Reigning or not a royal is a royal!
Interesting thread.
In the course of my life I have had occasion to know people who - in other circumstances - would be identified as either royal or of noble blood. The backgrounds have all been varied but all have had a curious similarity in that they exhibit certain qualities.
In the women I have noted a physical 'fineness' and in their attitudes and carriage a certain hauteur. (Contrasted by a colleague I once had who was a scion of the Vanderbilt family - raised in opulent wealth and privilege - who yet was the salt-of-the-earth kind of person, so loving and caring of others, with such a lovely disposition, that she was called 'the little Buddha').
In the men I have noted a certain charm and charisma - an ability to rally people to themselves - mesmerizing is a word that comes to mind. In one instance, my friend's antecedents by one generation were Scandinavian nobility/royalty who had left for a life in the US with a forbidden lover one generation back. After WWII his parents were approached by the family to have him taken back to Scandinavia to be raised as the heir of this particular family since the line was dying out, My friend was 3 years old at the time and his parents refused to send him back with the family. However, my friend grew up into a man with considerable charisma, and an ability to rally people around him to a cause or idea.
In sum, I have had the experience that there is a 'something' that exists with the descendants of very ancient lines of 'pedigree'. No matter where they find themselves they rise to the top - like the cream - though oft times the cream can curdle and sour, for sure (like my male friend mentioned above - who was a bit unscrupulous - getting his way - even ignobly - any way he could).
My most recent experience was in the Bahamas a few years ago. I met some
nouveau riche Russians - fabulously wealthy, the usual, what one would expect - and in the course of many conversations learned of the aristocratic background - or blood-line - of the wife. It seems she came from a line of Russian aristocrats that escaped being killed in the area around Odessa at the time of the Russian Revolution. Our conversations were far-ranging and I came to understand this woman's views about servants and what she was 'owed' and how 'rulership' works that had me appalled. It was jaw-dropping. Talk about 'old world' - it was like walking through the looking-glass into an upside-down world from another time. She was in every sense an old-world Russian aristocrat with all prejudices and backward notions intact. I found myself having a wicked thought (which I will say in the next paragraph).
Back in the US I found myself talking to an older friend - Hungarian and of the old world - a grande dame of a woman even though she has spent most of her life in the US, grown up here, in fact - she still retains the finesse of an older world about her. As I described to my friend what I had encountered with the Russian woman, I was about to say my wicked thought - 'You know what, listening to her, I had an awful realization - ' My friend smiled knowingly and finished my sentence - 'That they all needed to get killed off - it was the only solution.' Stunned, I stared at her and said, 'That was my thought - it was the only way events could move forward - I realized that if I were confronted by a whole horde of people who thought like her - well, I'm not saying I would ever do such a thing but I suddenly understood why they did do it back then.' She nodded, 'Its a sad thing to say, I know, but its true - that's the way those people thought back then and they were not going to change. Confronted with that - what were the choices? The rest is all romantic nonsense. Have no mistake - it was beautiful - but it was rotten at the core.' She was not surprised that the aristocratic notions of superiority by virtue merely of blood-line (with all the attendant archaic notions) would survive into the 3rd and 4th generations. What also impressed me about the family, though, were the extraordinary beauty of the children - their intelligence - and even genius in music and the fine arts. If ever there was a cultured milieu - this woman was creating it around her with her wealth. She had an instinct for it - and it was breath-taking. The result: they were special, of another order. The 'superiority' was - perhaps - justified? Complicated for sure - but always when I have these encounters I am struck by the influence of heredity on all levels, not just on the physical.
So when do royals cease to be royals? Good question.
