LONDON — Two Scottish landowners said Monday they were forced to resign from an ancient royal chivalric order after they allowed their historic homes to be used in a U.S. film about Princess Diana's torrid affair with a soldier.
Lord Adrian Palmer had rented his palatial home and Alexander Hay had allowed his castle to be used by CBS for scenes in a film about the steamy affair between Diana and cavalry officer James Hewitt.
Palmer and Hay were later told their actions were incompatible with membership in the Royal Company of Archers — a 500-year-old order whose members take part in ceremonies when the British monarch is in Scotland.
The order, also known as the Queen's Bodyguard for Scotland, has about 400 members and sometimes parades in green jackets, carrying yew bows and arrows. Diana admitted that she had an affair with Hewitt in the late '80s, during a difficult period of her marriage to Prince Charles.
Charles and Diana are now working out terms of a divorce and the film, based on a kiss-and-tell book by Hewitt, is expected to cause further royal embarrassment.
"I am obviously saddened and disappointed. I am fiercely loyal to my monarch and would do anything for her," Lord Palmer was quoted by the Daily Telegraph as saying.
"I was given no alternative but to resign," Hay said.
Major Sir Hew Hamilton-Dalrymple, an Archers' captain, said the society had sent a short letter to the men. "It simply said that the Archers' ruling body, having heard about what they did, decided it was incompatible with membership."
