Soon, we cut to Diana<\/a> sitting in her living room (Elizabeth Debicki), as she repeatedly votes \u2018no\u2019 to a television programme questioning whether the monarchy should continue.<\/p>\n The theme of this episode of The Crown<\/em><\/a> seems to be change \u2013 both current and on the horizon. But how much truth is behind this narrative on our screens?<\/p>\n \u201cMy party has suffered its worst defeat in memory,\u201d John Major<\/a> (Jonny Lee Miller) says to Queen Elizabeth<\/a> (Imelda Staunton) in The Crown<\/em>.<\/p>\n In reality, the Labour party, led by Tony Blair, had roughly four million more votes than the Conservatives, in the 1997 general election.<\/p>\n This was largely due to the schisms and scandals within government at the time. Richard Toye told HistoryExtra<\/em> that in the \u201cchaos of 16 September 1992 \u2013 \u2018Black Wednesday\u2019 \u2013 Major\u2019s government was compelled to announce that it was withdrawing from the system. The economy recovered; the Conservative\u2019s reputation for economic competence did not.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEqually damaging for the Tories,\u201d Toye continues, \u201cwas their division over the issue of Europe. At the time, the Maastricht Treaty, the foundational document of the European Union<\/a>, signed in February 1992, looked like a negotiating triumph, as Britain secured important opt-outs on monetary and social policy. Still, a group of Conservative backbenchers, known as the Maastricht Rebels, could not be reconciled to any form of further European integration. They fought a bitter battle in the House of Commons<\/a> against Major\u2019s government, in which can be seen many of the origins of Brexit.\u201d<\/p>\n These issues became so prevailing that, two years before the election, in 1995, the Conservative party was so divided that Major felt compelled to resign as prime minister to face a leadership challenge. Despite him being re-elected as prime minister, these rifts remained deep, and seemed to foreshadow the loss the party would experience in 1997, after 18 years of governing.<\/p>\n The real relationship Blair had with the royal family seems to have been rockier than the one they had with Major. It got off to a bad start when, during his formal visit in May 1997 to form a new government at Buckingham Palace<\/a>, the Queen reminded Blair that \u201cWinston Churchill<\/a> was the first prime minister she dealt with, and that was before I was born. So I got a sense of my relative seniority, or lack of it.\u201d The queen apparently declined his invitation to call him \u2018Tony\u2019.<\/p>\n And their relationship continued to be unsteady, with the Blairs\u2019 dismissal of royal traditions. The prime minister\u2019s wife, Cherie, refused to curtsey, and the couple also disliked visiting Balmoral \u2013 the Queen\u2019s favourite holiday destination.<\/p>\n The Telegraph<\/em> noted in 2007<\/a> that whilst the Queen loved \u201cthe countryside, country sports, horses and dogs\u201d, while the prime minister opted for \u201ccity life, holidays in Barbados, tennis and football\u201d.<\/p>\n The Crown<\/em> depicts Mohamed Al-Fayed inviting Diana on a holiday. This holiday did happen, in July 1997. Diana stayed on the Al-Fayeds\u2019 new luxury yacht, the Jonkial, in Saint Tropez. She also stayed in the family\u2019s 30-bedroom estate Castle St Therese, with her sons William and Harry.<\/p>\n Photographers camped along the French Riviera for days in a bid to catch photos of Diana and Dodi together, following rumours of their romance.<\/p>\n Elsewhere on screen, Charles and Camilla<\/a> begin to test their new freedom following Charles\u2019s divorce in this episode, but what happened between them at this time?<\/p>\n November 1992: An intimate transcript of a 1989 phone call between the two is released to the public, inducing the scandal of \u201cCamillagate\u201d<\/p>\n December 1992: Charles and Diana formally separate, raising questions about Charles\u2019s future relationships<\/p>\n June 1994: Charles publicly admits to having an affair with Camilla during his marriage to Diana, in an interview with Jonathan Dimblebey<\/p>\n January 1995: Camilla files for divorce from Andrew Parker Bowles<\/p>\n August 1996: Charles and Diana finalise their divorce<\/p>\n July 1997: Charles throws a lavish 50th birthday party for Camilla at Highgrove<\/p>\n August 1997: Diana dies in a tragic car crash<\/p>\n January 1999: Camilla and Charles are publicly photographed together as a couple, for the first time<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Kelly Fisher (played by Erin Richards in The Crown<\/em>) was an American model, and she was engaged to Dodi Fayed.<\/p>\n The two had bought a house in Malibu, as covered in the series, where they planned to live after their marriage. The two were in Paris on 14 July 1997, when Dodi was summoned by his father to join himself, his wife, Diana, and Princes William and Harry, on a holiday in Saint Tropez.<\/p>\n It was there, on a luxury yacht, where Dodi and Diana\u2019s romance began. This was to be cut tragically short on 31 August 1997, when both sustained fatal injuries in a car crash in Paris.<\/p>\n Throughout this most recent series of The Crown<\/em>, we watch as the Queen battles for government funding to refurbish the HMY Britannia<\/em><\/a> and resultantly continue its use.<\/p>\n And it is not difficult to see why \u2013 the Britannia<\/em> travelled over one million nautical miles with Her Majesty and, as said in our history of royal yachts, was the only royal home in which the Queen felt able to \u201ctruly relax\u201d.<\/p> \u00a0<\/p>\n However, Tony Blair did decide to decommission the royal yacht, as \u201cthe costs were too great\u201d to refurbish her. 1994 saw the announcement that the Britannia<\/em> would be retired. The Crown<\/em> depicts a conversation between Blair and the Queen, as he offers the use of a privately-owned yacht for the family to use instead. Whilst it cannot be confirmed whether this offer was made, there were plans discussed for a replacement which were eventually abandoned.<\/p>\n The Britannia<\/em>\u2019s final foreign voyage was to Hong Kong in July 1997, and it served as a base for Prince Charles<\/a> once he arrived there. He was, as portrayed in the series, visiting to represent the Queen in the week before the territory of Hong Kong was handed back to China.<\/p>\nJohn Major\u2019s landslide defeat<\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>What was the nature of the relationship between Tony Blair and the royal family?<\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Did Diana take Princes William and Harry on holiday with Mohammed Al-Fayed and his wife?<\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>A timeline of Charles and Camilla\u2019s relationship in the \u201990s<\/h4>\n
Who was Dodi Al-Fayed\u2019s girlfriend, Kelly Fisher, and were they engaged before he met Diana?<\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Was the HMY Britannia<\/em> decommissioned under Tony Blair\u2019s government?<\/h3>\n
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