Exclusive: Princess Kate Has Positioned Herself in a Role the Public "Wouldn't Allow" Marie Antoinette to Be, Says Royal Historian

Princess Kate has always been clear that her family comes first, but according to historian Kate Williams, “royal mother” isn’t an archetype that princesses and queens before her have always been able to choose.

Williams explores the stories of everyone from Grace Kelly to Egypt’s most powerful female pharaoh, Hatshepsut, in her new book, Regina: A New History of Royal Women and Power. The professor and author tells Marie Claire that like “the OG” of brand-building, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Kate also “has used image very effectively and very strategically.”

“I think Kate chose quite sort of early on to occupy the role of royal mother,” Williams says of the mom of three, adding that role “has always been something that royal women have wanted to occupy, but often they're not allowed.”

She points to Queen Marie Antoinette of France, who “wasn't allowed to be seen as the good royal mother” by the public. Williams shares that Marie Antoinette, who was beheaded during the French Revolution, “tried to present herself as the loving mother and no one would have it.”

“They wanted the lascivious, spendthrift woman who was, you know, lacking in morality,” Williams continued. “So Kate, I think quite brilliantly occupies [the role of royal mother] because I think we think, ‘Oh yes, she's a mother, she's being a mom,’ but it's often quite difficult.”

The historian adds that the image of royal mother “is not always one that's kind of easy to present” due to the unique situation women like the Princess of Wales are in. “No matter what they say, you’re not like the average mother in most countries, you know, rushing between work and home or or trying to make ends meet.”

Even when the Princess Kate isn't with her own children, the royal has been able to continue projecting her motherly image through her work with young people and early childhood development, often visiting with schools and children's hospices.

Queen Victoria was another royal woman who was able to effectively present herself in the mother role, Williams says. "Victoria used photography and portraiture to really create this image of the domestic goddess Queen who was totally happy at home as opposed to, you know, she and Albert battling for power," the Regina author tells Marie Claire.

"The image that she created was of the ideal middle-class woman, which both coincided with her power base but also with the sort of allowance in Victorian times that women—middle-class women—could work if it was sort of service and duty and if it was helping others and philanthropy," she adds.