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UK > History > 2011 > British monarchy > Royal wedding / Queen
Elizabeth II (I)
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge
and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge kiss
as Bridesmaids Grace Van Cutsem and Margarita Armstrong-Jones
look on from the balcony at Buckingham Palace
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Boston Globe > Big Picture > The Royal Wedding
29 April 2011
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/04/the_royal_wedding.html
This royal wedding
is Britain's Marie Antoinette moment
Back in the real world, below this thin layer of pomp,
there is a social dislocation whose cracks
are starting to emerge
Friday 29 April 2011
20.00 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Polly Toynbee
This article was published
on guardian.co.uk at 20.00 BST on Friday 29 April
2011.
A version appeared on p37
of the Main section section of the Guardian
on Saturday 30 April 2011.
It was last modified at 00.06 BST
on Saturday 30 April 2011.
How well we do it! Was the princess beautiful in lace and was
the prince charming? Indeed they were. The glorious pomp and circumstance did
not disappoint those 2 billion worldwide watchers, indulging vicariously in the
theatre of majesty. They tell us this is what we are best at, the great parade,
the grand charade. If you weep at weddings here was one to cry for, for us more
than them. The more extreme a ceremony's extravagance, the more superstitious
you might feel about the outcome: the simpler the better the prognosis, in my
experience.
But let's not speculate, for we know next to nothing of these best-marketed of
global celebrities beyond the homely platitudes sparingly fed to the multitudes.
We might agree that they are indeed "grounded"; we might ponder on the chances
of a prince surviving so dysfunctional a childhood; or we may just wish them
well and use the day off to party, as many did.
Is this what Britain is and who we are? Here was a grand illusion, the old
conspiracy to misrepresent us to ourselves. Here arrayed was the most
conservative of establishments, rank upon rank, from cabinet ministers to Prince
Andrew to the Sultan of Brunei, the apotheosis of the Daily Telegraph and the
Spectator in excelsis, a David Starkey pageant choreographed by Charles, the
prince of conservatives.
Of course Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had no invitation, being the prime
ministers who held back the forces of conservatism for 13 years. Displayed in
all its assertiveness was a reminder of what Labour is always up against as
perennial intruder. Constitutional monarchy is constitutionally Tory, the blue
inherited with its wealth, in its fibre, in its bones.
The manicured story of the Middletons' four-generation rise from pit village to
throne offers such perfect justification, living proof of David Cameron's
promised social mobility, echoed in the jokey "It should have been me" souvenir
mugs. Notwithstanding repellent sniggers of the Eton set who call the Middleton
girls "the wisteria sisters" for their social climbing, or the "doors to manual"
giggle at their former air steward mother, the Middletons belong in the top 0.5%
of earners: children of new wealth always did marry into aristocracy. Besides,
Kate Middleton, Samantha Cameron and the Hon Frances Osborne all went to the
same school.
Yet despite months of coverage, rising to a crescendo of print and broadcasting
frenzy this week, the country has remained resolutely phlegmatic. Cameras pick
out the wildest enthusiasts camped out or dressed as brides, yet the
Guardian/ICM poll and others put those expressing "strong interest" at only 20%.
In poll after poll, more than 70% refused to be excited. Laconic, cool, only
half the population said they would watch Friday's flummery. Few are republicans
though latest YouGov polls show those of us hoping the Queen will be Elizabeth
the Last has risen to 26% but a healthy scepticism thrives. Not love of
monarchy but fear of something worse wins the day as the spirit of "confound
their politics" prevails over the thought of some second-hand politician as head
of state.
A jaundiced view of royalty is not confined to blasι metropolitan sophisticates:
you can hear it everywhere, north more than south, in any pub or bus stop and on
Twitter the knowing shrug that finds this stuff preposterous, childish and not
who we are. How embarrassingly Brown stumbled trying to pin down an ineffable
definition of Britishness. But he was fumbling for something other than images
of monarchy and empire to assert, quite rightly, that this is not a conservative
nation: after all, Cameron did not win the last election, even with an open
goal. This may not be a nation of reforming radicals, but there is no lack of
robust popular riposte to royal displays of inherited entitlement.
How will history look back on this day? Out in the world of bread, not circuses,
in the kingdom behind the cardboard scenery, this has been a week that told a
bleak story of the state of the nation. History may see the wedding as a Marie
Antoinette moment, a layer of ormolu hiding a social dislocation whose cracks
are only starting to emerge. The Office for National Statistics just showed GDP
flatlining for the last six months, recovery stalled ever since the announcement
of the government's great austerity. Most household incomes are shrinking as
never since the 1920s. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are being cut, services
slashed, £18m taken from the welfare budget, university fees in crisis, consumer
confidence plunging.
This week I went to Barclays' annual meeting to watch another monarch, CEO Bob
Diamond. He is in line for £27m pay this year, despite shares falling, £1.6bn
profits lost and dividends cut at a time when bank lending to manufacturing
has fallen. Angry shareholders in the hall rose one by one to protest. Elderly,
sometimes inchoate, they echoed the Association of British Insurers, who
recommended voting against the bank's grotesque boardroom remuneration. But no,
the little shareholders were voted down by unseen fund managers, all in the same
game. The board shrugged off its critics, claiming that if they cut their own
pay "we could very quickly jeopardise the true rewards of our success". But for
how much longer?
The NHS, the most politically sensitive of public services, is warned by the
public accounts committee that patient care is at risk in a £20bn cut with no
plan for services that go bankrupt. The OECD, hardly a left-leaning
organisation, this week warned that poverty in British households will rise
inexorably so "social spending on families needs to be protected". But it is not
being protected: the opposite is happening, as Sure Start is stripped bare.
"Cutting back on early years services will make it difficult for the UK to
achieve its policy of making work pay," says the OECD report.
Few yet realise the scale of the conservative revolution in progress. Professors
Peter Taylor-Gooby and Gerry Stoker have just revealed that by 2013 public
spending will be a lower proportion of GDP in Britain than in the US. They write
in the Political Quarterly: "A profound shift in our understanding of the role
of the state and the nature of our welfare system is taking place without
serious debate." Can that really be done without rebellion? That will be the
test of what kind of nation we are.
This royal wedding is
Britain's Marie Antoinette moment, G, 29.4.2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/29/royal-wedding-uk-gdp-growth
Royal wedding:
police criticised for pre-emptive strikes against
protesters
Officers use blanket stop and search powers and arrest 52
people across London
Friday 29 April 2011
18.42 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Robert Booth, Sandra Laville and Shiv Malik
The protester had only got a few bars into his version of the
Beatles' Yellow Submarine, recast as "we all live in a fascist regime", when the
plain clothes officers moved in.
Inside Westminster Abbey, Prince William and Catherine Middleton were exchanging
vows watched by millions, but in nearby Soho Square, the expression of different
views by a few people met a robust and, according to some present,
disproportionate response.
About a dozen policemen grabbed the singer, sparking a clash with his
colleagues, changing the mood of a small and peaceful gathering as he was
handcuffed and bundled away. "He had articles on him to cause criminal damage,"
explained Chief Inspector John Dale, to loud protests.
"You just incited a peaceful situation into violence," shouted a bystander.
"The police should be peaceful and respect our right to protest," said another
witness, Jed, 19.
