tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/royal-baby-6450/articlesRoyal baby – The Conversation2019-05-02T21:54:14Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1160562019-05-02T21:54:14Z2019-05-02T21:54:14ZRoyal baby: Did Meghan Markle have a home birth?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272103/original/file-20190501-113855-cw2e0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C29%2C3957%2C2620&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, arrives for her baby shower at the Mark Hotel on Feb. 19, 2019, in New York. She was rumoured to want to deliver her baby at home rather than in hospital. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Kevin Hagen)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Duke and Duchess of Sussex — Prince Harry and Meghan Markle — have <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/world/buckingham-palace-says-prince-harrys-wife-meghan-has-gone-into-labour-with-their-first-child">announced the birth of their first child</a>, a baby boy. </p>
<p>While the world has waited anxiously for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/06/world/europe/meghan-markle-baby-boy.html">news of this British royal birth</a>, there has been intense speculation about where Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, would deliver her baby. </p>
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<p>Reports that she wished <a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a27097980/meghan-markle-home-birth-report/">to deliver her baby at home</a> for reasons of <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6904657/Meghans-home-birth-plan-Duchess-Sussex-wants-baby-home.html">privacy and comfort</a> have renewed debates about the safety of home birth. </p>
<p>While some media reports were positive about the idea, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/13/meghan-markle-home-birth-should-not-blind-us-to-risks-for-most-women">others warned about the risks</a> of childbirth in general and, in particular, when it takes place at home.</p>
<h2>A home birth is a safe choice</h2>
<p>In the United Kingdom, <a href="http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/choice-policy-and-practice-in-maternity-care-since-1948">most women gave birth at home until the 1960s</a>. After the National Health Service was established, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK328267/">the Peel Report</a> of 1970 recommended universal hospital birth. By 1975, only five per cent of women still gave birth outside of hospital. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://vanierinstitute.ca/context-understanding-maternity-care-canada/">story in Canada is similar</a>, with a sharp move away from home birth occurring in the middle of the 20th century. Safety for both mother and child has been declared the reason for this shift. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272108/original/file-20190501-117598-1h25p4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272108/original/file-20190501-117598-1h25p4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272108/original/file-20190501-117598-1h25p4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272108/original/file-20190501-117598-1h25p4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272108/original/file-20190501-117598-1h25p4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272108/original/file-20190501-117598-1h25p4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272108/original/file-20190501-117598-1h25p4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Research in Canada shows that women who planned a home birth had lower rates of obstetrical intervention, such as pain medication and fetal monitoring, and lower rates of caesarean section.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>However, there is little evidence that hospitals have made birth safer for women who are experiencing normal, healthy pregnancies.</p>
<p>I am a registered midwife in Ontario and an assistant professor in the midwifery education program at McMaster University. My colleagues and I take great pride in providing evidence-based care to the pregnant women who choose midwifery care. We know that good evidence supporting the safety of home birth has been lacking in the past. </p>
<p>Recent research from several countries, however, has shown that for those with low-risk pregnancies, giving birth at home is a safe choice.</p>
<h2>Lower rates of caesarean section</h2>
<p>In Canada, three studies — one from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.081869">British Columbia</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.150564">two</a> from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-536X.2009.00322.x">Ontario</a> — have looked at the outcomes of more than 21,000 planned home births. </p>
<p>The planned home birth group included women who were transferred to hospital. They were compared to the outcomes for low-risk women having hospital births attended by midwives or family physicians. </p>
<p>These studies all showed that the outcome for newborns was the same. But the women who planned a home birth had lower rates of obstetrical intervention, such as pain medication and fetal monitoring, and lower rates of caesarean section.</p>
<p>Similarly, in England, a <a href="https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc3223531">study of place of birth</a>, including home birth, concluded that, overall, outcomes for the newborn did not differ by place of birth. </p>
<p>The newborns of first-time mothers, however, did have a slightly higher chance of a poor outcome. On the other hand, in the Netherlands, where home birth is more common, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0528.2009.02175.x">a study of 529,688 births</a> showed no differences in newborn outcomes between home and hospital births, even though more than 40 per cent of women in the study had planned a home birth.</p>
