A moving handwritten letter penned by Queen Elizabeth only six days after Princess Diana’s tragic passing has come to light.
The note was sent from Queen Elizabeth to one of her closest aides, Lady Henriette Abel Smith. The message offered a rare glimpse into the emotion that the royal family experienced after the death of Princess Diana.
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“It was indeed dreadfully sad, and she is a huge loss to the country,” she wrote, according to ABC News. “But the public reaction to her death and the service in the Abbey, seem to have united people round the world in a rather inspiring way.”
After Princess Diana died, Queen Elizabeth was criticized for remaining in Balmoral with Prince William and Prince Harry. As the boys who were only 15 and 12 at the time were mourning their mother, the Queen decided to stay with them instead of returning to London where tributes were pouring in from around the world.
The Queen wrote that she was “proud” of the way that William and Harry handled themselves following the loss of their mother, who died at the age of 36.
“William and Harry have been so brave and I am very proud of them,” she wrote.
The note goes on to illustrate how painful the experience of Princess Diana’s death was within the family.
“I think your letter was one of the first I opened — emotions are still so mixed up, but we have all been through a very bad experience!” she wrote.
On the night before Princess Diana’s death, Queen Elizabeth made a rare public address to the country from Buckingham Palace.
“[Diana] was an exceptional and gifted human being,’ Queen Elizabeth said. “In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness.”
One of the most memorable and controversial moments from Princess Diana’s funeral proceedings was when Harry and William were made to walk behind their mother’s coffin. Harry recently opened up about what this experience was like.
“My mother had just died and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television,” Harry said while speaking with Newsweek magazine in an interview published last month. “I don’t think any child should be asked to do that under any circumstances. I don’t think it would happen today.”
