Kate’s great-great grandfather was a coal miner in County Durham, and actually worked in a coal mine beneath the estate belonging to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, William’s great-grandmother. Sarah Bradford, Viscountess Bangor, spoke about this connection in the 2017 documentary ‘Kate: The Making of a Modern Queen’. Reflecting on the juxtaposition of the working class coal miner and the Royal Family, she said: “It’s a rather romantic connection.”

The Duchess of Cambridge comes from an ordinary middle-class family, meaning William broke the mould in marrying her ‒ in fact, Kate was the first commoner in a generation to become a senior royal.

Social historian and author Ferdinand Mount insisted that Kate’s class status is not a disadvantage however, adding that her family has “deep roots” in English history.

For example, her grandfather was an RAF pilot in World War 2, while her grandmother worked at Bletchley Park with her twin sister.

They all played an important role in the war effort: her grandfather nudged the wings of the V1 away from London, and her grandmother received the news of the Japanese surrender in 1945.

Mr Mount said: “The fact that she’s young and she’s only known the years of peace and prosperity might suggest that she hasn’t got that experience of life, but then if you look at her family you will see that it’s really much more interesting and reflects a huge variety of English history.”

“The idea that the middle class come from nowhere…they come from a great number of different paths of English history.

“So she’s not from nowhere, you can trace her ancestry all the way back to Harry Hotspur, who died in the Wars of the Roses.

“So this is a family, like many families, who have deep roots in the nation’s history and the fact that she’s young is nothing but a good thing.”

The Duchess of Cambridge was born Catherine Elizabeth Middleton on January 9, 1982 to Michael Middleton, a flight dispatcher, and his wife Carole, a flight attendant.

The future Duchess grew up in Berkshire, had two younger siblings ‒ Pippa and James ‒ and her parents later founded a successful party supplies business called Party Pieces.

Kate met William in the early 2000s when they were both studying at St Andrews University.

They dated for several years through university and afterwards, during which William joined the military and Kate moved to London.

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They had a brief wobble in 2007 when they split up for a few months, but they soon reunited at the Concert for Diana, which marked 10 years since the death of William’s mother, the Princess of Wales.

Their engagement was announced in 2010 and they finally married in Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011.

They have since had three children ‒ Prince George, six, Princess Charlotte, four, and Prince Louis, one.

Their marriage paved the way for future marriages between senior royals and commoners, including William’s brother Prince Harry who married Meghan Markle in 2018.

Meghan was not only a commoner, but a biracial American divorcee, and seemed to take the Royal Family that one step further into the modern world.

Her own roots are also deeply interesting: her ancestors include former slaves and European royalty.

Sadly, however, Meghan and Harry decided to step down as senior royals and are now living in Los Angeles, California, with their son Archie.

As the years go by, Kate has taken on more and more responsibility, including patronages from the Queen and Prince Philip, who are not able to do as many engagements in their old age.

The Duke of Edinburgh, 98, retired from royal duties in 2017 and the Queen, 93, is gradually reducing her workload.

What’s more, with Harry out of the picture and Prince Andrew stepping down from royal duties in the midst of a scandal last year, the pressure is increasingly on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to hold the institution of the Royal Family together.

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