Sir William Walton and the sound of royalty.

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Howard Martell

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by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s note. To get the most from this article, you will need to listen to three royal fanfares by Sir William Walton, the individual most responsible for the distinctive, rich, soaring sound that epitomizes, defines and glorifies the Windsor dynasty.These fanfares include
1) “Crown Imperial March”. 2) The incidental music for Sir Laurence Olivier’s 1944 production of “Henry V”. 3) “Orb and Sceptre March”.
You will find them in any search engine.
Image is everything.
Consider the singular problem of royalty, especially the most important royalty — sovereign emperors, kings, queens and queen consorts. They do not like us too close to their overpowering presence… but they certainly want to put their stamp on us and leave an indelible impression of grandeur, awe, majesty.
Towards this end, everything their subjects will see (and be able to be influenced and impressed by) is subjected to the most intense scrutiny and consideration. Everything must serve the greater end of the dynasty; the end being just how they are perceived by their subjects… so that the dynasty (with its mountain of anachronistic privileges) is preserved, protected, defended; the better to ensure these near immortals remain “long to reign over us”.
Amongst the most important aspects of how royalty presents itself to you so that they may rise higher and you make the necessary (and heartfelt) obeisance is the music used to suit their never-ending purpose; the music that dazzles the ear at the same time their clothes, jewels, uniforms, decorations and all the other accouterments dazzle the eye. Of these subjects, the things to capture the eye are by far more discussed than the music that accompanies royalty upon every significant occasion of their lives.
At the April, 2011 marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the major coverage went to two particular items: the bride’s gown and the two kisses the newly married couple made from the balcony at Buckingham Palace. By comparison a tiny percentage of mention went to the carefully chosen music, including Sir William Walton’s celebrated “Crown Imperial March”. Yes, here is where you heard that stirring fanfare first; although as it surrounded their royal highnesses, wafting them forward on a cloud of acoustic incense… you were paying attention to how the bride and groom looked and how they carried themselves leaving Westminster Abbey. The music was definitely secondary.
You knew the tableaux and its moving figures were perfect; you hardly gave a thought to the essential contribution of the fanfare, much less of Sir William Walton, its composer. Thus, the music does its essential work; moving you, influencing you, directing you where the dynasty wants your thoughts to be at that moment.
About Sir William Walton, (March 1902-March, 1983).
Walton was born into a musical family in Oldham, Lancashire. At age 16 he became an undergraduate at prestigious Christ Church at Oxford University. It was said at the time that he was the youngest undergraduate since King Henry VIII. His musical talents were quickly recognized and encouraged, particularly by the eccentric, talented, well-placed Sitwell family, Sir Sacheverell and his (distinctly odd) sister Edith. He lived with them for many years, while they “finished” their eager protege for the world. With Edith providing the lyrics, Walton composed the music for his first great success, Facade (1923). It established him as a member of the musical avant garde. But this designation (so pleasing to a young man with his way to make) proved short- lived and erroneous.
Walton’s strengths (and they were considerable) were not in inventing new forms, living on the cutting edge. No, indeed, he was no innovator… he was a traditionalist producing the incidental music for two great institutions — the British monarchy and Britain’s cinema. Such a role provided his numerous critics with what they needed to write him off as a “serious” composer… and made Walton wince, despite his celebrity and world-wide renown. It is often thus with those who are gifted in ways other than they planned or wanted… The coronation of 1937.
Walton was a painfully slow, plodding composer; composition came neither fluently nor with celerity. His works were relatively few, with long gaps between. Nonetheless, despite the nagging criticism of “modernists” who saw Walton as a renegade, his progress was inexorable. In due course he came to the notice of the British royal family, which took serious note of the “Walton” sound… soon to be the Windsor sound — exalted, elevated, often electrifying. The Windsors, having congratulated themselves on surviving the First World War (unlike all three imperial dynasties of Russia, Austria, Germany), soon had need of these very traits. The abdication of Edward VIII and the scandal which shook the monarchy to its foundation made them desperate to reassure the nation of their worthiness. And so Walton got the call of a lifetime, being asked to provide the entry music for Queen Mary, George V’s regal consort, the pillar of the dynasty.
