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After all, Charles did marry a commoner: a vivacious, strong-willed young woman, who is unpompous and unintimidated. It was, for instance, Diana's decision not to have her baby at Buckingham Palace, as the Queen had wanted. She has said that her Princeling will travel with his parents on state tours. It was presumably also Diana—who had worked with children—who had the last word when it came to hiring the nanny, Barbara Barnes, 39, who says firmly that she will not wear a uniform and has learned her philosophy of governance (plenty of fresh air and exercise, among other things) on the job—not by going to Nanny U.
Understandably, few could wish the bonny babe ill. Even France's Communist paper L'Humanite ended its three-paragraph story with the inaccurate but well-meaning comment: "God save the next little King." Indeed, as the London Times headlined one story, IN ITS SMALL PERSON ALL OUR TRIBAL HISTORY. Commentators were quick to point out that the Prince will come of age in the year 2000, which will make him a young man of the 21st century. Thus, they noted, he should be widely and democratically traveled, fluent in at least one or two foreign languages, and more intensively and extensively educated than any other monarch in Britain's history. Above all, even while perpetuating the mystique of monarchy, he will need to be at home with computers and the whole array of space-age technology that may assure Britain's economic survival. He may not have a Merlin to guide him, but the auspices for a future monarch have seldom been more exciting.
—By Michael Demarest. Reported by Mary Cronin and James Shepherd/London
* The Prince's grandfather, Prince Philip, played squash with an equerry while Charles was born. His great-great-grandfather, George V, read Pilgrim's Progress during the birth of one son.