On Royalty: A Very Polite Inquiry into Some Strangely Related Families [Hardcover]

Jeremy Paxman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 2007

The notable characteristic of the royal families of Europe is that they have so very little of anything remotely resembling true power. Increasingly, they tend towards the condition of pipsqueak principalities like Liechtenstein and Monaco—fancy-dress fodder for magazines that survive by telling us things we did not need to know about people we have hardly heard of.

How then have kings and queens come to exercise the mesmeric hold they have upon our imaginations? In On Royalty renowned BBC journalist Jeremy Paxman examines the role of the British monarchy in an age when divine right no longer prevails and governing powers fall to the country's elected leaders. With intelligence and humor, he scrutinizes every aspect of the monarchy and how it has related to politics, religion, the military and the law. He takes us inside Buckingham Palace and illuminates the lives of the monarchs, at once mundane, absurd and magical. What Desmond Morris did for apes, Paxman has done for these primus inter primates: the royal families. Gilded history, weird anthropology and surreal reportage of the royals up close combine in On Royalty, a brilliant investigation into how an ancient institution struggles for meaning in a modern country.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As Paxman seeks to fathom the mesmeric hold of monarchy—particularly British—on our imaginations, his remarkable access lets him spy closeup on today's royals. At a royal house-party at Sandringham, Prince Charles offers a world-weary explanation of monarchy's function: "we're a soap opera." An out-of-the-blue lunch with Princess Diana, who strikes him as a lonely woman who wanted someone to talk to, leads him to ponder the public passion she inspired. And the prospect of meeting the queen at a Buckingham Palace press reception finds the seasoned BBC host with staunch republican sentiments strangely overcome by nerves. Examining how royalty actually becomes royalty, Paxman examines how a monarch finds a throne (Albania invented a king in 1923 and sought an English country gentleman for the post); the matter of producing an heir; royalty's role of being, as one of Queen Elizabeth's secretaries put it, "in the happiness business." This wide-ranging work tackles everything from the enigmatic cuckolded husbands of Edward VII's mistresses to contemporaneous comparisons of the last moments of Charles I to the passion of Christ; George V's abandonment of his cousin the Russian czar; and the sticky finances of the House of Windsor and Charles's eccentricities. Paxman proves a vastly knowledgeable and tartly entertaining guide to a magical realm that is stranger than fiction. (June)
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Review

"Paxman's fascinating and amusing book is an inquiry into the continuing potency of an anachronism" -- New York Times Book Review, July 8, 2007

"[Paxman] writes with a wry sense of humor and a keen sense of history... [He leads] an entertaining tour..." -- New York Times, June 15, 2007

"a detailed, firsthand peek inside the castle walls of the Royal Family...For Windsor watchers, [it]'s queen of the pack." -- Vail Trail, June 14, 2007

"a nuanced, if at times acerbic, look at the institution of monarchy" -- Sunday Express (UK)

"an informative whirlwind tour of European royalty that also brims with wonderful deadpan humor." -- Washington Post Express, October 16, 2007

"fascinating, well-researched, often amusing." -- Nashville Tennessean, May 20, 2007

Four stars--"riveting." -- People Magazine, May 25, 2007

Top Ten Summer Reads #6: "An escape for those who can't afford to use "summer" as a verb..." -- Minneapolis Star-Tribune, May 27, 2007

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs (May 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586484915
• ISBN-13: 978-1586484910
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #930,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening, and certain to raise some questions, along with a delicious slice of humor, June 18, 2007

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Rebecca Huston "telynor" (On the Banks of the Hudson) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On Royalty: A Very Polite Inquiry into Some Strangely Related Families (Hardcover)

I read books for one of two reasons -- to educate myself and for entertainment. Every now and then I get lucky, and a book will provide both of my needs at the same time. And I confess to a certain liking for reading about royalty, usually because if the book is set in the past, the life of a royal person is usually going to be the most informative -- and have the most documentation -- of the period that I'm reading about.

BBC journalist Jeremy Paxman takes a very interesting look at European royalty and the interesting question of why do some fail, and others have managed to endure for centuries? Most of his story is, naturally, centered around the British monarchy, which has, more or less, survived for nearly a thousand years, except for one very brief break during the seventeenth century. I figured I was going to get not much more than a scandal sheet along with a few historical bits and pieces in On Royalty: A Polite Inquiry into Some Strangely Related Families. Was I in for a surprise!

