Cold Open

It’s 11:15 AM, on November 20th, 1992, at Windsor Castle, a residence of Queen Elizabeth II in Berkshire, England.

A historic paintings conservator walks into the Queen’s private chapel with a member of the Windsor Castle’s staff. The conservator is here to examine several paintings which need protecting to safeguard them for future generations.

But he’s distracted by an odd odor inside the chapel. It smells like smoke. The conservator mentions this to the castle official, but he’s assured that it’s probably just dust.

Satisfied that the smell is just a normal odor of an ancient property, the conservator sets up a stepladder and climbs up to examine one of the works of art that he’s been asked to preserve. He peers at the cracked paint through a magnifying glass—but the smell he noticed earlier is growing stronger. The conservator looks around the chapel and from his elevated position, he spots smoke near the ceiling at the top of a long curtain. The conservator climber down the ladder and pulls the heavy curtain aside… revealing that part of it is on fire.

The conservator shouts a warning to the Castle official, and they exchange panicked looks. The official runs out of the chapel, saying he’ll call for help. Meanwhile, the conservator searches the room for a fire extinguisher but can find none. He stands helpless as flames eat through the curtain’s heavy velvet.

It’s spreading quickly. The conservator’s eyes drift to the painting he just examined. He takes a screwdriver from his toolbox and begins unscrewing the frame from the wall. The conservator may not be able to stop the fire—but he can save a priceless work of art from being destroyed by the flames.

The blaze that started in the Queen’s private chapel at Windsor Castle soon spreads. By the time the flames are extinguished fifteen hours later, ceilings have collapsed and entire rooms are charred—but thanks to the efforts of more than 200 people who form a human chain, many treasures from the royal collection are evacuated before they’re destroyed.

Even so, the Windsor Castle fire will be a devastating blow to the monarchy, coming at the tail end of a catastrophic year, one filled with scandals that rocked the royal family. The final bill for the damage will cost millions, and it’s predicted that the building will take ten years to fully dry out from the water used to extinguish the flames. In the wake of the disaster, some observers will question how much turmoil the royal establishment can withstand, and whether the British monarchy has any future at all after the fire that blazed through Windsor Castle on November 20th, 1992.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is November 20th, 1992: Fire at Windsor Castle.

Act One

It’s May 1991, at Kensington Palace in London, England; eighteen months before firefighters will be summoned to Windsor Castle.

30-year-old Diana, Princess of Wales, checks the hall is clear outside her drawing room, before closing the door, and taking a seat opposite her guest: Doctor James Colthurst. The two are close friends. But today, they’re doing much more than just catching up. James leans forward, presses the record button on a tape recorder and tells Diana to begin.

Ten years ago, Diana’s wedding to Prince Charles elevated her into the royal family. But their marriage quickly proved to be an unhappy one. Diana was thirteen years younger than Charles, and she had little in common with her new husband. After years of struggle, Diana thinks their relationship will soon break apart—and she fears that the royal establishment will blame her mental health as the reason for the failed marriage.

So, Diana wants to get her side of the story across to the British public—and she knows she has one important advantage in the battle for the nation’s sympathy. Charles is suspicious of the press and resents their interest in his private life. Diana, on the other hand, has a reputation for being open and accommodating to journalists and photographers.

And she realizes that the press would be a powerful ally if she gets them on her side. So, she reached out to writer Andrew Morton, offering to supply him with intimate details of her life to help him write a tell-all biography. But Diana knows the royal establishment won’t allow her to talk candidly with a writer, so she’s engaged James—a mutual friend—to act as a middleman. He’s going to record Diana’s interviews and then take the tapes to Andrew.

With James’s recorder running, Diana begins to explain that her marriage to Charles was doomed from the start. She tells James how she was too young and naïve to understand what she was getting into, how Charles was already in love with another woman: Camilla Parker Bowles. She then reveals that Charles resumed his relationship with Camilla almost immediately after the wedding, and that Diana and Charles have repeatedly clashed over how to raise their two sons.

