Diana was the outstanding woman of the twentieth century, her life and activity have made its symbol of the present, and she became a source of inspiration and support for a lot of people all over the world. Once Diana has told that she would like to become "the queen of human hearts". Perhaps, she did it: a lot of people remember her name as a symbol of kindness, responsivenessand understanding. In this term paper you will find all important stages of her life, so tragically broken in Paris on August, 31st, in 1997.

At the age of seven, Diana was sent to Riddlesworth Hall, an all-girls boarding school. While she was young, she attended a local public school. She did not shine academically, and was moved to West Heath Girls' School inSevenoaks, Kent, where she was regarded as a poor student, having attempted and failed all of her O-levels twice. However, she showed a particular talent for music as an accomplished pianist. Her outstanding community spirit was recognized with an award from West Heath. In 1977, at the age of 16, she left West Heath and briefly attended InstituteAlpin Videmanette, a finishing school in Rougemont, Switzerland. At about that time, she first met her future husband, who was then dating her eldest sister, Lady Sarah. Diana also excelled in swimming and diving, and longed to be a professional ballerina with the Royal Ballet. She studied ballet for a time, but then grew to 179sm too tall for the profession.

Diana moved to London before she turned 17, living in her mother's flat, as her mother then spent most of the year in Scotland. Soon afterwards, an apartment was purchased for £50,000 as an 18th birthday present, at Coleherne Court in Earls Court. She lived there until 1981 with three flatmates.

In London, she took an advanced cooking course at her mother's suggestion, although she never became an adroit cook, and worked as a dance instructor for youth, until a skiing accident caused her to miss three months of work. She then found employment as a playgroup (pre-preschool) assistant, did some cleaning work for her sister Sarah and several of her friends, and worked as a hostess at parties. Diana also spent time working as a nanny for an American family living in London.

 Prince Charles had previously been linked to Diana's elder sister Sarah, and in his early thirties he was under increasing pressure to marry.

Prince Charles had known Diana for several years, but he first took a serious interest in her as a potential bride during the summer of 1980, when they were guests at a country weekend, where she watched him play polo. The relationship developed as he invited her for a sailing weekend to Cowes aboard the royal yacht Britannia, followed by an invitation to Balmoral (the Royal Family's Scottish residence) to meet his family. Diana was well received by Queen Elizabeth II, by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and by the Queen Mother. The couple subsequently courted in London. The prince proposed on 6 February 1981, and Diana accepted, but their engagement was kept secret for the next few weeks.

Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981, after Diana selected a large £30,000 ring, £94,800 in today's terms, consisting of 14 diamonds surrounding a sapphire, similar to her mother's engagement ring.The ring was made by the then Crown jewellers Garrard but, unusually for a member of the Royal Family, the ring was not unique and was, at the time, featured in Garrard's jewellery collection. The ring later became, in 2010, the engagement ring of Kate Middleton, the wife of Diana's elder son Prince William.

On 5 November 1981, Diana's first pregnancy was officially announced, and she frankly discussed her pregnancy with members of the press corps.In the private Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, on 21 June 1982, Diana gave birth to her and Prince Charles's first son and heir, William Arthur Philip Louis. Amidst some media criticism, she decided to take William, still a baby, on her first major tours of Australia and New Zealand, but the decision was popularly applauded. By her own admission, Diana had not initially intended to take William until it was suggested by Malcolm Fraser, the Australian prime minister.

 A second son, Henry Charles Albert David, was born two years after William, on 15 September 1984. Diana asserted she and Prince Charles were closest during her pregnancy with "Harry", as the younger prince was known. She was aware their second child was a boy, but did not share the knowledge with anyone else, including Prince Charles.

Although in 1983 she confided in the then-Premier of Newfoundland, Brian Peckford, "I am finding it very difficult to cope with the pressures of being Princess of Wales, but I am learning to cope," from the mid-1980s, the Princess of Wales became increasingly associated with numerous charities. As Princess of Wales she was expected to regularly make public appearances to hospitals, schools and other facilities, in the 20th century model of royal patronage. Diana developed an intense interest in serious illnesses and health-related matters outside the purview of traditional royal involvement, including AIDS and leprosy. In addition, the Princess was the patroness of charities and organisations working with the homeless, youth, drug addicts and the elderly. From 1989, she was President of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. The day after her divorce, she announced her resignation from over 100 charities to spend more time with the remaining six.

