There is a scene in the fourth season of Downtown Abbey in which a suitor informs Lady Mary Crawley of his need for a wife. Unable to give her the time she needs to finish grieving for her first husband, Lord Gillingham says, 'We both know I need to marry. I don't need to explain to you how the system we're trapped in works.'
This exchange shows how even wealthy bluebloods may feel imprisoned by society's expectations. Humans install institutions and, through enforced loyalty, these institutions take on a life of their own, until we regard them not as systems of our own creation that we can dismantle at will, but as intractable truths.
While the aristocracy has changed dramatically since the 1920s, the royal family remains trapped in the institution we both love and hate. Some may dismiss them as freeloaders but how many of us would truly want to live life in the goldfish bowl that is modern day royalty?
Eight-month-old Prince George is capturing hearts on his first official tour to New Zealand and Australia. Oblivious to his celebrity status and his future obligations, the son of the wildly popular Kate and William represents our complicated, and contradictory, relationship to the royal family.
George is at once a novelty and, as media reports remind us, a regular baby. One of the most remarked upon events of his visit has been his 'play date' at Government House in Wellington. Ten babies were selected to play with their future king, an honour that had one proud mum declaring she has 'a lot in common with the Duke and Duchess ... we've been through the sleepless nights and we can talk to them about our experiences'.
The casual play date occurred just days after the couple released an official but casual portrait with George and family dog Lupo. The Daily Mail praised the couple for their 'very modern approach to royalty' in which they let 'the public gaze in' with 'the promise of effortless informality'.
It appears that ostentatious elitism is out of favour, and the royal family is just like us.
Of course, if they were just like us, they would not be royalty. Yet we insist on having it both ways. Attachment to tradition won't allow the dismantling of the royal institution, but we all take seriously the claim to human equality. And so we stress that the royal family are just figureheads, that their continued