What are Prince William’s motives for choosing the RAF over Kate Middleton?

Whichever way you look at it his motivation for deciding on four more years in the military is hard to read. The choice is made more puzzling by his apparent sudden change of mind.

Just a few weeks ago William seemed set to spend 2009 learning about constitutional affairs, interspersed with some Royal engagements and other duties. Although it was never explicitly spelled out, most observers had pencilled in a summer wedding with Kate Middleton.

Then, anonymous voices claiming inside knowledge began to put it about that marriage had been postponed for 18 months at least. No reason was given, which made the claims less credible at the time.

Last week the absent bits of the jigsaw puzzle fell into place. William had decided to train for the RAF’s Search and Rescue unit and was intent on becoming a helicopter pilot on active duty around Britain’s shores and wild places.

So what were his motivations, and how does Kate feel about his apparent desertion? The obvious reason is that he enjoys the excitement of service life.

It may also be true that he views marriage as a millstone round his neck. However much he likes being with Kate, it may simply be “the institution, stupid”.

It’s possible that only one of these motives is the real one. Which one would be interesting to know. There’s a lesser probability that both figured in his decision, in which case maybe the French Foreign Legion would be a better choice.

If the first reason is the primary cause of his sudden change of heart, it holds up to the world that he may never be ready to settle down into the boring routine of marriage and Royal duty — at least until he is considerably older.

An even longer life for his grandmother, and an extended reign for his father, might be very welcome to the reluctant Prince.

I’m also beginning to think that Kate may share those views, although not to the extent of being separated from him for the best part of four years.

She may recognize that you have to swallow some bad stuff in order to realize your dreams. As a middle-class female she probably has a better grasp on the realities, like the necessity to compromise a little and settle for what you get.

William, though, as a Prince born to greatness and worldwide fame, may just believe he can have it all without any diversions down unwanted paths and alleyways.

There’s a disconnect somewhere here. Let’s hope neither of the two personalities in this affair gets hopelessly hurt.

It may be that a Christmas announcement is still in the schedule for a May or June wedding next year. In which case the trajectory remains intact. But some sources are warning this is not so, and normal life has been postponed in the foreseeable future.

Since the future of the Monarchy rests on their shoulders, it would be of great assistance if someone known and credible explained the reasons behind this radical change of tack to the great British public.

Some Royal observers are claiming that there appears to be another “turf war” between the rival courts and press offices of Buckingham Palace and Clarence House. This is an old story tracing back to the time of Diana, Princess of Wales, when the rival court was St James’s Palace.

Now it centres on the inexperienced figure of Kate Middleton, who must wonder why so much spite and bitterness is coming her way, not only from teenagers with a crush on her boyfriend, but from Palace sources.

Today’s little local difficulty is a symptom of a debate going on among some Palace courtiers, including close friends of the Queen. To understand it, you have to know something about the ancient traditions of Royalty.

Not so very long ago, it was regarded as a step down in Royalness for one parent to lack a Royal pedigree, even if the other was a Monarch.

For example, Prince Philip’s parents were both Royal, but the Queen’s were a King and an Earl’s daughter (a commoner). Prince William has the same “diluting” factor in his parentage, deriving from Diana, another Earl’s daughter.

While that may not matter a fig these days, the Middletons represent an even further diminution in Royal connections, including a link to a northern coalmining family on Kate’s mother’s side.

Many of the companions and friends of the Queen are much grander than she is in their personal attitudes and opinions. Some are known to be seething that William should even consider such a match, especially if they have an eligible daughter or granddaughter waiting in the wings.

Some have spoken to the press — Richard Kay has put it on record that he has been approached by a “close friend of the Queen” with anti-Kate sentiments.

It would be disingenuous to imagine that the Royal Family have not been affected by this febrile atmosphere, and even had doubts of their own.

The fact that William has stuck with Kate throughout all this is a good measure of his character. He has poignant memories of the long, vicious breakup of his parent’s marriage, which would add to his cautious approach to all things matrimonial.

I’ve written before that I think his, and Kate’s, lives would have been easier had he made his intentions clearer some time ago. Prince Philip’s advice, “Marry the girl or let her go,” was wise counsel.

However, William has used actions rather than statements to reveal his hand. Every invitation to a major Royal event for Kate speaks louder than words. That some people refuse to see that is a reflection on their own pig-headedness — or point-blank opposition to the match.

Royal Anecdotes received a strong tip some months ago that plans were being made for an announcement towards the end of William’s military training. It seemed good timing then, as it does now.

Perhaps while the Prince was yomping across wintry Dartmoor with a 60lb pack on his back, he saw Kate’s exposed predicament as good training for her future role. If she could survive that, she can come through anything.

