Is the Aura of the British Monarchy Fading Away?

“The 19th-century constitutional writer Walter Bagehot wrote that the monarchy’s power lay in its mystery and warned that letting ‘daylight in on the magic’ would be disastrous,” Owen Matthews wrote in Foreign Policy last year. “Britain’s modern monarchy has to try to retain its magic while remaining more illuminated than ever before.”

That illumination, so to speak, was clearer than ever this week when controversy over an edited photo of Princess Catherine and her three children dominated headlines and sparked a slew of conspiracy theories on social media. This edition of Flash Points offers insight into all the fuss and considers the role of the British monarchy in the modern world.

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Princess Catherine, BBC Dad, and the New Picture Perfect

FP’s Amelia Lester considers what the reception to two viral moments reveals about our evolving global culture of authenticity.

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Royal Weddings Are a Fairy Tale. They Used to Be High-Stakes Diplomacy.

Once upon a time, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would have been instruments of foreign-policy ambition, Richard Evans writes.

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Why Do Royals Get Away With So Much?

Prince Andrew’s entanglements with Jeffrey Epstein lack the usual excuse of affairs of state, Harriet Williamson writes.

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Queen Elizabeth II Was a Pillar of Stability in Tumultuous Times

Her successor will need to adapt while also protecting the age-old magic of the monarchy, Owen Matthews writes.

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How Rich Are Britain’s Royals?

The House of Windsor owns huge tracks of land and all the swans in the country. What does that even mean? FP’s Cameron Abadi discusses this and more with FP’s Adam Tooze.