The action against the 10 or so people participating in the Right Royal Orgy in
Soho Square was one of several pre-emptive strikes by Scotland Yard. Police said
they made a total of 52 arrests including 13 at Charing Cross station, where
people were found to have climbing equipment and anti-monarchy placards, in
addition to 21 arrests during raids of five squats in London on Thursday
morning.
Trouble flared at an unofficial street party in Glasgow organised through social
networking websites. Strathclyde police said they made 21 arrests in Kelvingrove
Park, for a variety of offences mostly related to disorderly behaviour and
drunkenness.
A spokeswoman for the force said: "Police were aware of this unplanned,
unauthorised event and put in place contingencies to ensure an appropriate and
proportionate policing response."
Chief Superintendent Bernard Higgins, from Strathclyde police, said: "It's
really disappointing that on the day of the royal wedding we witnessed the
scenes we did. At one point my officers came under attack and one was taken to
hospital suffering from a head injury. He has been discharged and will make a
full recovery.
"We made a number of arrests at the time and we will now study CCTV footage and
make further arrests if appropriate. The level of drunkenness was completely
unacceptable and frankly irresponsible."
Four people were arrested the night before the wedding, three in London and one
in Cambridgeshire, for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance and breach of the
peace. One of them, Chris Knight, was planning to behead an effigy of Prince
Andrew with a theatrical guillotine, in what his friends said was a piece of
street theatre.
By the time the marriage vows had been made, the police had imposed a section 60
blanket stop-and-search order around the whole royal wedding zone, after a few
individuals were seen putting scarves over their faces in Soho Square.
The move allowed officers to search people without discretion. It can be issued
when police believe, with good reason, that there is the possibility of serious
violence or that a person is carrying an offensive weapon. It was imposed along
with a section 60a order, which allows officers to remove headgear and masks
from demonstrators.
The powers remained in place for several hours, although the police said the
mood in both Soho Square and at the Republican Tea Party in Red Lion Square,
Holborn, was calm.
Officers also swooped on five people, three of whom were wearing zombie make-up,
when they entered a branch of Starbucks on Oxford Street. They were arrested "on
suspicion of planning a breach of the peace".
They were all handcuffed and held in a police van and gave their names as Amy
Cutler, 25, Rachel Young, 27, Eric Schultz, 43, Hannah Eisenman-Renyard, and
Deborah, 19, an anthropology student at the University of East London.
"We've been pre-emptively arrested under suspicion of planning a breach of the
peace," Cutler told the Guardian from the police van. "We went to Starbucks to
get a coffee and the police followed us in."
"We were just dressing up as zombies," said Amy, who was wearing a "marry me
instead" T-shirt. "It is nice to dress up as zombies."
The decision to arrest people on Thursday in advance of them carrying out any
protest drew an angry response from their friends and relatives. In
Cambridgeshire officers arrested Charlie Veitch, an anarchist, for conspiracy to
cause a public nuisance and breach of the peace. His girlfriend, Silkie Carlo,
said Veitch had been planning to use a megaphone to make "ironic comments" in
Soho Square. "I'm outraged. It's easy to hide all this behind the beauty and the
spectacle and the tiaras of the wedding, but when people with opposing political
ideas are being rounded up to keep them away from public view it doesn't make us
any different from China," she said.
In London the daughter of Chris Knight, who was arrested with his partner and a
friend, said the police were quashing freedom of expression. Olivia Knight said:
"My father was going to take part in a performance. It was going to be in the
great British tradition and was going to be playful, peaceful and satirical to
highlight the obscenity of the royal wedding and the grotesque nature of the
taxpayer having to pay for the Windsor wedding at a time of such austerity."
The Metropolitan police brushed off any criticism. Assistant Commissioner Lynne
Owens, in overall charge of the policing operation, said it had been "an amazing
success". It justified the police's preemptive action in the days and hours
before the wedding and the decision to throw a Section 60 Stop and Search Order
around the whole wedding zone.The Yard said the police action had allowed the
demonstrations in Soho Square and Holborn to go on freely.
Royal wedding: police
criticised for pre-emptive strikes against protesters, G, 29.4.2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/29/royal-wedding-police-criticised-protesters
Prince William marries Kate Middleton in glittering
ceremony
LONDON | Fri Apr 29, 2011
6:39am EDT
Reuters
By Mike Collett-White and Michael Holden
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton
married at Westminster Abbey on Friday in a royal occasion of dazzling pomp and
pageantry that has attracted a huge global audience and injected new life into
the monarchy.
Before the vows, a veiled Middleton, the first "commoner" to marry a prince in
close proximity to the throne in more than 350 years, walked slowly through the
1,900-strong congregation to the swirling strains of Charles Parry's "I Was
Glad."
As they met at the altar William whispered to her, prompting a smile at the
start of the ceremony. The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams declared the
couple married with the words: "I pronounce that they be man and wife together."
Middleton's dress, the subject of fevered speculation for months in the fashion
press, was a traditional ivory silk and satin outfit with a lace applique and
long train.
She wore a tiara loaned by the queen and the diamond and sapphire engagement
ring that once belonged to William's mother Princess Diana, who was divorced
from Prince Charles in 1996, a year before her death in a car crash in Paris
aged just 36.
Bells pealed loudly and trumpets blared as 1,900 guests earlier poured into the
historic abbey, coronation site for the monarchy since William the Conqueror was
crowned in 1066.
Queen Elizabeth, other royals, David and Victoria Beckham, the footballer-pop
star couple, singer Elton John and Prime Minister David Cameron were among
famous guests at the abbey.
They joined 50 heads of state as well as charity workers and war veterans who
know the prince from his military training.
HUGE CROWDS
Thousands of people from around the world were outside the abbey, many of them
camping overnight for the best view of the future king and queen and fuelling
the feel-good factor that has briefly lifted Britain from its economic gloom.
"People watching this at home must think we're completely mad, but there's just
no comparison," said 58-year-old Denise Mill from southern England. "I just had
to be here."
The crowd entered into the festive spirit on a chilly day by wearing national
flags and even fake wedding dresses and tiaras. Hundreds of police officers,
some armed, dotted the royal routes in a major security operation.
Tens of thousands more people crammed the flag-lined streets of London to catch
a glimpse of marching military bands in black bearskin hats, cavalrymen in
shining breastplates and ornate carriages that will carry royal figures from the
service.
A large gathering is expected outside the queen's London residence, Buckingham
Palace, to cheer on the married couple as they appear on the balcony for a
much-anticipated public kiss.
For some, however, the biggest royal wedding since Diana married Prince Charles
in 1981 was an event to avoid, reflecting divided opinion about the monarchy.
"It's just a wedding," said 25-year-old Ivan Smith. "Everyone is going mad about
it. I couldn't care less."
(Additional reporting by Paul Sandle, Matt Falloon, Jodie
Ginsberg, Keith Weir, Paul Casciato, Peter Griffiths, Tim Castle and
Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Peter Millership)
Prince William
marries Kate Middleton in glittering ceremony, R, 29.4.2011,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/29/us-britain-wedding-idUSTRE73Q2BJ20110429
Royal wedding: police use section 60 to deter anarchists
Scotland Yard commissioner Paul Stephenson
says his force is 'prepared for every eventuality'
Friday 29 April 2011 14.01
Guardian.co.uk
Share Sandra Laville and Robert Booth
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 14.01 BST on Friday 29 April
2011. It was last modified at 14.02 BST on Friday 29 April 2011. It was first
published at 11.03 BST on Friday 29 April 2011.