Queens dowager didn’t attend coronations, but Queen Mary knew her presence would reassure the nation… and she wanted something dazzling to confirm her undeniable royalty. Walton gave her, and the world, his “Crown Imperial March”. (1937). The Windsors knew at once they had the sound they — and their challenged empire — needed… and the man who could produce it for them. It was a great gift in one of the worst years in British royal history… and they took Walton to their hearts as he, like his music, soared…
“Henry V” and Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation.
Walton was now the “go to” man when you wanted music that made showy outward display carried by the imperative commands of trumpets. Walton’s music made you sit up, take notice, and transcend yourself and your little cares. It was bombastic, a shade vulgar, but packed with the vitality and the testosterone the dynasty and the nation needed.
Of his many compositions exhibiting these grandiose traits, two more deserve mention: the film score for Sir Laurence Olivier’s 1944 production of Shakespeare’s “Henry V” and Walton’s “Orb and Sceptre March” for the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Walton, in his way, was as much a pillar of the monarchy and Britain herself as Queen Mary. He lifted people up when they needed it (World War II) and when a wounded nation faced post-war austerity. His music showed you why “this band of brothers” (in “Henry V”) was victorious despite great odds against them… and why the Phoenix of England would rise again with the coronation of the new, young sovereign. It is no wonder a grateful monarch gave him knightly honors and the most prestigious Order of Merit. Thus was recognized and rewarded the grandeur of Sir William Walton who made the dynasty itself and all its princes grander still.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses.
Dr. Lant is also a Royal Historian and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a href=”http://HomeProfitCoach.com“>http://HomeProfitCoach.com</a>. Check out Massive Auto Traffic ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=hi76Cl4e

This royal wedding thing is getting interesting – and the details…

Here is another article on royalty  (you might enjoy the last one too  GO HERE.)  This article deals with the current Royal News about the upcoming wedding. As we get closer to the date, the story will begin to dominate the news.
It will truly be a Royal Scene and most of us watch just because we are curious. Take a read of this article and if you were invited, for crying out loud, BEHAVE.
For royal wedding guests of Prince William and his Kate, April 29, 2011 a list of does and don’ts, especially the latter.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
By now I am sure you are aware that April 29, 2011 is a very special day in the prodigious annals of the British monarchy. H.R.H. Prince William, white hope of the dynasty, marries his Kate… and his grandmama The Sovereign is adamant that all be done just so — or else.
Sadly, you have not been invited. Admittedly it is abashing, even humiliating.  But you will be glad to know that the lot of the those precious few invited is not a bed of roses. The empire on which the sun never set is history, but protocol, the right thing done in the right way, is very much alive chez Windsor.
Let’s take a look.
The Windsors are nothing if not keen on pageants that are meticulously planned and flawlessly carried out. They know that it was not always thus in royal ceremonial. One way they know this was by careful scrutiny of my first book “Insubstantial Pageant: Ceremony and Confusion at Queen Victoria’s Court”. (1979). I was the first American ever granted access to the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle… and it was part of the deal that The Queen and Prince Charles get advance copies to increase their knowledge of the hopeless mismanagement of ceremonies by their regal ancestors.
Confusions, muddles, and disorganizations were the order of the day. It was  supremely frustrating, irritating, and inexcusable that the English made so many mistakes, even lethal, in presenting the monarchy to the nation. Ceremonies of the highest significance and importance — coronations even –  were so lamentably organized and delivered that the English monarchy became a byword for ineptitude.
We owe improvement to Prince Albert.
Queen Victoria, only 18 when she ascended the throne in 1837 had far better things to do than worry about ceremonial derelictions. For openers she was free of the heavy thrall of the Duchess of Kent, her mother; perhaps the ultimate controlling Stage Mother of all time. The first thing the new queen did was order her bed to be taken out of the bedroom she had shared all her life with her mother… then order dinner to be served to her alone, the first time that had ever happened. She was free, free at last! She was queen, her every wish a command instantly carried out. A few glaring mistakes in court ceremonial counted for nothing.
