Raine Spencer, stepmother of Princess Diana and daughter of romance novelist Barbara Cartland, has died. She was known for her extraordinary helmet of lacquered bouffant hair and her unhappy relationship with her stepchildren, as well as her varied social life and romantic partners. The present Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother, ripped out all Raine’s renovations of Althorp, the ancestral home, when his father died and he inherited, causing Raine’s fast exit.
She was born 9 September 1929 2.21pm London with her parents divorcing when she was 7, being launched as a debutante at 18 and marriage to an about-to-be earl followed swiftly. 20 years she later she had an affair with Lord Spencer and, after a divorce, married him. The year after his death she had a brief disastrous marriage to a French count.
Raine had an ambitious, hard-working 10th house Mars Mercury in Libra opposition an unsettled 4th house Uranus. Her 9th house, much-travelled Virgo Sun was in an expansive square to Jupiter in Gemini on her Descendant, hence her ease at finding partners. She also had an 8th house Pluto and Venus in Leo (not conjunct) and a 12th house Sagittarius Moon.
Her relationship to her mother, who claimed Raine was the illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Sutherland or Prince George, Duke of Kent, needless to say, was hardly harmonious. Barbara Cartland 9 July 1901 11.40pm Birmingham, was a matriarchal Sun Cancer in a hard opposition to Saturn in Capricorn on her MC. The relationship with Raine was intense and controlling with BarbaraC’s Sun in Raine’s 8th conjunct her Pluto. And very disruptive with BarbaraC’s Uranus opposition Pluto falling across Raine’s Asc/Desc and squaring her Virgo Sun.
Their relationship chart had an unkind, tough-minded composite Saturn opposition Pluto square Mars; as well as a needs-space composite Sun opposition Moon Uranus. Not well designed for living in the same house.
And down a generation it ran, with Raine proving a thorn in Diana’s side (though they did make up latterly.) Raine’s sharp-edged and volatile Mars in Aries opposition Uranus was square Diana’s sensitive Cancer Sun; and Raine’s Saturn fell in Diana’s 1st house, putting a damper on D’s spontaneity.
Their relationship chart had a controlling and power-struggling composite Sun Pluto; with a cold composite Moon Saturn opposition Venus square Jupiter opposition Neptune – chilly to the point of refrigerated, suspicious, disappointing; and an explosive composite Mars square Uranus. The composite Jupiter obviously came into play much later on but it certainly wouldn’t be what motherless Diana in a dysfunctional aristo family needed as a child.
Raine Spencer worked very hard, for many years in local government. Thanks to her untiring work, Covent Garden was preserved rather than torn down. I met her once, when I was a child. She was in full day time regalia, not something you’d ever see now. She was impeccably coiffed and groomed wearing bright red lipstick, which illuminated her bright eyes and pale skin. She smelt lovely and powdery and feminine. I thought she was wonderful! She had that lovely knack of talking to a child as if you were a person, though even then I recognised she was someone to reckon with.