Innholdsfortegnelse for The Royals i Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair has long covered the royal courts of Europe. In the magazine’s earliest issues (during its first American incarnation, as the Jazz Age began), the editors ran monthly features on monarchs and their country estates, their lavish weddings, their palace intrigues. Needless to say, there were a few missteps along the way. In October 1913, Vanity Fair predicted that nine-year-old Alexei, the hemophilia-stricken son of Russia’s czar, Nicholas II, would “some day rule over one hundred and fifty million people.” (Five years later, in the bloody aftermath of the Russian Revolution, the heir to the House of Romanov would die in a cellar after being shot with his family.) In January 1914, the editors spoke glowingly of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who, in order to marry the Duchess of Hohenberg,…

On February 19, 1948, Duff Cooper, the former British ambassador to France and a noted appraiser of women, went with his wife, Lady Diana, to a luncheon at Buckingham Palace with the King, Queen, and their two daughters, the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose (as Margaret was then called). Afterward he wrote in his diary, “We enjoyed it enormously. Conversation never flagged and was really amusing. Margaret Rose is a most attractive girl—lovely skin, lovely eyes, lovely mouth, very sure of herself and full of humour.” He added presciently, “She might get into trouble before she’s finished.” It was not long before she did. The Princess, then 17, was already in love with one of her father’s courtiers, a love that would blaze across headlines and almost cause a constitutional…

HIS RESIDENCE An apartment in Clarence House, the residence of the Queen Mother, in London. Also: Highgrove House, Gloucestershire (down the road from Andrew and Camilla Parker Bowles). HOUSEHOLD Private secretary: Richard Aylard. Deputy secretary: Peter Westmacott. Three assistants, plus public-relations person Belinda Harley (responsible for promoting Andrew Morton’s previous books!). Protection officer: Detective Superintendent Colin Trimming. Press secretary: Dickie Arbiter (former local-radio royal correspondent). FRIENDS King Constantine of Greece. King Juan Carlos of Spain. Sir Laurens van der Post (writer). Conservative M.P. Nicholas Soames. Lord and Lady Romsey (he is the grandson of Lord Mountbatten). Duke of Westminster (British billionaire). Sir Robert Fellowes (the Queen’s Private Secretary, married to Diana’s sister Jane). Jonathon Porritt (former head of Friends of the Earth, now Charles’s adviser). Sir Peter Parker (former British…

A long with three or four thousand residents of Richmond, North Yorkshire, I am standing in the town square awaiting the arrival of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Corn wall, who are spending one of their typical working days helping the town celebrate the 850th anniversary of its first mark et charter. It’s a bright mid-September afternoon, the slate-roofed shops around the square sport window boxes bursting with pink and white geraniums, and a special farmers’ market has been set up in the square itself, with stands selling everything from fresh-killed partridge to handcrafted organic soap. Trash bins have been sealed in heavy-duty plastic, and the local police are out in force, as well as Beefeaters armed with automatic rifles. Their Royal Highnesses made the 250-mile trip…

The manicured lawn of the Middleton family estate was the perfect retreat. Here the proud mother of the new third in line to the throne was free to roam as she pleased without fear of being spied on. The baby-blue Bugaboo pram Kate revealed she had bought weeks before the birth, along with a fully furnished nursery, had been set up at the Manor, the family’s 18-acre estate, on the outskirts of Bucklebury, a sleepy village in the middle of the Berkshire countryside where Kate grew up, 50 miles from Buckingham Palace. Surrounded by lush green fields and protected from the outside world by high oak trees and an impenetrable security system, it was like a fortress. Here, cocooned by her family, Kate felt safer than anywhere else in the…

There are two film clips of the abdication which are still haunting to watch for the drama of that world-gripping crisis. The first is of the Duke of Windsor, recently demoted from King Edward VIII, with Wallis on the day of their wedding. Their entourage consists of a few loyal cour tiers but no members of his family. The couple stands almost motionless for some minutes so that one of the guests, seemingly inept with a camera, can take a snap. They look vulnerable, pathetic, and cheerful. The Duke now possesses what he lost his crown for, a picture of his marriage to “the woman I love,” the square-jawed, unprepossessing, twice-divorced Wallis Simpson. It’s a Shakespearean moment of royal exile, aptly taking place on French soil. It powerfully communicates what…

When the Prince and Princess of Wales arrive in Washington next month, they step into intense curiosity about the state of their marriage. Magazines and newspapers in every capital crackle with backstairs backchat about the princess’s autocratic ways. She has banished all his old friends. She has made him give up shooting. She throws slippers at him when she can’t get his attention. She spends all his money on clothes. She forces him to live on poached eggs and spinach. She keeps sacking his staff. Certainly 40 members of their household have resigned, including his private secretary, Edward Adeane, whose family had served the monarchy since Queen Victoria. The debonair Prince of Wales, His Royal Highness, Duke of Cornwall, heir to the throne, is, it seems, pussy-whipped from here to…

