ABSTRACT
Media Accounts of the British monarchy tend to focus on a depressingly limited number of themes and particularly, of course, on the marital and extra-marital relationships of the younger royals. The most prevalent explanation of the declining public estimation of the monarchy is not so much in terms of what they do, however, but how it is reported. Royal dalliances, after all, hardly constitute historical novelty. The real harm, monarchists lament, is done by the instant and detailed publicity afforded by modern communications, since legitimation of the crown demands that it retain an aura of mystery, and mystery sits uneasily with tabloid headlines screaming out the latest royal peccadillo.