<h2>Publicly funded midwifery is essential</h2>
<p>A key component that promotes the safety of a planned home birth is the existence of regulated and well-trained midwives who are integrated into the health-care system. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272111/original/file-20190501-117607-1332qqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272111/original/file-20190501-117607-1332qqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272111/original/file-20190501-117607-1332qqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272111/original/file-20190501-117607-1332qqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272111/original/file-20190501-117607-1332qqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272111/original/file-20190501-117607-1332qqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272111/original/file-20190501-117607-1332qqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada recently released a statement supporting home birth for healthy, low-risk women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>In Canada, the U.K. and the Netherlands, midwives receive university-level education. Midwifery care, regardless of birthplace, is publicly funded, and access to emergency services and hospital birth is readily available. Smooth transfer to hospital, when needed, is an important part of safe home birth services.</p>
<p>In Canada, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jmwh.12896">approximately 20 to 25 per cent of planned home births</a> are transferred to hospital. Most of these transfers are for non-emergency reasons such as prolonged labour or need for pain relief. In many cases, midwives continue their care for the woman in the hospital.</p>
<p>Currently <a href="https://www.ontariomidwives.ca/home-birth">in Ontario</a>, about 4,000 or three per cent of the 140,000 births that occur per year are planned to take place at home. </p>
<h2>A long tradition of royal home births</h2>
<p>Over the past few years, planned home birth has increasingly gained acceptance by obstetricians. The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada recently released <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jogc.2018.08.008">a statement that supports the choice of home birth for healthy, low-risk women</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272101/original/file-20190501-113861-iqakxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272101/original/file-20190501-113861-iqakxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272101/original/file-20190501-113861-iqakxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272101/original/file-20190501-113861-iqakxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272101/original/file-20190501-113861-iqakxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272101/original/file-20190501-113861-iqakxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272101/original/file-20190501-113861-iqakxn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Britain’s Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, leaves King’s College, London, after joining a panel discussion to mark International Women’s Day on March 8, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)</span></span>
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<p>In the United Kingdom, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence <a href="https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg190/chapter/Recommendations#place-of-birth">recommends that healthy women with uncomplicated pregnancies consider out-of-hospital birth, including home birth</a>, to reduce rates of intervention, especially caesarean section.</p>
<p>If the birth of Baby Sussex did, indeed, take place at Frogmore Cottage, it will become part of <a href="https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/a27113224/meghan-markle-home-birth/">a long tradition of royal babies born at home</a>. </p>
<p>And, no doubt, a royal home birth would spark an increase in this choice of birth place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116056/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathi Wilson has previously received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.</span></em></p>A professor of midwifery education reviews the research evaluating the safety of home versus hospital births.Kathi Wilson, Assistant Professor, Department of Midwifery, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1159282019-04-26T10:03:56Z2019-04-26T10:03:56ZMeghan Markle reportedly seeks a private childbirth – medieval women really did have one<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270961/original/file-20190425-121241-9hmupd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C146%2C3733%2C2667&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Privacy, please. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-march-11-meghan-markle-1335905381?src=VZoR9y4qQcKwk378Z0fvmg-1-4">Mr Pics/Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The British royal family <a href="https://twitter.com/victoriaarbiter/status/1116273837082075136">has released a statement saying</a> that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will keep plans for the arrival of their baby private. Other royal births have been announced almost immediately, with the new family posing for photographs soon afterwards on the steps of the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s Hospital in London. Meghan and Harry, however, have chosen to “celebrate privately as a new family”, before placing their baby in the public eye. </p>
<p>As the London <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/royal-baby-meghan-markle-prince-harry-pregnancy-birth-when-due-title-a8840136.html">media speculates</a> about when and where the birth will take place, the modern craving for instant information and “access-all-areas” insights has never been more apparent. Despite established <a href="https://www.gov.uk/data-protection">privacy laws</a>, information continues to spread, leak and diffuse – often without the subject’s consent. The fact that the Duchess had to make the request at all is, in itself, a telling sign. </p>
