A bird's eye view of royals and their swans
The recent royal engagement spotlighted a strange menu choice: royals have been eating mute swans for hundreds of years. But don't even think of running afoul of these fowl
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LIKE every other plebeian, I was engrossed last week in the coverage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's engagement. Amid devouring news about how he proposed, where the diamonds came from, and when they plan to marry - don't judge; us commoners need to get our excitement from somewhere - I suddenly found myself flying way off-track, and fanatically reading about swans instead.
That was all because of a single paragraph in a Guardian piece headlined: "An American's guide to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's royal union". About halfway through the piece, this gem emerged: "As a member of the royal family, Markle will be able to eat swans. The Queen owns all mute swans in Britain - it is illegal for commoners to kill them. The law dates back to the 12th century, when the royal family particularly enjoyed eating swan, and didn't want the hoi polloi gobbling them all up."
Wait, what? First and foremost, what is a mute swan (swans can speak?), and second, why - and how - would one even eat such a majestic creature?
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