Is Harry really ready to be with the common people?

The Duke of Sussex voluntarily turned his back on a life most of us dream of, but he may soon learn how rapidly grandeur dissolves when you’re a commoner, writes Michael Madigan.

Harry Windsor is to be admired for his courageous decision to turn his back on his privileged upbringing and join the Canadians who, much like Australians, aren’t all aware that you should tilt the soup bowl away from you when you eat and leave the serviette on the side of the plate.

To be born into nobility is a privilege denied to Australians who have suffered discrimination in this area ever since the English landed at Botany Bay not with ship loads of toffs, but cargo holds of crims.

In the 232 years since successive generations of self reliant Australians have revelled in our egalitarian approach to life, disdaining the concept of heredity wealth and status. It’s seen in many democratic quarters as a commendable attitude, but one clearly held only by those people who have never really thought the thing through.

Those of us who have applied our minds to the concept of noble birth come, inevitably, to the conclusion that it would be the most gobsmackingly magnificent stroke of luck you’re ever going to receive in your entire life, beyond even winning a first division Gold Lotto prize after six weeks of jackpots.

The Duke of Sussex handed in his notice to the Queen — and she accepted. Picture: Adrian Dennis/AFP

To arrive in a world of luxury and be reassured that every aspect of life is to be catered for, including the ironing, would prompt an immense sense of gratitude and relief to any sane, sensible, well grounded individual. To dispense with all that angst as you enter adolescence about how to fend for yourself, access medical care and pay utility bills would provide a sturdy psychological plank for emotional development, creating a boundless sense of self confidence as one enters adulthood.

To join a gentleman’s club at St James, do a spot of soldiering in the Grenadier Guards after Sandhurst then retire early in gin-soaked and jovial spirits to hunt, fish and randomly shoot things on the country estate is far preferable to spending your life as a gas fitter in Wolverhampton.

The British nobility may have their faults but an absence of loyalty isn’t among them. Tilt the soup bowl properly, speak like a mid 20th century BBC news reader and follow a simple dress code and they’ll stick to you like chewy gum to the footpath.

The Royals are perhaps the most tolerant of all, with some members only leaving the family fold prematurely because they lost their head, like Charles I.

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Several have been permitted to remain ever after losing their minds, like George III.

Certainly there were those who were exiled, poisoned, stabbed or felled in battle but only a handful have provided Harry with the precedent of willingly bowing out.

Queens Victoria’s granddaughter Patricia married a commoner and spent much of her life in Canada while Harry’s great-grand-uncle Edward VIII turned his back on the Crown after falling in love with Wallis Simpson and retiring to France.

Yet Harry, who faces no constitutionally complex romance, is voluntarily turning his back on the extraordinary entitlements encapsulated in the HRH title and emigrating to try his luck in a foreign land.

He’s not quite a “ten pound pom’’ or an Irishman after the Famine. But, in a sense, he’s risking far more than a penniless emigree ever did, gambling with that ancient and ineffable concept of status.

Harry Windsor, with wife Meghan, should be admired for his courageous decision to turn his back on his privileged upbringing. Picture: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP

We know Harry’s wife Meghan has familiarity with the world outside the Peerage.

Her own dad Thomas may possess a range of positive qualities, but it’s fair to say he would not be a comfortable fit with some of the chaps at the Badminton Horse Trials.

Harry, who apparently flew to Canada this week on a commercial British Airways flight, is about to find out what it’s like among Markle and the rest of the masses.

It might hit home during the most mundane of ordinary life experience, like being brusquely told to remove your belt while filing through airport security.

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Most of us would wish Harry and his wife well but, as the couple they gaze at young Archie romping about in the Vancouver lounge room, they might brush up on the modern history of European Royalty, and understand how rapidly the grandeur can dissolve when there’s no one at home keeping up appearances.

In 2016 Prince Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, grandson of Umberto II, the last reigning king of Italy, was reported to have launched a food truck in Los Angeles, selling home cooked pasta to the locals.

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