Police threw a section 60 cordon around the whole of the royal
wedding zone on Friday morning to respond to anarchists masking up at a small
gathering in Soho Square in central London.
The section 60 order allows police officers to stop and search anyone without
discretion. The police also imposed section 60a, which gives them the power to
remove masks and balaclavas from anyone within the area.
Scotland Yard said the decision was made after individuals were seen putting on
masks in Soho Square where a group of anarchists had gathered.
At least one arrest was made after a clash in the square between plainclothes
officers and one individual after he started singing "We all live in a fascist
regime" to the tune of We All Live In a Yellow Submarine.
By 12.45pm police said 43 arrests had been made across the royal wedding
exclusion zone. These included one for criminal damage.
The arrests took place in and just outside the exclusion zone around Westminster
Abbey and Buckingham Palace.
Scotland Yard said two people were arrested for being drunk and disorderly, one
for assault, one for possessing an offensive weapon, two for breach of the
peace, two for theft.
The biggest security operation in the Metropolitan police's recent history has
seen the deployment of 5,000 officers, including a 1,000-strong rapid-response
team to react to any criminality, direct action or extremist threats inside and
outside the exclusion zone.
In pre-emptive action on Wednesday and Thursday officers from the Metropolitan
police raided five squats in London and one in Hove, arresting 21 people.
All were released and bailed with conditions that bar them from the City of
Westminster on Friday.
On Thursday night Cambridgeshire police arrested Charlie Veitch, a
self-confessed anarchist, for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance and breach
of the peace.
It is understood police believed Veitch, who runs a group called Love Police,
was planning to cause disruption in Soho Square. His girlfriend, Silkie Carlo,
told the Guardian Veitch was planning to use a megaphone to make "ironic
comments" in the square.
Speaking about the arrest, Carlo, 21, said: "Charlie was arrested around 5pm
from our home on suspicion to cause to public nuisance a day before he went
anywhere.
"There were two police officers and they did a brief search of our room. We were
happy for them to do that. We had nothing to hide, " said Carlo, who studies
politics and psychology at Cambridge University.
"Then they put Charlie in the back of a van and took him off to Parkside police
station in Cambridge. He's since been picked up at 10am and taken by the Met. We
don't yet know where he is," she said.
"I'm outraged. It's easy to hide all this behind the beauty and the spectacle
and the tiaras of the wedding but when people with opposing political ideas are
being rounded up to keep them away from public view, it doesn't make us any
different from China."
Sir Paul Stephenson, the Scotland Yard commissioner, said his force was prepared
for every eventuality.
Royal wedding: police
use section 60 to deter anarchists, G, 29.4.2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/29/royal-wedding-arrests-route
Royal wedding protest:
three anti-capitalist activists
arrested
Police arrest three anti-royal wedding protesters
who had been planning a mock execution of Prince Andrew
Share David Batty
Guardian.co.uk
Thursday 28 April 2011
23.56 BST
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 23.56 BST on Thursday 28 April
2011.
A version appeared in the Guardian on Friday 29 April 2011.
It was last modified at 00.07 BST
Three anti-capitalist activists who were planning a mock
execution of Prince Andrew with a guillotine to mark the royal wedding have been
arrested and detained at Lewisham police station.
Officers arrested Professor Chris Knight, a leading member of the G20 Meltdown
group, outside his home in Brockley, south east London at around 6.15pm,
according to an eyewitness.
Also arrested were Knight's partner Camilla Power and Patrick Macroidan, who was
dressed as an executioner, said fellow activist Mike Raddie, of north London,
who was with them.
The three activists were preparing to drive their theatrical props, including a
home-made guillotine and effigies, into central London when three police cars
and two police vans drew up near Knight's home in Brockley, said Raddie.
"Chris was arrested first. He lay down on the pavement opposite his house to
make the arrest difficult," said Raddie. "He was pulled up by four police
officers and two bundled him into the back of a van.
"Camilla was put in the back of one of the police cars. Patrick was dressed up
as an executioner when he was arrested."
Raddie said the police also seized a van containing the group's props, which
included a wooden guillotine. "It's a working guillotine but it doesn't have a
blade just wood painted silver," he added.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "This evening, 28 April, officers
arrested three people two males aged 68 and 45, and a 60-year-old woman in
Wickham Road, SE4 on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance and breach
of the peace.
"They are currently in custody at Lewisham police station."
The group has advertised the Zombie Wedding on its website and via Facebook. The
event was billed as a "right royal orgy" with "rumpy pumpy and guillotines."
It also states: "PS govt of the DEAD disclaimer: this is a totally non-terrorist
event and bears absolutely no resemblance to the Jacobin Terror of 1793-94."
The website said the event would start with a Zombie Wedding Breakfast in Soho
Square at around 9.30-10am, after which participants would head to Westminster
for mock executions.
Knight was sacked by the University of East London in 2009 over claims he
incited violence at the G20 protests.
Raddie said the event was peaceful and the organisers did not expect to get near
Westminster Abbey, where William and Kate are getting married. The plan was to
join Republic's Not the Royal Wedding Street Party in Red Lion Square, Holborn,
central London.
Also with the protesters at the time of their arrest was a Channel 4 film crew,
filming for the Unofficial Royal Wedding, due to air at 7.10pm on Monday. Some
of their equipment, which was in the activists' van, was also confiscated.
Royal wedding protest: three
anti-capitalist activists arrested, G, 28.4.2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/28/royal-wedding-protest-three-arrested
William
and Kate are common property
Royal
wedding might have been simpler if they had a choice,
but in the
Facebook era there would have been no less scrutiny
Michael
White
Guardian.co.uk
Thursday 28 April 2011 21.30 BST
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 21.30 BST on Thursday 28 April
2011. A version appeared on p1 of the Main section section of the Guardian on
Friday 29 April 2011. It was last modified at 01.24 BST on Friday 29 April 2011.
If William
of Wales were master of his own fate, the royalist crowds cheerfully camped out
on Westminster pavements through chilly spring nights would probably be in for a
disappointment. Instead of the promised display of magnificent flummery, the
prince and his bride would be tying the knot in some sleepy Berkshire church,
surrounded by close family and friends, unwatched by a billion or more strangers
around the planet.
That is the eternal paradox of monarchy. Kings and queens may no longer rule,
but the uneasy head that wears the crown or eventually expects to do so
enjoys all imaginable human pleasures except the freedom to live lives they
choose. When the Queen once asked for a second drink at lunch her mother is
supposed to have remarked: " Now, now, Lilibet. Remember, you have to reign all
afternoon." What once was merely Duty is now policed by Facebook.
In consequence it has long been customary for eligible young European
aristocrats, those deemed suitable to grace the British royal stud book, to dive
into marriage elsewhere rather than risk undue pressure to join "The Firm" at
Buckingham Palace.
