Netflix may tease Season 4 of The Crown as a “fairy tale,” hinged upon the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana as the jewel in the period drama’s *crown*.

But... the reality of the period between 1979 through 1990 in which we find the royal family in Season 4 is far from the idyll imagined for Great Britain. Rather, with the rise of Margaret Thatcher to power and her three terms as Prime Minister (how very FDR of her), the country faces immense strife from the Falklands War to the Miners' Strike, in addition to the joyous births of a few royal princes.

Ahead of the season premiere, I decided to crack open the history archives and dive into the 1980s era of the U.K. to gauge what we can anticipate this upcoming season.

Late 1970s

Prince Charles dates Princess Diana’s sister

OK to be fair this is more of a range of time than a certain lightning bolt event, but I figured it would be of keen interest to learn that when The Crown returns, we are likely to see Prince Charles dating a Spencer by a different name before Diana.

That's right, Prince Charles was involved with Diana's elder sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale. But that romance ended not too long after she reportedly said she wouldn't marry him "if he were the Dustman or the King of England." That certainly is not a welcome sound bite for royal pressers.