During her final year, Diana lent highly visible support to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a campaign won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, only a few months after her death.

During the early 1990s, the marriage of Diana and Charles fell apart, an event at first suppressed, then sensationalised, by the world media. Both the Prince and Princess of Wales allegedly spoke to the press through friends, each blaming the other for the marriage's demise.

The chronology of the break-upidentifies reported difficulties between Charles and Diana as early as 1985. Diana began an affair with Major James Hewitt, and Prince Charles returned to his former girlfriend, Camilla Shand, who had become Camilla Parker-Bowles, wife of Andrew Parker-Bowles. These affairs were exposed in May 1992 with the publication of Diana: Her True Story, by Andrew Morton. The book, which also laid bare Diana's allegedly suicidal unhappiness, caused a media storm. This publication was followed during 1992 and 1993 by leaked tapes of telephone conversations which negatively reflected on both the royal antagonists. Transcripts of taped intimate conversations between Diana and James Gilbey were published by the Sun newspaper in Britain in August 1992. The article's title, "Squidgygate", referenced Gilbey's affectionate nickname for Diana. The next to surface, in November 1992, were the leaked "Camillagate" tapes, intimate exchanges between Charles and Camilla, published in Today and the Mirror newspapers.

In the meantime, rumours had begun to surface about Diana's relationship with James Hewitt, her former riding instructor. These would be brought into the open by the publication in 1994 of Princess in Love.

In December 1992, Prime Minister John Major announced the Wales's "amicable separation" to the House of Commons, and the full Camillagate transcript was published a month later in the newspapers, in January 1993. On 3 December 1993, Diana announced her withdrawal from public life.Charles sought public understanding via a televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby on 29 June 1994. In this he confirmed his own extramarital affair with Camilla, saying that he had only rekindled their association in 1986, after his marriage to the Princess of Wales had "irretrievably broken down".

While she blamed Camilla Parker-Bowles for her marital troubles due to her previous relationship with Charles, Diana at some point began to believe Charles had other affairs. In October 1993 Diana wrote to a friend that she believed her husband was now in love with TiggyLegge-Bourke and wanted to marry her. Legge-Bourke had been hired by Prince Charles as a young companion for his sons while they were in his care, and Diana was extremely resentful of Legge-Bourke and her relationship with the young princes.

Diana was interviewed for the BBC current affairs show Panoramaby journalist Martin Bashir; the interview was broadcast on 20 November 1995. In it, Diana asserted of Hewitt, "Yes, I loved him. Yes, I adored him." Of Camilla, she claimed "There were three of us in this marriage." For herself, she said, "I'd like to be a queen of people's hearts." On Charles's suitability for kingship, she said, "Because I know the character I would think that the top job, as I call it, would bring enormous limitations to him, and I don't know whether he could adapt to that."

In December 1995, the Queen asked Charles and Diana for "an early divorce", as a direct result of Diana's Panorama interview. This followed shortly after Diana's accusation that TiggyLegge-Bourke had aborted Charles's child, after which Legge-Bourke instructed Peter Carter-Ruck to demand an apology. Two days before this story broke, Diana's secretary Patrick Jephson resigned, later writing Diana had "exulted in accusing Legge-Bourke of having had an abortion".

On 20 December 1995, Buckingham Palace publicly announced the Queen had sent letters to Charles and Diana advising them to divorce. The Queen's move was backed by the Prime Minister and by senior Privy Counsellors, and, according to the BBC, was decided after two weeks of talks. Prince Charles immediately agreed with the suggestion. In February Diana announced her agreement after negotiations with Prince Charles and representatives of the Queen, irritating Buckingham Palace by issuing her own announcement of a divorce agreement and its terms.

The divorce was finalised on 28 August 1996.

Diana received a lump sum settlement of around £17 million along with a clause standard in royal divorces preventing her from discussing the details.

Days before the decree absolute of divorce, Letters Patent were issued with general rules to regulate royal titles after divorce. In accordance, as she was no longer married to the Prince of Wales, Diana lost the style Her Royal Highness and instead was styled Diana, Princess of Wales. Buckingham Palace issued a press release on the day of the decree absolute of divorce was issued, announcing Diana's change of title, but made it clear Diana continued to be a British princess.

Almost a year before, according to Tina Brown, Prince Philip had warned Diana, "If you don't behave, my girl, we'll take your title away." Diana is said to have replied: "My title is a lot older than yours, Philip".

