Why Prince William took his place behind his mother's coffin

Published on Monday 17 January 2011 14:04

Prince William was asked to walk behind his mother's coffin at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, because of fears that his father, the Prince of Wales, might be attacked if he was alone, Alastair Campbell has claimed in extracts from his diaries.

The former Downing Street director of communications wrote that a Palace official was sent to Balmoral to ask William to join his father behind the coffin at the 1997 funeral.

But he said that William - aged 15 at the time - was "consumed by a total hatred of the media" because of the way his mother had been pursued, and suspected that the plan was designed to appeal to the press.

The extracts from Power and the People, published yesterday, also reveal that Tony Blair advised the Queen shortly after Diana's death to show her "vulnerable" side in order to win public sympathy.

Mr Campbell wrote that concerns over Prince Charles's safety in the wake of his ex-wife's death became clear in a conference call on 4 September, 1997, with courtiers who were with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh at Balmoral.

He said that Charles's press secretary, Sandy Henney, was sent to Balmoral to tell William that his mother would have wanted him to follow her coffin.

"Sandy Henney had been sent up to try to explain why he might do it," wrote Mr Campbell. "She was obviously saying it was what his mother would have wanted, whilst there was also the fact it would avoid the risk of Charles being publicly attacked."

He said that the Queen's deputy private secretary Sir Robin Janvrin said that if William did not follow the coffin, "then Charles couldn't, 'for obvious and understandable reasons'".

But he said Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, was opposed to cars being used.

"They realised that if William doesn't go behind the coffin, they have a real problem because Charles would have to go behind the coffin with Charles Spencer," wrote Campbell. "There is no way he can do this without the boys, he said."

But there was doubt over whether William and his younger brother Harry would be willing. "William was refusing to speak to anyone and he was consumed by a total hatred of the media. It was pretty clear that he really felt strongly about the role of the media vis-a-vis his mother, and would not want to be doing anything that he felt was for them.

"But as TB said, they were just one of the things he would have to deal with as king. He felt that if he loved Diana as she had wanted him to, there was the chance he would set his mind on becoming king, but having nothing to do with the rest of them."

He later added: "I sensed the boys were holding firm, and they seemed to feel it was being done for the media and the public, not for their mother."

Mr Campbell listened to Mr Blair's call with the Queen after Diana's death, at a time when there were signs of public discontent about the lack of open displays of emotion from the Royal Family.

"It was the first time I'd heard him one on one with the Queen and he really did the 'Ma'am' stuff pretty well, but was also clear and firm too," wrote Mr Campbell.

"He said he felt she had to show that she was vulnerable. He said: 'I really do feel for you. There can be nothing more miserable than feeling as you do and having your motives questioned'."The diaries also suggest Mr Blair believed Prince Charles briefed against Downing Street on other issues for years after the funeral. "TB felt his relationship with the Queen was good, but he felt Charles had people spreading stuff against us a fair bit of the time," wrote Mr Campbell.

However, the Queen later gave Blair a mild ticking off during the Commonwealth Heads of Government conference in Edinburgh for his behaviour after Diana's death.

Campbell writes: "TB was quite enjoying chairing the summit. I asked how the Queen had been with him and he went into his impersonation: 'Now Blair, no more of this people's princess nonsense, because I am the people's Queen.' He said she was fine, and brilliant at the way she handled all these very different characters."

In the introduction to his new volume of diaries Mr Campbell also takes a swipe at Peter Mandelson, describing his memoirs last year as an "insufferably self-indulgent account".

In further attacks on Mandelson, Campbell also revealed his New Labour colleague's desperation to get to the funeral of Princess Diana.

He said: "Three days after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Peter (Mandelson] called from the US to try to get to the funeral 'as a personal friend'. He also called Mark Bolland (deputy private secretary to the Prince of Wales] and tried via him.

"There was something pathetic about it."

In other fresh revelations, Campbell tells how Mr Blair had a "wobble" on the eve of his first bombing mission against Saddam Hussein after a late-night reading of the Bible.

Campbell writes that a New Testament story prompted prime ministerial jitters hours before the launch of an Anglo-American bombing mission against Iraq in 1998.

"TB was having a bit of a wobble," Campbell writes on 16 December, 1998. "He said he had been reading the Bible last night, as he often did when the really big decisions were on, and he had read something about John the Baptist and Herod which had caused him to rethink, albeit not change his mind."