The People's Princess by Flora Harding
Genre: Historical fiction, Fact with Fiction, Regency, Royals
Read: 31st March 2022
Published: 31st March 2022
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Two princesses. Two hundred years apart. Destined to change the monarchy for ever …
Buckingham Palace, 1981
Her engagement to Prince Charles is a dream come true for Lady Diana Spencer but marrying the heir to the throne is not all that it seems. Alone and bored in the palace, she resents the stuffy courtiers who are intent on instructing her about her new role as Princess of Wales…
But when she discovers a diary written in the 1800s by Princess Charlotte of Wales, a young woman born into a gilded cage so like herself, Diana is drawn into the story of Charlotte’s reckless love affairs and fraught relationship with her father, the Prince Regent.
As she reads the diary, Diana can see many parallels with her own life and future as Princess of Wales.
The story allows a behind-the-scenes glimpse of life in the palace, the tensions in Diana’s relationship with the royal family during the engagement, and the wedding itself.
MY REVIEW:
Two princesses who never became Queen. The Queen who never was and the Queen of people's hearts. Both were "the people's princess" and both died before their time.
When Diana Spencer meets Prince Charles she knows that she is destined to marry him. So when Charles proposes whilst at Balmoral, Diana inevitably agrees immediately. However, little did she know what she was agreeing to for she wasn't just marrying Charles, she was joining the Royal family and becoming part of the monarchy. It was never to be a case of boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love and then marry and live happily ever after. As a senior Royal, life for Diana was to become a fishbowl. And no sooner had their engagement been announced was she constantly doorstepped by photographers wanting a piece of "Shy Di" for the public to gobble up. For it seems whilst no one was particularly bothered with Charles, Prince of Wales, everyone fell in love with Diana immediately and soon she became public property. THE PEOPLE'S PRINCESS begins after Diana moved into her own rooms at Buckingham Palace, where it was deemed she would be safe and secure rather than at her flat where she was constantly mobbed for her photo.
The story takes place in the months leading up their wedding, beginning in March 1981, a month after the announcement of their engagement and having moved into the Palace, Diana thought she would get to spend more time with Charles. After all, they still hardly knew each other. Although she knew that she loved him and was sure that he loved her. He was marrying her after all, wasn't he? But Diana soon discovered that life in the Palace was rather dull. For it was not a place where the Royals actually lived - it was a base for them to stay at when in London, despite them all having their own suite of rooms. Charles' own suite was about five minutes walk down the corridor or so from her own rooms and Diana was eager to spend some time with him. But she was to be disappointed as Charles was forever fobbing her off for previously booked engagements and events, some organised a year in advance. So what was she to do then?
Bored, Diana looks for ways to amuse herself. The papers always refer to her as "shy Di" but she isn't shy. She is just trying to keep her head down from the flashing cameras. No, Diana is fun, adventurous, reckless even. And then an idea suddenly forms bringing a smile to her face. No one would know. There's hardly ever anyone about. And so, Diana straps on her roller skates and glides through the corridors of Buckingham Palace, causing a couple of footmen standing sentry to smirk as she flew by. This is the best fun she's had since moving into the Palace and she feels alive once more. Then suddenly she comes to a stop in front of a painting. The nameplate identifies her as "Princess Charlotte of Wales" but Diana has never heard of her. She likes the look of this princess, feels a kinship with her even. She looks like fun, in fact. She asks Charles about her, who gives her a brief history before directing her to her aide who will know more about her. But instead, her aide introduces her to someone who knows more about Princess Charlotte than anyone...and as Diana listens in awe, the historian hands her a piece of history that will bring life to the long boring days and months stuck in the Palace. It is Princess Charlotte's journal.
As Diana reads Charlotte's words, she feels even more drawn to her than ever before. This woman who was meant to be Queen to whom Diana could relate so much, to be trapped in a gilded cage and yet wanting so much to be love and be loved.
The year is 1813 and Princess Charlotte of Wales is the only offspring of her parents, the Prince Regent and Princess Caroline who in fact hated each other so intensely that it was a sheer miracle they produced a child at all. The King, George III, was locked away at Windsor having gone mad with the running of the country left up to his wife Queen Charlotte and the government, not to mention Charlotte's own father the Prince Regent, who just wanted to marry her off and be done with her. He picked out a husband for her in the form of Hereditary Prince Wilhelm of Holland. Charlotte was thus forced into a agreement to marry but it was her greatest desire to choose her own husband and to love him like no other. Of course, everyone including her attendants and her extended family thought her impulsive and unable to make a proper decision regarding her future. When in fact, all she wanted was to be loved.
