What do Princes Harry and Hamlet have in common? Credit: Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage
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On 2 June 1953, Elizabeth II became the first English monarch to be crowned on live television. Churchill was horrified at the prospect of the broadcast, saying it was “unfitting” for such a solemn and spiritual occasion to be “presented as if it were a theatrical performance”. But her subjects disagreed, and 20 million tuned in.
One moment remained too sacred for the cameras, though: the Act of Consecration, in which the Queen was anointed with a blessed oil to signify God’s sanction for her rule. This ritual took place under a canopy, and the cameras Elizabeth had – against official advice — allowed inside Westminster Abbey turned their lenses away.
The Queen’s decision to allow “modern mechanical arrangements”, as Churchill put it, to broadcast almost-but-not-all the sacred pageantry of her coronation holds the seeds of every subsequent spat between the ever-encroaching media and the royal desire to keep some things sacrosanct. This tussle took on a tragic note in the figure of Diana, the princess who both invited the cameras furthest into her world and also fled from them most desperately — a flight that in the end claimed her life, in the Pont de L’Alma tunnel in Paris.
Elizabeth’s grandson Harry has upped the ante on his mother’s tortured relationship with the media, first marrying an actress and inviting documentary-makers into their lives, then decrying the suffering inflicted on the couple by an intrusive press. And this isn’t Harry’s only paradoxical embrace of the modern world. Having gained his platform through royalty, he’s experienced a royal awokening — but doesn’t seem to realise that being both woke and royal is like being a turkey and still demanding to lead the pro-Christmas campaign.
To understand why woke royalty is a contradiction in terms, we need to delve into the history of that moment in 1953 when the cameras turned away: the Act of Consecration, where power and symbol converge.
Kings weren’t always seen as holy. The Anglo-Saxons, who feuded like Mafiosi, felt little compunction about murdering their rulers. The papal legates George and Theophylact were so concerned about the resulting chaos that in 786 they wrote a special synodal decree, warning: “Let no one dare to conspire to kill a king, for he is the Lord’s anointed”.
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SubscribeIf everyone is “us” we are nobody (except for elites who are the “somebodies”).
The national narrative is never real it’s an approximation.
Eric Kaufmann uses the term ethno‐traditional nationalist
“ a variety of nationalism which seeks to protect the traditional preponderance of ethnic majorities through slower immigration and assimilation but which does not seek to close the door entirely to migration or exclude minorities from national membership. “.
In NZ they have been plugging at our history: “Maori wars” became “New Zealand Wars” and now “very violent histories”. Maori Studies departments are kicking up about a lack of recognition when one of our most cited academics says “Scientific research is deeply implicated in the forms of colonialism and has to stop” (stay in it’s lane).
Marry me, girl, be my fairy to the world, be my very own constellation
Buy me a star on the Boulevard, it’s Californication.
An emerging parallel with a slightly older work of art – is Harry’s life starting to mirror that of Dorian Grey?
We can all speculate, but, to be honest, when you compare a future life of opening supermarkets and village fetes on cold wet afternoons in the back of beyond, with a life of beach leisure and luxury in a warm climate, there’s no contest. Decision made, all that’s needed are some post-hoc rationalisations! And, apart from his Princehood, Harry’s not really much of a catch, is he? Harry has to Go West! Remove his one good move, and one day, Megs might find that, where once was a charming hunk there now lies a slightly weird looking frog. Think Harry 8th and Anne of Cleves!!
😉