Practicality

I remember getting up at 4am in the early 80s to watch the royal wedding. It was the first time I paid attention to the royals. Even as a kid I saw the monarchy as having little to no practical value. Sure, there were fundraisers and charities and such, but the pomp and ceremony and shiny pieces of dirt...it seemed to me to be all show and no substance. No longer did the royals govern. We were in an age of enlightenment. People were given the rights and freedoms to rule themselves many years ago.

Slightly more useful than an appendix. "Tits on a bull". An anachronism from humanity's days living in ignorance and darkness.

And what was up with all that inbreeding? Centuries, millenia of it. King Tut had numerous genetic defects from sister cousin lovin', and it wasn't a new thing then. Sure nothing was known about genetics, but after a few centuries of physical defects, insanity, all the negative outcomes of inbreeding one would expect that doing one's own Mom would have been determined to not be the thing to do for the next few millennia.

They really did not know wtf they were doing.

So I watched the wedding, recognising that in spite of my inate lack of interest I was witnessing history. And over the years I was very impressed with the performance of the princess. And quite underwhelmed with the rest of them.

No practical function.

I believed that for a long time.