After mounting public pressure, Queen Elizabeth addressed the nation as “your queen and as a grandmother.”

In the immediate aftermath of Princess Diana’s death, Queen Elizabeth kept silent.

This enraged Britons, who felt that she needed to respond to the grief of the nation. Headlines asked, “Where Is Our Queen?” “Your People Are Suffering, Speak to Us Ma’am” and “Show Us You Care.”

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Queen Elizabeth views floral tributes left for Princess Diana.

Finally on September 4, 1997, Queen Elizabeth appeared outside Balmoral Castle to view flower tributes, and on September 5, she viewed tributes outside Buckingham Palace. That evening, Queen Elizabeth delivered a televised address, where she said addressed the nation “as your queen and as a grandmother.”

She said, “I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being. In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness. I admired and respected her—for her energy and commitment to others, and especially for her devotion to her two boys. This week at Balmoral, we have all been trying to help William and Harry come to terms with the devastating loss that they and the rest of us have suffered.”

She attended Princess Diana’s funeral with the rest of the royal family, and she bowed her head to the coffin as it passed. As The Washington Post later reported, “It was not a quick bow, nor a shallow one. The woman accustomed to being bowed by the world now lowered her head and humbly honored the princess. More than anything, it was the bow that broke the fever of anger directed at the queen and her family.”

Years later, a private letter she wrote at the time was published—revealing Queen Elizabeth’s feelings on Princess Diana’s death. “It was indeed dreadfully sad, and she is a huge loss to the country,” Queen Elizabeth wrote to Lady Henriette Abel Smith, one of her ladies in waiting. “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. William and Harry have been so brave and I am very proud of them.”