ATTITUDES TO MONARCHY

The United Kingdom is a constitutional¹ monarchy. In short, this means it has a monarch-a king or queen-but the elected government has ultimate power. However, the British royal family is undoubtedly influential: they lead organizations, regularly talk to politicians, and own large amounts of land. They also remain broadly popular with the public.

A YouGov poll in 2021 found that sixty-three percent of British people believed the monarchy should continue to exist. However, if we examine the numbers more closely, they are complicated. Of those over the age of sixty-five, the number in support of monarchy was seventy-seven percent. However, among those aged eighteen to twenty-four, support was just thirty percent. This suggests that many young people believe that monarchy is now irrelevant. Significantly too, among the remaining seventy percent of young people, twenty-one percent said they did not know whether the UK should continue to have a monarchy. This indifference is probably the result of events that have left many unsure about what the monarchy's role actually is.

One major shift in the public understanding of the monarchy came with the death of Princess Diana. The daughter of a wealthy aristocrat², she married the Queen's eldest son, Prince Charles, in 1981. From the beginning, the media portrayed Diana positively, not only as a princess but also as a glamorous³ celebrity, a charity campaigner⁴, and a devoted mother. So when Charles and Diana divorced in 1996, much media support and public sympathy lay with her rather than Charles.

One year later, Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris as her driver attempted to escape a group of pursuing⁵ press photographers. Her new boyfriend, Dodi Fayed-the son of an Egyptian billionaire—was killed alongside⁶ her. Because Diana was no longer an official member of the royal family, the Queen and her advisers⁷ were unsure of protocol and initially made no statement. Prime Minister Tony Blair, however, made an emotional speech calling Diana "the people's princess." The UK media accused the royal family of not caring, and the Queen was forced to make a statement.

An estimated one million bunches of flowers—and numerous⁸ soft toys—were placed at the gates of Diana's home. People who had never met Diana grieved⁹ as though she had been a family member. The events surrounding Diana's death showed that many wanted royals to be modern celebrities rather than distant, official figures.

A more recent controversy that revealed people's feelings about the monarchy surrounded Diana's son Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, an American actress. When the couple married in 2018, some tabloids in the UK did not respond positively to the match, emphasizing that Markle was older than Harry, was previously married, and was not British. Some tabloids were also accused of racism. Markle's mother is African American, and her father, white.

The couple found life in the royal family harder than they had imagined and moved to the US, also announcing their withdrawal from official royal duties. In a high-profile interview with Oprah Winfrey, they revealed that a member of the royal family (whom they did not identify) had asked "how dark their baby's skin would be." Harry also claimed that his father, Charles, and brother, William, were "trapped in the system" of the royal family.

The situation divided opinion, with some feeling that it showed the royal family was old- fashioned and prejudiced, while others felt Harry and Meghan had walked away from their responsibilities. Again, this revealed a social divide in the UK. Among people over sixty-five, fifty-six percent said that they were on the side of the royal family; among those aged eighteen to twenty-four, that number was just fifteen percent.

The majority of British people remain in favor of the monarchy but often want it to exist on their own terms. A clear example came in 2021 with the death of the Queen's husband, the Duke of Edinburgh. On the news of his death, the tax-funded British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) immediately turned all of its television and radio channels over to continuous coverage¹⁰ of the event. They received 110,000 complaints before shutting down the online complaints form. It is likely that some complained because they were anti-monarchy, but many just missed their favorite shows.

The UK's relationship with royalty is complex and contains many paradoxes. It seems people still like the idea that royals are "special," but they want them to be ordinary too; they like the idea of monarchy's history and tradition, but also want it to be modern and relevant.

• criticizes the Queen
• her boyfriend
• sympathizes with
• his American wife
• are saddened by
• numerous complaints

• ultimate
• prejudiced
• paradox
• irrelevant
• protocol
• indifference

Royal Weddings in Numbers

World War II had only been over for two years when Princess Elizabeth—later Queen Elizabeth Il-married Philip Mountbatten, the Duke of Edinburgh, in 1947. Therefore, the royal family decided not to have too large a wedding. Even so, the event at Westminster Abbey cost $10,000-around $325,000 in today's money—and 2,000 guests attended. The wedding was broadcast live on BBC radio, and as Britain had an empire, an estimated 200 million listeners around the world tuned in.

The wedding of the Queen's only sister, Margaret, in 1960, was the first to be broadcast live on television and as many as twenty million in the UK watched. It was a more expensive affair, with almost $1 million in today's money being spent on decorations alone.

By the time the Queen's son, Prince Charles, married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, more than ninety percent of UK households had a television. This meant over twenty-eight million British people tuned in to watch Diana walk down the aisle in a dress that cost $490,000 in modern money. The wedding took place at St. Paul's Cathedral-which is far larger than Westminster Abbey-so an incredible 3,500 guests could attend in person. Outside, meanwhile, 600,000 people lined the streets to watch the wedding procession through the city.

When the Queen's grandson Prince William married Kate Middleton in 2011, there was worldwide interest in the celebrity-packed event. While 26.3 million UK viewers watched the ceremony (41.9 percent of the population), there were also estimated to be another thirty million watching in China alone. At the time, it was the most streamed event in the history of the internet. Viewers saw Middleton wear a dress that cost $434,000, while guests at the wedding enjoyed two cakes which cost $80,000 each.