Prince William, who modestly calls himself Will, is very much in the news again. Although the press is generally well disposed toward him, this time he is presented in the most positive of lights. The young man is shown cleaning a toilet, cooking porridge, and so on, just like everyone else. By the way, no-one else is actually shown doing these things, but we get the point. These images, taken during an excursion to Patagonia together with a group of young people the Prince’s age, appear to have been released by the Royal Palace itself. The release is purported to demonstrate Will’s democratic ways, but the truth is not so straightforward, of course. Unbeknownst to the ignorant multitudes enthralled by the unprecedented spectacle, this is precisely how noble youths have been raised for ages. Cleaning of toilets and cooking of porridge were part and parcel of the military democracy of the aristocracy. Barely a century after its purported demise, the nobility’s ways are as much of a mystery to the masses as those of the Martians. The Martians? Even they are not much of a mystery any longer.