Of greatest significance was the Queen’s decision to return to London a day ahead of schedule. It was tantamount to a surrender. The final battle between tradition and modern political necessity was fought out in the Queen’s tartan-carpeted first-floor sitting room. Ever since the crisis erupted, the Queen’s advisers, including Janvrin and her lady-in-waiting, Lady Susan Hussey, had been monitoring what was happening in London. They had gone by the book, but that had not worked and by midweek it had become clear to everyone but the sovereign that the royal family was going to have to give way if it wasn’t going to suffer perhaps irretrievable damage to its reputation. That led to yet more strained discussions.

Matters were brought to a head by the appearance of the bumptious Prince Andrew, who was staying at the castle. Politically naïve but a pedantic stickler for protocol, he walked into the sitting room, heard the arguments flowing backwards and forwards and furiously declared: ‘The Queen is the Queen. You can’t speak to her like that!’ The Queen’s word, he said, was their command and it was their duty to carry out any instruction she chose to give. A week before, that might have been true. It clearly wasn’t in these circumstances and the sitting room was struck into stony silence. It was broken by the courtier who said that if the Queen did not want their advice, they would leave.

Faced with what amounted to an ultimatum from her own staff, the Queen chose to ignore her favourite son and accept the counsel of her advisers. She had no choice. The discussion was no longer about what was appropriate for Diana. It had come down to the future of the monarchy itself. In the judgement of the men and women whose job it is to guide the monarchy through the storms of controversy, the situation was critical and their advice was blunt and to the point: like it or not, the crowds had to be appeased if a major constitutional crisis was to be averted. This was no longer a simple family matter where the Queen and Prince Philip’s opinion was decisive.

The Queen at last agreed. The original plan had been for her to travel south overnight by train and go straight from the station to Westminster Abbey. That was abandoned and instead she flew to London on the Friday, accompanied by Prince Philip, Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother, who, royal trouper that she was, had categorically rejected her daughter’s pleas to spare her health and stay behind in Scotland.