A no-holds-barred letter by Prince Charles slamming Princess Diana's controversial butler Paul Burrell has come to light 20 years on. The future King lashes out at 'people like Burrell' to whom he says he had shown 'every consideration over the years'.
He rails against Royal household staff who 'exercise their pathetic jealousies and vendettas in public' in the November 2002 letter. Weeks earlier, Burrell had gone on trial on theft charges relating to 310 of items worth £4.5m that had belonged to the late Princess of Wales.
But the Old Bailey trial collapsed part-way through after the Queen recalled that Burrell had told her he was keeping some of Diana's possessions. The court heard claims that Prince Charles was a 'pampered prince' with teams of servants waiting on him, including one to squeeze his toothpaste.
Charles laments the 'ghastliness' of the whole episode in his letter to Miss Majorie Dawson, who was the personal maid and dresser to Princess Alexandra for 36 years. He also criticises the 'media circulation war' for offering 'vast sums of money' to staff members.
Charles writes on November 29, 2002: "Bless you for taking the trouble to write as you did in the wake of all the ghastliness that has being going on! I find it utterly incredible, as I have done nothing but show people like Paul Burrell every consideration over the years.
"Unfortunately we are now to be treated as mere pawns in a terrifying and ongoing media circulation war where the actual facts are totally disregarded and vast sums of money are offered as bribes to former and current members of staff to exercise their pathetic jealousies and vendettas in public.
"One member of staff has been offered a total of £5millions by the newspapers in recent weeks."
The four page handwritten letter, which is being sold by a collector, is tipped to sell for £2,000 with London-based Chiswick Auctions. Valentina Borghi, specialist at Chiswick Auctions, said: "It is rare to find a letter from Prince Charles which is so open about his feelings.
"It was a difficult time for the Royals and I believe he was pretty upset when he wrote this letter. We are used to a much calmer version of Prince Charles, so he must have been very hurt when so many people he thought he could trust were willing to make money by selling private facts about his family."
Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, while Burrell released a memoir, A Royal Duty, in 2003. It led to a rift with Buckingham Palace, with Prince William and Prince Harry calling the book a 'cold and overt betrayal' of their late mother.
The sale takes place on July 21.