But the German princeling she married, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was very, very different. The insidious culture of royal errors and tolerance for same made him nervous, dyspeptic, and determined to apply Teutonic efficiency to the problem. He fumed, he fretted, he even wept at the minuscule progress. But there was progress. Just not enough of it.
As the grasping English built the largest empire ever assembled on  this planet, their royal pageants continued to be notable for all the wrong reasons: they were lackadaisical about the protocol that consumed other royal houses; thereby causing endless hurt feelings. Their planning was always of the too little, too late variety. And like clockwork, security arrangements were so lax that every ceremony produced a bumper crop of dead, the victims of English inability to get it right… and without fatalities.
All this is no doubt known to Elizabeth II and the princes of her house and their constant motto is “Never again!” Thus, they are fastidious in the business of Getting It Right. When the English were a great nation, the sovereigns themselves were scarcely punctilious about such matters; but with only the shadow of empire remaining, they are all adamant that the royal ceremonies, in which they so prominently feature, be the very essence of polished perfection.
Hence the list of do’s and don’ts now circulating amongst the honored guests, be they princes of the blood royal or (that democratic touch the royals are close to perfecting) personnel from the various charities patronized by the bride and groom. In Windsor eyes there is really no difference between them. For them there are, after all, only two ranks: Sovereign… and the rest.
Now to the various admonitions, politely phrased of course as suggestions, recommendations. But they are in fact royal commands and must be treated as such.
1) Don’t give the queen a friendly hug. Michelle Obama, First Lady of these United States did something akin to that and the royal reaction was a tad below frosty.
2) Don’t tweet. You are attending an historic event. Curtail all distractions.
3) Be on time. On this of all days, there is no such thing as fashionably late, even by a minute. The Queen is the last person to take her place; to upstage her is lese majeste, intolerable.
4) Ladies, select an outfit that blends in. You should wear a dress — not too short, not too skimpy, and certainly not white. Most British women will complete the unmistakable (rather frumpy) look that screams “We’re English!” with a hat or a fascinator — a small feathered or jewelled hairpiece attached to a clip or a comb.
More politely disguised commands.
5) Leave your cellphone in the car. No one wants your ring tone to the tune of “The Stripper” to be part of the record.
6) Make sure you have all necessary medications with you. You need to know that no one, absolutely no one, will facilitate your egress to get them… and you will not be allowed to return either.
7) Visit the facilities as often as necessary to ensure bladder control. This means limiting liquids, just as you’d do for a colonoscopy, a not inapt comparison. (Avoid the solution adopted by one ceremony attending gent. He brought a soft drink bottle and used it like a chamber pot. The name of the perpetrator and the incident itself was immediately classified.)
“I didn’t really want to go anyway.”
Upon reading these guidelines and rules, you may say, and actually believe, that you didn’t really want to go to this critical event of “Rule Britannia.”
But we’re kidding ourselves, aren’t we? For the chance to see Prince William and be able to tell your non-invited neighbor that he’s taller than he looks on telly is just too good to pass up. Not to mention the bride, and wasn’t she lovely?
Indeed, to secure lifetime bragging rights because we were well and truly invited, we’d all, if ordered, go naked with a full body search to boot. Honi soit qui mal y pense.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a href=”http://HomeProfitCoach.com“>http://HomeProfitCoach.com</a>. Check out Mass Traffic Leak ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=zv3unWbc

‘Happy and glorious…’ Kate marries her Wills and every grumbler on earth has a field day. April 29, 2011.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
What can you say about the quintessential non-event that has over 2 billion viewers showing up to watch with unfeigned interest?
Plenty, if you’re Boston Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham, “God save me from the Queen,” she wrote on April 24, as if her pen were filled with acid reflux. “And especially from their Wedding of the Century.”
Then she goes on her hackneyed way, “I didn’t embrace citizenship of a country defined by its violent rejection of monarchy to turn around and be surrounded by all things royal.”
My, my Mother Abraham is in a pother today… and will, if she keeps on this way, be positively apoplectic by the time Kate becomes, at the touch of a golden ring symbolizing eternity, Her Royal Highness and the world oohs and aahs.
