Bringing the Royal Family up to date and creating a slimmed-down monarchy is clearly proving trickier than was envisaged.
The chorus of curtsies revealed by an updated protocol in the royal pecking order has spread confusion just weeks after the very public message of the way forward was road-tested on the Buckingham Palace balcony during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
With just Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince William and Kate and Prince Harry alongside the Queen, it sent out an unspoken statement that here was the future.
Protocol: The Duchess of Cambridge curtsies as she and her husband Prince William bid farewell to the Queen during a visit to Vernon Park in Nottingham
Now comes the revelation that the Duchess of Cambridge technically must curtsey to Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, because — though a future Queen — Kate is a commoner and Prince Andrew’s daughters are ‘blood’ royals.
The instruction comes in a new order of precedence which has been circulated among the royal household following Kate and William’s wedding. It has, however, added to the ripples of discontent which I understand have emerged in the immediate aftermath of the Jubilee celebrations.
