One of the things I couldn't stop thinking about with this book was the point where the royal timeline diverges. Its place in American history is very specific, and thematically relevant. We're placed in a beautiful fantasy world where Trump doesn't exist, the world that might have been if the hopeful, progressive momentum that the Obama presidency induced in the cultural consciousness had continued. Alex as a budding politician with big dreams, as a figurehead, grapples with how he is perceived in this context in regards to his sexuality and race on an international scale.

(Complete tangent. Given the number of references to Alexander Hamilton, and the year this book is set, but the complete lack of references to Hamilton the musical, my conclusion is that this alternate timeline was created because Lin Manuel Miranda killed Donald Trump, and thus was too busy to write Hamilton. I will not be taking questions at this time.)

The royal line is just straight nonsense, there's no acknowledgement of any real royals since Victoria and Albert*. Now I don't expect McQuiston to care about that, they are, after all, American, and they can't help it. But I found myself compelled to trace the point of canon divergence in this timeline.

Since Mary Mountchristen-Windsor is clearly a stand-in for Elizabeth Mountbatten-Windsor, the obvious divergent point is the next generation up, with George VI. King George only became king because of the abdication of his brother Edward VIII*. Edward VIII abdicated the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, whom he wasn't allowed to marry given her, gasp, TWO divorces. (Ignore the fact that the Church of England was invented to allow for divorce, this is different.)

So let's imagine for a moment that Edward VIII didn't abdicate, and instead broke it off with Simpson and married some crown approved, acceptable heiress, and pretended he wasn't tragically sad about losing the love of his life. Edward and Wallis never had children, but in this timeline he would, the first of which he named Mary. And lo, Mary begat Catherine, who begat Philip, Beatrice and Henry.

I like this theory because it has some interesting metatexual themes. Obviously Henry doesn't know he lives in an alternate timeline, but we do, and it is one characterised by the simple choice of his great grandfather to deny the desires of his heart in favour of what's best for the appearance of the royals. Henry lives now fighting tooth and nail for the right to publicly acknowledge his sexuality and relationship, because eighty-five years earlier, his great grandfather did not.

This also lines up their ages quite nicely. Edward VIII’s proposed lineage would be about 10-15 year behind the current crown, and Princess Catherine was very precisely 10 years younger than the Charles formally known as Prince.

(*technically Edward VIII is mentioned in passing as the great uncle who abdicated to become a Nazi. I’m choosing to ignore this throw away line because I had formed this whole theory before I got to it. Let’s be honest, the crown is probably lousy with Nazis, could be any one of 'em.)