Paxman dishes up plenty of salacious little tales, but most of all he explores just what monarchs do -- and what they don't. Or rather, shouldn't be doing if they want to continue to occupy a throne.

After a brief preface and introduction, Paxman takes a very logical and orderly fashion to his study of that rare species of human, that known as royalty. He starts with the most obvious of tasks, that of finding a throne to occupy, and establishing an heir or two to help secure things. And after all, there is an art to being and acting royal without looking like a fool -- or worse, an imposter. If you don't already have a heir, the best way to get one is to marry someone suitable, preferably just as royal as yourself, and produce an heir and with luck, a spare.

After these basics, the more subtle aspects of royalty are examined. One of the most interesting chapters went into the idea that a monarch is indeed God's annointed, able to cure the sick, despense justice to those who can't get it, and overseeing charity. And often these abilities were recognized by the panoply of a coronation -- out of all of the western monarchies, the only one that seems to have hung onto this practice is the British one. But divine favour it seems, can vanish just as quickly, and Paxman uses the story of England's Charles I, whose death shocked Europe at the time, and produced England's only time without a king -- which only lasted for about twelve years, and when Charles I's son, another Charles, came to the throne, there was a great deal of rejoicing for everyone concerned.

But as time passed, the powers of monarchs were steadily trimmed -- the last of the autocratic rulers were swept away in the revolutions after World War I, and most monarchies these days are constitutional ones, where the ruler, whether King or Queen, is a figurehead. It's here, in the final section of the book, that Paxman shows why certain monarchs have survived, and others haven't. Most of his concentration is on Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and her family, showing how they've provided stability in a world that has ever changing politicians -- there may be a change in prime ministers, but the Queen remains, and has remained so for more than fifty years now. There's also some talk about how her parents, George VI and the late Queen Mother, gave Britain the emotional and symbolic support that was needed in the face of the Blitz and World War II, the turmoil of Edward VIII's very brief reign and that Simpson woman, and finally the modern crises that her family has weathered.

Not everyone will be pleased at the way that Paxman shows the late Princess Diana, and the Duchess of York, two upper-class commoners that married the Queen's elder sons. Diana, especially, is shown in her far from regal moments, including a vicious verbal swipe at her husband that was the closest that I've seen to public castration, and the infamous 'toe-sucking' incident that heralded Fergie's fall from royal favour. And there is a bit of a replay of the mass hysteria that followed Diana's sudden death as well.

The author does raise some interesting questions as to whether or not there is a future for royalty in the new century. But he's also wise enough to let the reader answer that question for themselves as well.

And it's pretty certain to be the summer of royalty both on television and in the bookstores -- after all, 2007 marks ten years since Princess Diana was killed in a Paris car crash. There's certain to be plenty of memorials about her, and yet another rehash of the conspiracy theories.

But for a balanced look, this book isn't too bad at all. Paxman manages to keep a sense of humour about the topic, slides in a few great jokes, and comes up with some truly remarkable stories -- both good and bad -- about our continued fascination and questions about the monarchs among us.

Recommended.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SPECIFICALLY, BRITISH ROYALTY, October 23, 2007

By 

DAVID BRYSON (Glossop Derbyshire England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On Royalty: A Very Polite Inquiry into Some Strangely Related Families (Hardcover)

There is currently a reigning Queen in Denmark and another in Holland that I can recall, but who - for anyone the world over - is The Queen? We all know, and her name is the title of a box-office-storming film. The theme this time is not just `The Queen' but `Royalty'. The book duly contains a certain amount about royalty in Italy, Albania, Greece, Russia and old-testament Israel, but the author knows where his readers' interest will be focused, and these royal outriders are allowed to feature only insofar as they add colour to the majestic cavalcade of Elizabeth II and the ribald retinue of her own Royal Family, a group title whose reference is again impossible to mistake.

