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funeral service in Westminster Abbey, Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, criticized the media
for their pursuit of ‘the most hunted woman in the world’. He then diverted his attack
from the press towards Elizabeth and her assembled family, sitting below him. Diana
‘needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic,’ he said, in
a direct reference to Elizabeth’s decision to strip Diana of the HRH. He implicitly
criticized the ethos of the Windsor tradition when he pledged in relation to William and
Harry that ‘we, your blood family’, would do everything possible to ‘continue the
imaginative way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so that
their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition’ but could ‘sing openly’, as
Diana had planned. Spencer’s speech touched a chord: relayed by speakers to the public
outside the Abbey, the roars of apppreciation were echoed by applause from the
congregation within. It was evidence, if such were still needed, of the public mood
which could not be ignored. As guardian of the monarchy’s future, Elizabeth, whatever
her inner feelings, must have recognized the need for change.