A brother was tasked with eulogising his "global phenomenon" of a sister.
asserted
brother → task → sister
Now, Earl Spencer is analysing his own words decades on.
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Spencer → analyse → words
This is not the first time Charles Spencer has spoken so publicly in defence of his sister's memory.
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Spencer → speak → memory
His eulogy for Princess Diana was lauded around the world as billions tuned in to mourn the "people's princess" nearly three decades ago.
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billions → laud → princess
Now, his controversial new memoir has sparked a war of words with the palace as he revisits one of the darkest times in modern royal history.
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he → spark → history
The memoir has also sparked a legal threat from broadcaster Piers Morgan, for which Earl Spencer has apologised for getting a "date wrong", but says he will not pull the book from shelves.
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he → spark → shelves
In Swan Song, Earl Spencer analyses the eulogy he penned for his late sister, revealing the moments that inspired certain lines and the hidden rebuttals inked into his lasting tribute.
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that → analyse → tribute
Below is a full transcript of his eulogy from 1997, annotated with some of Earl Spencer's recent reflections.
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transcript → annotate → reflections
"I stand before you today the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning before a world in shock.
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I → stand → shock
| Earl Spencer was the point of contact for his family when it came to Princess Diana's funeral arrangements.
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it → come → arrangements
Once it was decided the service would be a national ceremony, Earl Spencer claimed every detail had to be put through Queen Elizabeth II and then her heir, Charles, with the Spencer family's wishes a third priority.
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wishes → decide → II
As Earl Spencer writes: "Diana remained theirs, in Buckingham Palace's eyes, even in death."
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Diana → write → death
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"We are all united not only in our desire to pay our respects to Diana but rather in our need to do so.
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We → unite → need
For such was her extraordinary appeal that the tens of millions of people taking part in this service all over the world via television and radio who never actually met her, feel that they too lost someone close to them in the early hours of Sunday morning.
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they → take → morning
It is a more remarkable tribute to Diana than I can ever hope to offer her today.
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I → hope → her
All over the world, a standard bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who transcended nationality.
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who → transcend → nationality
Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.
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she → prove → magic
Almost one year before her death, the Queen stripped Diana of the Her Royal Highness title in what Earl Spencer describes as the "package of humiliation handed to her at her divorce".
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Spencer → strip → divorce
As Earl Spencer writes: "The removal of Diana's title hurt her.
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removal → write → her
The loss was designed to emphasise to her, and the world, that her royal days were over."
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days → design → her
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"Today is our chance to say thank you for the way you brightened our lives, even though God granted you but half a life.
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God → say → life
We will all feel cheated always that you were taken from us so young and yet we must learn to be grateful that you came along at all.
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you → feel → us
Only now that you are gone do we truly appreciate what we are now without and we want you to know that life without you is very, very difficult.
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life → go → you
"We have all despaired at our loss over the past week and only the strength of the message you gave us through your years of giving has afforded us the strength to move forward.
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you → despair → strength
You stand tall enough as a human being of unique qualities not to need to be seen as a saint.
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You → stand → saint
"Indeed to sanctify your memory would be to miss out on the very core of your being, your wonderfully mischievous sense of humour with a laugh that bent you double.
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that → sanctify → you
| Earl Spencer wanted to protect his sister from "any criminals, lunatics or journalists who might seek to desecrate or steal her remains".
uncertain
who → want → remains
Diana was laid to rest at the Spencer family's Althorp Estate, on an island within a lake.
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Diana → lay → lake
Earl Spencer writes it was clear he had to make Diana's grave "such an unattractive proposition to even the most determined and dangerous of her followers that they chose to expend their energy elsewhere".
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they → write → energy
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"Your joy for life transmitted where ever you took your smile and the sparkle in those unforgettable eyes.
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you → transmit → eyes
Your boundless energy which you could barely contain.
uncertain
you → contain → which
"But your greatest gift was your intuition and it was a gift you used wisely.
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you → use → ?
This is what underpinned all your other wonderful attributes and if we look to analyse what it was about you that had such a wide appeal we find it in your instinctive feel for what was really important in all our lives.
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what → underpin → lives
"Without your God-given sensitivity we would be immersed in greater ignorance at the anguish of Aids and HIV sufferers, the plight of the homeless, the isolation of lepers, the random destruction of landmines.
"
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we → give → landmines
Diana explained to me once that it was her innermost feelings of suffering that made it possible for her to connect with her constituency of the rejected.
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her → explain → rejected
| As external pressures mounted on Diana, Earl Spencer claims she considered taking her own life on several occasions.
uncertain
she → mount → occasions
"It is a sad fact that, in her later years, Diana drove herself more than once to Beachy Head, the highest sea cliff in England, while contemplating ending it all.
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Diana → drive → it
Her love for her sons stopped her from going further," Earl Spencer writes.
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Spencer → stop → her
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"And here we come to another truth about her.
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we → come → her
For all the status, the glamour, the applause, Diana remained throughout a very insecure person at heart, almost childlike in her desire to do good for others so she could release herself from deep feelings of unworthiness of which her eating disorders were merely a symptom.
|
uncertain
disorders → remain → which
…and 44 more, not listed.
The Aporia
