The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Wednesday 10 March 2004

Introduction

Here I am, not a Connecticut Yankee, but a Missouri one, like Mark Twain. And like him, through his character Hank Morgan, writing about a royal Court. Not King Arthur�s, though, but Queen Elizabeth's.

You can laugh, and probably will, when you read my columns. I hope you do. I hope you�ll also be interested, entertained, and touched. But never bored. Since Geraldine Voost has been generous enough to give me a Royal News column, based on my writing abilities, such as they are, I want to run with it. To teach, learn, provoke thought, foment occasional controversy, and even, once in a while, move you to tears.

I want to avoid platitudes, gushing, and patronizing. Everyone visiting this Web site probably knows a good bit about royalty already. And is probably a lot closer to it, geographically, than I am. I don�t pretend to be an expert on Royal Subjects (how's that for an oxymoron? It's the late Theo Aronson's title). I don't know the current crop of royals. I've never met them. All I
know about them is, in the famous line, what I've read in the papers. And in the books in my extensive home reference library on British history.

So in that sense, I've met Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Charles I, Bonnie Prince Charlie, Prince Charles, and all the rest. I've read about their exploits, formed opinions about these people, marveled at them, pondered their lives in odd moments of my own, loved them or hated them. So I'd like to share some of those thoughts in print, trade mine with yours, compare insights,
discard preconceptions, dissolve misconceptions, and achieve the Grail. What the Grail might look like, or what to do with it when it's found, I don't know any more than King Arthur's knights did. But the fun is in the questing.

If you have a specific question about the royal family, please send an e-mail and ask! I can try to answer it, based on research from my collection, or throw your question up for grabs to all comers. Let's have ongoing discussions of everything connected to British royalty! And I hope to spark some debate about the institution of the monarchy, the current royals, and history's perspective on royalty. But the main objective here is to have fun. It's a Web site, not a Parliamentary committee or a
Congressional investigation.

A bit about me and my, uh, "qualifications." I'm an American, an Anglophile, a copy editor by profession, with a degree in English Literature and an abiding interest in British history, courtesy of my ancestors, who emigrated from Hertfordshire back in the day. All the males in my family for 100 years have been named after British Kings: Charles, Harold, Edward, Mark. However, one scoundrel who turns up in the family genealogies is named Oliver Cromwell Whitney, so I suppose we've got both sides of the monarchist debate covered.

Anyway, I'm from Kansas City, Missouri, and currently live in Dallas, Texas. I've been to England once, in 1977, for the Silver Jubilee. Though my week in London was really more of a Sherlock Holmes literary tour, I did manage to see Buckingham Palace, the Tower and the Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall.

My perspective on the British monarchy is that of an outsider, though a civil one. I would never curtsey to the Queen, but nor would I say, "Off with her head!" Most of the American rebels in 1776 didn't wish George III dead, after all. Just that he would stop already with the tax stamp.

It's been argued that the United States is the Augustan Rome of the present day, the pragmatic, efficient military superpower and behemoth of disposable culture, while Great Britain is like ancient Greece, with her proud history, classical culture, freedom of thought, sublime literary traditions and grace of language. Even so, an American born and bred a republican, ipso facto (with, of course, a lowercase "r," because here in the U.S., Republican with a capital "R" means something rather different) can respect the monarchy as an institution and pillar of civilization that has lasted 1,000 years, even if he or she doesn't agree with it politically.

Monarchy doesn't affect me personally, in the sense of being subject to it, or having to support it with my taxes and allegiance. My family will never bleed or die for Queen and Country, for the monarchy. So my interest in it is mainly academic, based on my study of history. And thus I can be objective.

I hope to be so, in this column. To criticize and praise equally. To tell it like it is, just as Mark Twain did. In the coming months, let's go for a royal ride, through British history and modern-day Britain. Let's enjoy exploring the fascinating phenomenon of the British monarchy.

Cheers,

- Mel Whitney