ONDON - Eulogies, by their nature, emphasize the deceased's virtues, and respectfully skip over their faults.
But as he listed the qualities that made his sister Diana a decent human being, Earl Spencer didn't hesitate to mention her problems. It was a eulogy unlike any other, and it resonated with millions of those who listened to it, because it described the flawed princess they knew and loved.
It was - like Diana - blunt, candid, and uncomfortable for the establishment.
''For all the status, the glamour, the applause, Diana remained throughout a very insecure person at heart, almost childlike in her desire to do good for others so she could release herself from deep feelings of unworthiness of which her eating disorders were just a symptom,'' Spencer said. ''The world sensed this part of her character and cherished her for her vulnerability.''
As Spencer spoke, tens of thousands of mourners standing outside nodded their heads in agreement or wiped away tears, some later saying they felt guilty for buying the tabloids and magazines that never gave Diana privacy, and agreeing with Spencer's assessment that her two sons must be allowed to follow in her populist footsteps.
Spencer's eulogy seemed to galvanize the anger - against the paparazzi and the royal family - that many people had been willing to put aside for the good of a nation united in grief.
''He spoke from the heart, and he spoke the truth,'' said Hillary Thomas, a housewife from Liverpool who with some friends spent the night outdoors so they could watch the funeral on huge TV screens in Hyde Park. Thomas, like thousands around her, said they want the royal family to ditch its traditional restraint and become more down-to-earth like Diana.
Spencer said his family would not allow Diana's sons ''to suffer the anguish that used regularly to drive you to tearful despair,'' a reference to her isolation in royal life.
Referring bitterly to the Queen's insistence that Diana and Prince Charles divorce last year, and that Diana relinquish her title as Her Royal Highness, Spencer said his sister had a ''natural nobility.'' He said she ''proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.''
Officials at Buckingham Palace said they would not respond to Spencer's attack. But, 96 years after Queen Victoria was buried, the Victorian stiff upper lip began quivering, as the British people, long accused of being too aloof, wept for a woman who could never be their queen.
