Kate Middleton’s unthinkable coronation task
Kate Middleton is arguably facing the toughest job at King Charles coronation as an unthinkable load falls to her.
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In 1066, William, the Duke of Normandy crossed the channel, led an army that slaughtered thousands of Anglo-Saxons, then marched on London and managed to take over an entire country before most of the English had put their ale tankards down.
But when do you think was the moment the man by now known as William the Conqueror got the wobbles? When his nerves were on clear show? When he, according to the history books, looked like he needed quite the stiff drink?
His coronation.
With only hours to go before the coronation inside Westminster Abbey takes place; with all eyes set to be on King Charles and Queen Camilla; with the Royal Mews’ ponies being brushed; and Princess Anne busy Glen 20-ing an old salmon suit in preparation, there is one person who should be feeling like William the Conqueror right now.
When the coronation begins, she will be in the audience, having no official role to play in the august proceedings. She won’t have to kneel or pledge anything or try not to fall over while wearing kilos of gold and stones that several countries badly want back.
However, I reckon what she is about to face is the sort of stuff that would leave even the most battle-hardened of generals with their knees knocking.
I would love to be able to resist the urge here to wheel out such a trite line but no luck: On Saturday, as the world watches on, the weight of destiny is about to come down on her like a tonne of bricks.
When she wed Prince William in 2011, the first commoner to nab an heir to the throne since Anne Boleyn and Camilla Parker Bowles (what a pair), it was a made-mass-media-consumption-fairytale.
The middle class girl who won a Prince! The university graduate who would be Queen! The part-time accessories buyer whose face will end up on stamps!
The fawning Saturday supplement feature stories basically wrote themselves’; the commemorative tins of shortbread flew off the shelves.
But actually being Queen? It all seemed so far away.
After all, Queen Elizabeth had been on the throne for so many decades it was virtually impossible to imagine anyone else ever occupying the same hallowed space in British public life; any other figure opening parliament or doing their duty at the Chelsea Flower Show or occasionally getting a 17th century crown out to do some waving to the people.
And for years and years, Kate got to live a squint-your-eyes and go with it, ‘normal’ life. She used the self-service check-outs at her Norfolk Waitrose supermarket. She did school drop-offs. Sure there were engagements and overseas tours and she got to be a dab hand at State dinners but the cold hand of her future of Duty and Sacrifice could be kept at bay.
All of that has changed irrevocably in the eight months since Her late Majesty’s passing last year, a death that was both completely inevitable and yet simultaneously also a complete shock at the same.
As Brits have experienced a certain emotional and psychological whiplash, the loss of an immutable, nearly mythical fixture in public life and the public psyche so too has the view of William and Kate changed.
No longer are they just the (comparative) young ‘uns who can add a certain pep and dash to the dwindling ranks of working members of the royal family; instead they are now only one single step, one heartbeat, one fish bone-stuck-in-the-throat away from the throne.
The future is very nearly right on top of them. (Sorry – coronations must bring out the hackneyed in me.)
So when Kate steps into Westminster Abbey today, it isn’t just as a titled woman who may be wearing a controversial flower crown or maybe decked out in jewels, it will be her having to face what lies just around the corner, not only for herself but for her family.
Unlike William, up until the age of 29-years-old, the Princess was well-bred and well-off but a very regular person.
Her childhood had not been spent boning up on royal history and who did what at the Battle of Crecy and what the Interregnum was and why it was such a dashed bad idea.
(In case you’re wondering, it was the four years in the 1660s when England tried republicanism. Nasty business)
She has not had a lifetime of preparation.
Which is to say, Kate came to being a member of an ancient royal house late in the piece. She had a good two decades of normality and microwaved leftovers and after-school jobs to start life; not regular lessons on the limitations imposed on the King by the Magna Carta.
The pressure on Kate during the coronation – the personal, emotional freight – won’t just be on her as the next Queen but also the mother of a future king and of two spares.
How the hell do you raise a child to be a King in the 21st century?
Prince George, who will likely one day be King George VII, is currently nine-years-old, the same age his grandfather Charles was when he realised what he has called “the awful truth” about his life as a future monarch.
Kate and William now face the herculean task of bringing up a moderately well-adjusted, emotionally sound, ready-for-the-job boy who will one do the same job that Alfred the Great did in 871. (A few things have clearly changed; Alfred never offered to host Strictly Come Dancing inside a royal palace like Charles has done. Really)
The Waleses’ touch parenting job does not end there. If there is one through-line in the recent crises which have roiled Buckingham Palace it is that regal understudies can really end up quite a mess of human beings.
Prince Andrew is a man clearly with more bloated ego than brain cells while Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex is currently in the midst of a years-long international tantrum. (Also, Princess Margaret wasn’t exactly a happy, well-balanced person now either was she?)
So how the hell do the Prince and Princess of Wales prevent a similar miserable fate befalling their other two kidlets, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis?
All three of the Wales kids, or at least the elder two, must by now be completely intelligent of the inequality baked into their lives. It was only George who got to have his portrait taken with dad, grandfather and their Gan-Gan.
It was only George who got to help make Christmas puddings for a video in 2019. It will only be George who has an official part in the ceremony today.
The question I don’t even know how one begins to answer is how to prepare a little boy for what lies ahead for him while also ensuring that resentment and jealousy do not take hold in the other two.
All of this Kate has to do while helping keep shore up the monarchy and to keep it alive and kicking in an age when younger Brits are turning out to be less than excited about the whole hereditary head-of-state caper.
The same year that William and Kate said ‘I do’, 59 per cent of 18-24-year-olds were in favour of the monarchy. Today, support for the crown among that group is 33 per cent.
Charles and Camilla might have proved more popular than sceptics might have thought but they aren’t getting the sort of numbers that mean they can kick back and take a week off for a spot of fly-fishing and outdoors smoking.
(Think you can guess which one would be doing which.)
Their Majesties have an uphill battle ahead of them to make the institution of the monarchy seem relevant and valuable in modern society and while it’s a battle the Palace can win, it’s going to be a long and hard fight.
Absolutely and utterly integral to that campaign is Kate – shoving her out the Palace gates as frequently as possible to pose for selfies and beam at 20-somethings.
On Thursday, UK time, the Waleses hit a pub in London’s Soho for an official pre-coronation engagement. The large numbers of young faces waiting behind barricades to see the duo is proof of their pulling power.
Imagine having to bear all of this – being Queen sooner rather than later, raising a humble, prepared King and two well-adjusted spares, and having to play an out-size role in keeping the royal family afloat and not buckle under the stress, pressure and expectations.
William the Conqueror would be quaking in his boots.
And yes despite all of this, I will wager that today Kate will walk down the aisle of the Abbey serene and poised, not a hair, not a diamond, and not a blink out of place. Her number one job today is to make it look oh-so-easy and like she is perfectly ready for what is ahead of her.
William had it easy.
Daniela Elser is a writer and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
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