The HEARTBREAKING reason the Queen REFUSED to return to London after Princess Diana died
PRINCESS Diana’s death on August 31, 1997, united the nation in collective mourning - but the Queen did not immediately show her face in London to join the country.
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The Queen was criticised at the time for not returning immediately to the capital after the People’s Princess was killed in a Paris car crash. The monarch also initially refused to fly the flag at Buckingham Palace at half-mast. Her decision was met with indignation by a nation reeling from Diana’s untimely death.
But Her Majesty had a very good reason for taking the course of action she did.
She wanted to protect young Prince William and Harry, with whom she was holidaying at the time with Prince Philip and their father, Prince Charles, at Balmoral.
Eventually, the Queen did bow to public pressure and returned to Buckingham Palace a day earlier than planned.
Tina Brown, author of The Diana Chronicles, told a Channel 5 documentary: “The Queen was adamant that her place was at Balmoral with her grieving grandsons.
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“Everyone rallied around the young princes.
“This was the first time in a long reign that the Queen was thinking about her family before her people.
“We should admire her for that.
“Her thoughts were with her grandchildren and she wasn't thinking about how this would be played out in the media.”
Royal commentator, Alastair Bruce, said: “The Royal Family realised there were two young boys who had lost their mother.
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“I don't think there's a human being alive who doesn't respond to that as an important thing.”
In the immediate aftermath of Diana's death the Queen and Prince Philip did all they could to help the young princes.
Ms Brown said: "Prince Philip took them walking, horse riding and fishing every day - anything to take their minds off the tragedy."
Then Prime Minister Tony Blair, who coined the phrase ‘People's Princess’, told a BBC documentary: “She was most worried about the impact on the boys, obviously sad about Diana, and concerned about the monarchy itself because the Queen has a very strong instinct about public opinion and how it plays out, and, in that first conversation, we agreed to keep closely in touch with it.
“I got people from my office to work very closely with the royal court and how we managed the affair over the next week.”