Bringing Them Up Royal

When Princess Diana became a mother, many were surprised by her parenting style warm and nurturing, she stood in stark contrast to the generations of aloof, insensitive royal parents who had gone before her. Stories abound of Prince Philip reducing a young Charles to tears with his bullying yet by royal standards he was a model of parental indulgence. Henry VIII played his daughters off against each other, alternately exiling and honouring one and then the other, George I cut his children off from their mother when he had her imprisoned, George III violently attacked his son, George V allowed one of his sons to be starved by a nanny. As a new generation of princes and princesses comes of age, Bringing Them Up Royal reveals the truth about what its like to be raised as a member of the royal family. Tracing hundreds of years of British history, David Cohen weaves a compelling and sometimes shocking tale, full of arresting psychoanalytical insights and twists. Intertwining history with child psychology, this unique study maps the changing face of royal parenting from 1066 to the present day and suggests how it might develop in the twenty-first century. Bringing Them Up Royal is a story of violence, sex, betrayal, cruelty and the occasional gem of kindness and wisdom.