They were the seven days that shook the world.

Twenty eight years ago Princess Diana died on August 31, 1997, and her funeral –watched by 2.5billion people worldwide – happened just a week later. 

But behind the scenes were two families who had very different ideas for the princess’ sendoff. 

The tension between the Spencers and the Windsors had been building for years, particularly following Diana’s divorce from Prince Charles.

Royal author Tina Brown wrote in Palace Papers: ‘The scramble to arrange Diana’s funeral in just a week was fraught.’

Diana’s funeral was largely modeled after the funeral plans codenamed Operation Tay Bridge which had been developed for the Queen Mother.

This plan had been rehearsed for 22 years even though the Queen Mother didn’t pass away until 2002. 

In effect, the Queen Mother attended her own funeral. 

The funeral saw symbolic gestures, like the removal of the Royal Standard and its replacement with the Spencer family flag.

Brown recounted that when Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, sent the Dean of Westminster the prayers intended for the service, the Spencer family objected to including any references to the Royal Family.

‘In retaliation, Buckingham Palace insisted they have a separate prayer for the Royal Family and that the words “People’s Princess” be removed.’ 

The term ‘People’s Princess’, widely recognized due to then-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s eulogy, was actually coined earlier by Julie Burchill in a 1992 publication.

For four days, the Royal Family and the Spencers debated over which male members of royalty should follow the gun carriage carrying Diana’s coffin, according to Brown.

The young royal brothers, aged just 15 and 12 at the time, were often at the centre of arguments about what their roles should be.

Brown noted that Prince Philip, who had lost his mother at age 10, became furious, exclaiming: ‘Stop dictating how we should handle those boys. They have lost their mother!’

‘His voice was full of emotion, a real voice of the grandfather speaking,’ Brown added. 

Earl Spencer’s eulogy, with its pointed language and criticisms of the press and royal family, further fueled this narrative. 

Brown remarked: ‘In all their years of public service, Her Majesty and Prince Philip were never more stunned and infuriated than by the critical speech made by Diana’s brother.’

Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, joined Phillip, Charles, William and Harry as they followed her coffin to Westminster Abbey on September 6, 1997.

He delivered a controversial eulogy at the funeral in which he took swipes at both the British media and the Royal Family.

‘His address from the pulpit was a hand grenade, aimed at every sitting member of the house of Windsor,’ wrote Brown.

Addressing his late sister the Earl said: ‘On behalf of your mother and sisters, I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.

‘We fully respect the heritage into which they have both been born and will always respect and encourage them in their royal role but we, like you, recognise the need for them to experience as many different aspects of life as possible to arm them spiritually and emotionally for the years ahead.

‘I know you would have expected nothing less from us.’

An ITV documentary, Diana: The Day Britain Cried, which aired in 2017, revealed Earl Spencer’s speech was received poorly by the Royal Family, who did not even applaud at the end.

Martin Neary, Westminster Abbey’s musical director, told the documentary: ‘I felt a great sympathy for what she had suffered but at the same time I was shocked by some of things which were said.

‘The princes actually applauded at the end, although the senior members of the Royal Family did not.’

Earl Spencer later said that he had rehearsed the speech, writing in The Guardian: ‘I read it to Diana’s coffin, in the chapel at St James’s Palace and at the conclusion heard a whisper that sounded like satisfaction in that sad, sad, place.’

The Earl has also claimed he was lied to about his sister’s funeral procession.

In 2017, he said he had been told by royal officials that his nephews wanted to walk behind Diana’s coffin in the funeral procession, after he had raised concerns about it.

Describing the moment as the ‘most horrifying half hour of my life’, he revealed he still has nightmares about the ‘harrowing’ experience.

However he acknowledged that the walk would have been ‘a million times worse’ for William and Harry.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today Programme, he slammed the insistence that the boys follow the coffin as a ‘very bizarre and cruel thing’.

He added: ‘Eventually I was lied to and told they wanted to do it, which of course they didn’t but I didn’t realise that.’

Brown wrote that the two boys were refusing to walk behind the gun carriage.

Prince Charles was supposed to be travelling with Charles Spencer but the Earl ‘hated him so much he was refusing to be in the same car as him’.

It was Prince Philip who eventually persuaded Harry and William to walk behind the coffin, reminding the children of how the images would be seen around the world.

Brown wrote: ‘Though Harry still talks about the personal agony it caused him, from the Crown’s point of view, Philip was right.

‘The unforgettable sight of three generations of royal males solemnly walking behind Diana’s coffin made the powerful dynastic statement the monarchy required.’

While Diana is buried on a small island at Althorp the original plan was for Diana to be buried in her family vault at a nearby church.

This was changed by Earl Spencer as he wanted her grave to be inaccessible to the public and a place for her sons to mourn in peace. 

In the 28 years since Diana’s funeral the relationship between the Spencers and the Royal Family has remained fraught. 

Diana’s mother Frances Shand Kydd died in June 2004. Shand Kydd lived alone in Scotland after feuding with both the royals and Diana’s father’s family, the Spencers.

She was estranged from her daughter and had not spoken to Diana for months at the time of her death in a 1997 Paris car crash.

William, 21, delivered a reading for his grandmother at a Roman Catholic mass at St. Columba’s cathedral in Oban on Scotland’s west coast.

He had returned from a university trip to Norway and Harry, 19, flew in from Botswana, after a seven hour road journey to the airport in the southern African country where he is doing a year’s charity work.

The brothers arrived with other mourners on foot at the cathedral. Members of the press and public lined up outside.

Other senior royals not related by blood to Shand Kydd, including Diana’s former husband Prince Charles, were not present. Palace officials said only immediate family had been invited.

Harry and William were undoubtedly bonded by the death of their beloved mother in their youth.

But almost three decades later, they have both shown that they exhibit some of grandma Shand Kydd’s traits when it comes to holding a grudge towards each other. 

Hopefully it won’t take another funeral for them to show a united front.