UK royals are
Cock-fighting, bitter feuds and literary godmother Catherine Cookson – Romanian royalty are different, says Jane Bradley
We might all think the union of “bad boy” Prince Harry and divorcee Meghan Markle is the most exciting thing to happen to the Royal Family since, ooooh, Fergie and Andrew. But in the big scheme of things, it’s all still pretty tame.
Whether you’re a royalist or a republican, it’s hard to deny that they are just all so… well… perfectly pleasant, these days. Smartly dressed, polite, smiling. They turn up to things when they are told, they say all the right things.
At least you think they do. It is a little-known fact outside of press circles that when covering the royal rota, as it is known, a journalist has to hover at a polite distance behind a member of the Royal Family at a public event.
They must stay out of earshot and never – at pain of having his or her head chopped off – directly quote a royal, but instead have the chat reported back by the member of the public to whom they spoke.
That is why any reports of regal walkabouts are full of “Jean from Falkirk said that Prince Philip commented on her hat” and never: “‘That’s an horrific piece of headgear you’ve got on there, Jean,’ said the Duke of Edinburgh, as he meandered down Linlithgow high street”.
Even Harry and his so-called breath of fresh air wife-to-be are less than exciting.
She may have a daringly chequered past, what with being divorced and all, but she has already given up her social media accounts and announced that she is to step back from her acting career to “concentrate on her royal duties” once the pair are married later this year.
On this week’s visit to Edinburgh, even Harry made such risqué remarks as complimenting a ginger-bearded hipster on his facial hair and admitting he was “excited” about his upcoming wedding.
So far, so sensible. The problem for me is they seem particularly unexciting when compared to the Romanian royals, who, despite the country having been a republic for the best part of a century, still hog the tabloid headlines on a daily basis.
Take ongoing family feuds, an illegitimate child and a secret wedding, combine that with an unlikely Geordie prince, a princess convicted of running an illegal cockfighting ring, add a dash of violent deathbed protest in the Swiss mountains and you have a top tale. In December, the last official king of Romania died. His name was King Mihai and he passed