Ms. Abraham is Australian (she has to get that in in every column she writes), and Aussies can be amongst the rudest people on earth; too often priding themselves on just how cheeky and brash they can be. It’s a sign of their often blatant need to “grow up” and abandon their egregious manners for better ones. But Abraham just cannot let go…
“Come Friday, the birthplace of the revolution will be lousy with cucumber sandwiches, Pimm’s Cups and jelly donuts shaped like hearts (Et tu Dunkin D?)”
Why does the lawful marriage of one young man of striking good looks, a mega-watt smile, good posture and average intelligence to one young woman of intelligence, undeniable beauty, a coal miner’s grand daughter who once denied him and broke off their thing, irritate so many… turning otherwise sensible folks into grumps and bores on the subject?
Such people tumble over themselves to recite the reasons for their loud lamentations and hostilities.
* The day for a monarchy has, they assure us, passed… down with the Windsors and every other crowned entity on earth.
* No one should be so privileged as the Windsors are and their ilk. It’s time for them to get with the republican agenda.
* America, as Yvonne Abraham has naggingly reminded, went to war, bloody, long, vicious, to get rid of the very people the wedding glorifies.
* The monarchy is a symbol of all that’s wrong with the world… being at once elitist, privileged, coddled, protected, immune from the realities of life from which we should all be suffering, prince or pizza maker.
Let’s examine these remarks. Is there anything here beyond unsubstantiated opinion, bias, and the need to mouth off?
First and foremost: this is above all else the celebration of a fundamental rite, marriage, the selection for life of one smitten by another, hopefully equally smitten, or even more. A marriage celebrates the decision to try to love, honor, cherish. For 50% or so of the people so venturing divorce and mayhem loom… but people want to try anyway. And they are glad that their princes, too, embrace the concept.
As clever 19th century British journalist Walter Bagehot (1826-1877) wrote in his insightful book “The English Constitution” (published 1867): “A princely marriage is the brilliant edition of a universal fact, and, as such, it rivets mankind.” Spot on.
This marriage will feature more carriages, more guests, more presents, and more media coverage than you got at your wedding… but the heart of this wedding will be the same as yours: “Do you…? Do you…?” And they with all their palaces, wide acres, jewels and powdered footmen to spare will then offer the same simple kiss that you gave your new spouse, the kiss that symbolized your desire to love and live for this now very special person and your sanctified relationship. And at that moment, with that kiss the two billion viewers will be thinking not just of the prince and new princess… but of themselves, of their marriages, their ceremonies… and their personal dreams and illusions. And of how not even princes emerge from fairy tales unscathed.
Their way will feature different problems than yours, but they will face problems all the same. What they are saying is that they want to be with each other as they face these problems. They deserve the same chance that you had and like all newly married couples the same generous good wishes from those of us who know better than they that even princes will need those good wishes in future since no one lives on this planet without costs of every kind and amount.
And as for the comments by designated commentators like Yvonne Abraham, angry that America, the first great republic of modern times, should waste its time watching people whose ancestors robbed, plundered and pillaged amongst us. Have we forgotten that, well have we?
Slow down, darling’, most assuredly you have got your knickers in a twist… and every word beside the point.
Our interest in this marriage and attendant events has absolutely nothing to do with being seduced away from our republican constitution and government. Even the question is silly. First, many millions amongst us have a high regard for the old countries of the United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Ireland. They are part of our history and heritage. To abjure them is to abjure a part of ourselves. Why would we ever want to do that? Even the Founding Fathers didn’t advocate such a course. The men who had toppled George III and his emblems in every colony worked hard after the Revolution to establish diplomatic relations with England. Then they worked long and hard to turn mere relations into an alliance of heart and mind, not just politics and commerce. The United Kingdom, whose monarchy we rebelled against and expelled from our land, is now our closest ally and friend.
Suppose for a moment that you had once quarrelled with your parents. Suppose terrible things, regrettable things were done and said by you and them. Would that end matters, in grief and recrimination? Certainly not, for are they not your parents still and have you no regard for them and the good things they did? And here’s the point: if they invited you to an important event, say a wedding, would you refuse to be friends again? You’d go of course, for auld lang syne.
