The Prince Harry thread.

On the other hand, his brother, like their father, just has to wait, maybe for most of his life, for the call to come, while a younger brother can get on with his life on the assumption that, like me and you, he won't be king. The future George IV apparently said being Prince of Wales was "a condition", meaning a kind of illness or disability.

Compared with Edward the seventh (Prince Bertie) he has a way to go. He even had a loving chair made specially for him in a Paris brothel!

I don't think we'll ever see another Bertie.

I was born in the U.K. and live here again now, but spent a great deal of my childhood in the U.S.. As a result I have very complicated views about the royal family which I won't bother boring you all with. Having said that,
if there is one member of the royal family I'll forgive for acting a little outrageously at times it's Prince Harry. He's a helicopter pilot, an army officer, and a spare heir; all things which make me expect him to do things like get naked with strange women in Las Vegas Hotel rooms. Also, I saw a program during the Diamond Jubilee that mentioned some of Bertie's scandalous behavior and I have to agree: We'll never see another one like him but boy would it be fun if we did!

Bertie was never the paragon of virtue that his mother and particularly his stuffy father wanted him to be. Prince Albert (his father) died young and Victoria was convinced that his condition was exacerbated by his worry over his son and some travelling he did to chastise the boy after yet another incident. Victoria left her son in no doubt that the only way he'd get the throne was if she died. I think after that, knowing that he was at fairly long odds his behaviour worsened. From all reports he wasn't that bad a king when he finally did get crowned following his mother's death.

He was in fact a very good king and very popular with the people, who of course in those days were kept in the dark about his amorous exploits.
Even Edward the eighth's relationship , even though it was allover the US newspapers was kept out of the British press until very late in the event.

I had no idea that helicopter pilots were particularly dissolute (it must be the vibrations) or that they migrated to Las Vegas for sex. Perhaps they were all born there, like salmon? I should clarify that I do not believe all salmon were born in Las Vegas, only most of them.

I can see where the vibrations might cause certain interesting symptoms in young men.

Maybe playing up is a helicopter pilot thing. Prior to marrying Sarah, Prince Andrew was quite the playboy prince, even having a famous affair with soft porn actress Koo Stark (referred to in the tabloids as Koo Starkers). The portrayal of the Duke of Kent in Upstairs Downstairs suggested that he was a bit of a party boy, too.

From Peter Wilby's column in this week's New Statesman (a left-wing political weekly):

"Those who demand privacy for royalty make a category error, like demanding human rights for cats. Members of the royal family have no role beyond providing public entertainment; apart from a certain facility with horses, they have no talents or skills to admire. Harry's medieval ancestors, it's said, were required to perform before witnesses on their wedding night to ensure the marriage was properly consummated and the royal succession assured. I see no reason, therefore, why we humble subjects shouldn't, if we wish, look upon his bare bottom."