<p>Indeed, Meghan’s desire to retain privacy surrounding her impending birth has a historical precedent. The intimate – and largely lost – realm of the medieval “lying-in” room is a reminder that the modern predilection for publicising the deeply personal was not always the norm. </p>
<h2>A long lie-in</h2>
<p>Most pregnant women in the middle ages were tended to by other women, during an extended lying-in period of around two months, before and after childbirth. This private zone gave expectant women the time and space to prepare for, and recover from, childbirth, while awaiting the moment they were permitted to re-enter the church, in the ceremony of purification after childbirth. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270699/original/file-20190424-19297-ulbfbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270699/original/file-20190424-19297-ulbfbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270699/original/file-20190424-19297-ulbfbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270699/original/file-20190424-19297-ulbfbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270699/original/file-20190424-19297-ulbfbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270699/original/file-20190424-19297-ulbfbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270699/original/file-20190424-19297-ulbfbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270699/original/file-20190424-19297-ulbfbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The birth of St Edmund, from Lydgate’s Lives of SS Edmund and Fremund, England, 1434–1439.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">British Library</span></span>
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<p>A 15th century manuscript miniature of the birth of St Edmund depicts the birthing chamber, midwives and female companions. The new mother rests in her bed as she is fed, made comfortable and soothed with aromatics by the women who care for her, while the baby is warmed before the fire.</p>
<p>The lying-in room was a womb-like space, adorned with tapestries for privacy and warmth, with daylight limited often to a single window, and herbs scattered across the floor to create a pleasant scent with therapeutic benefits. Women of higher social status were often bestowed with brooches, pendants and books depicting icons of healing saints, as well as jewelled girdles and statues of female saints. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270705/original/file-20190424-121237-1n4yton.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270705/original/file-20190424-121237-1n4yton.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270705/original/file-20190424-121237-1n4yton.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270705/original/file-20190424-121237-1n4yton.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270705/original/file-20190424-121237-1n4yton.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270705/original/file-20190424-121237-1n4yton.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270705/original/file-20190424-121237-1n4yton.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270705/original/file-20190424-121237-1n4yton.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A painted birth tray, depicting a mother lying-in, by Francesco di Michele c.1410.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Harvard Art Museum</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Painted birthing trays, or salvers – such as this <em>desco da parto</em> from Florence – were given to wealthy women after childbirth, to serve mulled wine and clean linens: a sign of the value bestowed on noble births. Though present in this depiction, men were rarely permitted to enter the lying-in room – entrance was by invite only, through the monitored doors. </p>
<h2>Wandering wombs</h2>
<p>Childbirth was a dangerous business for mother and child in medieval times, regardless of their social station. Of course, royal births in the middle ages were different to those of peasant women, whose return to the hard labour of everyday life would demand a less luxuriant recovery period. But while aristocratic households could afford the services of university-trained male physicians, hands-on care remained the job of the midwife. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270843/original/file-20190424-121258-1is3oua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270843/original/file-20190424-121258-1is3oua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270843/original/file-20190424-121258-1is3oua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270843/original/file-20190424-121258-1is3oua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270843/original/file-20190424-121258-1is3oua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270843/original/file-20190424-121258-1is3oua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270843/original/file-20190424-121258-1is3oua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270843/original/file-20190424-121258-1is3oua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Disembodied wombs with foetal positions and a pregnant female in Wellcome Apocalypse (MS 49), f. 38r, c.1420.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wellcome Library</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The medieval gynaecological and obstetrical handbook known as <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/13753.html">The Trotula ensemble</a> contains instructions for midwives on how to deliver a baby safely. Medieval understandings of the female body included the <a href="http://exhibits.hsl.virginia.edu/antiqua/gynecology/">ancient Hippocratic belief</a> that a woman’s womb was like a living creature that “wandered” around her body – a stereotype of “unruly” women which <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/trump-women-hysteria-and-history">still lingers today</a>. The postpartum uterus was seen to be particularly disordered. The Trotula author notes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The womb, as though it were a wild beast of the forest, because of the sudden evacuation falls this way and that, as if it were wandering. Whence vehement pain is caused.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such notions of the “wandering womb” are manifest in images from medical manuscripts that show the uterus “floating” around the words on the page. These disembodied wombs show common foetal presentations, and a reasonably accurate knowledge of anatomy – surprising, in an age when human dissection was taboo and male physicians had limited access to women’s bodies. </p>