We all belatedly discovered that even Diana Spencer had well-founded qualms
until the last minute before her wedding in 1981. "Bad luck, Duch (her family
nickname)," said her sisters. "Your face is on the tea towels, so you're too
late to chicken out now."
In 2011 it is Catherine (formerly Kate) Middleton's face on the tea towels. And
on the mugs and the tonnes of bunting, on T-shirts and flags, on TV and on
Twitter, on magazine covers where she currently outsells Lady Gaga. Will she
wake in the morning, wondering not just about the weather and the dress, but
thinking: "Am I doing the right thing?" Will Michael Middleton say, as
protective dads do: "It's not too late to change your mind, darling." From what
we know, it seems unlikely. A willing volunteer then, one backed by her parents'
self-made fortune and a social ambition which may allow coalition ministers to
claim there is more upward mobility in Britain than statistics suggest.
The Middletons offer plenty of snobbish possibilities to sustain the royal soap
opera. Why, even the Queen Mum born in Macbeth's Glamis castle was once
dismissed by one member of the family as "that common little Scottish girl" and
was described by Edward and Mrs Simpson as "the Scottish cook". Do any of them
ever really know what they're getting into?
Few such calculations will impinge on proceedings. They will instead be fuelled
chiefly by emotion. There will be joy and optimism felt by monarchists lining
streets, cheering the TV screen, cooking barbecues and sinking specially-brewed
royal pints. Children will remember it. As for television, its coverage will be
absurdly OTT, even on Sky, whose owner, Citizen Rupert, is monarchy's Osama bin
Laden. The US networks have been going mad for days. There will be street
parties in rural Arkansas too, one visiting TV celeb assured the BBC this week
before admonishing us all for British reticence. " On Friday, you'll push us
aside, you're so proud," she predicted.
Or not. The agnostic majority of Brits will be content to go along with it all,
vaguely aware that monarchy-as-tourism ("we may be crap at football, but we can
still do pomp") yields a healthy return on the 62p a year we each contribute to
maintain The Firm. As for republicans, some will be angry, others merely
perplexed by the day's irrationality. Or they may settle for tearing strips off
the guest list. How could the Windsors have invited the Syrian ambassador
whoops, his invitation's been withdrawn while not including Tony Blair and
Gordon Brown? Was it malice or mere stupidity? That was a divisive error which
will rankle among Labour politicians who will one day control The Firm's
finances again.
Yet progressive threads can be discerned in the tapestry. Becoming a princess
may be less admirable a career choice than brain surgery or a CEO's desk, but it
has clearly required hard work, sacrifice and self-discipline. And, as with the
House of Windsor, the Middletons' 20th-century story is one of forceful women.
Catherine's mother Carole, the Party Pieces businesswoman, is only the latest.
The crucial move was made by her ancestor Lilley Harrison, whose ambition took
her and her coal miner husband, Tom, south from County Durham. From pit village
to Buck House in four generations is fast motoring. US network TV is calling it
"rags to riches". Combined with Prince William's modest style, there are the
makings here of a more fit-for-purpose Ikea monarchy if that is what voters
still want when the time comes.
The couple have led a more normal life, one that includes cohabitation. When I
covered Charles and Diana's wedding from St Paul's in 1981 a chilly,
calculated affair I likened her to a "virgin sacrifice chained to the rock".
It does not feel like that this time. Prince William snuck off to play football
on his wedding eve. His dad snuck off to check out Camilla. The PR has been much
smarter in 2011.
Who can tell how things turn out? Since the Hanoverian succession was finally
secured in 1746 by Bonnie Prince Charlie's defeat at Culloden, only three
glitch-free monarch-to-monarch handovers to an eldest son or daughter have
occurred: George IV (1820); Edward VII (1901); Elizabeth II (1952). The others
were complicated by dynastic disaster. Bad-tempered and self-pitying, Prince
Charles, royalty's Gordon Brown, frets for his inheritance. A lot can go wrong.
If dynastic burden was not enough for the newly-weds, they face some of the same
perils as every other couple: if not mortgage problems, then the pressures of
high expectations. One in four British marriages end in divorce, yet the Queen's
children topped that: three out of four. No wonder the dean of Westminster Abbey
says that Kate and Wills are "a little nervous". When struck by disaster every
50 years or so The Firm has shown expected agility in fighting back, but the
stakes are high. So the Queen may well wonder, as most recent predecessors have
done, whether she is watching Britain's last king and queen walk down the aisle.
William and Kate are common property, G, 28.4.2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/28/william-and-kate-common
Factbox
- The royal wedding in numbers
Thu Apr 28,
2011
5:08pm BST
Reuters
(Reuters) -
Prince William will marry long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton in a ceremony full
of pomp and pageantry on Friday expected to be watched by hundreds of millions
of people across the world. Below is a story of the wedding in numbers.
* 9:03 a.m. The time at which Prince William Arthur Philip Louis was born at St
Mary's Hospital Paddington on June 21, 1982. The royal baby weighed 7lb 1-1/2
ounces. Similar details are not given in the biographies supplied by St. James's
Palace for bride-to-be Catherine Elizabeth Middleton, who was born on January 9,
1982.
* 1,900 The number of people invited to the service at Westminster Abbey. Around
650 people have been invited to a lunchtime reception give by the Queen at
Buckingham Palace after the service and about 300 have been invited to a dinner
given by Prince Charles that evening.
* 9 The number of "grey" horses that will form the escort for the royal
procession. Eleven horses who demonstrated a "good and calm" temperament were
selected in advance of the day
* 5 The number of horse-drawn carriages in the procession from Westminster Abbey
to Buckingham Palace. The first carriage will be the 1902 State Landau or Glass
Coach carrying William and Kate.
* 5,000 Some 5,000 police officers will be on duty in London on Friday to deal
with potential threats ranging from international Islamist militants to
anarchists and stalkers.
* 20 The height in feet of eight trees - six English Field Maple and two
Hornbeam - that will be included in floral displays in the Abbey
* 1910 The year in which luxury London hotel The Goring was opened. Kate
Middleton and her family will stay in the hotel the night before the wedding
* 10:51 a.m. The precise time at which Kate Middleton and her father leave the
hotel for Westminster Abbey
* 1:25 p.m. The time at which the couple will appear with the queen on the
balcony
* 26 The number of charities that William and Kate will be supporting through
the charitable gift fund which they have asked people to donate to instead of
giving them a traditional gift. www.royalweddingcharityfund.org
* 5,500 The number of street parties expected to be held around Britain to toast
the wedding, including one hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron on Downing
Street
* 140 The number of tonnes of waste - equivalent to the weight of over 50 Rolls
Royces - that Westminster City Council expects to collect along the route of the
processional route
(Reporting by
Jodie Ginsberg; editing by Paul Casciato)
Factbox - The royal wedding in numbers, R, 28.4.2011,
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/04/28/uk-britain-wedding-numbers-idUKTRE73R2PR20110428
Prince William: how he has coped with a life in the
spotlight
Despite Diana's influence the upbringing of a prince
born to fulfil a duty could never be truly normal
Tuesday 26 April 2011
The Guardian
Stephen Bates
This article appeared on p12 of the Main section section of the Guardian on
Tuesday 26 April 2011. It was published on guardian.co.uk at 07.00 BST on
Tuesday 26 April 2011.
