Rough Guides - The Rough Guide to the Royals

Publishing information

This first edition published April 2012 by
Rough Guides Ltd., 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL

www.roughguides.com

Part of the Penguin Group:
Penguin Books Ltd. 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL

The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all information in The Rough Guide to The Royals; however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss or inconvenience sustained by any reader as a result of its information or advice.

No part of this guide may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.

Alice Hunt and James McConnachie/Rough Guides, 2012

ISBN 13: 978-1-40539-004-0

This Digital Edition published 2012. ISBN: 9781409360094
E-Book format prepared by DK Digital, London and DK Digital Media, Delhi.

Britains national anthem, God Save the Queen, has as its penultimate line the words Long to reign over us something that the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, has certainly managed to achieve. The year of her diamond jubilee, marking the sixtieth anniversary of her accession, seems an appropriate occasion to cast an amused and quizzical eye over British royal families of the present, past and future.

One hundred years ago almost every country in Europe was a monarchy. Now there are only twelve, with Britain having the most visible and heavily scrutinized royal family of them all. The famously acerbic Prince Philip, the Queens consort, is credited with dubbing the British royals the firm, suggesting the idea of a family business with its connotations of duty, obligation and inescapability. So we begin The Rough Guide to the Royals with a run-through of the current royal family, listing the key members and finding out precisely what they are called on to do.

Elizabeth II has a familial connection to all 55 of her predecessors (listed on the inside back cover). But just how British is the family that for many represents the purest embodiment of patriotic values? In Chapter 2 the foreign ancestry of the House of Windsor is looked at in detail. In case this sounds too serious, Chapter 3 presents a highly selective round-up of British kings and queens through the ages, concentrating on the most memorable monarchs whether for good or bad. All the old favourites are here, from the indomitable Elizabeth I to the dissolute George IV, whose scandalous behaviour, as the early nineteenth-century Prince Regent, brought the monarchys status to its lowest ebbs.

It survived, of course, although since the eighteenth century the monarchs political power has been largely symbolic. Yet, despite an absence of any real power, an aura still surrounds the royals which gives them a degree of influence that is, arguably, disproportionate to any expertise they may have. Chapter 4 explains one of the reasons why: scrutinizing the ceremonies, heritage and pageantry that mark out royalty as something special.

Chapter 5 investigates the royal controversies, misdemeanours and human foibles that have endeared, enraged and entertained the monarchs subjects throughout history. In modern times, these have become the stuff of soap opera and an endless source of fascination for millions worldwide one reason, perhaps, why British royalty has survived into the celebrity obsessed twenty-first century.

Of course, all of this is seen as irrelevant by republicans, who argue that achieving high office by virtue of the family you were born into is irreconcilable with the notion of a modern democracy, and that an unelected head of state preserves moribund notions of privilege and deference. The arguments both for and against the monarchy are rehearsed in detail in Chapter 6. It also shines a light on some of the more murky aspects of the institution, such as how much the monarch is paid for the job and what the sources are of the Queens very considerable income and wealth.

Royal supporters would argue that, notwithstanding its privileges, the monarchy has been getting closer to the people over the sixty years of Elizabeth IIs reign. It has modernized and remade itself, abandoning the more stuffy conventions and rituals. In the wake of the huge interest in Prince William and his wife, it remains to be seen whether the couple can continue to project a more contemporary image, finding a balance between distance and familiarity. Accordingly, Chapter 7 examines representations of the royals both official (such as portraits and statues) and unofficial (films, TV programmes and satire), which have shaped the way we see this historic family and institution.

Finally, the content concludes with 101 of the more extraordinary royal facts of the last thousand years. Here youll find out all about Queen Victorias stalker, Princess Diana dancing at the Royal Opera House, and some of the Queens more unexpected hobbies.

Above all things our royalty is to be reverenced, wrote Walter Bagehot in The English Constitution (1867), and if you begin to poke about it you cannot reverence it Its mystery is its life. The Rough Guide to the Royals does its fair share of poking about, but finds theres still enough mystery in the firm to ensure its continued existence for a good while yet.

King George V became the first monarch of the House of Windsor in 1917, when the family changed its name in the wake of hostility to all things German (see ); the present queen is the fourth. Those living members of her immediate family, their descendants and (in some cases) their spouses are what constitute the current royal family. Precisely who qualifies for this questionable privilege and who doesnt is outlined below, as are their duties and privileges as well as those things theyd rather we didnt know about.