The people's prince

BRITISH royalty have survived for more than a thousand years by reinventing themselves. Like chameleons, they respond to every threat to their survival as a dynasty by adopting a protective guise. What this humble lizard is best at is adapting itself to its surroundings - but the wily Royal is too smart for that.

Realising that it is a contradiction in terms for a royal personage to be retiring and self-effacing (Queen Victoria tried it for her widowhood and there were several attempts to assassinate her), the dynasty always managed, like high-caste conjurers to pull a public-relations coup out of the air.

Now, riding to the rescue of his hitherto fairly dysfunctional family, comes young Prince William, every maiden's dream of what a gallant knight should be, but usually isn't.

Time was when an heir to the throne, however young, would ride into battle beside his father, armed with a miniature sword and riding on a pony. Now the fight is for the hearts of the people.

So William went off not consciously to smite his father's foes but to slake his taste for adventure in the mountains and forests of Chile, taking every opportunity to do a good turn for the locals. Though a photographer turned up from time to time, I don't believe the lad sought publicity, but he accepted it as his lot with as much grace as he could manage.

In doing so, he dealt a near-mortal blow to the enemy that haunts his family - indifference. And he probably saved the line of succession for at least one more generation.

As the statesman-novelist Benjamin Disraili observed: "If the cottage is not happy, the castle is not safe."

And in recent times, the royal family have been a beleaguered garrison. All the queen's four children have had disastrous marriages, the most harrowing being the heartbreak of Princess Diana and the most notorious the infamous playgirl (since reformed) Sarah Ferguson.

Prince Charles's callous and envious treatment of the secular saint Princess Diana became a scandal, and he was very properly reviled.

His father, Prince Philip, is notorious for causing grievous offence to bewildered people far below his the exalted status of Consort to Her Majesty the Queen. Also, he has personally shot for "sport" more than 30,000 pheasants, and the animal loving British don't like that.

Only the queen herself is considered to be above all this, and she is generally accepted to be doing a good job, as is her centenarian mother who, though haughty in the extreme, is fondly by "my people" regarded as a vodka-swilling backer of race horses and therefore OK.

There is a groundswell of republicanism, led by such bizarre bedfellows as the Economist, the Guardian and the Sunday Independent. But there is no whiff of revolution in the air.

Poll after poll indicate that while older people respect the monarchy, young ones just don't care. And few believe that the institution will survive long after the death of the woman who, in response to a crass question about what work she did, replied simply "I reign."

If the palace were a private company it would be considering liquidation. As it is, a re-launch and probably a merger are in hand.

As for re-branding the product, consider the qualifications of young William, heir to his grandmother's throne after his father, Prince Charles. Some knowledgeable people, inside the royal circle as well as outside it, speculate on whether the succession might skip a generation, pointing out that Charles, previously the gloomiest prince since Hamlet, might prefer in his heart to devote his life to his gardens and his mistress and bid a relieved farewell to the life of pomp and circumstance.

I don't believe that will happen, though knowing him as I do, albeit at a distance, I am sure that the wistful thought will often cross his mind.

But when duty calls, the monarch must not be found wanting, so Charles will wear the crown one day, although with his customary wry grimace, and accept that his strapping son will be the focus of every eye while King Dad gets on with opening things and glad- handing presidents.

Just like his late mother, Princess Diana, the world's sweetheart, William will become an international superstar in the style of the young Robert Redford. It is his destiny. And all is needed now to ensure that the House of Windsor continues to live in the five palaces to which they have become accustomed, a suitable bride most be found. Unlike poor Diana, arguably, at her marriage, the only virgin in high society, all that will be needed to match William's charisma and looks, is dazzling beauty - and enough brains to realise that Royal Business is Show Business.

NEVILLE STACK

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