What must it be like to be Prince William of Wales, Knight of
the Garter and second in line to the throne of 16 countries? As he waits for 40
minutes at Westminster Abbey this Friday for the arrival of his bride a pause
intended to allow him dutifully to greet the massed ranks of arriving royal
families and to have a few moments' privacy in an antechapel before the ceremony
the thought that he is also under the remorseless gaze of several hundred
million people from Hong Kong to Honolulu will doubtless also bear down heavily
upon him.
As his aides say, it is a special day for him and Kate Middleton "a very
personal moment", as memorable as for any other couple getting married but
also one that will be shared with a large proportion of the world's population,
stretching way beyond the Commonwealth. The American networks alone are sending
hundreds of staff to provide live coverage through the day.
A religious ceremony, yes, aides say, but also a chance to show potential
tourists what Britain is still best at: pomp, ceremony, pageantry and tradition.
A personal event, but one happily also combining commercial, political and
constitutional opportunities.
William knows all that. He has been the focus of intense, intrusive scrutiny all
his life even before it, actually, as the tabloids could not resist publishing
photographs of his five-months pregnant mother, Princess Diana, wearing a bikini
on holiday in the Bahamas.
From the moment of his birth at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington on 21 June 1982,
William Arthur Philip Louis a prince from birth and immediately second in the
rank of succession has been the centre of fascination and speculation: what
would he look like, what would he be like, who would he marry? As his father,
Prince Charles, wrote at the time: "I have never seen such scenes as there were
outside the hospital when I left that night everyone had gone berserk with
excitement."
Since then, every step he has taken has been scrutinised, analysed, dissected
for hidden meaning and commented upon, usually by people who have never met him
and often have never even seen him in the flesh. He is the great Known Unknown.
It must be very irksome.
From a public childhood, through a vicious parental breakup as he reached his
teens, to the trauma of his mother's appallingly sudden death and the
overwhelmingly public emotion surrounding her funeral during which he, as a
15-year-old, had to walk behind her coffin through weeping, febrile,
self-righteous crowds to his university days, services career and prolonged
courtship of Kate Middleton, he has never not been in the spotlight.
In the circumstances, it is a wonder he has turned out as "normal" as he has.
There have been no temper tantrums, no documented instances of peevish bad
behaviour or shirtiness, no haughtiness or snobbishness, no unguarded
utterances, no drug-taking or public drunkenness, no unsuitable girlfriends:
precious little, in fact, for the tabloids to get their teeth into.
Had there been, we would certainly have heard about them, read about the
revelations of former friends, or the gossip of rancorous palace servants, and
seen the pictures spread in glorious technicolour across the pages of the press.
They would certainly have found their way into the pantheon of the royal soap
opera: the template of a world of passion and emotion into which the family is
supposed to fit and so often has, obligingly, in recent decades.
Instead of which, those who have met him speak privately, as well as publicly,
of a decent young man, approachable, genial and serious-minded, able to make
conversation and not be stilted about it, committed both to the charities in
which he is interested and to his nascent career as an air-sea rescue helicopter
pilot, a genuinely useful job. Aware of his huge privileges certainly, but also
the duties they bring.
Ah yes duty. It is something that weighs down his father and which has been
drummed into William. Easy enough to say he could renounce it all and walk away,
but that is not how the royal family works: they see it as their raison d'κtre
and what holds them ultimately in place.
It is said that, at age seven, William told his mother he wanted to be a
policeman, only for his little brother Harry to perk up with: "Oh no, you can't
you've got to be king."
As William said when giving a rare interview on his 21st birthday eight years
ago: "All these questions about do you want to be king? It's not a question of
wanting to be, it's something I was born into and it's my duty."
Patrick Jephson, formerly Princess Diana's private secretary, says she
repeatedly told her son he had been born to fulfil a duty and it would be an
opportunity for him to use his influence for the good of those less fortunate
than himself.
There is no doubt that his mother remains a hugely formative influence. She was
determined to give him and his brother as normal an upbringing as possible
hence the trips to McDonald's and to theme parks and the playing with her valet
Paul Burrell's children. These were gestures that were highly unusual at the
time, given what limited experience of the outside "ordinary" world previous
princes, including their father Charles, had had. Diana clearly was a hugely
affectionate and protective mother, too, perhaps making up for the neglect she
felt from her husband and the isolation of her own childhood.
And there were her own attempts at media training. As a friend told Diana's
biographer Sarah Bradford: "William was in the school play. He was very little,
probably three and a half
all dressed up in a little nativity outfit. And
there was this huge bank of photographers all on ladders. They have even got big
coats and woolly hats. They look like a rabble and they have all got these big
cameras. It's terrifying anyway, let alone if you are a little tiny boy. And
everyone was shouting out 'William, William, William!' It must have been
terrifically difficult for a child that age to understand.
"I asked her once, what do you do about that? And she said she had had to say to
him: 'You are going to go to school today and there's going to be all these
people who want to take your picture and if you are a good boy and you let them
then I'll take you to Thorpe Park next week.' "
Ordinariness had its limits: there could be no state schooling for the boy
princes. Perhaps it is easier to protect such celebrities by tucking them away
in a boarding school, such as Eton, used to famous offspring. At any rate, they
were spared the rigours of Gordonstoun, which their father had hated.
It did not protect them from the highly public crash of their parents' marriage
collapse. William, Bradford says, heard the rows and shouting from outside the
door. He and his brother were ruthlessly used as pawns by both sides in the
divorce settlement. Burrell who may or may not be a reliable witness says
the Queen told Diana: "My concern is only that those children have been the
battleground of a marriage that has broken down." Perhaps the Queen really does
speak like a soap opera matriarch, but the sentiments must have been genuine.
Then there was the ghastly summer of 1997: the teenaged princes again pawns in
their mother's continuing campaign to assert herself. The boys were guests of
Mohamed Al Fayed on his yacht, specially bought to impress the princess and
encourage her relationship with his playboy son Dodi, and were then packed off
to Balmoral to go fishing and shooting with their father.
It was he who broke the news to them that their mother had been killed in the
Paris car crash. William said he knew something dreadful had happened because he
had kept waking up that night. They were immediately surrounded by the
constipated emotions of the royal family, their father moaning: "They are all
going to blame me, aren't they?", and the hysteria emanating from beyond the
palace gates.
There were real fears that the royal family would be attacked at the funeral. It
was the Duke of Edinburgh, usually thought of as a megalith of frosted and
unempathetic emotion, who said that if the boys wanted to walk behind their
mother's coffin, he would be beside them.
"Not a day goes by when I don't think about [the crash] once in the day,"
William said in 2007. Last week he took his bride to visit his mother's grave on
an island at Althorp, the Spencer family's ancestral Northamptonshire estate.
William obtained reasonable A-levels A in geography, B in history of art,
where he could at least cite the royal collection if he needed examples, and C
in biology before proceeding to the University of St Andrews to read art
history.
It was chosen specifically as a suitably remote location, away from metropolitan
distractions, albeit that a chastened media were more respectful of his privacy
following the Diana experience.
University was nevertheless something of an ordeal, going out into a slightly
less enclosed world, though one with many students of affluent and privileged
backgrounds. He nearly quit and it was another student, Kate Middleton, who
persuaded him he would be happier switching subjects, to geography.