Tears well up in Diana’s eyes as she describes how the isolation of royal life led to her suffer from depression and bulimia. She even attempted to take her own life. But despite revealing her most private thoughts, Diana is not completely honest in these interviews. Although she talks openly about Charles’s affair, she does not mention her own marital indiscretions with at least two men.

Over the course of the next few months, Diana has several more recording sessions with James at Kensington Palace. Following this, Andrew begins writing the book, which he titles Diana: Her True Story. Diana reads it in chunks as it’s completed, correcting minor errors and incorrect assumptions.

Throughout the process, Charles remains unaware that Diana is secretly helping her biographer. But in June 1992, an extract from the upcoming book is printed in the Sunday Times newspaper. Readers discover that Diana has made five different suicide attempts over the years. And author Andrew claims he found out about them through interviews with Diana’s closest friends—but as Charles reads the newspaper, he realizes that the only way the writer could have gotten this information is from a source deep inside Kensington Palace. He soon concludes that the only person who could have supplied Andrew with such detail is Diana herself.

One month later, Diana: Her True Story is released. It quickly becomes a publishing sensation. Bookstores run out of stock as the British public flock to read the inside story of a royal marriage that’s falling apart.

And unsurprisingly upon the book’s release, Charles and Diana’s relationship reaches a new low. Charles is angry that his affair with Camilla has been revealed to the public, and he and Diana barely speak to each other.

But other members of the royal family make efforts to bring the couple back together. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip summon both Diana and Charles to insist that they work on saving their marriage. In private, the Queen encourages Charles not to engage in a war of words in the press, and to keep the traditional silence that royals maintain over private affairs.

But the Queen’s advice will do little to calm the situation. After the publication of Diana’s biography, public sympathy for the princess will increase. Diana will be viewed by many as a victim of an unfaithful husband and his overbearing family. The royal silence will not curb the tide of negative headlines, and the Queen will come under increasing pressure to make a public statement—especially when it will become clear that Charles is not the only prince with a marriage in trouble.

Act Two

It’s August 1992, at a holiday villa in St. Tropez, France; one month after a controversial biography of Diana, Princess of Wales was published.

A photographer attaches a telephoto lens to his camera and pushes further into the bushes at the edge of the villa’s grounds. It’s his job to get images of high-profile figures to accompany newspaper stories about them, and this photographer’s specialty is securing images of British royalty. The photographer looks through the viewfinder, zooms in, and then smiles as he spots the subject he’s been staking out for hours: Sarah, the Duchess of York.

Five months ago, the royal family announced that Sarah was separating from Prince Andrew, her husband of six years and the man who is fourth in line to the British throne. Sarah was unhappy that Andrew’s military career combined with royal duties kept him away from home for almost eleven months of the year. And the month after this announcement, another of Queen Elizabeth II’s children—Princess Anne—divorced her husband. Between these splits and speculation that Charles and Diana’s marriage is also on the rocks, it seems that none of the Queen’s children can hold down a steady relationship. But all that is going on in England and the photographer is here in France because he has heard rumors that Sarah, Duchess of York is vacationing here with a potential new love interest.

The photographer mutters to himself in annoyance as Sarah lies on a sun lounger. She's facing away from him, and he can’t see anything except Sarah’s signature red hair and no editor will be interested in such an image. But then, Sarah turns and sits up and the photographer notices she’s not wearing a top. Immediately he begins clicking away knowing that any newspapers will pay handsomely for such a revealing photographs of a royal.

When Sarah lies back down, the photographer expects his work is done. But he waits a little longer, just in case he can get a better shot. His patience is rewarded. Eventually, the Texan millionaire who Sarah is reportedly in a relationship with appears at the poolside. He lies down on top of Sarah and the two exchange an embrace. It appears the rumors that they’re lovers are correct. The photographer snaps more images. He clicks frantically as the Texas' millionaire sits down, lifts one of Sarah’s feet, and puts her toes in his mouth. The photographer can’t believe his luck. He’s sure these racy photos will spark a bidding war, and he can’t wait for his big payday.

