Look closely at the narratives about contemporary royal women and you will see a repeating pattern, each characterised as the monarchy''s saviour or a destroyer, saint or sinner, or describing an arc between those poles. It is when royal women attempt to define themselves, carve out meaning for themselves, that things get really interesting. ''She won''t go quietly. That''s the problem,'' said Diana in her controversial Panorama interview. Nor did she. The requirement that royal women give up their voice was already out of step with those earlier times and her instincts. Her sons'' wives have taken openly divergent paths, Kate dutiful, Meghan kicking against the restraints. Their sharply polarised supporters reject the idea of any commonalities, yet they are there. Both women have seen their lives instrumentalised and distorted. To appreciate royal women and their significance more clearly, it is necessary to unpick the storylines written for them, the preconceptions projected on to them. They are globally famous and universally misunderstood. Crown Jewels will unmask characters far more complex and interesting than standard portrayals suggest-and also spotlight the fragility of the monarchy. For more than a century apparently unsinkable, the House of Windsor is floundering. The most compelling and consequential players in this unfolding endgame are royal women.

Autorentext

Catherine Mayer is a bestselling nonfiction author, novelist and an award-winning journalist, whose career spans stints at the Economist and as the editor of TIME magazine in Europe. She co-founded the Women's Equality Party and Primadonna Festival. Her biography, Charles: The Heart of a King, generated worldwide headlines with its claims of dysfunction in the royal courts. She has participated in many documentaries on royalty and appeared on a wide range of broadcast outlets across the world, joining the ITV News teams for special coverage marking the the death of Elizabeth II and coronation of Charles III.

Klappentext

Globally famous and yet universally misunderstood - these are the complex and utterly engrossing stories of Britain's royal women behind the public façade.*Saints or sinners? Perfect princesses or difficult duchesses? Monarchy's saviours or its destroyers?*They rank among the world's most famous women - and the most misunderstood. Throughout history, royal women have been sanitised and sanctified by supporters, distorted and demonised by critics, pitted against each other, and misrepresented by the media.

In this extraordinary portrait, journalist Catherine Mayer examines the lives of the central players, and the echoes and parallels that have run throughout history. The stories of Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I, Victoria, Elizabeth II, Diana, Camilla, Kate and Meghan uncovered by Catherine Mayer are far more fascinating, poignant, surprising and enraging than any of the myths. Divide and Rule reveals these extraordinary women in all their complexity, charting their achievements, quirks, kindnesses, cruelties and profound influence.

Drawing on key sources, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, this book also demonstrates the ways in which history repeats itself - to the detriment not only of royal women but all of us.