This book is no kind of tract. It is the work of an independent-minded and slightly cantankerous journalist possessed of a strong sense of the ridiculous, a certain sense of history and a grudging fairmindedness. Most of us, if required these days to devise a system of government, would not come up with monarchy as our proposal, and Paxman, I suspect, would be even less inclined than the next man to do so. Nevertheless he has to admit to himself what seems equally obvious to me, namely that republican sentiment in Britain, however logically the case may be argued, has never taken much more hold than the campaign, perhaps equally logical, for phonetic spelling.

In for a penny, in for a gold sovereign, Paxman does his best to explain why the British monarchy is almost universally tolerated and in many quarters held in high affection and regard, although one suspects in higher affection nowadays than regard. He rightly characterizes Bagehot's reasoning as condescending, but he is honest enough to concede (if I read him rightly) that it is somewhere near the truth too. As a sociologist he is an amateur, just as he is not a professional historian, and I'm inclined as an amateur myself in both fields to say that his reasoning is probably all the better for its independence of hierarchies, establishments and thought-police in both disciplines. Paxman is a rationalist prepared to admit that the forces of irrationality are, at least for now, getting the better of the argument. So far does he lean over backwards to be fair that he actually ducks the issue (which I would have loved to have seen him handle) of what sort of vicarious existence is enjoyed or endured by the type of person self-styled `an ardent royalist'.

The style will be familiar to anyone who knows Paxman from his earlier books and from the BBC's Newsnight. As a writer he seems to me to achieve better focus this time than previously. Either Muggeridge or Clive James could show him how to time his punch-lines better, and perhaps he has been reluctant to compromise his impartiality by copying such egocentrists, but he seems to be learning the trick gradually from somewhere. The book is not particularly `structured', and in my opinion it is none the worse for that. The topic of British royalty does not, after all, lend itself readily to any Kantian flow of logic, and I rather sense that Paxman's way of changing the spotlight is likely to be more illuminating in the long run than most attempts to treat the subject systematically. If there is a chapter you can safely skip, it is probably the chapter on the execution of Charles I, which is much better handled in, say, Geoffrey Robertson's `The Tyrannicide Brief'.

Her Britannic Majesty Elizabeth II is now well into her 80's, although likely destined for a good many more years in the job. It is very probable that much of the public attitude to the monarchy has really narrowed itself down to a public view of this dutiful if dull monarch personally. Typically, her broadcasts to the nation are distinguished by such insights as `many events have happened to all of us'. It may all become more eventful after her, but I wonder how many, even self-proclaimed republicans, will really welcome that when it happens.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty And Thoughtful, July 9, 2007

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John D. Cofield - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On Royalty: A Very Polite Inquiry into Some Strangely Related Families (Hardcover)

Jeremy Paxman excels in turning out books which, while they might challenge and annoy you, always entertain. Here he turns his spotlight on Royalty, primarily on the House of Windsor with a few excursions to Denmark, Albania, and some other monarchical or formerly monarchical areas. Paxman is absolutely not a royalist. He finds the Windsors fusty, dull, uncouth, and implausible. He cannot see a reason why a modern government or society should have room for inherited power or position. Yet he acknowledges that, at least under Queen Elizabeth II, the system works fairly well most of the time for Britain.

I am an American of primarily British ancestry, and even though many of my forebears came to the New World to get away from the Windsors' forebears, I nevertheless feel a strong sympathy for and admiration for the British Royal Family. Paxman sometimes sets my teeth on edge when he's being particularly condescending to them, but nevertheless I chuckled and snickered much of my way through it. Occasionally he makes an error, particularly in his rush to condemn King George V for being afraid to allow his cousin Tsar Nicholas II into England after the 1917 Revolution. Others have also found fault with the King for this, which did eventually lead to the Tsar and his family's murder, but they forget or choose not to remember that when the King said no he was leaving his cousin in the hands of a democratic Russian government, not the Bolsheviks who didn't take power until months later, when it was too late to help the Tsar. There was no way George V could have known what was coming.

Despite errors like this I really enjoyed On Royalty. Paxman has a flair for fine writing, and he can turn a phrase with the best of them. By the end he admits that despite the illogic of monarchy, the system works and continues to hold great appeal. I suppose my favorite section dealt with the Stauntons, a family of gentry who have held the same land for centuries and who have always been firm monarchists. Like them, even though the Royal Family disappoints me from time to time, I stand ready to "defend the castle" if the call ever comes.