<h2>Dragons and divination</h2>
<p>The story of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_the_Virgin">St Margaret</a>, the patron saint of childbirth, was well-known to women in the middle ages. Margaret was swallowed by a dragon but, after making the sign of the cross, was expelled quickly. Her popularity reveals how an uncomplicated birth was desired just as much throughout history.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270713/original/file-20190424-121262-1do5fmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270713/original/file-20190424-121262-1do5fmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270713/original/file-20190424-121262-1do5fmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270713/original/file-20190424-121262-1do5fmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270713/original/file-20190424-121262-1do5fmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270713/original/file-20190424-121262-1do5fmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270713/original/file-20190424-121262-1do5fmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270713/original/file-20190424-121262-1do5fmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">St. Margaret and the Dragon. From an illuminated medieval Book of Hours. Walters Manuscript.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Walters Art Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just as our modern fascination at guessing the sex of newborn babies remains, various medieval techniques for predicting the sex of a baby abounded. This one from The Trotula requires some careful orchestration: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In order to know whether a woman is carrying a male or a female, take water from a spring and let the woman extract two or three drops of blood or milk from her right side and let these be dropped in the water. And if they fall to the bottom, she is carrying a male; if they float on top, a female.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s safe to say that Meghan and Harry are unlikely to try this at home. But these medieval practices show that – unlike <a href="http://blog.catherinedelors.com/marie-antoinettes-first-laying-in/">Marie Antoinette’s hugely public birth</a> in the 18th century – watched by a plethora of spectators after her obstetrician called, “the Queen is going to give birth!” – childbirth need not always be a public spectacle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115928/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Kalas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Duke and Duchess of Sussex wish to keep the arrival of their baby private – and it’s caused some consternation. But this was normal for most medieval women.Laura Kalas, Lecturer in Medieval Literature, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/408092015-05-02T19:12:15Z2015-05-02T19:12:15ZBaby’s first photo call: how the royals learned to act normal<p>After a day of waiting, the world’s press got their first look, and first photographs, of the newest member of the royal family at around 6pm on May 2. The picture of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge standing outside the hospital doors, new baby in Kate’s arms, will be one of the defining images of the year.</p>
<p>The young parents may well have been relieved by the lower level of frenzy that has surrounded the birth of their second child. For one thing, it probably made the whole experience a lot easier to deal with. But for another, it helps William and Kate cement their status as the most “normal” royals in the palace.</p>
<p>Taken literally, the royal family is, just that – a family, albeit with a dynasty spanning thousands of years. But the idea of the monarch and their relatives as an exemplary, model unit has been a key aspect of royal family PR for more than 100 years.</p>
<h2>The road to normal</h2>
<p>The value of presenting the royals as ordinary people was first recognised during Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s reign in the 19th century. The couple’s down-to-earth attitude and strict standards of personal morality made them icons of Victorian values. And the marriage of their nine children into various European royal dynasties earned Victoria the nickname “the Grandmother of Europe”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79368/original/image-20150426-14581-1f9avez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79368/original/image-20150426-14581-1f9avez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79368/original/image-20150426-14581-1f9avez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79368/original/image-20150426-14581-1f9avez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79368/original/image-20150426-14581-1f9avez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79368/original/image-20150426-14581-1f9avez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79368/original/image-20150426-14581-1f9avez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Victoria and Albert, waiting for a takeaway.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Around 100 years later, during World War II, King George VI’s two daughters, Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) and Princess Margaret, were used by the government as an emblem of national loyalty and wartime stoicism.</p>
