I wasn’t going to write this post as I thought it might be a bit sensitive for some. However, Royal Anecdotes’ readers are grown up so it should not be a problem with them. If the views expressed here seem to contradict earlier pieces, let me explain the distinctions. I don’t believe what happened to Kate Middleton had anything to do with snobbery. It was certainly Realpolitik and, in particular, the preservation of the world’s greatest Royal house.

In the clash of dynasties, who you are is more important than what you are.

After the Norman Conquest in 1066, the English Monarchy was for centuries regarded as French by the English people. To this day, some Parliamentary documents are still written in 11th-century Norman French.

When the Elector of Hanover was put on the throne as George I in 1714, he spoke only German. Three hundred years later the British Royal Family is still called “the Germans” by its enemies, despite George V’s name change from Saxe-Coburg to Windsor in the early 20th century.

By contrast, Prime Ministers disappear when they quit office. Most of them leave little trace. The next one may be totally different in type, character and background. But a King needs the right connections on his escutcheon or his perceived failings will reverberate for centuries.

Back in February it was commonly believed that Prince William would announce his engagement to Kate Middleton. Well-connected journalists Richard Kay and Geoffrey Levy thought so. Kate herself expected it, we’re told. Most of us thought it was a done deal.

Now they have split up. What went wrong in February?

I have no direct knowledge of what happened, but looking at the situation from a Royal historical perspective — which won’t be understood by many in these democratic times — I believe the following scenario prevailed :

On the 22nd of December, Christopher Wilson wrote an article in the Daily Mail about his researches into Kate Middleton’s lineage. He called the piece, “Kate, the Coal Miner’s Girl“.

It was around then that the atmosphere cooled dramatically. Kate didn’t go to Sandringham for Christmas. William didn’t turn up at the Middleton’s Scottish retreat for New Year, and a tension was perceptible between them. After a few month’s grace, the relationship was called off.

Undoubtedly, many words have been spoken in private — words we’ll never hear, nor should they ever be released into the public domain. This is not about snobbery or personal superiority, or even about Carole Middleton. The public will judge it as such, of course, but in fact it goes way beyond that.

It is essentially about dynastic survival. Were William to marry Kate — as personally suitable as she is — the House of Windsor would be changed forever.

The aristocracy can be very curt about lineage, especially the lesser families. European Royalty is particularly cutting about alliances not seen to be Royal. You can imagine a future European Royal occasion in which the hosts sigh and say, “Do we have to invite the coal miners?”

Left-wing rags would stop writing about “the Germans” and adopt the same term instead. In the clash of dynasties the House of Windsor would be diminished forever.

A country can always change its Prime Minister or President. Britain will even survive the depredations of Tony Blair. But once the Royal house is marked by genetic inheritance, it’s judged by that forever.

I believe that is what happened between late December and February. I may be wrong, but we’ll never know the truth of the case. The Royal Family keeps its secrets well, as it should.

This is not about the Middletons personally, but the long timelines of Royal inheritance. At the level of Monarchs, times don’t change much.

We’re starting to get pre-Christmas publication of books that would make ideal gifts, or, as we say here in the UK, stocking fillers (don’t ask).

Corgi and Bess — More Wit and Wisdom from the House of Windsor contains a goodly selection of amusing Royal anecdotes collected by Thomas Blaikie, whose previous book was, You Look Awfully Like the Queen.

The work is a smile-a-minute romp through Royal life and engagements with the Queen usually bearing up under trying circumstances and other members of her family behaving according to character. If you enjoy Royal gossip — and why wouldn’t you if you visit this site — you’ll like this book.

It’s a simple format, anecdotes grouped under chapter titles, like, “Family Rivalry — Who is the Loveliest of Them All?” and “Royal to the Core”.

The hard cover version, published by 4th Estate, is compact and fits easily in the pocket for reference on train journeys or similar excursions.

Here are two extracts to give a flavour of the book :

“At Eton Prince William came across a fellow-pupil throwing stones at a swan. ‘Stop that you ginga [ginger] bastard! he cried. ‘Those are my granny’s swans.’ [In England all swans are owned by the Queen].”

“Kenneth Clark, Lord Clark of Civilisation, found himself being frog-marched into being Surveyor of the King’s Pictures by George V.

‘Come and work for me,’ he barked.
‘I wouldn’t have time to do the job properly.’
‘What is there to do?’
‘Well, Sir, the pictures need looking after.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with them.’
‘But people write letters asking about them.’
‘Don’t answer them.’ ”

Would-be King, Anthony Hall.

Secret files released today reveal that a claimant to the Throne, who regarded King George V as an interloper, threatened to chop the sailor King’s head off back in the 1930s.

Reuters reports: An ex-policeman who claimed to be related to King Henry VIII threatened to behead the reigning monarch and take his place on the Throne in the 1930s, according to secret files released on Friday.

The “quarrelsome and scandalous” campaign by former police inspector Anthony Hall against George V ruffled feathers in Buckingham Palace and at the heart of government.

“I claim the crown,” Hall wrote in a letter to the King. “You have no connection with the British Royal family. You are an outsider. Therefore, leave this country.”

Although dismissed by officials as “mere ravings”, Hall’s antics sparked a flurry of correspondence between the police, Government and the Palace on how to silence him.

George V, grandfather of the Queen, was keen for Hall to be arrested, according to official documents released for the first time by the National Archives.

“His Majesty quite agrees that a stop should be put to his effusions,” the King’s Private Secretary Sir Clive Wigram wrote in a letter to the Home Office.

At one of several public meetings, which attracted audiences of up to 600, Hall said he wanted to be the first policeman to “chop off the Monarch’s head” and the first to be crowned King.

At another he said he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot the King “like a dog”. Hall claimed a direct blood link to the Tudor dynasty which ruled from 1485 to 1603.

George V, who changed his family’s Germanic surname Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor during World War One, was a “pure-blood German” who had no right to be King, Hall argued.

Moves to detain him in a psychiatric hospital foundered when doctors found “no absolute proof of unsoundness of mind”.

Police in Birmingham finally arrested Hall in July 1931 for disturbing the peace. He was found guilty and ordered to behave himself or pay a £25 fine.

Hall’s dream of being crowned “King Anthony” was dashed along with his plans to scrap taxes, build thousands of police stations and set up a Ministry of Pleasure to “revive the ancient merry times”.

What a grand nutcase.

Prince Michael of Kent so resembles the murdered Tsar Nicholas II of Russia that he is feted whenever he goes there. Older people with long memories sometimes fall at his feet in homage. It helps that he speaks fluent Russian and clearly plays up to the part.

In May this year Michael will sail down the Volga river to the town of Kostroma, in what is called “the cradle of the Romanovs”, to dedicate a new bell at the cathedral. His maternal grandmother, Grand Duchess Helena, was a first cousin of the last Tsar of all the Russias.

Ephraim Hardcastle quotes a friend saying: “[Prince Michael] feels at home there. It’s now a big thing for [him]. In a way he’s making amends for our Royal family refusing sanctuary to the Romanovs, who were murdered with their children and servants at Ekaterinburg in 1917.”

King George V made the decision on the basis that it might stir up trouble in Britain if a deposed Tsar was brought to the country. In the event, he bitterly regretted his actions when he heard of the family’s deaths.