英王子の結婚 愛される王室復活の一歩に

The Yomiuri Shimbun (May. 1, 2011)
Britain's royal wedding could help revitalize monarchy
英王子の結婚　愛される王室復活の一歩に（4月30日付・読売社説）

The wedding ceremony of Britain's Prince William and Catherine Middleton, commonly known as Kate, was held in Westminster Abbey in London on Friday.
　英国のウィリアム王子とキャサリン（愛称ケイト）・ミドルトンさんの結婚式が、ロンドンのウェストミンスター寺院で行われた。

Prince William is the first son of the late Princess Diana, who in life captured the hearts of many people around the world, and Prince Charles. He is second in line to the throne after his father.
　新郎は、かつて大勢の人を虜(とりこ)にした故ダイアナ妃とチャールズ皇太子の長男で、父に次ぐ英王位継承者である。

This is the first time in more than 350 years that a future king of England has married a so-called commoner. The royal nuptials were broadcast live around the world and watched by an estimated 2 billion people.
　将来の英国王が一般家庭出身の女性と結婚するのは約３５０年ぶりで、挙式の模様は世界中で中継され、推計２０億人が見守った。

This shows public interest in the British royal family remains strong. The popularity of "The King's Speech," which won this year's Academy Award for Best Film, also helped shine a global spotlight on the royal wedding.
　英王室が依然として、人々の強い関心の的であることを示したと言える。米アカデミー賞を受賞した映画「英国王のスピーチ」も、注目に一役買ったのだろう。

It appears, however, that Britons' feelings toward Friday's royal wedding are different from the sentiment that greeted the wedding of Prince William's parents 30 years ago.
　ただ、英国民の挙式を見る目は王子の両親が結婚した３０年前とは少し違っていたようだ。

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Royals haunted by scandal

The wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana swept people in up a fairy tale world, and set off a royal frenzy. 　チャールズ皇太子とダイアナ妃の挙式の際、人々は「おとぎ話」の世界に浸り、熱狂した。

In the 1990s, however, the couple separated and divorced, and Princess Diana died in a car crash in 1997. These events brought to light a number of conflicts within the royal family that had been hidden from public view.
だが、１９９０年代になって、二人の別居、離婚、妃の事故死が続き、それまで隠されていた王室内の葛藤がさらけ出された。

The image of the royal family as Britain's ideal family--a portrayal carefully nurtured since the Victorian era of the 19th century--fell apart.
　１９世紀のビクトリア朝時代から英王室が育んできた「理想の家庭」像が瓦解したのである。

During the 1990s, the divorces of Prince Charles' sister Princess Anne and brother Prince Andrew also created an uproar and provided plenty of fodder for the tabloids and other media.
　９０年代には、皇太子の妹のアン王女や弟のアンドリュー王子の離婚騒動もあり、英王室は大衆紙の格好の餌食になった。

The British royal family is no stranger to marital scandal, including that of King Henry VIII, who separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century.
With the British royal family often in the headlines for all the wrong reasons in the 1990s, some influential newspapers went so far as to call for it to be abolished.
　英王室の結婚をめぐる醜聞は、離婚問題でカトリック教会と袂(たもと)を分かった１６世紀のヘンリー８世をはじめ、数々の先例があるが、９０年代の騒動では、一部の有力紙が王室廃止論まで唱えた。

According to recent opinion surveys, however, three out of four Britons support the existing constitutional monarchy.
　しかし、最新の世論調査では、英国民の４人に３人が現在の立憲君主制を支持している。

Prince Charles' conduct is sometimes said to have been a remote cause of events that ultimately led to Diana's death, but support for his taking the throne has increased to about half of the British populace.
ダイアナ妃の悲劇の遠因をつくった皇太子についても、王位継承を認める国民が約半数にまで増えた。

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Moves to revise succession

The recovery in support for the British royal family apparently reflects a strong attachment to a constant institution in life during an age of radical change.
　英王室への支持が回復した背景には、変化の激しい時代に、変わらないものへの愛着があると言われる。

The increase in Islamic immigrants and a new phase of stratification in British society also might have heightened people's desire to keep a symbol of integration in place.
イスラム教徒移民が増え、社会の新たな階層化が進む中で、国民統合の象徴がやはり必要だと考えられてもいるのだろう。

Some members of the royal family have made efforts to get closer to the people.
　王室自身の改革努力も見逃せない。

Queen Elizabeth II herself now pays taxes, a gesture of cooperation with belt-tightening by the royal family.
エリザベス女王は自ら税金を払い、王室の緊縮財政に協力するようになった。

The royal family also has been keen to portray itself as open to ordinary citizens.
今は「開かれた王室」をアピールしてもいる。

The right to the British throne has long been passed on preferentially to male lineal descendants of the royal family. But in recent years, there has been increased discussion of changing royal succession laws to allow the first child of a reigning monarch to take the crown irrespective of gender.
　英国では王位は直系男子優先で継承されてきたが、性別にかかわらず長子が継承する制度に改める議論も進んでいる。

Crown Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako canceled their scheduled attendance at the wedding ceremony in consideration of the hardships victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster are going through. Nevertheless, we hope the Imperial family will deepen its friendly ties with the British royal family.
　日本の皇太子ご夫妻は大震災の被災者の心情を考え、挙式への参列を取りやめられたが、英王室との関係は今後も深めてほしい。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, April 30, 2011)
（2011年4月30日01時11分 読売新聞）