That is why billions of people will gather round their television sets this Friday, April 29. for us on this side of the Pond at very early hours indeed. We shall watch closely, commenting freely and, for nearly all, in good humor. And when these young now married people go onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace for The Kiss, our hearts will go out to them, not as gaudy royalty but as good people on whose slender shoulders a valued thousand year old institution will in due course be placed. Then they will surely need from us not just cheers, but support. They shall have it from me.
One last word for you, Mother Abraham. In 1999 the citizens of Australia voted in a national referendum about whether to abolish the monarchy and become the Republic of Australia, or not. Your fellow citizens voted 55-45 percent to keep the Windsors and the monarchy.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also a noted historian and author 18 best-selling books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://homeprofitcoach.com/. Check out Commission Maniac -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=rb14eOHk

For royal wedding guests of Prince William and his Kate, April 29, 2011 a list of does and don’ts, especially the latter.

Here is another great article about the history of the royal family!!!
For more updated information visit Happy and Glorius more about this wedding!
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
By now I am sure you are aware that April 29, 2011 is a very special day in the prodigious annals of the British monarchy. H.R.H. Prince William, white hope of the dynasty, marries his Kate… and his grandmama The Sovereign is adamant that all be done just so — or else.
Sadly, you have not been invited. Admittedly it is abashing, even humiliating. But you will be glad to know that the lot of the those precious few invited is not a bed of roses. The empire on which the sun never set is history, but protocol, the right thing done in the right way, is very much alive chez Windsor.
Let’s take a look.
The Windsors are nothing if not keen on pageants that are meticulously planned and flawlessly carried out. They know that it was not always thus in royal ceremonial. One way they know this was by careful scrutiny of my first book “Insubstantial Pageant: Ceremony and Confusion at Queen Victoria’s Court”. (1979). I was the first American ever granted access to the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle… and it was part of the deal that The Queen and Prince Charles get advance copies to increase their knowledge of the hopeless mismanagement of ceremonies by their regal ancestors.
Confusions, muddles, and disorganizations were the order of the day. It was supremely frustrating, irritating, and inexcusable that the English made so many mistakes, even lethal, in presenting the monarchy to the nation. Ceremonies of the highest significance and importance — coronations even — were so lamentably organized and delivered that the English monarchy became a byword for ineptitude.
We owe improvement to Prince Albert.
Queen Victoria, only 18 when she ascended the throne in 1837 had far better things to do than worry about ceremonial derelictions. For openers she was free of the heavy thrall of the Duchess of Kent, her mother; perhaps the ultimate controlling Stage Mother of all time. The first thing the new queen did was order her bed to be taken out of the bedroom she had shared all her life with her mother… then order dinner to be served to her alone, the first time that had ever happened. She was free, free at last! She was queen, her every wish a command instantly carried out. A few glaring mistakes in court ceremonial counted for nothing.
But the German princeling she married, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was very, very different. The insidious culture of royal errors and tolerance for same made him nervous, dyspeptic, and determined to apply Teutonic efficiency to the problem. He fumed, he fretted, he even wept at the minuscule progress. But there was progress. Just not enough of it.
As the grasping English built the largest empire ever assembled on this planet, their royal pageants continued to be notable for all the wrong reasons: they were lackadaisical about the protocol that consumed other royal houses; thereby causing endless hurt feelings. Their planning was always of the too little, too late variety. And like clockwork, security arrangements were so lax that every ceremony produced a bumper crop of dead, the victims of English inability to get it right… and without fatalities.
All this is no doubt known to Elizabeth II and the princes of her house and their constant motto is “Never again!” Thus, they are fastidious in the business of Getting It Right. When the English were a great nation, the sovereigns themselves were scarcely punctilious about such matters; but with only the shadow of empire remaining, they are all adamant that the royal ceremonies, in which they so prominently feature, be the very essence of polished perfection.
Hence the list of do’s and don’ts now circulating amongst the honored guests, be they princes of the blood royal or (that democratic touch the royals are close to perfecting) personnel from the various charities patronized by the bride and groom. In Windsor eyes there is really no difference between them. For them there are, after all, only two ranks: Sovereign… and the rest.
Now to the various admonitions, politely phrased of course as suggestions, recommendations. But they are in fact royal commands and must be treated as such.
