Cambridges’ grace and charm is a royal relief
While utterances from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are producing an effect similar to the noise of a pneumatic drill upon the wellbeing of the nation, their ducal rivals are turning into national treasures.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have just pulled off a stonkingly successful tour of Scotland. This is pretty astonishing. Given Scotland’s chippiness — to put it mildly — towards the English aristocracy, it would hardly seem likely to be bowled over by a royal visit. Yet wherever the Cambridges went, barriers just seemed to melt away.
This is largely because Kate and William project a classless image. Their diction isn’t stilted. They don’t go in for pomp or ceremony, or pursuits that set them apart from ordinary people. They appear warm, approachable and informal. They regularly release pictures of their normal-looking children doing normal things. They are “relatable”.
In Scotland, Prince William joined football fans from across the emergency services, alongside their friends and families, to watch the Scottish Cup Final in an Edinburgh rooftop bar. The duchess exuded her familiar charm towards small children, telling their mothers that her own children had the same sleeping habits and even clothes from the same shops.
Last month, William and Kate launched their own YouTube channel. This displays video clips from their Scottish trip showing the affecting meeting at Holyrood Palace between Kate and a five-year-old cancer sufferer, the Cambridges racing each other in land yachts and, in an entertaining chat with the stars of the film Cruella, William relating how he had been “propositioned” by a 96-year-old lady in a care home who demanded a kiss.
This stellar public projection by William and Kate is being helped, sad to say, by the continuing psychodrama from Prince Harry and Meghan. While the Cambridges haven’t put a foot wrong, the Sussexes haven’t put a foot right.
The more they display their narcissism and resentment, the more disrespect, cruelty and spite they show towards the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William, the more they merely highlight the Cambridges’ characteristics of duty, modesty and loyalty.
When people are personally attacked, the public look carefully at how they react under such pressure. The Cambridges have not replied in kind to the histrionics from Prince Harry and his wife. Instead, they have responded with grace and the patent desire to heal the rift.
The principal mover in this appears to be the duchess. Kate seems to be an instinctive peacemaker, anxious to bring the feuding brothers together for the sake of all-important family unity. Her gestures at Prince Philip’s funeral aimed at enabling a conversation between William and Harry gained wide attention and approval. It was here that the steel in her character, and its value to the royal family, became apparent.
This was captured in a striking photograph of her arriving by car at the funeral. Above the mask, her eyes looked directly at the camera, projecting straightforwardness, calmness and unflinching resolve, framed in turn by the elegance of her funeral attire and her physical poise.
Of course, much of this may be the product of a shrewd and carefully choreographed strategy. However, it couldn’t be achieved if Kate was not a down-to-earth, grounded personality.
When Prince William was working as a helicopter rescue pilot, he showed alarming signs of recoiling from his destiny as a future king. We’re not seeing that now.
The duchess may be playing a role similar to the one the late Queen Mother performed for her husband, King George VI. Forced reluctantly on to the throne by the abdication of his brother, the shy, stammering king was vastly helped by his wife to cope with his unwanted position and to win public esteem.
It was she, after all, who famously observed after the couple refused to leave London during the Blitz and Buckingham Palace was hit: “I’m glad we’ve been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face.”
Kate needs also to make sure that William’s commitment to causes like the environment and mental health don’t develop the dogmatic edge that risks turning him into an inadvertent promoter of his sister-in-law’s social justice inquisition.
Above politics altogether, the monarchy helps bind the nation together as a shared project. It needs to present a virtuous image in which the public see their own reflection.
Which is why Prince Harry’s behaviour is so devastating. He and his wife embody divisiveness, setting people against each other behind barriers of resentment and bitterness. With Harry descending ever deeper into public obloquy (and possibly an increasingly tragic existential mess) he is sadly becoming the kind of person you’d cross the street not to meet.
By contrast, the Cambridges look as though they are enjoying themselves hugely when performing their public duties. And that flatters the nation.
The Sussexes make people feel worse about themselves. The Cambridges make people feel better.
As long as that remains the case, the monarchy is safe — and Prince William and his wife look set to become Britain’s most invaluable soft-power asset, promoting Brand UK with brio even to secessionist Scotland, as well as to the rest of the world.
The Times
More Coverage
Join the conversation
Shrink your waist in five weeks – pasta and wine allowed
Over-45s carrying too much weight around their middles get some advice on how to lose it.
Read more
You could be king of this castle
Stoke House (1887) is one of Tasmania’s grandest mansions, with nine bedrooms, 9m ceilings and a ballroom for 100 guests. And the price may surprise you...
Read more