Books: Rambling Rex

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However they sat, over the port and cigars the dismounted monarchs might examine the mystique of royalty. There are, after all, nine constitutional sovereigns still reigning in Europe, supported by some 200 million subjects. If their relegated relatives were to reoccupy their thrones, they would preside over some 500 million people. The reign in Spain will, in all likelihood, resume after Franco's demise. The monarchy might also conceivably be reinstated in Portugal some day. Greece's King Constantine, 32, in "temporary exile" since 1968, may well return to his troubled country.

Sovereignty, compared with presidency, would be quite inexpensive. Basing his estimate on the present cost of maintaining Britain's royal family, but scaling it down according to the size of each of their former kingdoms, Author Cur ley figures that all 14 claimants' thrones could be reoccupied at an annual expense of $17 million per year, about 2% of the known cost of the 1972 U.S. election campaign. Moreover, there is staunch royalist sentiment in a considerable number of decrowned countries. According to Curley, unofficial polls show that 30% of West Germany's population has monarchist sympathies; there is an active monarchist party in Italy. Even in Russia there is an underground movement that would like a monarchy but does not apparently favor the Romanov pretender Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrilovitch.

All of which probably proves not that kings are due for a comeback but that, on or off the throne, the doings of royalty still hold a peculiar fascination for the public. Michael Demarest