Here's How Princess Diana’s Early Years Prepped Her For Life as a Royal

Lady Diana Spencer embraced the royal lifestyle after she wed then-Prince Charles III on 29 July 1981, at St Paul's Cathedral in London. The Spencer family tree however shows that Princess Diana was of royal blood too...well, kind of. According to Find My Past, Diana has ancestors from both Scotland and England. The Princess of Wales was related to Mary, Queen of Scots, and because of their royal links, she and Charles were also very distant cousins. Specifically, they are both descended from Margaret, who wed James IV of Scotland, and Mary, who wed Charles Brandon, daughters of Henry VII. 

Diana was born on July 1, 1961, at Park House on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, the fourth child of Frances Shand Kydd and Earl John Spencer. To accommodate the influx of guests at his royal residence, Sandringham, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) erected the Park House in 1863. As per The UK Mirror, at Sandringham House, Diana would often play with Princes Andrew and Edward, her future brothers-in-law, as the Spencer family had close ties with the royal family.

According to Oprah Daily, an account of the Spencer family's history states that they were a well-known family from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Sheep farming brought them their first wealth. Diana became known as 'Lady Diana' after her father succeeded as the 8th Earl Spencer in 1975 following the death of her grandfather.

Former nanny, Mary Clarke wrote in her book Little Girl Lost: The Troubled Childhood of Princess Diana by the Woman Who Raised Her, that Diana lived a privileged life. “Diana had a happy secure childhood. From the moment I met her and worked with the family, I saw she was helpful, laughing, exuberant, loved by both her parents, and the apple of her father’s eye,” she recalled.

However, in 1969 the Princess of Wales allegedly experienced severe heartbreak over her parents' divorce. “Diana and I had two older sisters who were away at school, so she and I were very much in it together and I did talk to her about it,” brother Charles Spencer shared in a 2020 interview with The Sunday Times. “Our father was a quiet and constant source of love, but our mother wasn’t cut out for maternity. Not her fault, she couldn’t do it. She was in love with someone else—infatuated really.”

Interestingly, Charles Spencer was the godson of the late Queen Elizabeth II while his father was the godson of Queen Mary. Additionally, Diana's grandmother, Lady Fermoy, was the Queen Mother's lady-in-waiting. According to History Extra, Diana had cemented her place in the royal family, both the Queen and Prince Philip were fond of her, Penny Junor, the royal biographer revealed.

"They had known her since they were little. Her father was the Queen's equerry, and her family resided at Park House on the Sandringham Estate. Diana used to go to parties with Prince Andrew, who was about her own age." However, the relationship soured with the collapse of Charles and Diana's marriage. “But as time went by and they came to learn of the problems in the marriage through the press, they became very irritated with her. Diana’s behavior was damaging the monarchy, and if there’s one thing the Queen cares about above all else, it’s the monarchy. She is safeguarding it for the future, that’s the prime task for any monarch.”