Robert Lacey on the Order of Precedence

A royal brouhaha this morning as it was revealed that Kate has been ordered to curtsey to the 'blood Princesses'.

Royal writer par excellence Robert Lacey, author of, most recently, The Queen: A Life in Brief, tells the Royalist:

"The job of the Queen is to be just like us, but at the same time entirely different. This question of who curtseys to whom falls into the 'different' category.

"The royal family and inmates of Buckingham Palace take it incredibly seriously. Maintaining the proper 'blood' hierarchy is a matter of team discipline.

"But they would like to pretend to the outside world that it doesn't matter a bit -- and it is certainly true that outsiders are NOT required to bow or curtsey to the Queen or to any other member of the royal family. For non-royals, bowing and scraping is entirely a matter of personal choice - as Michelle Obama demonstrated."

(When Michelle met the Queen in 2009, she did not curtsey and touched her back.)