Buckingham Palace stated Diana was still a member of the Royal Family, as she was the mother of the second- and third-in-line to the throne. This was confirmed by the Deputy Coroner of the Queen's Household, Baroness Butler-Sloss, after a pre-hearing on 8 January 2007: "I am satisfied that at her death, Diana, Princess of Wales continued to be considered as a member of the Royal Household." This appears to have been confirmed in the High Court judicial review matter of Al Fayed &Ors v Butler-Sloss. In that case, three High Court judges accepted submissions that the "very name ‘Coroner to the Queen's Household’ gave the appearance of partiality in the context of inquests into the deaths of two people, one of whom was a member of the Family and the other was not."

Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles

In November, 1995 Diana has appeared in a popular telecast "Panorama", giving stunning teleinterview to its leader Martin Beshiru. British "were literally pasted" to screens of the TVs when Diana with a heavy heart stated the opinion at the sensational story of this decade. Speaking about marriage, she named it "сказочкой which all wanted to see before themselves" I very much loved the spouse, wanted to divide all with it and thought that we with it - one command ". Then, hinting at relations of prince Charles with Camilla Parker-Bowles, Diana has told:" But us in this marriage was three so there it has appeared rather small - "On Martin Beshira's question on its plans for the future Diana has answered:" I would like to begin to represent the ambassador - our country before the world - To me кажеться, someone from public figures is necessary to the British people, to an ohm it would be possible to give the sympathies thies would like to become the queen of human hearts, but I do not represent myself the queen of this country ".

Reporters still aspired to get into private life of the princess, especially after its romantic communication with Dodi Al-Fajedom, сорокаоднолетним the son of Arabian millionaire Mohammed Al-Fajeda, the owner of luxurious hotels became summer of 1997 property of publicity. That fact that Dodi also was divorced and was reputed secular as red tape, especially strengthened to it interest from the press. Diana and Dodi were familiar some years, but have approached only in 1997. In July they had holidays in Sen-Tropeze together with Diana's sons - princes William and Harry. Boys have perfectly got on with the benevolent master of the house. Later Diana and Dodi met in London, and have then gone to cruise over Mediterranean sea onboard smart yacht. By the end of August this boat has approached to Portofino in Italy, and has then sailed to Sardinia. On August, 30th, on Saturday, the loving couple has gone to Paris. Next day Diana should fly to London to meet the sons last day their summer vacations.

On Saturday evening Diana and Dodi have decided to have supper at restaurant of hotel "Rezze" which Dodi owned. Not to draw attention of other visitors, they have retired to a separate study room, where as then was informed, have exchanged gifts: Diana has presented Dodi of a cuff link, and it to it - a ring with a brilliant. In the first to o'clock in the morning they were going to go for apartment Dodi on the Champs Elysée. Wishing to avoid a meeting with паппараци, crowding at a main entrance, they have left hotel through an office exit. There they have sat down in Mercedes S-280, accompanied by bodyguard Trevora-RizDzhounsa and driver Anri of the Field. Details of that has occurred in a few minutes, are still insufficiently clear, but the awful true consists that three from these four were lost in the failure which have occurred in an underground tunnel under square Delalma. Princess Diana not without effort managed to be taken from the crumpled car then it have immediately sent in hospital "PitiSalptrrier". Struggle of doctors for her life has appeared ineffectual.

On December, 14th 2006 the report of the ex-commissioner of Scotland Yard of lord John Stevens which has declared has been presented that «there was no plot for the purpose of murder of those who was that night in the car. It was tragical accident». The British investigation has confirmed conclusions according to which in blood of the driver of car Anri Weeding quantity of alcohol has been exceeded more than twice, than it is admissible under the law in Great Britain. Besides, speed of the car exceeded admissible in the given place two times. Lord Stevens has noticed that passengers (including Diana) did not use seat belts.

Sons Diana and Charles, princes William and Harry (Henry) Welsh, are the following in turn of inheritance of the British crown after the father.

About Diana many books in all languages are written. With memoirs almost all its friends and close employees have acted; is available a little documentary and even fiction films. There are as fanatical admirers of memory the princesses insisting even on its sanctity, and critics of its person and the pop cult which has arisen round it.

In my opinion, Lady Diana has played a huge role not only in the politician, but also in destinies of many people: she is a good example of the strong, independent, strong-willed, kind and passionate woman.