag-prince-charles","14":"tag-prince-harry","15":"tag-prince-william","16":"tag-princess-diana","17":"tag-queen-elizabeth","18":"tag-royal-families","19":"tag-royal-family","20":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114908646844907177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}