<p>Their apparent steadfastness in the face of wartime threats and sacrifices was illustrated by photographs of the young girls in a variety of relaxed, carefree poses. These were aimed at reassuring the public of their collective safety – even if the pair were generally positioned in front of unidentifiable backdrops to shield their location from potential attacks.</p>
<p>The national affection for the family, and in particular for Princess Elizabeth, never waned, and her accession in 1952 when she was already a mother to two young children – Charles and Anne – was a popular move.</p>
<p>The decline of the British Empire and the rise of the Commonwealth placed the new queen at the apex of a worldwide, multicultural family, and so it followed that she must exhibit comfort and contentment with her “normal” family life.</p>
<p>This idea of normality became central to the workings of the royal institution and the monarchy was pushed to embrace the popularity of television and the illusion of intimacy this promoted.</p>
<p>In 1969 the family featured in the first royal <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNgO31HUiFM">fly-on-the-wall documentary</a>, which showed them cooking a barbecue together at Balmoral. The Queen prepared salad while Charles and Anne grilled sausages. The documentary was hugely popular at the time, even if it is now <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1346984/The-home-movie-doesnt-want-Why-Queen-STILL-keeping-wraps-fly-wall-film-changed-view-Royals.html">embargoed by the Queen</a>.</p>
<h2>21st century normal</h2>
<p>This iconography of family values is now best embodied by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. After the birth of Prince George in 2013, they were pictured sitting on the grass in the Middleton family garden, along with their dog Lupo, mirroring the pose of the Queen’s family 53 years earlier. No doubt with baby Cambridge number two, a similar shot will be produced.</p>
<p>This is partly just a reflection of celebrity culture in general, where public relations are enhanced through carefully managed and structured intimacy. The royal family is, after all, an institution like any other, with <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04xtmvf">press relations officers and spin doctors aplenty</a>.</p>
<p>But there is also more than a hint of class disguise at play when William and Kate spread out on the lawn. As <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Talking-Royal-Family-Professor-Michael-Billig/9780203314067">Michael Billig</a> wrote, this performance of ordinary is part of “an ideological job of settlement” which staves off antipathy towards royal privilege from the lower classes. To maintain their popularity (and, ironically, their superiority), they have realised they must be relatable and in touch with everyday values.</p>
<p>This has been perfected by <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/28/comment-royal-baby-kate-william">yummy mummy Kate and everyman William</a>, who have successfully embodied what looks to all intents and purposes like an upper middle-class lifestyle – despite the vast hereditary wealth and hundreds of staff at their disposal. The very image of the couple on the grass with baby George is carefully choreographed to match the middle-class ideal, right down to being taken in the Middleton family garden, and there’s certainly no opulent palace towering behind them.</p>
<p>Likewise, seeing William emerge from a hospital wing carrying his new child in a car seat, before driving her and his wife back home himself, mirrors the experience of many young fathers, even if the gaggle of press watching his every move (and the helicopter tracking his car) does not.</p>
<h2>The trouble with normal</h2>
<p>But as the real middle class is being squeezed ever tighter by <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-simple-win-win-case-for-higher-wages-in-britain-37074">stagnant wages</a>, the rising cost of living and low employment rates, is it helpful to have Kate and William, whose second home <a href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/59880/anmer-hall-inside-william-and-kates-country-home">Amner Hall</a> cost the taxpayer millions to refurbish, as the pin-ups of upper middle-class aspirations?</p>
<p>These images are essentially propaganda. They mask William and Kate’s class privilege and hereditary wealth, and most importantly, their constitutional and institutional power.</p>
<p>The monarchy may not be politically powerful in any traditional sense, but it is still extraordinarily socially, culturally and economically powerful. And in an age in which <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/26/crisis-what-crisis-britains-richest-double-their-wealth-in-10-years">inequality is rising beyond recognition</a>, masking this power is particularly dangerous. It normalises upper-class lifestyles, luxury consumption and hierarchical class structure. It makes colossal wealth inequality into a natural fact of life, and intensifies the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/09/children-uk-victorian-conditions-inequality-child-poverty">contemporary stigma</a> attached to the working classes. </p>
