The Duke of Edinburgh tried to act as a marriage counsellor to Diana, Princess of Wales, before her relationship with the Prince of Wales broke down, according to previously unpublished letters shown yesterday at the High Court.

Extracts from the Duke’s correspondence with the Princess over the summer of 1992 suggest a growing understanding and even tenderness between the pair in the final months before she left the Royal Family.

The Duke jokes that he has “no talent as a marriage counsellor”, and the Princess replies that his letters have shown her that “you really do care”. She finds within them proof that her father-in-law possesses “great understanding and tact”.

It had been alleged by Simone Simmons, a psychic healer and confidante of the Princess, that the Duke had written “unpleasant, nasty and insulting” letters to the Princess as the royal marriage foundered.

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Mohamed Al Fayed has long contended that the car crash in the Alma Tunnel on August 31, 1997, in which his son Dodi and the Princess were killed, was arranged as part of a plot involving the Duke. Yesterday his barrister, Michael Mansfield, QC, alleged that the Duke had described Dodi as “an oily bedhopper”. Sir Miles Hunt-Davis, the Duke’s private secretary, replied: “It sounds highly unlikely.”

Snatches of the correspondence between the Duke and the Princess were made available to the inquest to counter allegations that they had a fractious relationship. Lord Justice Scott Baker, the coroner, ruled that most of the letters should remain private to protect the privacy of living members of the Royal Family.

The first letter from the Duke had upset the Princess, according to one of her closest friends, Rosa Monckton, who gave evidence yesterday. Ms Monckton said: “It was just her emotional state at the time. I think a letter from anybody would have made her cry. But when we sat down, she realised this was an offer of help.”

Ms Monckton told how her husband, Dominic Lawson, the former Editor of The Sunday Telegraph, helped the Princess to compose her responses. The first was a handwritten note dated June 21, 1992, which responded to a letter from the Duke on June 18. “Dearest Pa,” she wrote. “I was so pleased to receive your letter and particularly pleased to read that you are desperately anxious to help.” The Duke responded on June 25, hoping that the exchange would continue because they had “very little other opportunity to excange views”.

The Princess replied with a seven-page letter on June 29, and the Duke replied on July 7. He wrote: “I can only repeat what I have said before. If invited I will always do my utmost to help you and Charles to the best of my ability, but I am quite ready to concede that I have no talents as a marriage counsellor!!!”

The Duke’s public pronouncements on marriage have been scarce. Four years earlier, he had observed: “When a man opens the car door for his wife, it’s either a new car or a new wife.” Five years later, on the occasion of his golden wedding, he felt qualified to lay out his recipe for a successful marriage, with tolerance being “one essential ingredient”.

In the summer of 1992, Diana apparently found him an excellent counsellor. On July 12 she wrote: “You are very modest about your marriage guidance skills and I disagree with you. This last letter of yours shows great understanding and tact and I hope to be able to draw on your advice in the months ahead.” The Duke expressed his relief with his response: he had apparently been concerned that he was intruding. “It was good of you to be so understanding and to reply. Phew!” he wrote.

Diana wrote candidly to the Duke again on July 27 to say that “even if you are unable to succeed in this [reconciling her with the Prince of Wales] I would still like you to know how much I admire you for the marvellous way in which you have tried to come to terms with this intensely difficult family problem”.

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