A few days later, the photographer’s images are printed on the front page of the Daily Mirror. By the time the paper hits newsstands, Sarah has returned to the UK and joined the royal family for a vacation at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Embarrassed by the photos, Sarah leaves early in the morning and rushes back home without seeing the Queen.

Elizabeth is left to stew over the crisis with Prince Andrew, Sarah’s estranged husband. The royal family’s recent marital problems have already been embarrassing for the Queen—but the compromising photos of Sarah and her new lover take it to the next level. And yet sill the revelations show no signs of stopping.

Four days after Sarah’s topless photos are printed, a different newspaper reveals it has recordings of Princess Diana talking to her lover on a telephone. The newspaper sets up a special premium-rate phone line that allows people to call in and listen to the tape.

Although the recording reveals that Diana has had extramarital affairs and reduces public sympathy for her, it does nothing to enhance support for Charles. Many pundits assume that the tapes have been deliberately leaked by somebody in Prince Charles’s household as an act of revenge for Diana’s participation in her explosive biography. Put together, the year’s scandals and separations only embolden critics of the British monarchy.

And then, just when the flood of embarrassing headlines seems to be receding, another crisis hits. In November, a fire ravages Windsor Castle. Investigations conclude that the blaze was an unfortunate accident—a spotlight overheated in the Queen’s private chapel and ignited a heavy curtain that was touching it.

Although the nation will be saddened by the Windsor Castle fire, many taxpayers will question the value of spending millions of pounds to restore the building. They will argue that the marital problems of the royal family have made it more of an embarrassment than a national institution to be proud of. Some groups will suggest that the royal family should be downsized—or even abolished. The headlines will get so bad that the Queen will be forced to break with her usual silence and confront the negativity head-on.

Act Three

It’s November 24th, 1992, at Guildhall in London, four days after the Windsor Castle fire.

Queen Elizabeth II rises from a grand, gold chair and takes in the applause of hundreds of VIP guests. This is supposed to be a happy occasion—a dinner to mark forty years since Elizabeth acceded to the British throne. But tonight, the Queen isn’t in the mood to celebrate. She’s suffering from a cold and the effects of breathing in smoke while inspecting the fire damage at Windsor Castle. Nevertheless, Elizabeth thanks the Lord Mayor of London for hosting the dinner, before addressing the crises that have struck her family.

"QUEEN ELIZABETH: 1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an annus horribilis."

The Queen’s unusual expression is a Latin phrase, meaning “horrible year.” Few in the audience or the wider country disagree with her blunt assessment. But Elizabeth’s statement is still surprising, and an unusual break from the norm. Until today, she has maintained a steadfast silence through the tricky events of the past year.

But tonight, the Queen’s moment of honesty and vulnerability helps her. Though the popularity of the British monarchy has plummeted after Prince Charles and Prince Andrew’s marriages fell apart in public, many people are sympathetic to the Queen. They recognize that Elizabeth has been hampered by events out of her control.

But the fact remains that someone needs to foot the bill to repair Windsor Castle, and many members of the public don’t want it to fall on the taxpayers.

Faced with increased scrutiny around the Crown’s finances, the Queen will take unprecedented measures. She’ll give 2 million pounds of her own money to help fund Windsor Castle’s repairs. She’ll also agree to start paying income tax, despite her exempt status. And for the first time in history, Buckingham Palace will also be opened to the public to help pay for the refurbishment.

These steps will effectively ease criticism from angry taxpayers. But the Queen’s annus horribilis won’t be over yet. Fifteen days after her speech at Guildhall, the official separation of Charles and Diana will be announced.

But Queen Elizabeth will rally. The negative headlines about the failed marriages of her children will eventually fade. And though there will be more crises to come, Elizabeth II will remain on the throne for another thirty years, becoming the longest-reigning monarch in British history — an impressive recovery after a very bad year capped off by a very bad fire at one of the most famous royal residences on November 20th, 1992.

Outro

Next on History Daily. November 21st, 1916. Titanic's sister ship "The Britannic" is sunk by a mine during World War I.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Executive Producers are Alexandra Currie-Buckner for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.