Playfully he cast his eyes on the cool blonde seated on the couch, wondering what it would take to make her melt. He wanted her to laugh. He wanted her to roll around in her couture silks, right there on that big, gleaming boat of a sofa—and laugh. Too much to hope for? The photographer, Mario Testino, had been asked for a portrait, little suspecting that this famously enigmatic creature was ready to let down her hair. On the day of the shoot, in a studio in South London, he just started talking, about this and that, nothing too personal. Mario has a marvelous voice—very warm, very satisfying, like one of those macerated cherries you get at the bottom of a good Manhattan. He just kept it light. He put…

P* Invited but couldn’t attend due to lingering health issues from assassination attempt. ** Not invited, since wedding, unlike Charles and Diana’s, is not a state occasion. erhaps it was the constant references to Waity Katie which got to William. Possibly it was the words of his soonto-be mother-in-law which rang in the prince’s ears as he made the short journey along the Mall from Clarence House to Buckingham Palace. Before Christmas 2009, Carole Middleton had anxiously asked him when he planned to make an honest woman of her daughter. After what was at that point a seven-year courtship and two breakups there was still no ring on Kate’s finger, and she was nearly 28. In the cozy kitchen of the Middletons’ home in Bucklebury, William reiterated to Carole what…

GRAYDON CARTER is the editor of Vanity Fair. AIMÉE BELL is a deputy editor at Vanity Fair and has shepherded the lion’s share of the magazine’s royals coverage over the past 22 years. KATHERINE STIRLING, Vanity Fair’s articles editor, manages the magazine’s annual New Establishment rankings in addition to editing the Vanities section and feature stories. DAVID FRIEND, Vanity Fair’s editor of creative development, has coordinated the magazine’s forays into books, e-books, special issues, exhibitions, television, and the Web. LENORA JANE ESTES, a Vanity Fair associate editor, has overseen the table of contents, e-books, special issues, and digital editions of the magazine. PAT CRAVEN, Vanity Fair’s production director, oversaw this issue’s assembly. HILARY FITZGIBBONS, a Vanity Fair art director, oversaw this issue’s design. CAROL HAYES, a contributing art director at…

It was, in 1947, that rarest of unions: a royal love match. But though the dashing Prince Philip of Greece and the 21-year-old heiress to Britain’s throne were clearly smitten as they began a life and family together, trouble lay ahead as “Lilibet” became “Her Majesty”—and the new Duke of Edinburgh chafed at his consort role. In an adaptation from her biography, timed to the monarch’s Diamond Jubilee, SALLY BEDELL SMITH described the dynastic struggle that rocked Queen Elizabeth II’s marriage and the difficult choices she was forced to make There was a whole battalion of lively young men,” recalled Lady Anne Glenconner, whose family were friends and neighbors of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at Sandringham, their estate in Norfolk. But Princess Elizabeth, the heiress presumptive to the…

One day she was dressed in sober gray, the next in dazzlingly happy pink. Since the announcement of the end of her marriage on December 9, 1992, Diana, Princess of Wales, has been visibly reborn. There is a new bounce in her step, a cheekier smile on her face, a new gleam in those flirtatious blue eyes. Prime Minister John Major’s dramatic announcement in the House of Commons ended more than five years of lies, deceptions, and pent-up suffering. At long last the sham was over. For Diana it was a moment of triumph. For Charles it was a crushing defeat, which could eventually cost him the throne. At this low point in the history of the House of Windsor, Diana is the new Britannia, who very much rules the…

As usual, George Orwell got it right. In 1941 he wrote an essay called “The Lion and the Unicorn,” in which he identified the failure of the English—or at least the intellectual and left-wing class—to take pride in their heritage. Orwell wrote, “England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an En glishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God Save the King’ than of stealing from the poorbox.” Sometimes it is necessary…

MAID OF HONOR Philippa Charlotte “Pippa” Middleton Age: 27 Relation: Younger sister of the bride Education: Marlborough College and University of Edinburgh PRESIDING OVER THE CEREMONY Rowan Douglas Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury Ordained Priest: 1978 BEST MAN Prince Harry of Wales Age: 26 Relation: Younger brother of the groom Education: Eton and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst BRIDESMAIDS Eliza Lopes Age: 3 Parents: Harry Lopes and Laura Rose Lopes (née Parker Bowles) Relation: Granddaughter of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, second wife of the Prince of Wales Interesting Ancestor: Great-great-great-grandmother Alice Keppel was a mistress of King Edward VII Family Estate: Gnaton Hall, in Devon Lady Louise Windsor Age: 7 Parents: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex Relation: Cousin of the groom; granddaughter of the Queen; ninth in…