ROYAL TRAINING

In Great Britain, any woman who is set to marry an heir-to-the-throne, will undergo a rigid training and tutorial sessions on how to live a life of a Princess.

The training includes how to dress and appear in public, how to meet people, the appropriate behavior when gracing public engagements, the social etiquette and many more.

Royalty has a unique lifestyle and manners entrenched by their tradition which sometimes incomprehensible to the "outsiders" (meaning commoners).

In 1981, after the official engagement of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer was announced, she came to live with the Queen Mother at the Clarence House to feel the air of staying in a royal household. Two months before the royal wedding in July 1981, she was transferred to Buckingham Palace to be familiarized with the royal routine.

According to the book of Kitty Kelly "The Royals", Diana was given numerous books about British monarchy history to understand her future role better (as Princess of Wales and eventually as Queen Consort). She was told to wear a hat in public, wave on the elbow and not on the palm, never offer a hand when meeting people, smile gently and should not screech in laughter, walk cautiously and most of all never pee in a public toilet.

Royals never carry cash or credit cards because the household expenses are usually handled by the Master Steward who get the budget from the Civil List. Overseas tour and other public appointments are planned six months ahead and usually under the scrutiny of the palace courtiers.

The late Queen Mother, an epitome of royalty. She was the former Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, youngest daughter of the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, she married King George VI when he was still the Duke of York. In 1952 after the King died from coronorary thrombosis, she became the Queen Mother when her daughter ascended as Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen Mother maintained that royalty should appear dignified and reserve in public. When Sarah Ferguson, the wife of her grandson, Prince Andrew the Duke of York, was lambasted by the media for being too vulgar, the Queen Mother bitterly attributed her rough and showy manners to being a commoner.

The Queen Mother when she was still the Queen Consort during the reign of her husband, King George VI, displaying the famous "royal wave" and smile. She had an exceptional public charm and refined character that people in Britain called her the most beloved figure in the Kingdom.

It was during those training days that Diana learned one agonizing truth of being a Princess, that a wife of a future British heir cannot afford to put a wrong foot forward, should not disappoint the subjects and not allowed to display gaudy behavior in public-just like ordinary people.

The royals strictly follows the upper-lip system of the monarchy which says "never show emotions in public" much more a "shriek"! But it seems that is not what the public gets when they saw Kate Middleton in Belfast. If she had lived, surely, the Queen Mother who disliked the idea of non-aristocrats joining the royal family, will be disturbed with the "chosen one" of her great grandson who would one day become King William V.

The late Princess of Wales, Diana with her stylish hats. Unlike Kate Middleton who seems did not pass any royal training, Diana was trained on several royal etiquette before her wedding, she was also tutored how the Princess of Wales should behave.

Everybody knows she is marrying a future British King and because she is a middle class woman, some of her manners and social etiquette must be polished for her to appear completely "royalty". Unfortunately, after the engagement was announced, she was not told to live in Buckingham Palace or any other royal household to be trained in royal duties.

So some of her public etiquette seems left unpolished. Early this March, when she and Prince William went to Belfast, Northern Ireland, for a one-day visit, Miss Middleton displayed a very common gesture, pulling and tossing a pancake in the air shrieking with a wide mouth--for sure some royalists would be thwarted with her unrefined behavior.

Buck house (royal family's informal term for Buckingham Palace) must give her additional tutorials how to appear dignified in public and to let her understand better how to carry her future role with distinction and grandeur.