Having been thrown over by her own parents from an early age, Charlotte grew up in the care of governesses and tutors and even her servants were more of a family to her than her own. Her fondness for her maid Anna and her companion Cornelia is delightful. It is clear that they are the only ones who have her best interests at heart. But in this age for people like Charlotte, marriages were not made for love but for political alliances. Something which Charlotte refuses to adhere to. She is deemed reckless and irresponsible but it is clear she knows her own mind - she just chooses to use it as she sees fit and not as her father does.
Life for Charlotte was horrific in part, despite the fact that she was the Princess of Wales and heir presumptive, destined to be Queen. But times were different then and women were not given credence for their own minds but there solely to obey first their fathers and then after their marriage, their husbands. However, Charlotte does win a battle of sorts even if it was not the war, and she does at least get to choose her husband. And as she grows so does her marriage.
Meanwhile, Diana struggles to connect with Charles leading up to the wedding and adjusting to life as a royal somewhat daunting. No one prepared her for it and although she ignored the advice to seek advisors on etiquette and appearance, she found herself flung into the public eye in such a way that she was loved by the public and frowned upon by the Palace. All she wanted was a fairytale wedding and to marry her prince...but she was not prepared for all that that entailed.
The parallel between both Charlotte and Diana's stories is somewhat similar despite the 160 years that separated them. It is also interesting to note that Diana's story is told in the third person as the reader looks into her world whilst Charlotte's is in the first person narrative having been transcribed from her own journal. In this way, the reader can connect better with Charlotte, seeing things as she sees them and feeling them as she does. That is not to say we don't feel Diana's predicament because I most certainly did. I saw her as a young (too young) naive woman who believed the fairytale and wanted it for herself. I saw her thrust into the deep end with no real preparation or guidance on how to become a senior royal. All she wanted was for Charles to love her as much as she loved him...but sadly his heart would always belong to another. And just as it was in Charlotte's time, Diana was to wed Charles merely to produce him with an heir - an alliance that may not have been between nations but was political all the same. And all poor Diana wanted was to have that fairytale.
Most of us will remember when Charles and Diana became engaged thus preceding the fairytale wedding in ivory silk, a glass carriage and a 25 foot long train. I was 9 years old when I sat in front of my grandmother's television set on the day in 1981 to watch my Lady Di marry her prince. She was who I wanted to be, my idol; I even had my hair cut like hers (after much arguing with my parents at the time to cut off my long tresses). Though sadly my hair never sat as beautifully as hers and after two years of trying, I let my hair grow again. But throughout the years, I followed the Princess in the magazines and on the news, the very photographers of which sadly ended up being the cause of her very early and tragic demise. I found it ironic that both Princess Grace, who became a friend to the new princess when she needed it most, and Diana were both tragically killed in car crashes.
I thoroughly enjoyed THE PEOPLE'S PRINCESS but I would have finished it long before I did had I not stopped to google for specific occasions or events. For example, after the mention of Diana's inappropriate dress for her first public appearance since her engagement, I had to google to see that dress. And then I had to google Princess Charlotte since I had never heard of her before this book. It was interesting to note that had she become Queen, there would have been no Queen Victoria, as the line would have proceeded very differently. Upon that realisation there would also not have been King George VI nor Queen Elizabeth II, and therefore Charles, William or Harry or the monarchy as we know today. Had the line proceeded from Charlotte, where would the monarchy be now? It's an interesting thought.
THE PEOPLE'S PRINCESS is not, as many may mistakenly assume, about Diana as such but the original people's princess - Princess Charlotte of Wales. Although the title does weave the story in such a way that Charlotte's life as the people's princess in some way inspired Diana to become that same kind of princess for the people - a Queen of people's hearts, as she was known to have said. And though neither princess lived long enough to become Queen, they both inspired the people who adored them, therefore earning them both the unofficial title of "the people's princess".
I thoroughly loved Charlotte and, though I knew her story would come to an end, I still found myself teary as Flora Harding captured the essence and beauty of the dual timeline narrative of both women perfectly. THE PEOPLE'S PRINCESS is well written and well researched, weaving fact with fiction to bring us a beautiful tale that is a pure delight to read. There were moments of happiness as well as sadness and my heart ached for both Diana and Charlotte - the people's princesses, who never got to be Queen.
If you love anything royal, if you love historical fiction, if you love dual timeline narrative...then you will love THE PEOPLE'S PRINCESS! I was drawn in from the very first naive page to the very last idealistic end. It was totally unputdownable and I would have finished far sooner had I not kept stopping to google...lol
A fantastic read that I truly loved. I highly recommend it for lovers of historical fiction and the Royal family.
I would like to thank #FloraHarding, #Netgalley, #OneMoreChapter for an ARC of #ThePeoplesPrincess in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Flora still lives in York with the city walls and the Minster at the end of her street, and is a freelance project editor as well as an author. Much as she loves the historic city, she yearns too for open horizons, and is a keen walker, preferably in wild, open spaces.
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