Aibu to think it was not possible for Carole Middleton to engineer her daughters marriage?

[Bahhumbug23]

https://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity/royals/carole-middleton-master-plan/

Kate was staunchly middle class. The royals are notoriously snobby. Aibu to think that Carole did not & wouldn't be capable of engineering this? How the hell would she be able to do this?!

"how do you ensure you take the same classes as someone?"
I understand William swapped courses anyway!

Honestly who cares. She’s nothing more than a stepford wife and I feel sorry for any woman who thinks her life is ‘peak’, engineered or not. Her whole life is now engineered around being seen as ‘the perfect woman’ and that in itself makes her an absolute bore. If anything, if I was her mother I’d had hoped for so much more than my daughter being little more than an object for others to idealise and idolise, or a side character in some long running pantomime of a family.

It makes no sense at all, you have to apply by the UCAS deadline so no late switches and St Andrews is notorious for late decisions, even with grades in hand. Also you can't select exactly which accomodation you get, you just have to list your type of accommodation in order of preference and take what you get so she couldn't have engineered being in the same hall.
I'm sure Carole was keen on Kate mixing with nice young men from well off families but that's as far as it went!

Why is this not in the Royal Family section?

And individual women and men do set out to marry a particular person they are not even going out with. Some are successful in this endeavour, some are not.

what does it matter now anyway? is William going to go 'oh you tricked me, we ned to divorce? - they have 3 kids and an image to protect.

Anyway I am sure most of us at some point have made sure we were in the right place at the right time to bump into someone or started being into what they are in order to get noticed. it is a tale as old as time.

He transferred to Geography in his second year, he did History of Art in in his first year and that is when he met Kate.

Of course Carole could not engineer a relationship and marriage, but deferring a year, switching university, switching course always seemed to me like attempts to engineer to put her in the same place. She also went to Chile on a Raleigh Expedition just weeks apart from William, I have always thought that was another attempt but they didn’t quite time it correctly.

I think most middle class parents with sharp elbows do their utmost to make sure that their children will move even further upwards.

My middle class parents were keen for me to move upwards but what they encouraged was for me to get myself a great career

Because Prince William took a gap year - I'm pretty certain it was known for a year beforehand that he was going to study art history at St Andrews..

Then I think he changed to geography? But would have likely already met Kate by then..

I definitely think she engineered the best circumstances of them meeting. And obviously it was then down to Kate, but she has good looks, a middle-class country upbringing and confidence on her side...

@BrieAndChilli I have never done that. But I agree they are married with children. No one made William marry Kate, he chose to.

I think it’s fair to say they were pushed into the ‘right’ circles, given that Pippa used to befriend men with titles/land etc, the future Duke of Northumberland etc. But that’s maybe a much more normal thing to do if you’re upper middle class?

I have no problem believing that she could have made choices to significant improve her daughter's chances of making a "good match", in specific social circles. Possibly some specific moves to improve her chances with William (especially once their paths crossed). But of course she couldn't manufacture the whole thing.

This.

We don't have those kinds of social connections and couldn't afford in like private school but education got DH and me more options in life so we've emphasized it's importance to our kids - (plus think career is better bet than marrying up these days).

And Kate also took a gap year but applied afterwards.

Quite. Kate Middleton won the “lottery” (and I use the word ironically as not one I would want for myself or my daughter but if you like that kind of thing she did “well”).

There must have been hundreds of other wannabe sloanes who also tried to push themselves into his circle, she was just the one who pulled it off.

On the other hand it’s very clear that her parents were ruthlessly ambitious and left no stone unturned to marry their daughter to a prince.

I can’t work out whether I am more impressed at their single mindedness or depressed about where they chose to focus their energies for a girl who clearly had a lot of potential to achieve things under her own steam.

Because the media don't think that something like this could have happened without a scheming middle aged woman planning it all, probably muttering incantations and stirring a cauldron as she did so.

That, too. But wanting your children to have a great career doesn't mean you don't want them to marry a partner who also has a great career and, preferably, some money.

There are endless threads on here about cocklodgers and men who loaf around "gaming". Who wants their high-powered-career middle-class daughter to shack up with a cocklodger with an X-Box addiction?

This.

I didn't know about the Raleigh expedition... I guess they realised that even if they didn't meet on the expedition that was something that they would have in common and be able to talk about!

I think Carole intended for her daughter to marry someone with a title. The Middletons had become quite rich but a title is the one thing money can’t buy. So I have no trouble believing she purposely sent Kate to St Andrew’s and wangled her onto the same course as William, with the hope of befriending him and mixing with his circle. But she had no idea that Kate would snag William himself, I think she was aiming more for one of his titled friends and got lucky.

And doing what parents have done for centuries - manoeuvring for a good advantageous marriage for their offspring. The Middletons, of course, are a self-made family who have done very well for themselves but they're trade, of course, my dear. Utterly beyond the pale.

IMO a lot of Kate's appeal for PW to start with was her family. Warm, loving, supportive and kind.

Those are the people your children tend to socialise with if they go to particular schools. Not because it's "engineered" as such, but just because they become friends in the same way as all young people do at their schools.

I agree. You can definitely do your best to "engineer" a certain kind of match in this situation.

Ensuring that your beautiful, heterosexual daughter mingles with "certain kinds" of men? Encouraging her to present herself in a certain manner?
Absolutely.

But making sure that this many would be PW? No.

My middle class parents were keen for me to move upwards but what they encouraged was for me to get myself a great career

This. What’s slightly surprising and depressing about the Middleton parents is that they thought the best that a very bright, confident and attractive daughter could achieve was to be married into a gilded cage. It’s pretty medieval.

Ridic.

The family are social climbers but no one’s that good. The culture of St A means all the poshos stick together in three streets so meeting was likely regardless of whether the unfortunate girl fancied him or not. St A is better for history of art, anyway.

I had a niece at the time who was obsessed with PW and was so excited that he was going to St Andrews. If they had got together I wouldn't have thought it was stalking! Kate was in a play at school where she says she wants to marry PW. This has all been taken out of extreme context.the press just love bashing The Middleton's. And yes it is misogyny. I think they do well to keep their mouths shut.
Nobody mentions Johnnie Spencer's hopes for one of his daughter's to marry Charles.
Debutantes it was the way of the aristocracy. The Queen Mother fancied her chances with Edward V111 but he found her boring and dumpy and she landed his brother.

You can take a horse to water....

I'm not calling Kate a horse btw.

They engineered for their daughter to be well educated and go to a prestigious university. What monsters!

Anyone think maybe graduation was their end game, not marriage?