<p>As the whole world melts into a typically <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/royal-baby-the-most-tenuous-pr-campaigns-surrounding-the-birth-of-the-spare-heir-10195513.html?dkdk">sycophantic puddle</a> over Kate and William’s daughter, we need to start addressing the mythology that surrounds the couple. We shouldn’t forget that the monarchy is an institution – and a powerful one at that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40809/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Clancy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How the royal propaganda machine tries to make hereditary millionaires seem just like the rest of us.Laura Clancy, PhD Student, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/408122015-05-02T12:08:11Z2015-05-02T12:08:11ZRoyal baby: it’s a girl! And thank heavens she wasn’t born in 1516<p>A new member of the British royal family has been born, in the form of a daughter to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"594443545118924800"}"></div></p>
<p>The royals have received warm congratulations from the prime minister, deputy prime minister and the leaders of the opposition parties.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"594445455330795520"}"></div></p>
<p>But the birth of an English princess has not always been a cause for celebration. In February 1516 the Venetian ambassador congratulated Henry VIII upon his daughter’s birth, remarking that “the state would have been yet more pleased had the child been a son.” Henry replied that “if it was a daughter this time, by the grace of God the sons will follow.”</p>
<h2>Cast out</h2>
<p>In centuries past, an English princess was a valuable prize on the royal marriage market. Royal women were expected to secure marriages with foreign princes in order to create diplomatic links with other kingdoms. These marriages helped cement the power of the monarchy on the European stage. </p>
<p>Royal women might also marry into the English nobility, creating blood ties between the monarch and his most powerful courtiers. But these unions were also subject to the changing political fortunes of the time.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79501/original/image-20150427-18138-1gfz9fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79501/original/image-20150427-18138-1gfz9fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79501/original/image-20150427-18138-1gfz9fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79501/original/image-20150427-18138-1gfz9fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79501/original/image-20150427-18138-1gfz9fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79501/original/image-20150427-18138-1gfz9fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79501/original/image-20150427-18138-1gfz9fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A drawing of the young Joan of England.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JoanEngland.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some unions were doomed never to take place. <a href="http://historyofengland.typepad.com/blog/2013/10/107-the-death-of-joan.html">Princess Joan</a> was only 14 when she died of plague in 1348 en route to her wedding in Castile.</p>
<p>Still, other princesses were destined for a happier fate. </p>
<p>Princess Mary was married to the ageing Louis XII in 1514. He died just a few months later, apparently worn out by his exertions in the bedchamber. The widowed Mary defied her king and <a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/relative/charles-brandon-mary-tudor/">secretly married the Duke of Suffolk</a> when he arrived in France to accompany her home. It was a rare example of a royal princess who was able to marry for love.</p>
<p>Still other princesses never married and were dedicated to a religious life. <a href="http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/inconvenient-woman.html">Princess Bridget</a> was sent to Dartford Priory in Kent to become a nun in around 1487.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79485/original/image-20150427-18170-1c3ggnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79485/original/image-20150427-18170-1c3ggnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79485/original/image-20150427-18170-1c3ggnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79485/original/image-20150427-18170-1c3ggnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79485/original/image-20150427-18170-1c3ggnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79485/original/image-20150427-18170-1c3ggnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79485/original/image-20150427-18170-1c3ggnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Princess Mary Tudor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/6813430647/sizes/l">lisby1</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite their royal blood, the daughters of a king were not, in the past, expected to sit upon the throne in their own right.</p>
<p>It was believed that women by their nature were unfit to exercise power; God, it was argued, had created women to be under obedience to men. Henry VIII firmly believed the wisdom of his age, and famously married six times in his quest to secure a male heir.</p>
<p>His daughters Mary and Elizabeth eventually ascended to their father’s throne and became the first ruling queens of England. Both came to the throne with popular support, but they also faced uphill battles to establish themselves as female rulers.</p>
<p>The institution of monarchy in England was gendered male, from the language of royal business to the coronation ritual itself, which involved 15 knights of the bath plunging naked into a tub and receiving a kiss on the shoulder from the king. Mary I was forced to reassure her subjects that her sovereignty would not be threatened when she married Prince Philip of Spain – whereas Elizabeth I famously refused to take a husband throughout her long reign.</p>
<h2>Equal footing</h2>
<p>Since the 16th century, England has been ruled by a number of queens. Two of them, Elizabeth I and Victoria, have given their names to golden ages.</p>
<p>Despite all this progress, princesses have only recently assumed an equal footing with their brothers in one important aspect of royal life: it was not until a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15492607">landmark ruling in 2011</a> that the eldest child of the monarch was ruled to take precedence in the succession regardless of their sex.</p>