1) Don’t give the queen a friendly hug. Michelle Obama, First Lady of these United States did something akin to that and the royal reaction was a tad below frosty.
2) Don’t tweet. You are attending an historic event. Curtail all distractions.
3) Be on time. On this of all days, there is no such thing as fashionably late, even by a minute. The Queen is the last person to take her place; to upstage her is lese majeste, intolerable.
4) Ladies, select an outfit that blends in. You should wear a dress — not too short, not too skimpy, and certainly not white. Most British women will complete the unmistakable (rather frumpy) look that screams “We’re English!” with a hat or a fascinator — a small feathered or jewelled hairpiece attached to a clip or a comb.
More politely disguised commands.
5) Leave your cellphone in the car. No one wants your ring tone to the tune of “The Stripper” to be part of the record.
6) Make sure you have all necessary medications with you. You need to know that no one, absolutely no one, will facilitate your egress to get them… and you will not be allowed to return either.
7) Visit the facilities as often as necessary to ensure bladder control. This means limiting liquids, just as you’d do for a colonoscopy, a not inapt comparison. (Avoid the solution adopted by one ceremony attending gent. He brought a soft drink bottle and used it like a chamber pot. The name of the perpetrator and the incident itself was immediately classified.)
“I didn’t really want to go anyway.”
Upon reading these guidelines and rules, you may say, and actually believe, that you didn’t really want to go to this critical event of “Rule Britannia.”
But we’re kidding ourselves, aren’t we? For the chance to see Prince William and be able to tell your non-invited neighbor that he’s taller than he looks on telly is just too good to pass up. Not to mention the bride, and wasn’t she lovely?
Indeed, to secure lifetime bragging rights because we were well and truly invited, we’d all, if ordered, go naked with a full body search to boot. Honi soit qui mal y pense.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also an authority expert on the royal family and author of 18 best-selling books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Extreme Niche Empires -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=kx53msba

‘I am so happy…’ Some thoughts on Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the next incarnation of Wills and his Kate.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s Note. To get into the right and proper mood for this article, search any search engine for Sir William Walton’s resounding “Crown Imperial.” This was the music Their Royal Highnesses heard as they walked the Westminster Abbey red carpet to their future subjects, the cynosure of every eye. Walton was the perfect choice… you’ll see.
The State Landau, smart and polished had just driven up to the gate where the newly minted, newly married Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were waiting. The woman who started the day as Kate Middleton, turned to her new husband and said the magic words, so telling because we all felt the sentiment before she even uttered it. “I am so happy,” she whispered to her prince, truly charming and a bit abashed by his position this day and perhaps thinking, “Waiting was worth it. I am truly marrying the woman I adore… and everyone is so glad about it. And I do believe she loves me for myself.”
The pageantry and ceremony in general.
In the 19th century, the British and their monarchy were a byword for sloppy, disorganized, and often dangerous royal ceremonies. The person who was most instrumental in changing matters was Queen Victoria’s “beautiful” (her word) hunk the German princeling Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. From his time at Court in the mid-1800s things got better, slowly but surely, as I detail in my book “Insubstantial Pageant: Ceremony and Confusion at Queen Victoria’s Court (1979). By the early 20th century the overall reality of ceremonial muddle had been replaced by a professional approach to showcasing the monarch to his people. The British are now justly renowned worldwide for the flawless pageants that punctuate each sovereign’s reign and present him to his subjects and the world just the way he wishes.
The now traditional and punctilious pageantry we expect was very much on display on Friday, April 29, 2011.  It was a joy to watch the  aspects emerge… particularly given the fact that this event operated under peculiar circumstances… the inevitable, could-never-be-avoided comparisons to the pageantry and circumstances of the marriage 30 years before between Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. The marriage and ceremonial arrangements of Diana, Princess of Wales’ elder son and his beautiful Kate had to be considered carefully so that all of the inevitable comparisons tilted in favor of the soon-to-be Cambridges… as they most surely did.
Princess Diana’s marriage to the heir to “this throne of kings, this England”, Prince Charles was an affair of the highest state; after all the groom was the heir to the imperium. In retrospect, what seemed so beguiling at the time appears as more an event than a marriage. Splendor (and perfect coordination) was there… love and affection were not. It was an omen for the tragedy which followed, besmirching the reputation of Prince Charles and ending in Princess Diana’s sad demise.
