XDA

There is the news that, as the Brits pass out of Iraq, young Prince Harry (Diana's youngest son, third in line to the throne unless Charles is to be by-passed) is going in. That's he to the right in full kit.

There are in history, some mixed results of letting Princes go to war with British troops.

There is the magnificent--the Black Prince, who accompanied his father, Edward III to France during the Hundred Years War and beat the French soundly at Crecy in 1346 and ten years later at Poitiers. He lies in Canterbury Cathedral beneath this handsome effigy to the left.

There is the pretty good--Prince Andrew flying helicopters from HMS Invincible during the Falkland war off the coast of Argentina in 1982. Andrew, who is also the Duke of York, is Harry's uncle, and though he survived the Falkland war, he later was wounded in love by a failed marriage to Fergie. Andrew's to the right just above.

There is the completely bland-- the Young Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charles, who invaded England from Scotland, got really nowhere and then got spanked at Culloden in 1746, although he escaped the slaughter to Skye and then died of drink in France. The portrait on the left was during younger and happier times no doubt.

And then there is the complete fiasco-- the Imperial Prince Louis Napoleon who accompanied the Brits to Zululand in 1889 and was about the last white fatality of that tough little war, stabbed to death with spears. That's the unlucky lad to the right.

Let's hope for better than bland for bonnie Prince Harry.