"You know what they call them on Deeside?'' The wee man in the Glasgow pub thrust his face closer to mine. "The Germans, that's what they call them, the Germans.'' Though I lived for several years on Deeside, about 20 miles from Balmoral, and had never heard any locals refer to the Royal Family as "the Germans,'' I didn't argue. It was that sort of Glasgow pub, and the wee man had already told me about the knife he always carried. Besides, even if he wasn't absolutely right in what he said, he had a point, sort of, anyway.
Kings and queens are symbols of national unity. For royalists they even embody the nation. Yet they have rarely been thoroughgoing members of the nation or nations over which they reign. This is because from at least the early Middle Ages royals have chosen or been required to marry other royals, who have been almost inevitably foreigners.
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