The pair discreetly moved in together, sharing first a house in the town with
other students and then, again in a foursome, a cottage on a country estate. In
2005 William graduated with an upper second, the highest degree a British prince
has ever attained on merit.
Charles Warren, his geography tutor, says: "He is a really nice young man. I
warmed to him: he is very natural, understated. He did not push himself forward.
He was very keen to ensure his presence did not disrupt things. He was just a
regular guy, fitted in brilliantly."
Since then William has embarked on the standard military training of a royal
prince, in all three services: Sandhurst and a commission in the posh Blues and
Royals Household Cavalry regiment for the army; time with the Navy on HMS Iron
Duke, chasing drug smugglers in the Caribbean; and then pilot training with the
RAF and most recently with the helicopter air-sea rescue service off Anglesey.
Some of his colleagues have been invited to the wedding: he mucks in well, they
say, a good bloke. Two weeks' leave for a honeymoon and then he will be back
there.
William has also adopted his mother's charitable instincts and some of her
charities, too, especially those dealing with the damaged and disadvantaged:
HIV/Aids clinics, the Royal Marsden hospital and Centrepoint, the homeless
charity, as well as the English Schools' Swimming Association and the Tusk Trust
wildlife conservation charity in Africa. These are not perfunctory duties. Just
before Christmas a year ago, he spent a freezing night sleeping rough near
Blackfriars Bridge in London to see what the homeless sometimes endure.
Afterwards, he said: "I couldn't even begin to imagine what it must be like to
sleep rough night after night." Easy to sneer at least he did it.
Then there is also the football, not normally a royal pursuit. William has done
the hunting, shooting, skiing and polo he was also rather good at water polo,
representing Scottish Universities but football is a real enthusiasm.
Beyond his recherchι support for Aston Villa, his appointment as president of
the Football Association (he is also vice-patron of the Welsh RFU) and his
mobilisation on behalf of England's failed World Cup bid which is where the
Beckhams' wedding invitation originated he also still plays.
Only last week a team turning up for a kickabout in Battersea Park were
surprised to see him on the other side. Martin Bruce, a radio producer, said:
"He was really good in the air, a solid header and good at tackling
in the
changing room we all thought, did that just happen? I didn't want to be the
person who accidentally broke his ankle or gave him a black eye just before the
wedding."
He and Middleton have been partners, with one brief break in 2007, for the last
eight years, living together just as many of their generation do and without the
censure from conservative churchmen that might have occurred 20 years ago, even
though William will one day be defender of their faith.
He and his bride therefore know each other before their marriage better and more
intimately probably than any previous royal partnership. William has not been
hawked round the royal families of Europe or the aristocracy of Britain in
search of a bride, as his father was, and has been allowed his own choice of
spouse. That Middleton does not come from such a background is viewed by the
less stuffy members of the royal household as a plus.
The couple are also older than their predecessors. Both are 29 William is now
only seven years younger than his mother was when she died and both have a
back story of shared experiences.
They have a close circle of friends from similar backgrounds, carefully
scrutinised before being allowed in. William has said he deliberately plants
small, false stories with people he does not yet know and, if they appear later
in the press, knows not to trust them.
He has reason to be suspicious, not only because of his mother's experience, but
as someone whose phone has been hacked. He certainly enjoys evading and
misleading the press, most recently over his stag weekend, which went unobserved
until it was over.
In person he is friendly enough, genially joshing royal correspondents in the
limited encounters he has with them. He is proving good with crowds on
walkabouts, too: empathetic, informal, sympathetic, conversational. Even blasι
Australians fell under his spell on his first official visit there last year.
"He may," said the Melbourne Age, "have set back the republican cause decades."
Always hovering nearby is his private secretary, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, a
hatchet-faced former SAS officer who looks as though he would rather be cracking
skulls than carrying the bouquets thrust into the prince's hands on walkabouts.
He and the prince's other advisers David Manning, a former diplomat; Paddy
Harverson and Miguel Head, his press officers know how easily a gaffe can
occur. The nearest so far has been a helicopter jaunt a couple of years ago to
drop in on Middleton at home with her parents in Bucklebury, Berkshire. He
hasn't done anything so silly since.
As he gazes up at the abbey's medieval tracery while waiting for his bride on
Friday, William sensitive, reserved, a worrier knows that his greatest
burdens lie ahead. The royal family is ageing: his granny, though fit, is 85;
his dad will inherit the throne as an old man and he himself is fast approaching
middle-age. It needs some gilt on its gingerbread and he will have to provide
it. The next question: when's a baby coming?
Prince William: how
he has coped with a life in the spotlight, G, 26.4.2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/26/prince-william-profile-royal-wedding
Kate Middleton: William's very private princess-to-be
A slick press team and loyal friends have preserved
Middleton's mystique
in the runup to the royal wedding, but plenty can be gleaned from what is not
said
Patrick Barkham
Guardian.co.uk
Tuesday 26 April 2011
15.20 BST
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 15.20 BST on Tuesday 26 April
2011. A version appeared on p12 of the Main section section of the Guardian on
Wednesday 27 April 2011. It was last modified at 00.05 BST on Wednesday 27 April
2011.
Beautiful, intelligent and down-to-earth, the commoner turned
down the proposal of marriage from the prince, "afraid never, never again to be
free to think, speak and act as I feel I really ought to". In the end, though,
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was persuaded to marry the man she knew as Bertie and
became the much-loved Queen consort to King George VI, expertly performing royal
duties across eight decades.
If Kate Middleton is suffering similar jitters as the TV towers rise on the
Mall, she may take heart from the example of the Queen Mother, supposedly the
last "commoner" to marry a man who would be king. For all the hyperbole of the
royal wedding tearing asunder Britain's rigid class system Middleton's first
13 years were spent living in a semi-detached house! Her great-great-grandfather
was a coalminer! Her uncle is a ne'er-do-well! there is plenty that is unique
about the bride and the recognisably modern relationship that her wedding will
celebrate.
Defenders of our hereditary monarchy aver that one of its great strengths is
that we know exactly where our kings and queens come from we watched them grow
up, unlike politicians who arrive with an act in place and skeletons shoved
firmly in closets.
Kate, or Catherine, as she is known by her family and her pre-university
friends, is different. In the final hectic days before her marriage to William
in front of a billion or more observers, she is still almost completely unknown.
Despite books, documentaries and column miles devoted to her, she has given just
one short interview, with William, on the day of her engagement. What are her
qualities? What sort of consort to the future king will she be? What public role
will she play? And how will she cope with our scrutiny?
Look back into anyone's life and you can identify wry coincidences and
apparently prophetic events. Myths and legends already swirl around Kate that
suggest this royal romance was meant to be, despite her isolation from the
aristocracy. She was born at the Royal Berkshire hospital in Reading on 9
January 1982, the first child of Carole and Michael, who met while she was a
flight attendant and he was a steward with British Airways. Kate went to the
local village primary school until Carole's thriving business, Party Pieces,
enabled the Middletons to pay for Kate, her younger sister, Pippa, and brother,
James, to enjoy an upper-class-style schooling at private establishments.