One thing’s for sure, the final decision will emerge from as complex a soup of opinion, precedent, prejudice and resentment as any young couple have ever endured. It will truly be the road least travelled.

It falls to us here on this Royalist website to give them both the benefit of the doubt.

It’s good to see the Daily Mail threading a little light into the “Waity Katie” obsessions of some commentators and newspapers, including its sister paper, The Mail on Sunday.

On the website they quote a piece in Hello Magazine, in which friends of Kate Middleton rebut the constant stream of antagonism about Prince William’s girlfriend’s lack of “a job”.

Hello reports that Kate has been working full-time at her parents’ multimillion-pound business, Party Pieces, for several months in a 9-5 role editing catalogues for the mail-order children’s party props and costumes enterprise in Berkshire.

“She is annoyed at the headlines saying she doesn’t work,” according to a friend. “She is actually working full-time, is on the payroll, and plans to continue doing the job.”

The MoS stories about the Queen ordering her and Prince William out to work seem wide of the mark. It’s astonishing the Queen hasn’t made a fuss. She was livid with the BBC over their visual misquote in A Year In The Life Of The Queen, the corporation’s ill-fated, but ultimately rescued, documentary series.

The quoted “Royal aides” are clearly waspish towards Kate Middleton and are psychologically inept at best. You could walk an adult bull elephant through the holes in some of the stories. We’ve long suspected these are a self-selecting set with their own agenda to promote.

With Kate, it may be just a shift of tone here and there, as we’ve pointed out before, but it seems to convey the wrong impression of the Monarch’s wishes.

The Queen has always been reluctant to interfere in her children’s private lives. She’s not going to start now at the age of 82.

In an article in today’s Mail on Sunday, Katie Nicholl reports that friends of Prince William and Kate Middleton believe that an engagement announcement is planned for “just before or just after Christmas,” and that a wedding could be in May or June.

If an earlier story is true that Kate will not be at Sandringham until Boxing Day (December 26), it will clearly be just after, which seems like perfect timing to catch the world’s headlines.

The article, however, maintains the Mail’s new policy of acknowledging the Kate-hating crowd of spitting and cursing opponents of her match with the world’s most eligible batchelor. A section of the piece reprints some of the vituperative comments from the paper’s website.

A careful reading of the article reveals it’s in two parts. The first reflecting opinions of some Buckingham Palace courtiers, while the second part concentrates on the view from Clarence House.

These two courts have been at loggerheads with each other since the days of Diana, Princess of Wales. It seems the dogs of war have been unleashed again on the subject of the entirely innocent and inexperienced figure of Kate Middleton.

As Royal Anecdotes reported some months ago, there appears to be a growing faction of “courtiers” at the Palace who oppose the wedding of the two young people. They freely quote the Queen as insisting Kate should get a job and that “she’s not proactive enough.”

I believe there may be some noises of disquiet, particularly from Prince Philip, at the lack of a firm decision on this match. One can imagine him stating that Kate really should be doing something else while she waits. The aim, though, may be to prompt William into “marrying the girl, or letting her go” — a statement attributed to Prince Philip two years ago.

The anti-Kate faction in the Palace has picked up on this theme and translated it as the Queen’s wish that Kate “got a job.” This then becomes “work for a charity.” Have they forgotten that Kate was involved with a charity cross-Channel dragon-boat race last year but was asked to pull out for safety reasons by Clarence House? A dig at Prince Charles’s press team, perhaps?

The article ends with extensive quotes from the Clarence House viewpoint which show the truth at the heart of this story:

Despite this reluctance to co-operate with the Press, Kate’s friends say she has access to Press officers and senior aides at Clarence House, where she is free to come and go at her leisure.

“Kate has a hotline to Clarence House and she listens to everything the Royal aides tell her to do,” said a friend. “When they advised her to pull out of the cross-Channel dragon boat race last summer, she did it immediately. Kate is approached about doing lots of things but the Clarence House staff are often against her taking part because they think it’s too high-profile and they want to keep Kate out of the limelight. She’s in a bit of a Catch 22 situation.”

Royal Anecdotes believes that what is happening to Kate Middleton is very close to persecution. The wave of teenage angst she has had to face from many downmarket websites, including the Mail’s (which is moderated), is almost beyond belief since very few of the trolls will ever have met her. To quote the Kate-haters as proof of anything rational is tantamount to giving up on moderate and accurate journalism.

We’ve long stated that only a quick resolution by Prince William will spare his long-time girlfriend this avalanche of mindless criticism.

We are delighted that an announcement looks possible from Sandringham at Christmas.