Prince Charming

Royal watchers say the tug of war between the monarchy and the media dates back to a 1969 documentary that showed William's grandparents, Elizabeth and Philip, barbecuing with the kids. It was supposed to charm the nation, but the ultimate effect was somewhat different. "As soon as you put people unscripted on the screen, then you start relating to them as actual personalities," says historian Ben Pimlott, who has written a well-regarded biography of the queen. "That sort of debased the coinage. They became famous for being famous."

The magic seemed to come alive again briefly at Charles and Diana's 1981 fairy-tale wedding. But as Pimlott points out, "It was a ceremony about nothing watched by 3 billion people around the world." By that time, the monarchy was really nothing more than a draw for tourists, like Big Ben or Madame Tussaud's. And it was downhill from there. Throughout the '80s and early '90s, it seemed like there was a scandal du jour, from Diana's bulimia to Fergie's toe-sucking lover to Camilla and the royal divorce. Not only was the mystery gone, but a growing number of Britons began to wish the whole lot would just vanish into history.

Then came the fatal car accident in Paris, and the royals took another hit for staying hidden in Balmoral while the world mourned. In his eulogy, Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, criticized the family's isolation from the real world. But in the wake of that tragedy, the royals had a chance for a fresh start, and an image makeover, with William. The royals "cannot regain the mystique," says Penny Junor, author of several books about Charles. "What they can do is gain our respect." And how can William accomplish that? "By not putting a foot wrong," says Junor. "His behavior has to be exemplary."

Because he's been sheltered from publicity, William is very much an unknown quantity to most of his future subjects. And he seems to like it that way. At almost every photo op in the past few years, William has appeared at best shy and often deliberately distant. Photographers frequently complained that they would go through many rolls of film just to get a few frames in which William was actually smiling. It is a wariness that seems his birthright as the son of the most famous woman in the world. William is said to have hated the paparazzi who emerged from nowhere when he was out with his mother and, as he grew older, he reportedly avoided appearing in public with her. He preferred holidays with his father at Balmoral in Scotland, where the flashbulbs could be kept at bay by acres of royal land.

His five years at Eton were cocoonlike, with classmates facing potential expulsion if they talked to reporters about William. He lived in a dormitory led by a housemaster, Andrew Gailey, whom William says was "a tremendous support to me." People who know William say that relationship was especially important after Diana's death. The zone of privacy enabled William to have a remarkably normal life at the exclusive school (although normal means wearing a uniform to class of tailcoat and pin-striped trousers, and studying with the scions of some of the richest families in the world). Harry, 15, lives in the same dormitory, and the brothers are close.

William thrived on Eton's legendary playing fields, excelling at rugby, football, swimming and water polo. The birthday pictures show him participating in all these sports with some gusto, enjoying a rough-and-tumble life. But he was more than just a jock. William reportedly took his studies very seriously and earned a respectable number of A's at the academically demanding school. The birthday pictures also show him in a popular cooking class, preparing chicken paella with his classmates. (Hint to William: don't give up your day job.)