In William Wyler’s classic 1953 film Roman Holiday, Audrey Hepburn’s princess character breaks down in tears before briefly escaping the constraints of royal life.
“Please let me die in peace,” she cries, lamenting her stifling schedule of gladhanding, platitudes and plaque unveilings. The Oscar-winning romantic comedy was released in the summer of Elizabeth II’s coronation, as her sister, Margaret, struggled between her sense of duty and her forbidden love for a divorced RAF officer. It perhaps captured something of the reality of royalty’s gilded cage.