<p>The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s as-yet-unnamed daughter becomes fourth in line to the throne, bumping her uncle, Prince Harry, down into fifth place. </p>
<p>The birth of Prince George in 2013 means that England will see at least three future generations of kings. But even if this baby never makes it to the throne, the birth of an English princess is at least a cause for celebration these days.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40812/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynsey Wood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The life of a princess has traditionally not been pleasant.Lynsey Wood, PhD Student, Associate Lecturer, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/161542013-07-22T19:33:37Z2013-07-22T19:33:37ZIt’s a boy – but baby Cambridge deserves choices in life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27891/original/6kbvnjrq-1374555258.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Their child shouldn't be trapped in the role.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Matthews/PA Wire</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Not for the first time in our long lives, Prince Charles and I find ourselves on parallel tracks, our first grandchildren born within weeks of each other. I offer him my congratulations, and hope that the experience will be as delightful for him as it has been for me. </p>
<p>Our paths first ran parallel almost 50 years ago, when we went to Australia as teenage schoolboys in 1966. Charles was sent there to boarding school for a couple of terms, a formative experience, apparently – “If you want to develop character, go to Australia”, as he <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/queensland-floods/prince-charles-says-being-called-a-pommy-bastard-in-australia-was-good-for-his-character/story-fn7iwx3v-1225995304245">put it recently</a>, going on to mention some of the character-building nicknames employed by his Australian schoolmates. </p>
<p>I encountered those same character-building opportunities (and nicknames) as a migrant from the UK – my family arrived just three weeks after Charles left. We went our separate ways after that, of course. He came up to Trinity College, Cambridge, had a memorable gig in Wales in 1969, and has now served his country and the Commonwealth for more than 40 years. I went to the Australian National University, Canberra, making the first of many choices that also turned out to lead - happily though much more slowly - to Cambridge and to Trinity College. </p>
<p>But the biggest difference is that in common with most of my generation, in countries such as Britain and Australia, I made choices about what to do with my life. Charles did not, to an exceptional extent. Important as his life’s work is, he did not have the opportunity to choose it, or to volunteer for it, in any meaningful sense. </p>
<p>We don’t know how conscious he has been of this lack of choice, but from the outside - from the perspective of someone who has had choices - his life looks like “a comfortable form of inherited imprisonment”, as one of his biographers <a href="http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20100343,00.html">described it</a> long ago.</p>
<p>This brings me to what puzzles me about reactions to the happy news about Charles’s grandson. It is the apparent indifference, on the part of everyone who expresses views on these matters - from the most <a href="http://www.norepublic.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4329&Itemid=1">loyal monarchists</a> all the way through to <a href="http://www.republic.org.uk/">staunch republicans</a> - to the fact that this child faces the same fate as his famous grandfather. Nobody seems to care about baby Cambridge’s views about whether he wants to be King of England.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27623/original/wnh35zsy-1374063951.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27623/original/wnh35zsy-1374063951.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27623/original/wnh35zsy-1374063951.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27623/original/wnh35zsy-1374063951.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27623/original/wnh35zsy-1374063951.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27623/original/wnh35zsy-1374063951.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27623/original/wnh35zsy-1374063951.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Born to rule.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">YT Blue</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I <a href="http://theconversation.com/time-for-some-royal-prerogative-lets-give-kates-child-a-choice-11518">wrote about this</a> in The Conversation six months ago, when the initial news about Kate’s pregnancy bought some welcome cheer to a cold Cambridge winter. I pointed out how dismayed most of us we would be if the state decided to conscript <em>our</em> children for future public office - if the prime minister turned up on our doorstep, with the news that our child was going to be brought up to be Archbishop of Canterbury, or master of Trinity, or something equally splendid. But that’s precisely the situation facing baby Cambridge and his future siblings. The only difference is that the prime minister doesn’t need to make a house call – the entire nation just takes for granted that that’s the deal.</p>
<p>I asked whether this is acceptable. Does baby Cambridge really have fewer rights than all other children to be born in Britain over the next few years? If not, then we are simply not entitled to presume that he will wish to spend his life in our service, with all that that entails.</p>
