• THE LIVES OF ROYALTY
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sra—We are hearing a great deal about the prospcTts of the new reign, but are we thinking enough about what should be done to help the King and Queen in their: heavy task ? The lives of Royalty are, and must of necessity be, large' ly unnatural. They frequently have heavy handicaps of health and heredity to overcome. Praise of Royalty almost invariably takes the form of saying how much they like a simple unaffected life. At the same time we take 'care. that they shall not be allowed to lead such a life. They are surrOunded by an obsolete, irritating, meaningless pomp and ceremonial, and overburdened with far too many engage7 merits, many 'of a most trivial character. There is an idiotic variety' of uniforms: Unit stars and chains. Profusion and waste -have' always been considered throughout our history to be the -outward and visible - sign of the great, and so our Royalties have too niany houses, too many court officials, too many servants, too Much expenditure, too much of everything. The Government 'exploits them for propaganda purposes, the Press writes them up and reiterates their photographs ad nauseam because slop about Royalty is thought to be Rood for circulation. The blurb writer repre- sents our Royalties to be partly Creatures Out of fairy-land, partly superhuman and partly semi-Divine. A Prince who goes round a factory automatically becomes a profound student of economic problems ; a Princess who opens a flower show is at once an expert gardener ; a King who plays golf would, of course, be scratch if he had not to wield the sceptre as well as the niblick. The children of these wonderful beings are even more remarkable in their aptitudes and abilities. I read in a great newspaper 'that Princess Elisabeth "has to a peculiar degree the art of carrying herself with ease, charm and a graceful dignity," that she is deep in economics and the sciences, and accomplished in Latin, French and German, while the principles and precedents of the Constitution will soon be studied. To emphasise its absurdity such dope usually concludes by saying that the aim of the parents is not to spoil the child but to bring her up exactly like other children.
It is to be hoped that the Government and • his friends will point out to the new King the advisability of making sortie friends amongst' the Opposition in politics. The late King had no such friends. Officially he was, of course, perfectly correct and courteous, but nobody from the Left ever penetrated beyond his official life as the lists of those invited to meet. him at house parties, or of those be himself invited to Fort Belvedere show. King Edward VII had the wisdom to make friends among the Opposition and the new King will be well advised to follow his example. Friendship cannot be forced, but at any rate let us have the feeling that the friends and the views with which the King comes in contact are not all of one colour.
The new King has a great sense of duty and of sticking to his job, and will serve us well so long as Monarchy is considered to • be the best figurehead for our democratic system. But even if we do not dwell upon it, let us not
forget that the past-crisis must have had its roots in something seriously at fault, and let us begin the new reign in a spirit of .realisni:, • -
Sitillillf(Cafitifi is agually the key to success; so let the Court modify US etreinonial; the Government 'moderate demanda
upon Royalty, and the Press and the nation alto* the Royal Family to lead, as far as possible, ndrmal lives. '1 The Sernidi-• riaVirin countries are an excellent example of what is wanted.;
Previous page
