Did Princess Diana Intentionally Try ‘To Bring Down The Monarchy?’

There’s no doubt that Princess Diana is probably the most popular royal in recent times. In fact, many believe that her death rocked the monarchy to its core and almost ended the centuries-old institution.

However, dying so young in a car crash was not part of Princess Diana’s plans. So she could not have planned ahead and saw just how problematic her death would be for Prince Charles, Camilla Parker Bowles, Queen Elizabeth II and even the institution as a whole.

But royal family fans are interested to know whether or not Diana intentionally did things while she was still alive that would undermine the monarchy. Thus, someone who probably is Diana’s fan posted the question “Did Diana really try to ‘bring the monarchy down?” on Quora to get others’ opinion on the matter.

Most of those who responded to the question think that Princess Diana had no intentions of—to use the dramatic phrase of the Quora user who posted the question—“bringing the monarchy down.” After all, her son, Prince William, is the future king, and she is not the type of mother who would try to destroy her son’s future.

“No,” Kristiv L Stark is certain that it was not Diana’s intention. “She valued the tradition of the monarchy. She was very proud to be the mother of the future king of England.”

Another Quora user, Heather Clarke, is of the same opinion as well. “I really don't think she wanted to bring the monarchy down,” Clarke explained. “It is the birthright of her oldest son after all. I think she may have wanted to shake some of the dust off the traditions as she started to come into her own in the 90s before her death. She may have also wanted some payback against Charles.”

On the other hand, Cory Raisa believes that instead of being perceived as trying to harm the monarchy, Diana is actually doing the exact opposite. “Not at all!” Raisa wrote. “She wanted to enhance the monarchy by bringing a human face to it and placing it in closer touch with the people. She did a fine job with it, especially raising her sons so well and being a hands-on mum.”

Many believe that Princess Diana’s 1995 interview with Martin Bashir is the turning point when Queen Elizabeth II started to view her as a liability to the monarchy. In the interview, which was aired on television, she questioned Prince Charles’ moral character to be king and also talked about his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.

While with that single interview Diana was indeed able to damage Prince Charles’ reputation and the public’s opinion of him, and by extension the monarchy, many royal family fans actually understand the reason she might have done it. And it doesn’t seem to have something to do with damaging the institution itself.

Fans, in fact, believe that it was merely for revenge — to get back at Prince Charles. “She’d acted for so long, she was just bursting at the seams, ready to explode to anybody that would listen,” Sophie Oldfield wrote. “If the RF had supported her, she wouldn’t have felt alone and in desperate need of love and attention.”

And If her goal was indeed to make the public hate Charles, then she was pretty successful. “And till today there are thousands of people, who repeat it again and again and again: Charles is guilty,” Anke Scholz-Jortzick observed. “Some people will hate him till their last breath.”