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First the illness, then the return of Charles III and the Princess of Wales to the court, has once again drawn media attention to the difficulties of the English royal family and the post-Elizabethan era. In fact, the strong personality of the Queen in recent decades has ultimately led to the superposition of the image of the monarch with the image of the monarch. As a result, most subjects and commentators end up forgetting that for centuries the reality of the royal family was fabricated by sovereigns who certainly did not lack personal abilities and qualities, but also had problems and weaknesses. Among the factors that allowed the monarchy in the past and still allows it to overcome difficult moments is the presence of a modern and effective court, although this seems far from popular belief.
Royal Family
By “court” I do not of course mean the court of the old regime, which consisted of the Lord Chamberlain, the Squire, the Ladies and the Gentlemen, and which almost disappeared throughout Europe with the First World War. There are still some vestiges of this structure of the British monarchy, so to speak: hereditary positions of great prestige, but their role is now limited to a few functions. On the contrary, one of the most important offices of the royal family today is undoubtedly the office of the Private Secretary. Who has seen crown One will certainly remember characters played in the series, such as Tommy Lascelles, secretary to George V and Elizabeth II from 1943 to 1953.
Therefore, to understand what the court of the kingdom was like in the early 21st century, read CourtierThe Secret Power of the British Monarchy was written by Valentine Low, a Times reporter who follows the events of the royal family. The book was published in Italy a year ago and many people have read it because it tells the events of the Duke of Sussex in the last few chapters. However, if we escape the attention of focusing only on the news, Courtier offers a valuable reconstruction of a mechanism that is usually ignored by the public. Private secretaries, assistant secretaries, press officers, opinion advisers: they are the real protagonists of the contemporary court. The dynamics that move them are not very different from those that moved the gentlemen and squires centuries ago. All this is carried out under the supervision of one of the few ancient courtiers still in service: the Lord Chamberlain. According to modern conditions, this position is usually entrusted to qualified persons with experience in banking and finance. In treating private secretaries, Jho Low adopts the definition given by economist Harold Laski, according to which their situation belongs to one of “respectable servitude”.
Baldassar Castiglione
Many courtiers of ancient regimes would have adopted this expression without hesitation. Writing, then, that “the ideal courtier does not aspire to manipulate the sovereign… the courtier guides, opens the door: it is up to the sovereign to decide which one to take”, Low, after all, joins a long process. The treatise written by Baldassar Castiglione can be traced back to courtiers (explicitly cited in the introduction). Just as the question of the relationship between courtier and sovereign is an ancient one: can service be friendship? According to Low, “a good courtier is not just a good official, but always something more”. However, the line between service and friendship is blurred. Able to resist time in some cases, destined to collapse in the face of external pressure in others (the fate of Charles III’s main collaborator when he was Prince of Wales clearly shows this).
In short, Lowe’s book, beyond its close relevance to journalism, constitutes a fundamental text for understanding contemporary monarchy, and in particular how the British royal family has continually renewed itself, overcoming many odds and always remaining true to itself.
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