Royal Souvenirs

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People's princess and petulant self-promoter, devoted mom and lost soul, calculating, mesmerizing: once again we have occasion to consider the endless contradictions that transformed Diana, Princess of Wales, from nonentity to icon during her brief life and hideous death. In the imposing, high-domed Court 1 at London's Old Bailey last week, her faithful butler Paul Burrell — the man she called "my rock" — was on trial for theft. But Diana was the hovering presence.

Last year, police found in Burrell's house in Cheshire a trove of Dianiana — more than 300 items in all — stuffed into the attic and wardrobe and a bench and arrayed on the stairs: framed photos of her and Prince Charles and their boys, a clutch of CDs and old LPs with her signature, handbags from Versace and Chanel and Prada, her monogrammed pajamas (these were in Burrell's bedroom), crockery bearing Charles' crest, more than 3,000 photo negatives stored in a carrier bag, including some of the young princes William and Harry in the bath, a letter Charles sent Diana on their 13th wedding anniversary "with lots of love," a computer disc detailing her personal accounts, a ceremonial sword, "One Lilac Dress with Beige Hanger and Cellophane Dust Cover," 13 cards and letters that "Mummy" wrote William, including one that begins "My darling Wombat." The bric-a-brac of the dead is always sad. That Diana's was picked through in a courtroom full of tabloid reporters taking shorthand was doubly so, but also powerfully reminiscent of her life, both tawdry and irresistible: little bits of the goddess preserved in plastic bags, relics of a media saint.

Prosecutor William Boyce said Diana's mother and sister will testify during the six-week trial that Burrell, 44, had no right to these things. But he did have access: he lived in Kensington Palace for 10 months after her death and helped compile an inventory for her estate. A palace policeman once saw Burrell pull up his station wagon at 3:30 a.m. and load it with a large wooden box and two evening dresses wrapped in plastic. When challenged by the bobby, Burrell said he was removing items Diana's family wanted him to destroy, and was doing so at this hour to be discreet. Boyce said the family will rebut this. He reminded the jury that photo albums of the young princes or Diana's dresses could buy the person who presented them to Sotheby's a comfortable retirement.

Burrell, whose final service to Diana after 10 tumultuous years as butler and close confidant was to dress her body for her funeral, denies that any of the items was stolen and gave police a clutch of reasons for possessing them. He said some were given to him by Diana; some she asked him to get rid of but he could not bear to; some he rescued from the trash or was keeping safe because he feared Diana's family would not preserve them properly; some he felt were not appropriate for the charity shops she had designated; some he intended to return but could not "because my memories of the death of the Princess were still much too raw."

For most people in Britain, however, the cult of Diana has dulled. Other public occasions of grief, such as Sept. 11 and the Queen Mother's death, as well as happy ones like the Queen's Jubilee, have intervened. Her sons, so poignantly vulnerable in 1997, have grown up. The husband who made her life miserable has rehabilitated himself by being a good father — now 62% think he will make a good King, up from 41% after she died. Even the Other Woman, Camilla Parker Bowles — Diana dubbed her the "Rottweiler" — appears routinely at Charles' side.

Burrell profited mildly from his post-Diana fame by giving lectures about royalty on the QE2 and writing a book on how to entertain, but unlike so many other royal retainers, he never cashed in with a tell-all memoir. He left a tantalizing hint in his police statement that he might disgorge Diana's secrets in his own defense: "I wish to emphasize I did not wish to break confidentiality. I now may have to do so." Would anyone much care? Robert Lacey, author of biographies of Diana and the Queen, thinks that "people now just shrug their shoulders to more revelations; it just shows she was human, and her vulnerability and flakiness were part of her appeal." So despite the media hurricane at the trial, Diana's candle is likely to keep flickering.