Modern? Kate is a throwback to 1500s, says top academic
With her middleclass background and penchant for t hi gh- s ki mming skirts, the Duchess of Cambridge has been credited with modernising the Royal Family.
Not according to one Oxford academic, however, who has said Prince William’s Berkshire-born wife is a 16th-century throwback, but lacking the cultural influence of her predecessors.
‘it fascinates me that the Duchess of Cambridge is doing exactly the same kind of things that a queen consort would have done at any time from 1500 on,’ sniffs Professor helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, Emeritus Fellow of Exeter College, suggesting that their foremost duty is to provide an heir and spare. ‘the role has not changed at all, even though the Duchess is middle-class and British.’
Watanabe- O’Kelly’s disparaging remarks echo Wolf hall author hilary Mantel, who once called the Duchess a ‘shop window mannequin, with no personality of her own’, whose only purpose is ‘to give birth’.
the professor of German literature, who is researching the cultural role of foreign consorts, also finds Kate Middleton culturally lacking.
‘When a king married, up to World War ii, he took a foreign bride and she left home to join him, never to return,’ says Watanabe-O’Kelly. ‘But this is where these foreign princesses played an important role in their new kingdoms by introducing foreign cultural elements.
‘they often brought with them personnel such as a chaplain or musicians, objects such as books, jewels, fashions and furniture, and often less tangible things such as theatrical genres, ideas or a different religion.
‘in this way a foreign princess often played an active role in changing the culture of the territory she went to. Look at the contribution made in Britain by Anne of Denmark, henrietta Maria of France and Catherine of Braganza.
‘All three of them were major patrons of the arts,’ she points out. ‘the Queen’s house at Greenwich by inigo Jones was begun for Anne in 1616 and completed by henrietta Maria in 1635.
‘Anne and henrietta Maria promoted the masque — a form of court theatre combining music, dance and drama. Catherine brought Bombay and tangiers to Britain in her dowry and patronised italian painters and composers.’
By contrast, the only things Kate has introduced to society are her socially ambitious siblings James and Pippa.