Besides the ranks and privileges supplied them by the various governments, do they adopt a pose of “royal blood” that is separate from the ordinary, or even perhaps divine will being expressed in their line’s ascension?
( say European because I’m sure some eastern and African monarchs claim a mortal form of divinity)
Today, the answer is no simply because any other public stance would get the monarchies abolished tomorrow.
Before Christianity, many claimed divine descent. Julius Caesar’s family claimed to be descended from the goddess Venus. Hengist and Horsa claimed to be descended from Wodan.
After converting to Christianity, many royal families came up with bogus pedigrees tracing their bloodlines back to King David. Or at least to Charlemagne.
The Germans, it has been said, “developed snobbery into a high art”. In some of the German principalities, your formal title (baron, count, prince) was less important than your family’s status as “sovereign”, “old noble”, “new noble”, or “common”. If two people of different classes married, their children would inherit the status of the lower-ranking parent. A commoner might be ennobled by a monarch, but the “old noble” families would never consider him an equal.
The 20th Century brought an end to the legal barriers between the classes. The social barriers are more persistent.
Are there really still intact social barriers regarding former nobility titles? Do well-to-do modern Germans or any other Western nation for that matter actually consider the familial status in deciding upon a marriage partner?
In the case of the British Monarchy, the issue of divine will and right was one of the things we had something of a civil war about.
None of the seated Royalty that I know about. But there are some rather fringie Pretenders.
Once I met a guy who told us that one of his relatives had a sign on his front door: “Peddlers and new nobles please use the back door” In this context new nobles are those who can’t trace their noble lineage further back than about 1400 or who have any known commoners in their male line.
It’s a minority but yes, absolutely. You mention “well-to-do.” Although many of those people are wealthier than average, keep in mind that for the nobility it’s not really about money.
While the British royal family no longer makes similar claims for itself, such claims are still made on its behalf – not made seriously, but at least made according to tradition. For example, for years I have read various versions of The Matter of Britain, the cycle of stories that culminates in the Arthurian romances. The versions that I have read all trace the British nation’s mythic origins to the island’s settlement by Brutus the Trojan, great-grandson of Aeneas and first king of the Britons, who take their name from him:
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch’s Mythology, pp. 378-79 (New York: Avenel Books, 1979). Joy Chant’s chronicle The High Kings tells a similar story of Julius Ceasar’s conquest, when the Roman general reached terms with the British king Cassibellaunus:
Joy Chant, The High Kings, pp. 166-67 (Toronto: Bantam Books, 1983).
We can write off those stories as an outdated mythology and, in any case, it isn’t clear that Cassibelaunus and Arthur are the House of Windsor’s lineal predecessors. But even such a modern source as Burke’s Peerage, just about as close to an authoritative register of the British nobility as you can find, gets into the act with a different account of the royal house’s mythical origins:
Burke’s Peerage, p. ccli (99th ed. 1949) (boldface added).
Unless I am mistaken, I believe that William, should he become the king, will be the first king in recent history to be descended from all of the monarchs of Great Britain. The late Princess of Wales supplied “the missing links” so to speak.
All the monachs? I need a cite.
That’s not true, if for no other reason than that Edward VIII had no children.
And Queen Anne only had one child, who died at the age of 11 without issue, so no one can be descended from her either.
George IV’s daughter also died without issue.
It’s possible that George IV had illegitimate descendants. He did have an illegal marriage with Mrs Fitzherbert (though I don’t think they had any children).
There are plenty of UK families for whom “marrying correctly” is still a high priority.
It doesn’t confer much (any?) actual influence and power, but if you mix in those circles it remains important for some.
The mother of Kate Middleton, Prince William’s on-off girlfriend, used to be an air hostess. When Wills and Kate split recently, there were stories suggesting that Will’s posh mates used to whisper “Doors to manual” whenever Kate was around, in a not-so-subtle dig at her “common” breeding.
Mrs Middleton has also been [slated](There were even worse social sins, such as using the word “toilet” not “lavatory”, saying “pleased to meet you” rather than “how do you do?”, and “pardon” rather than “what?”.) for chewing gum, shaking hands with the Queen, and using the word “toilet” not “lavatory”, saying “pleased to meet you” rather than “how do you do?”, and “pardon” rather than “what?”.
This is basically true. Apparently the nobility would refer to themselves as geborene (meaning “people who had been born”), and to commoners as geworfene, that word meaning born but normally used only of animals.
It’s subtle to me. What does that mean, “Doors to manual”?
As noted earlier, Ms. Midleton’s mother was an air hostess. It usually comes over the intercom when a plane lands, I think it means that the doors are now set to be opened manually, without the emergency chute emerging.
On the Prince William claim :- am I not correct in thinking that Henry the Eighth had no descendants ? (Children, yes, but none of them produced heirs).
He had three descendants who were themselves monarchs of England – Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth – but none of those had any children. However, the claim relates to monarchs of Great Britain, and the first of those was Elizabeth’s successor, James I of England and VI of Scotland.
Sorry, yes as noted it’s a phrase airline captains use over the intercom as the plane taxis to its final parking place.
“Cabin crew, doors to manual and cross check” means the doors can be opened without the emergency chute deploying.