Royal Family only for muggles?

[davewitley]

No: HPFGUIDX 40854

> Tamara wrote:
> > Do magical folk follow the royal family, or have anything like 
that
> > of their own?
> 
Heidi, appropriately celebrating Independence day:
> 
> The book [QTTA] more-than-implies that until the 1600's wizards and 
muggles interacted with some regularity. The split certainly post-
dates the time of Merlin and King Arthur's reign, which actually also 
predate the founding of Hogwarts, and iirc, comes not long after the 
ascent of the Stewarts and the end of the Tudors.
> 
> It's clear, though, that the split between muggle and wizard 
culture does not go back more than 500 years
> (more next)
> 
OK, there are two questions here.  First, the royal family.  It seems 
pretty clear that the wizarding world is politically fairly closely 
aligned with the Muggle one.  The Minister for Magic is understood to 
be the UK such.  There are some misaligments: Transylvania has its 
own (national) Quidditch team, but in the main, countries are the 
same.  (It's even possible that Transylvania holds a similar position 
to Scotland and England as a 'nation'.)

Furthermore, there is a some sort of official link between the UK 
prime minister (PM) and the MOM (see the Daily Prophet on the Knight 
Bus in POA).  The split between Muggle and Magical worlds is 
therefore not complete even at the time of the books.

I would say it's most likely therefore that UK wizards regard 
themselves as British (or at least Welsh, Irish, etc.) and see the 
Queen as head of state.  But, like most British people, they don't 
pay any attention to the royal family in day to day life, except on 
the odd special occasion.

Second, the history of the split.  I remain to be convinced that QTTA 
supports the notion of an early integrated world followed by a 
sharply split one, even assuming the split was not sudden.  Laws were 
being passed forbidding Quidditch near cities as early as 1362.  
Wendelin the Weird's burnings took place in the fourteenth century, 
too.

It would be interesting to know whether Merlin is supposed to be any 
more historical a figure in the WW than he is in the Muggle one.  If 
he is, even then he may have been the then-equivalent of the MOM to 
Arthur's PM, just as the MOM was preceded by the Chief of the 
Wizard's Council.

There is a clear indication of a definite move into hiding in the 
late middle ages (see FB p xv, esp. note 4); however, this seems to 
have been just as likely because of a growing Muggle awareness of 
wizards, as because of a breakdown in friendly relations.  

In short, there has probably always been a degree of connection 
between the WW and the MW, which may have waxed and waned through 
history and from one nation to another.  A long-standing move from an 
integrated world to a dualistic one is much harder to show from 
canon, IMO.

David