<p>Since then, I’ve had some interesting feedback. Critics of my argument make two main points, the first neatly encapsulated in the words of one kind correspondent, who says that the “justification for hereditary monarchy is that it guarantees the continuity of the state”, and “the curtailment of freedom that being the heir to the throne involves is a price worth paying for the constitutional stability that a monarchical system secures”. </p>
<p>I have two responses to this. First, the evidence for the claim about continuity seems debatable, to say the least. Is Switzerland less stable than Sweden, say, or Austria than Belgium, or the US than Canada? (In each case, the first is a republic, the second a monarchy.) Second, I wasn’t proposing the abolition of the British monarchy (or of any of the handful of other modern democratic monarchies, in Europe or elsewhere). I was simply suggesting that it should be made fairer to the individuals on which it depends - at the very least, that the succession should be opt-in, rather than opt-out. (I suggested that eligible candidates should have the option of adding their names to a line of succession, and of removing them again, once they reach a certain age.) </p>
<p>So even if we were to grant - as I do not - that curtailment of the freedom of the heir would be a price worth paying for some modest increase in national stability, it is a completely unnecessary cost. With a little bit of thought, we could devise an efficient means of cleaning chimneys that didn’t involve children.</p>
<p>Some commentators seem to deny this, suggesting that the role of head of state in a system like Britain’s is so critical that we need to train people from childhood to do it. “A child likely to become the monarch needs a particular education/training for the role”, as one comment put it on my original piece. </p>
<p>I have two responses to this, too. First, if it were true that so much depended on the proper training of children then wouldn’t it make sense to choose the candidates a little more carefully - to screen them for intelligence, character, sociability, and the like, at six or seven years old, rather than relying on chance in such an important matter? More seriously, the idea that these constitutional tasks depend on childhood training is amply refuted by the long experience of countries such as Canada, New Zealand and Australia, where the roles are filled by governors-general, who are chosen for the job not on the basis of special childhood training but of distinguished contributions to public life. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27622/original/yws6wbft-1374063698.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27622/original/yws6wbft-1374063698.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27622/original/yws6wbft-1374063698.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27622/original/yws6wbft-1374063698.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27622/original/yws6wbft-1374063698.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27622/original/yws6wbft-1374063698.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27622/original/yws6wbft-1374063698.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">No one doubts that Quentin Bryce is up to the job.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Government House, Canberra</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The present governor-general of Australia, for example, is Quentin Bryce, a grandmother of 10 herself, who, as her <a href="http://www.gg.gov.au/">official website</a> notes, “enjoyed a rich and distinguished career as an academic, lawyer, community and human rights advocate, senior public officer [and] university college principal”, before taking up the reins of state. Should Australians sleep less safely in their beds because Bryce was not trained from childhood for her vice-regal role? On the contrary, the experience of Australia, New Zealand and Canada shows how easy it would be to devise a grown-up monarchy for Britain, that didn’t depend on restricting the options of children and young adults. </p>
<p>It is easy to make fun of these attempts to rationalise what amounts to conscription for public office, but they reflect the deep and sincere affection that many people in Britain and the other modern monarchies feel for the institution, and for the families on which it depends. Unfortunately, affection for the institution, love of its traditions, is blinding these well-intentioned folk to the injustice to the very individuals on which the monarchy depends. </p>
<p>On the other side, those <a href="http://www.republic.org.uk/">republicans</a> who would prefer to abolish the monarchy altogether are so much in the grip of the idea that it represents an archaic form of privilege, that they, too, are blind to the injustice to the royal children themselves. </p>
<p>In my previous piece I predicted that as in cases like <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23338279">gay marriage</a>, fair-minded people will soon agree that tradition needs to make way for simple justice. Some way will be found to make the monarchy less unfair. And it will probably survive, like marriage, more robust and popular than ever for dealing with the unfairness at the heart of its present version. </p>
<p>I pointed out that if we moved quickly, this change could be in place in time for the new baby Cambridge to benefit from it – before he goes to school, for example, and learns that his opportunities are different from those of other children. Hence my closing question, which I repeat here. Don’t we owe it to this welcome child to make this change, and to do it soon?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/16154/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Huw Price does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Not for the first time in our long lives, Prince Charles and I find ourselves on parallel tracks, our first grandchildren born within weeks of each other. I offer him my congratulations, and hope that…Huw Price, Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.