Class crown? Duchess Kate taking royal lessons

Apparently, becoming a royal now comes with its own instruction manual.

New bride and new royal Kate is getting private tutorials at St. James Palace in London to steep her in the rich, 1,140-year history of the British royal family and bring her up to speed on everything the Duchess of Cambridge is going to need to know about her new, very official life.

Representatives from varied British institutions have been quietly meeting with the Duchess of Cambridge, who joined the royal family by virtue of her world-is-watching wedding to Prince William in April.

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“The Duchess is being briefed on how the State works, getting to know our national institutions better and learning more about organizations such as the arts, the media and the government,” a royal source told The Telegraph newspaper in London.

“It is a process that will carry on for several months, but is being done privately.”

In the five months since becoming a Duchess, the schedule for Middleton, 29, has been relatively light on official duties — she and William toured the U.S. and Canada in July, and also visited areas of Birmingham hard hit by rioting over the summer. The Telegraph reported Middleton’s official engagements have been intentionally limited as she gets the lay of the land of royal ballyhoo.

It may be that the Middleton is receiving help in a way her late mother-in-law Princess Diana never received.

The Telegraph notes Middleton’s private royal training is in stark contrast to William’s mother Diana’s experience who had stated she felt like she was being thrown to the wolves when marrying Prince Charles.

The paper reports Diana had decried her early days as a princess and that she said staff at the royal palace “basically thought I could adapt to being Princess of Wales overnight.” Kate’s husband William ensured his new bride would have all support in helping her adapt to her role as a senior member of the royal family, the paper added.

Middleton’s tutorials are expected to last through the end of the year, and afterwards, her official schedule will be stepped up for 2012. And those engagements will likely be solo much of the time — military man William deploys to the Falkland Island with his Royal Air Force Search and Rescue squadron next year, and families are not allowed to accompany.

A source told The Telegraph there is a fringe benefit for William and Kate keeping an undemanding official schedule since their wedding.

“Like any recently married couple, they attach huge importance to spending time together in the first few months of their married life.”