Both of Princess Diana’s sons, groom Prince William and justly concerned younger son Prince Harry were clear on what they wanted… a real marriage, a real wedding, true and heartfelt feelings all round.
There is no question but that they got what they wanted… which was a decided relief to the British nation and its Commonwealth… and its Queen, Elizabeth II, who arrived back at Buckingham Palace after the marriage ceremony and proclaimed the day’s events “amazing.” And so they were…
The Married Couple.
After the cynical, loveless marriage of the groom’s mother Princess Diana, the nation and body language experts were on the qui vive for “the truth” about this couple, their wedding, and whether it confirmed (or challenged) the good feelings they had about Wills and Kate, and their pivotal role in establishing just the right reality (not merely image) that will allow the monarchy to flourish after the many crises of the current Royal Family, particularly the much married, much divorced children of Queen Elizabeth, a tawdry, shopworn crew.
April 29th delivered what everyone wanted:  a grounded, affectionate, sincerely attached couple, people who are what they seemed to be, not a scandal waiting to happen.
Kate’s gown was the first clue. Lady Diana’s overdone gown made her look like a confectioner’s bride. Who’s idea was the taffeta anyway? But Kate, chic Kate, delivered exactly what one would have wanted for one’s own family wedding: a form-fitting dress that breathed classic good taste, undeniable (though understated) elegance. It is the dress of a lady of taste, breeding, good judgement, and, so very visible, care, every one a desirable trait for her future job as one-who-may-be Queen Consort.
The little clues so beloved of commentators and would-be cognoscenti began to stack up:
* The interaction between Princes William and  Harry indicated just how close they are; they needed to be given the scandal and tragedy of their parents’ relations. Harry, for all that he’s a known wise-acre, will be lonely now; Wills has other things to do which, even with the best will on earth, will limit time with Harry.
* The way he looked at his bride for the first time in her riveting marriage attire… and said, quite simply, “You look so beautiful.” And so she did… and what every bride longs to hear, the compliment based on affection, awe, and a dawning awareness that he is really getting married, and to the person he has always wanted.
* The body language. As all the world knows, these two people took some eight years to get acquainted, know each other, argue and make up with each other, and love each other. The time they wisely took enabled them to become and be a couple, then yesterday, a married couple. They move together well; I was interested to see how they left the Abbey, hand in hand, the new Duke of Cambridge putting down the heel of one shoe on the toe of the other, so as not to hurry his duchess in her gown and (not too long) train.
Mad for Kate.
I have long been a Kate Middleton admirer; I thought she had just the right traits of heart and mind to be a truly helpful, loving partner to her prince, the better enabling him to do the important work he must do to transform and improve the monarchy in a world of relentless change. After yesterday, my already substantial admiration has substantially increased. She played her part faultlessly and, more than that, with her new husband’s complete concurrence they turned their marriage from an event of monarchy and nation into a true wedding, dedicated to each other and their friends and family, including their great nation.
Everything was done well, thus delivering just what everyone wanted: two deeply devoted people with a great task, historic task before them, ready now together ready to do the best we well know them capable of.
And so the newest Royal Duke is now His Royal Highness of Cambridge, the old shire, not the University and Kate gets what the Duchess of Windsor could only long for, the coveted letters HRH. True, of the many new Royal Dukes of Cambridge since the 17th century, not one has been notable for anything other than his capacity for strong drink and wrong women and oodles of FitzCambridge children, royal byblows. Queen Victoria always had trouble with the Cambridges of her day, but from these self-same Cambridges came a pillar of the dynasty. That pillar was Queen Mary, Elizabeth II’s dutiful, God fearing, monarchy reverencing grandmother… may our new duchess find such traits in herself. God Save the Queen (to be) and may she remain happy and glorious!
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also a recognized royal expert and historian having penned 18 best-selling business books. Watch for his online televised interviews about the Royal Wedding of William and Kate. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a href=“http://HomeProfitCoach.com“>http://HomeProfitCoach.com</a>. Check out Job Crusher 2 ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=qt4GFHKF