Christopher Hitchens on the Death of Diana, Princess of Wales (1997)

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• published: 11 Jun 2013
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Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances; née Spencer; 1 July 1961 -- 31 August 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, the eldest son and heir apparent of Queen Elizabeth II. She was well known for her fund-raising work for international charities and as an eminent celebrity of the late 20th century. Her wedding to the Prince of Wales on 29 July 1981 was held at St Paul's Cathedral and seen by a global television audience of over 750 million. While married she bore the titles Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, Countess of Chester and Baroness of Renfrew. The marriage produced two sons, the princes William and Harry, who became second and third in line to the British throne. Diana was born into an aristocratic English family with royal ancestry. She was the fourth child of John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer and his wife Frances, daughter of Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy. She became a public figure with the announcement of her engagement. She also received recognition for her charity work and for her support of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. From 1989, she was the president of the Great Ormond Street Hospital for children, in addition to dozens of other charities. Diana remained the object of worldwide media scrutiny during and after her marriage, which ended in divorce on 28 August 1996. Media attention and public mourning were considerable following her death in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_diana On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales died as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were also pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. The bodyguard of Diana and Dodi, Trevor Rees-Jones, was the only survivor. Although the media pinned the blame on the paparazzi, the crash was ultimately found to be caused by the reckless actions of the chauffeur, who was the head of security at the Ritz and had earlier goaded the paparazzi waiting outside the hotel.[1] An 18-month French judicial investigation concluded in 1999 that the crash was caused by Paul, who lost control of the car at high speed while drunk. His inebriation may have been made worse by the simultaneous presence of an anti-depressant and traces of a tranquilizing anti-psychotic in his body.[2][3] Since February 1998, Dodi's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed (the owner of the Hôtel Ritz, for which Paul worked) claimed that the crash was a result of a conspiracy,[4] and later contended that the crash was orchestrated by MI6 on the instructions of the Royal Family.[5] His claims that the crash was a result of a conspiracy were dismissed by a French judicial investigation[2] and by Operation Paget, a Metropolitan Police Service inquiry that concluded in 2006.[6] An inquest headed by Lord Justice Scott Baker into the deaths of Diana and Dodi began at the Royal Courts of Justice, London, on 2 October 2007 and was a continuation of the original inquest that began in 2004.[7] On 7 April 2008, the jury concluded that Diana and Dodi were unlawfully killed by the "grossly negligent driving of the following vehicles and of the Mercedes" adding that additional factors were "the impairment of the judgment of the driver of the Mercedes through alcohol" and "the death of the deceased was caused or contributed to by the fact that the deceased was not wearing a seat-belt, the fact that the Mercedes struck the pillar in the Alma Tunnel, rather than colliding with something else". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Diana,_Princess_of_Wales