When Prince Charles and Princess Diana got engaged, it was not entirely a love gesture. Charles was under pressure from the royal family to start a family and Diana seemed like a perfect choice. But before Princess Diana was the choice Charles was pressured to propose, there was another "choice" Charles was asked to propose: His (not the first) cousin, Amanda Knatchbull.

In "Battle of Brothers: William & Harry - The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult," royal historian and biographer Robert Lacey explains why one of his parents' uncle, Lord Mountbatten, pushed him to marry Amanda. which was his cousin and granddaughter of Mountbatten.

According to Lacey, Charles admitted that he was "willing to know her" and as a result, a relationship between them began to flourish.

Lacey writes:

"Over the years the two cousins ??became closer, developing a mutual respect and friendship that has lasted to the present day, but when the prince finally made his proposal in the summer of 1979, shortly before the assassination of Lord Mountbatter by IRA *, independent Amanda politely rejected the proposal.

* Lord Mountbatten was killed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during a shipwreck in northwestern Ireland.

Amanda Knatchbull in 1979.

The way Amanda turned back Charles's proposal had a profound effect on the future king.

"Surrendering myself to a system was so absolute when I joined the royal family. "This involved a much greater loss of independence than marriage usually brings," she explained, according to Lacey.

Jonathan Dimbleby, Charles's biographer, says the refusal "served only to confirm the future king himself's belief that marrying within the Windsor House * was a sacrifice that no one should make."

* The Windsor House includes the royal house of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth kingdoms.

Source: Marie Claire