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Prince Charles had raised the question of marriage with Princess Diana out of sheer pressure from the British royal family rather than out of love.
As it turned out, the Prince of Wales had been pressured to find another ‘perfect match’ who was his cousin, Amanda Knatchbull.
In his book, Battle of brothers, Robert Lacey explains how his loving great-uncle Lord Mountbatten, whose granddaughter he was, asked Charles to consider Amanda.
“Over the years, the two cousins grew closer, developing a mutual respect and friendship that has endured to this day,” Lacey wrote.
“But when the prince finally made his proposal in the summer of 1979, shortly before the assassination of Lord Mountbatten by the IRA, the independent Amanda politely rejected it.”
“Surrendering oneself to a system, he explained, was so utter when he joined the royal family, it involved a loss of independence ‘far greater than marriage usually invites,” Lacey wrote in the book.
Prince biographer Jonathan Dimbleby states that the rejection “only served to confirm [Charles’] own belief that getting married in the House of Windsor was a sacrifice no one should make. “
