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Palace to announce funeral plans for Diana Monday
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August 31, 1997
Web posted at: 8:04 p.m. EDT (0004 GMT)LONDON (CNN) -- Funeral plans for Princess Diana will be announced Monday, Buckingham Palace said Sunday, as Britain's royal circle and government faced decisions on the scale of the observances.
Queen Elizabeth II, the British government and Diana's family must decide on the type of funeral for Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris early Sunday along with her companion Dodi Fayed and their chauffeur.
Diana's two sisters accompanied the princess' coffin back from Paris on Sunday with heir to the throne Prince Charles, from whom Diana was divorced.
The British government could hold a state funeral for Diana. A small funeral might be held by the queen. Or an even smaller private ceremony might be held involving family members.
The princess' wishes as well as that of her children would be considered, family members indicated. The feelings of Prince William -- Diana and Charles' eldest son -- are likely to be influential.
There will be immense public pressure for Diana to be honored in style. However, protocol makes it unlikely that she will be granted a state funeral with its trappings derived from centuries of history and pomp, despite her fame and prominence.
Almost royal
Diana is probably the most prominent Briton to die since World War II leader Winston Churchill, whose state funeral in January 1965 was almost royal in its length and solemnity.
Almost royal is how Diana was often described, having been removed from the inner circle of the royal family after her 1996 divorce.
But as the mother of a future king, Prince William, her place in public life was secured, and Charles' decision to fly to Paris to accompany the coffin back home was a key indicator of her official standing.
Diana was far more than an official figurehead, beloved by millions around the world and, like Churchill in his day, probably the best-known British person.
The future public standing of the royal family, damaged by divorce and scandal, could well hinge on whether Britons feel it treated Diana properly in death.
3 funeral categories
British royal funerals fall into three categories:
- A full state funeral is accorded to kings and queens but may, by order of the reigning monarch and by a vote in Parliament, be extended to exceptionally distinguished people like Churchill.
- The ceremonial royal funeral is for those of the royal family who hold high military rank, for the consort of the sovereign (spouse of the reigning king or queen) and for the heir to the throne.
- The third category covers the private royal funeral, which is for all other members of the royal family, their children and their spouses -- which would appear to fit Diana's case.
Media event
Her funeral is likely to be a media event unrivaled in Britain in the 1990s and probably eclipsed only by her 1981 wedding watched by an estimated 700 million viewers worldwide.
Churchill died on January 24, 1965, at age 90, and his body lay in state in Westminster Hall abutting Britain's parliament. Hundreds of thousands, remembering his part in the defeat of Adolf Hitler, filed past the coffin.
There was a state funeral service six days later with representatives of 110 nations in St. Paul's Cathedral -- where Diana and Charles were married in 1981 -- and Churchill was buried in a village churchyard near his family's ancestral home at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire.
In 1979, a state funeral was held at Westminster Abbey for Earl Mountbatten, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II who was killed by the Irish Republican Army.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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