The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Monday 5 April 2004

Royalty - From Reverence to Obsession

A friend of mine recently asked if I could liken the obsession with the late Diana, Princess of Wales to any other royals in history. As both a fan of Diana in her lifetime and a lover of history, I ended up writing an answer long enough to be a column. So, without further ado, I give you a more in-depth version of my answer in the form of this week’s column. 

To begin with, there is no question that Diana was a striking woman with a magnetic personality; a combination of qualities that few individuals really possess, whether they be royals, celebrities or just everyday people. This “certain something” can make all the difference in whether an individual is simply admired or truly adored. Take the Countess of Wessex, for example. She’s an attractive, stylish woman whose appearance has even been likened to Diana. Since giving up her professional career, she has spent an increasing amount of time working with charities, even recently taking on one of Diana’s charities. But no matter how many parallels you draw between the two women, Sophie’s just missing Diana’s vast appeal.  

With this in mind, if we look only at recent history – let’s say the last 50 years or so – then there are relatively few people in Diana’s class. This in no way minimizes the popularity of other royals over the years. Certainly, Queen Elizabeth II has been enormously popular during parts of her reign, particularly the early years. And there’s no denying that the Queen Mother in her lifetime was immensely loved. She and George VI were well-loved in Britain for their displays of strength and courage during World War II. Even George V has been called the most popular British male monarch of the 20^th century.  But if we’re talking in terms of “obsession,” I think most people would agree hands down that Diana is the modern royal at the top of that list.  

That said, there certainly have been individual royals in the more distant past who have captured the attention of the public as much as Diana, but very few of them have had the advantage of modern accessibility to further their existing popularity. Thanks to the proliferation of media reports and a constant barrage of images, Diana was propelled onto a vast global stage that had not previously existed.  What’s important to remember is that, historically, most people only knew what the royals looked like through painted portraits or artist's renderings (if they even had access to them). This helped keep the monarchy depersonalized to some extent for most "common folk." However, like Diana, her historical counterparts were adept at using the tools available to them to shape and perpetuate their image. 

Henry VIII, although alternatively loved and reviled during his lifetime, was one of the first to really understand how to use portraits to convey his power and importance. But where he was good, his daughter was even better. Elizabeth I was a public relations genius who knew exactly how to inspire the love and command the loyalty of her people. Just one example of her great skill can be seen in the “Rainbow Portrait” located at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. Aside from just being a distant imposing figure in a portrait, Elizabeth connects with her people by representing herself as a living symbol of all that is important to her subjects. For starters, her gown is covered in eyes and ears indicating that she is the center of attention. A serpent on her sleeve symbolizes wisdom and she holds in her hand a rainbow, which represents peace. Clearly painted on the canvas is the motto, “Non Sine Sole Iris,” which literally means, “No rainbow without the sun,” but in the symbolic language of the portrait, where Elizabeth is the sun, it essentially translates into – no peace without Elizabeth. This ability to shape her image, combined with that “special something” made her an icon equal to Diana without the benefit of modern media. 

A great many royals followed in Elizabeth’s footsteps, a few even rivaled her in popularity, but Queen Victoria was the next to use available methods with enough skill to make an impression as lasting as Elizabeth. As the book by John Plunkett accurately suggests, Victoria was indeed the first media monarch. It was during her era that photography and the telegraph were invented and mass media took off in a big way. The comings and goings of the royal family were documented more closely than ever and, thanks to improvements in transportation, disseminated quickly throughout the British Empire and the rest of the world. But the new media was still in its infancy during much of Victoria’s reign and the royal machine largely controlled the images and messages that were released to the public.  

It wasn't really until Edward VIII was Prince of Wales that this started to change. Cameras went from bulky contraptions requiring much maintenance and set-up to hand-held devices that could go just about anywhere. With illiteracy at an all-time low and popular journalism at its peak, newspapers were hungry for candid photos of the royals to accompany the latest gossip. As a very active member of the royal family, not to mention a very energetic and sociable individual, the young Prince of Wales was a prime candidate for the photographer’s lens and became an extremely popular and recognizable royal.  While the world at large had always been familiar with the British royals, it was somewhat at arm's length; but the growing global press and the prince’s constant international travels helped make him a worldwide figure, rather than just a British one.  

And just as Diana was considered the “people’s princess,” the Prince of Wales was very much a people’s prince. No longer relying on official portraits and the image of the royals they were intended to portray, the public could now see for themselves what the royals were really like and develop their own opinions about their characters. With the Prince of Wales, they saw a relaxed and informal man of the people and decided overwhelmingly that they liked him. He may have been the bane of the royal family’s existence and, in the end, the wrong man to be King of England, but he was deeply loved by the public right up to his abdication. 

Which brings us back to the last 50 years again and, in particular, to Princess Margaret, who was very nearly an early Diana. As a young woman, her good looks, style and jet set ways fascinated people. She was the modern ideal of a princess and was always doing something to get the press writing about her. But Margaret lacked the true personal magnetism of Diana and, in retrospect, didn't make much of a real connection with the people. 

Diana, on the other hand, was a commoner (albeit an aristocrat) who worked in a common job when her engagement to Prince Charles was announced. As a result, people instantly connected with her; a feeling that was only magnified when they saw how much she catered to them. She says in the recently released audio tapes that one of the ways she handled the rejection she felt from the royal family was to throw herself into interaction with the public and, later, her charities. Like Edward, Prince of Wales before her, she made that vital connection with the people; but she went one step farther and gave the public the love and attention no royal had ever given them before. In return, they devoted themselves to her and expressed their love for her in an intensely personal and loyal way. Of course, this sense of propriety only increased the impact of her early and tragic death, giving millions of people the impression that they had lost someone close to them. 

While our ancestors may have been captivated by other royals and the rise of the mass media has certainly made them more accessible to us, at the end of they day, our obsession with Diana comes down to something as unique as Diana was: our sense that she loved us just as much as we loved her.

Until next week,

- Tori Van Orden

Follow these links for more information on the topics in this week’s column: 

Portraits of Elizabeth I at the National Portrait Gallery - http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=elizabeth+i&LinkID=mp01452

Elizabeth I’s “Rainbow Portrait” - http://www.marileecody.com/eliz1-rainbow.jpg 

The Guardian’s review of John Plunkett’s book, “Queen Victoria: First Media Monarch” - http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0%2C6121%2C981608%2C00.html