Tall for her age, Kate excelled at sport after joining St Andrew's school in
Pangbourne, Berkshire. She was in the crowd one day when Prince William, then
nine, visited to play hockey. Kate also enjoyed drama and starred in a number of
plays including one Victorian melodrama in which she fell in love with a
handsome, wealthy gentleman called William, who proposed marriage. (The
denouement is less auspicious: Kate's character and her child are abandoned by
the ungallant William.)
Another legend from Kate's childhood was that she stuck a poster of the prince
on her wall while boarding at Marlborough school as a teenager. Kate insists it
was the Levi jeans guy but this legend endures because it buttresses another
myth that Kate's supposedly ambitious social-climbing mother urged her to go
to St Andrews University after her gap year just to snare the prince.
Accounts of Middleton as a young woman are uniformly pleasant. No one speaks ill
of her, privately or publicly. Middleton is described as intelligent (she got a
2:1 in history of art at university) but not goody-goody, and beautiful without
being full of herself.
The childhood incident that has attracted greatest scrutiny, however, is her
abrupt switch from Downe House school to Marlborough, aged 14, which convincing
reports ascribe to bullying. The only old school friend from Marlborough who has
talked at length, Jessica Hay, said Middleton was bullied because she was
perceived "as quite a soft and nice person". The headteacher of Downe House at
the time denied Middleton was badly bullied although conceded the "catty"
atmosphere may have left her feeling "like a fish out of water".
This bullying seemed significant when it was revealed that one of Kate and
William's wedding charities was Beatbullying. Middleton could find a compelling
role in tackling bullying issues but Prince William's staff at Clarence House
downplay this. The couple chose 26 different wedding charities "to reflect
interests close to both of their hearts" says an aide.
Perhaps more can be gleaned of Middleton's personality and passions from the
present day. Here, the absence of information is telling. The royalty historian
Hugo Vickers is amazed by the lack of leaks about the wedding. "It's just so
calm and discreet. It's like the Kremlin," he says. When Sarah Ferguson was
getting married to Prince Andrew her former boyfriends came out of the woodwork;
Kate's only confirmed ex is invited to the wedding and has said nothing.
The couple are surrounded by a professional press operation. But royal sources
insist that the lack of stories about Middleton is down to Kate and William
themselves. "The couple are genuinely incomparable. They are one of the most
high-profile couples in the world and yet you don't know what they do in their
private life, how they spend their time, what they enjoy, who their friends
are," says an aide. "There's a reason for that they are surrounded by an
incredibly loyal group of friends who have never once spoken yet."
This "vow of silence" has always been William's way of doing things, says the
aide; his way of finding a normal life "inside the bubble". While celebrity
couples are surrounded by "friends" who plant stories in the press, William and
Kate ensure their friends say nothing about them. It's said William used to pass
false stories to friends to test them. "They are very single-minded about their
life together," says the aide.
Privately William is characterised as being strong-willed and knowing his own
mind. "And Catherine does as well. They are cut from the same cloth in that
respect," says the aide. "She's a very strong woman. You'd have to be."
There are ample reserves of sympathy for William and Harry after the death of
their mother, Diana, and some people welcome the fact that William's marriage,
after seven years of cohabitation (inconceivable at the start of the Queen's
reign), is so different from his father's nuptials with his first wife. Kate,
too, is very different from Diana: almost 10 years older and the first future
queen to have a degree.
"She's older, she's better educated and comes from an ordinary family," observes
Judy Wade, Hello!'s royalty correspondent. "Diana came from a broken home Kate
doesn't."
Diana, Fergie and even Sophie Wessex all visibly changed and grew into their
royal roles. "Kate is already there. She's got her act in place," says Vickers.
Public duties are deceptively difficult and the history of royal pratfalls is
long in the modern media age. In the runup to the wedding, Kate has performed
public engagements near the home she and William share in Anglesey, and in
Lancashire and St Andrews, and royal watchers are impressed with her poise and
self-assurance. "When she first came out at the engagement she was a bit
overwhelmed by it all," says Chris Jackson, Getty's royalty photographer. "Since
then she's obviously had some training ... because there was definitely a change
when she visited the Anglesey lifeboat station."
"You'd expect her to be shy but no, very confident," says the royalty
photographer Mark Stewart. "When Kate got out of that car in Wales it was like
she had been doing it all her life."
A successful royal partner needs more than fickle press approval, however. There
is also the Firm, and its staff. Camilla has apparently remarked, "we are so
lucky to have her", but is Middleton well-liked by more humble members of the
royal household? "Massively so," says one aide. "What you see in public is what
you get in private very warm, very kind, very thoughtful, sensitive, very
down-to-earth, very intelligent."
But then again, warns Wade, every newcomer to the palace is feted at first. "She
needs to be streetwise Coronation streetwise. A final word of warning be
very careful of fake sheikhs."
Royal aides say you can infer plenty about Middleton's personality from the
royal wedding. It is said that Charles and Diana were only permitted to invite a
handful of guests each among the 3,000 dignitaries at their wedding in 1981.
Kate and William have personally invited more than 1,000. Middleton has chosen
the music (she has a passion for classical music) and everything "from carriages
to canapes" says the aide. "She has taken a lead on all the things that have a
creative input and has stamped her mark on it."
As well as being sporty Middleton is a keen photographer ("not just happy snaps,
pretty decent stuff which could be displayed in a gallery" claims a royal
source) and does watercolours. Her unspectacular career at Jigsaw and then at
Party Pieces, where she was responsible for the website and catalogue, has at
least demonstrated an interest in design, marketing and fashion.
Middleton dresses herself "without any advice or input from the palace",
according to the royal source, and her style has attracted attention around the
world. Salons in New York have reported customers asking for "a Kate" cut and
her preppy look is credited with inspiring a Sloane revival.
The scale of the global interest in the royal couple is bigger than ever before.
There is predictably intense interest in the US (NBC alone is sending 250
journalists to cover the wedding) but also in unexpected places, such as China
and eastern Europe. "The world is after them," says the publisher John Blake,
who has sold rights around the world to his publishing house's two Middleton
books. "Everybody is interested. Diana was unique and such a creature of her
time. Kate is more of a girl next door but her soap opera is only just
beginning."
A soap opera ... can Kate cope? "The nickname she was given, Waity Katy, sums up
her strength," claims the royalty historian Robert Lacey, who likens her,
favourably, no"t to Diana or the Queen Mother but to Prince Philip; like the
Duke of Edinburgh, Middleton understands hers must be a supporting role.
"Willingness to take second place is a very important attribute of being a royal
consort. That's something you never felt Diana took on board."
A modest, subordinate role might suit the monarchy but will it fulfil popular
expectations? Won't Middleton need to take on a more dynamic role to be a
popular modern woman? "It's important to understand them as a couple rather than
two individuals," says a spokesperson for Clarence House. "He's a search and
rescue pilot and he'll be that until 2013, based in Anglesey. Their life will be
in Anglesey."
Middleton is expected to develop links with charities that fit with "her two big
developing areas of interest", the arts and sport, but at first they will only
do royal engagements together. "Their intention is for the first couple of years
of marriage they conduct their public life together so that Catherine will begin
to learn the ropes as to how to conduct herself. And they want to be able to
support each other too," says the spokesperson.
