‘British’ royal expert is actually American

Thomas J Mace-Archer-Mills, Esq knew more about the royal wedding than the millions who listened to his global TV commentary outside Windsor Castle – all delivered in a posh British accent. But it turns out he’s an ItalianAmerican from upstate New York. Tommy Muscatello first learnt to sound undeniably British in a high school production of Oliver two decades ago. The Wall Street Journal outed him as an ordinary American 10 days after the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The 38-year-old, who performs as MaceArcher-Mills, insists he’s no fraud; he really knows plenty about all matters royal. Muscatello says he’s never claimed he was born in Britain. One thing is certain: he has gathered more information about the British royal family than you’ll ever want to know – a veritable laundry list of characters close to the throne reaching back to Oliver Cromwell, a military and political leader and one of the signatories in 1649 of King Charles I’s death warrant that led to his beheading. It’s all online under the auspices of an organisation called the British Monarchist Society and Foundation, with himself as chairman and editor of a magazine called Crown & Country. The group has its own YouTube channel and even accepts donations. Mace-Archer-Mills has constructed a whole British persona, wearing tweeds and a cap, or sometimes a top hat, and explaining that in his youth in the English county of Kent, “I learnt to ride my horses”. He told the Journal that he moved to England in 2012 and works in property. What matters most to him is to feel and live like a Brit. On camera during the May 19 nuptials, he referred to himself as “we” – noting that “we are all the same subjects under her Majesty the Queen”.