Lady Diana’s family ‘impeccably noble’

Press, 26 February 1981, Page 6

Lady Diana’s family ‘impeccably noble’

NZPA London Harold Brooks-Baker, managing director of Debrett, said yesterday that Lady Diana would bring back Stuart blood to the Royal Family. He said: “She descends five times from Charles 11. “Four times on the wrong side of the blanket, and one on the right side.” There could be no more impeccably noble family for Prince Charles to marry into than the Spencers, according to Patrick Montague-Smith, former editor of “Debrett’s Peerage.” Lady Diana and Prince Charles are sixteenth cousins, once removed, through their mutual ancestor Henry VII: As a young man Lady Diana’s father, Edward,, the eighth Earl Spencer, was equerry to the Queen and accompanied her and Prince Philip, still a great shooting friend, on their first Commonwealth tour. Lady Diana’s grandmother, Lady Fermoy, a concert pianist who ran the King’s Lynn Festival for 25 years, is a close friend of the Queen Mother and one of her ladies-in-waiting. The present earl is a godson of Queen Mary and the late Duke of Windsor and Lady Diana’s brother, Charles, is a godson of the Queen. Lady Diana’s parents were given full regal treatment for their wedding in Westminster Abbey in 1954. The Queen, Prince Philip, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret were among 1500 guests. The links are long established. Queen Victoria was godmother to another Spencer girl - and George II was godfather to the second earl. “It is one of our established noble families,” said Mr Montague-Smith. “I would have thought that from an ancestry point of view her family could not be more impeccable.” Lady Diana’s two sisters have also married well. Lady Jane, who is 23, is married to the Queen’s assistant private secretary, Robert Fellowes, who first worked with the Royal Family as

Prince Charles’s first private secretary. He is the son of the Queen’s former agent for Sandringham, where the couple first met. Lady Sarah, aged 25, herself once closely linked with Prince Charles, is married to Neil McCorquodale, aged 29, the cousin of her stepmother, Raine. He is an old Harrovian farmer and former Guards officer. The family has had its share of problems. Lady Diana’s parents split up in the late sixties. Frances, Lady Diana’s mother, was divorced from the earl in 1969 after her adultery with wallpaper heir, Peter ShandKydd. The couple were married within months and now live and work a farm on the remote Hebridean Isle of SeiL Peter Shand-Kydd is halfbrother to amateur sportsman, Bill Shand-Kydd, Lord Lucan’s brother-in-law. Lady Diana’s father was named in Lord Dartmouth s divorce proceedings against his wife, Raine, daughter of the romantic novelist, Barbara Cartland, in 1976.. Later that year the two married and Raine became the new Countess Spencer. Prominent nr.mes also feature among the earl’s friends. The former leader of the Commons, Norman St J hn-Stevas, who attacked press harassment of Lady Diana in the Commons recently, is very close as are the actor, Sir John Mills, and the historian, Lord Dacre (Hugh Trevor-Roper). The Spencer family, which traces its links back to the French followers of William the Conqueror, has been in public life since the fifteenth century when a Henry Spencer acquired some Northamptonshire land from the Abbot of Evesham. For hundreds of years members of the family have been prominent in public life as politicians, diplomats, soldiers, merchants, and naval officers. • The family motto —• God defend the right” — gained its first title in the early sixteenth century when a Warwickshire sheep farmer, John Spencer, was knighted by Henry VIII. He bought

the second family home, Althorp Hall, rtear Northampton, but the family continued to live in Warwickshire.

The first Lolrd Spencer, Robert, created a baron in 1603, was reputed to have more ready money than anybody else in the kingdom at the accession of James I. Chari.. I made. Lord Spencer’s grandson the first Earl of Sunderland for his courageous support during the Civil War and hSs son, the second earl, was a confidant and chief adviser to Charles 11, James 11, and William 111. The third Earl of Cunderland too’; Lady Anne Churchill as his, second wife. She was coheiress to her father, the great Duke of Marlborough, who had no survftjing son. It was through! this link that the family, acquired much of the vast wealth of the Marlboroughs, passed on by Sarah, Duchess of Malborough. Since then the family’s progress through history has paralleled that of the Marlborough Churchills Sir Winston’s middle name was Spencer. Diana has been : a family name ever since jthat link, although ironically the last Lady Diana Spenqer never married.

John Spencer was made the first Earl Spencer in 1765. His son carried on the family’s traditions, becoming Lord Privy Seal and First Lord of the Admiralty. His wife was a good friend of Nelson.

Byron was a boon companion of the third earl, who rose to become Leader of the House of Commons and Chancellor of the Exchequer. His son, “The Red Earl,” grew a huge red beard and was twice viceroy of Ireland. The fifth earl was a Lvrd .President of the Council and First Lord of the Admiralty. Lady Diana’s grandfather, the seventh earl, dedicated himself to the care and improvement of Althorp Hall, the family home. He played a prominent part in the life of Northamptonshire and was an expert at embroidery which he declared to be “the finest relaxation I know.”