"She's going to die of boredom in Anglesey," predicts Wade, who is also fearful
of the eight days tour of Canada that Middleton will be dispatched on six weeks
after her wedding. The planes at 5am, the crowds, the pressure to look gorgeous
all the time. "It's going to be a shock for her," she says.
Safe, dutiful and not another Diana; isn't there a danger that a bored Kate will
bore the public? William has a reputation for being adventurous on royal tours
and the press desperately hope the couple will prove to be active and
interesting. "Hopefully they won't just be planting trees," says Jackson.
Vickers says: "If they are to any degree boring that's quite a good thing.
Better to be boring than to be showbusiness. It's much better when they are
plodding around doing their duties than when they are going to parties in
Hollywood or Palm Beach polo matches."
After her day watched by the world, Middleton is unlikely to be a very different
person from the Kate of today and we are unlikely to know her any better. As
well as William's determination to have a private life, the royal family knows
that in an era of celebrity their "mystery and mystique" is part of their
"enduring appeal", as a member of the household puts it. "She's got the rest of
her life to be known
members of the royal family are not celebrities."
Lacey adds: "They are both children of the celebrity era. You see that in their
self-assurance in front of cameras and ability to appear natural
But retaining
the privacy of their souls is a wiser, more important, attribute. You can see
how William learned this through bitter experience but Kate seems to have got it
as well."
Protesters
A protest group with Middle Eastern connections has warned
police that it is planning disruptions during the royal wedding this Friday.
As Scotland Yard negotiated with Muslims Against Crusades and the English
Defence League over their proposed protests, it emerged that a man from another
group, who was understood to have Middle Eastern links but whose identity has
not been confirmed, walked into a police station at the weekend to formally
apply for permission to demonstrate.
Officers have powers to ban big protests along the main route in London that
Prince William and Kate Middleton will take for their wedding, but they are
unable to rule out static protests at other nearby locations in the centre of
the city.
Six protesters wanted in connection with violence during the TUC marches were
arrested in the past week, said police. The six have received bail conditions
stopping them from entering central London on the 29 April. Several more arrests
are expected as part of covert investigations.
Caroline Davies
Kate Middleton:
William's very private princess-to-be, G, 26.4.2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/26/kate-middleton-william-private-princess
Prince William and Kate Middleton engagement announced
Clarence House statement reveals engagement of second in line to throne
and his
long-term girlfriend after weeks of speculation
Stephen Bates and James Meikle
Guardian.co.uk
Tuesday 16 November 2010
15.29 GMT
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 15.29 GMT
on Tuesday 16 November
2010.
It was last modified at 09.15 GMT on Wednesday 17 November 2010.
It was first published at 11.31 GMT on Tuesday 16 November 2010.
Kate Middleton today spoke of the "daunting prospect" of joining
the royal family as she and Prince William announced they would get married next
year.
Wearing the blue sapphire and diamond engagement ring that the prince's father
gave to Princess Diana in 1981, Middleton said "hopefully, I will take it in my
stride", while adding that her future husband was "a great teacher".
Prince William said the ring "was very special to me" as was his bride-to-be.
Giving it to her was "my way of making sure my mother didn't miss out on today"
and the excitement that the couple were going spend their lives together.
The long-expected news that the second in line to the throne was to marry his
long-term girlfriend was announced by Clarence House earlier in the day .
The prince asked Middleton to marry him during a private holiday in Kenya last
month and has, the royal press office stressed, asked her father's permission.
Middleton said, during a brief press conference and photocall at St James's
Palace, London, that the prince had been "a true romantic", was "a loving
boyfriend" and "very supportive of me in good times and also through the bad
times".
Prince William said of their engagement: "The timing is right now, we are both
very, very happy. We both have a very good sense of humour and we take the
mickey out of each other a lot."
He added that Middleton had "plenty of habits that make me laugh that I tease
her about".
The formal statement said William's father, Prince Charles, was "delighted".
Speaking at his Poundbury model village in Dorset, Charles said that he was
"thrilled, obviously", and joked: "They have been practising long enough ... it
makes me feel very old."
William's stepmother, the Duchess of Cornwall, on her way to an official
engagement at the Apollo Theatre in London, told a wellwisher: "It's brilliant,
isn't it? It's absolutely wonderful."
Middleton's parents, Michael and Carole, were "thrilled". Her father Michael,
reading a statement outside their home near the Berkshire village of Bucklebury,
said they had got to know the prince very well: "We all think he is wonderful
and we are extremely fond of him. They make a lovely couple, they are great fun
to be with, and we've had a lot of laughs together. We wish them every happiness
for the future."
Earl Spencer, the prince's uncle and brother of Princess Diana, said: "It's
wonderful news. Very exciting. My family are all thrilled for them both."
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were also "absolutely delighted", Buckingham
Palace said. During a reception this afternoon at Windsor Castle for leaders of
British overseas territories including Bermuda, Montserrat and the Falklands
Islands, the Queen told a guest who congratulated her: "It is brilliant news. It
has taken them a very long time."
Political leaders and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, echoed the
sentiment.
Full details of the wedding plans have yet to be announced. The statement said
only that the wedding would take place in London next spring or summer.
St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey are possible venues, although both
have painful resonances St Paul's was where Charles's ill-fated wedding to
Princess Diana took place in 1981, while the abbey hosted Diana's funeral in
1997.
William and Kate have known each other for eight years, and met as students at
St Andrews University. They subsequently shared student accommodation for two
years and, apart from a brief separation in 2007, have been together ever since.
Middleton will be the first commoner to marry an expected future king for 350
years, since Anne Hyde married the future King James II in 1660.
Middleton is eldest of three children in a family whose fortune is based on a
mail-order children's party accessories business.
The prime minister, David Cameron, said the whole country would join him and his
wife, Samantha, in wishing the couple "great joy".
Later, he said that he had spoken to the prince to pass on his congratulations
and predicted "a great day of national celebration".
The prime minister told a press conference at Downing Street that it felt "great
to have a bit of unadulterated good news", and said a cheer had gone up when he
told ministerial colleagues at today's Cabinet meeting.
The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said via the social network Twitter: "Delighted
for Prince William and Kate Middleton on their engagement. The whole country
will be wishing them every happiness."
Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, congratulated the couple and said: "Of
course, this was a match made in St Andrews, and everyone in Scotland will join
with me in wishing the prince and Ms Middleton every happiness as they look
forward to their wedding day and a long and fulfilling married life together."
The Welsh first minister, Carwyn Jones, said: "I'm very pleased to hear that
they plan to begin their married life in north Wales."
Graham Smith, spokesman for Republic, a group campaigning for an end to the
monarchy, said: "We mustn't see the government wasting limited resources paying
for a major set-piece event ... if people are being told to tighten their belts,
if the government is making thousands unemployed, if welfare payments are being
slashed, it would be sickening for the government to allow a single penny more
to be spent on the royals at this time."
Prince William and Kate
Middleton engagement announced, G, 16.11.2010,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/16/prince-william-kate-middleton-engagement
Related
Anglonautes
> Vocabulary > British monarchy > Prince William and Kate Middleton
Anglonautes > Vocabulary > British monarchy > Prince Charles
Anglonautes >
Vocabulary > British monarchy > Queen Elizabeth II
Anglonautes >
Vocabulary > Marriage, wedding / Divorce
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