Netflix
This article contains spoilers for the upcoming season of The Crown.
It was perhaps the moment of greatest peril for the monarchy in the last fifty years: Princess Diana had been killed in a car crash in Paris, and, days later, the palace had not lowered the flag at Buckingham Palace to half-mast—and had not confirmed that Diana would have a full state funeral so that the nation could pay its respects.
A wave of public anger and an outpouring of grief finally forced the palace to reconsider elements of its planning (even though Diana did not have an official state funeral), but there was a genuine feeling of astonishment that the monarchy could be so out of touch with its people.