We have watched "The Crown" on Netflix. I didn't know much about being royal, but I have had a little experience that being in charge of others may not be fun or easy. I knew that Edward VIII had abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson. As I watched the episodes about Elizabeth II and those in the series "Victoria", I realized that being born into a royal family would probably seem to me to be a terrible experience. Philosophers like to debate the matter of the existence of free will. Children often dream of having great, maybe unlimited, power. They think that status would enable them to have all desires met all the time.
I have never been the king of anything, but I have had many experiences that tell me that Buddha was right about "everything changes". I know that even the best monarch could make a mess of things, and that human ambition in oneself and others, as well as resentment, hatred and twists and turns of opinion could be difficult, maybe impossible, to avoid.
I sometimes forget the words I use to describe my own ancestry: I am descended from cockroaches and algae. I think the biologists would balk at the cockroaches as being a different line of descent but far enough back, I am confident the bugs, the algae and I had common ancestors. It seems that a person is king or queen based on one's ancestors but not too far back.
Watching "The Crown", I felt I knew what was going on until I saw a Greek nun. What? Who? Why, that is Alice, Princess Andrew. I bought Hugh Vickers' book about the woman, who turns out to be Queen Elizabeth's mother-in-law. So far, I have learned that the woman was born in Windsor Castle, in the presence of her greatgrandmother, Queen Victoria. Alice was born deaf but learned to read lips very well. Alice and her son, the husband of Queen Elizabeth, are also members of the royal families of Greece and Denmark.
Alice was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1930 (when she was 45) and placed in a sanitarium. Apparently, she was even treated by Sigmund Freud at one point, although (pretty standard for Freud, unfortunately) he said she suffered from sexual frustration and...induced early menopause in her.
After Alice recovered, she stayed in Greece, converted to the Greek Orthodox Church, founded an order of nuns against the wishes of her family, and devoted her life to religious work from then on.
https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a29472096/princess-alice-the-crown-season-3/
