Globally famous and yet universally misunderstood – these are the complex and utterly engrossing stories of Britain's royal women behind the public façade.

Look closely at the narratives about contemporary royal women and you will see a repeating pattern, each characterised as the monarchy’s saviour or a destroyer, saint or sinner, or describing an arc between those poles. It is when royal women attempt to define themselves, carve out meaning for themselves, that things get really interesting. “She won’t go quietly. That’s the problem,” said Diana in her controversial Panorama interview. Nor did she.

The requirement that royal women give up their voice was already out of step with those earlier times and her instincts. Her sons’ wives have taken openly divergent paths, Kate dutiful, Meghan kicking against the restraints. Their sharply polarised supporters reject the idea of any commonalities, yet they are there. Both women have seen their lives instrumentalised and distorted.

To appreciate royal women and their significance more clearly, it is necessary to unpick the storylines written for them, the preconceptions projected on to them. They are globally famous and universally misunderstood.

Crown Jewels will unmask characters far more complex and interesting than standard portrayals suggest—and also spotlight the fragility of the monarchy. For more than a century apparently unsinkable, the House of Windsor is floundering. The most compelling and consequential players in this unfolding endgame are royal women.