Earl Spencer's war with Charles

Prince Charles and Earl Spencer are at loggerheads over claims William and Harry are exploited by their father.

The allegations were made by friends of Charles Spencer, who memorably vowed to watch over his two nephews in an impassioned oration at his sister Diana's funeral.

The Earl fears St James's Palace is exploiting recent incidents involving the boys simply to improve the Prince of Wales's image.

Prince Harry's drink and drugs episode and last year's drama with Prince Edward's TV company 'stalking' William have fuelled those concerns.

Both had happy outcomes for Charles's image. He was applauded for his sensitive handling of Harry's problems and received widespread sympathy for his protectiveness of William's privacy at St Andrews University.

According to close friends, Earl Spencer is concerned that St James's Palace is 'managing' such events to portray Charles as a good father - at the expense of the boys' longterm welfare.

The Spectator magazine, which is edited by the Earl's old Oxford friend Boris Johnson, started the attacks on St James's Palace, suggesting courtiers' presentation of Charles's image may be good for his ego but was threatening the Royal Family's future.

Charles Spencer was among those who joined a recent lunch at The Spectator, hosted by Mr Johnson.

Yesterday a friend of Earl Spencer's said 'there is nothing we would disagree with' in the Spectator article, adding: 'The institution of the monarchy suffers in the pursuit of a single agenda.'

The Earl and the Prince have never been close and have had minimal contact since Diana's funeral in 1997.

In his oration, Charles Spencer pledged: 'We, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.'

The Earl, say his friends, believes St James's Palace's image-making threatens any role he might have as a legitimate guardian of the interests of William and Harry.

He now sees his nephews only twice a year. One of these occasions is Diana's birthday when the boys visit their mother's grave at Althorp, the Spencer estate in Northamptonshire. When the Earl married Caroline Freud last month, both William and Harry were unable to accept his invitation to share the day.

Last year he criticised Prince Charles for never visiting Diana's resting place.

In a BBC Radio Five interview he told presenter Simon Mayo: 'Prince Charles has an open invitation, as he knows, to come to the memorial but he has yet to take up that invitation.'

Asked why he thought that was, he replied: 'Look at it from his point of view. It's an ex-wife at the end of the day and maybe that's how he views it.'

When Mayo suggested Prince Charles was being 'extremely callous', the Earl replied: 'You probably think that I sit at home and think about Prince Charles and his life quite a lot, but I don't to be honest, so I think you'd have to ask him or his representatives why that might be.'

In that interview, the Earl said he did not have a single friend or confidante within the Royal Family, apart from William and Harry. He also suggested the real future of the monarchy lay with William, throwing doubt on Charles's potential as a future monarch.

Prince Charles is not the only member of the Royal Family who has still to visit Diana's grave.

When Charles Spencer learned the Queen was spending a day in Northampton last summer, he invited her to include a brief stop at nearby Althorp. An aide told him the Queen could not alter her programme.