The House of Windsor has been around for a little over 100 years — 106 to be exact — and it’s “quite effective” and “quite savvy,” which is why this Princess Kate photoshop snafu is “quite unusual,” says a current affairs expert.
Daily Express US had the chance to speak to Dr Martin Farr, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary British History at Newcastle University, who shares his thoughts on the current day monarchy and the PR machine breaking, even if, just temporarily.
Dr Farr says: “People seem to want these things, they seem to want a monarch, and it works quite well, and it’s quite effective, and it’s quite savvy.
“So that’s why these days, it’s quite an unusual mistake for them.
“Why is it not controversial that we have a hereditary monarchy? Why is it the case, this extraordinary story about Kate…”
READ MORE: The reason for the British monarchy’s success – how the Firm survives change
In Dr Farr’s teachings, he focuses on what’s happening now and revisits the past to help explain current day goings-on, which is what he does here, revisiting Queen Victoria’s reign.
He says of Victoria, it was “the closest we came to a republic in this country was when Albert died, and Victoria went into mourning for years and was never seen, and that’s partly why Elizabeth II said, ‘I have to be seen to be believed.’”
The current affairs expert believes the monarchy’s success is based on “continuity and age of change,” but he does say he is surprised by “how this one has endured.”
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Dr Farr believes part of the the monarchy’s success story has to do with “management of media” and “having a very pliant media.”
He says: “It’s less pliant now, and the more profound point is that it’s in their interest, like any institution’s interest, to survive.”
He adds: “The shift of reigns have been masterfully done, and the king’s reign was always going to be a short one, a transitional reign.”
“The monarchy to a large extent is an accretion, it accretes, it sort of acquires things and sheds things.”
