kate middleton

 kate middleton

 kate middleton

 kate middleton

kate middleton

 kate middleton

 kate middleton

Kate Middleton will be the first commoner to marry a prince in close proximity to the throne in more than 350 years, since Anne Hyde wed the Duke of York, later James II, in 1660.

Even so, Hyde was the daughter of Charles II's lord chancellor and chief adviser, the future Earl of Clarendon – rather than, as 28-year-old Middleton is, the offspring of a couple who have made a fortune providing bags for children's parties.

Among Middleton's ancestors are Northumbrian miners and Kent builders' labourers. Her mother, Carole, was formerly a British Airways flight attendant – hence the snobbish jibes of some royal hangers-on about "doors to manual" – and her father, Michael, also once worked for BA as a dispatcher, making sure flights left on time and with the correct cargo. The couple met while working for BA and started their married life in a flat in Slough, just across the river from the future in-laws.

But it is the family business Party Pieces, launched by Carole Middleton from their home in one of Berkshire's prettier villages, which founded the family's wealth and gave their daughter entry into higher social circles. The company was one of the first to use the internet for mail-order selling and the children were used as models for its early catalogues.

Kate – christened Catherine Elizabeth – has a younger sister, Pippa, and brother, James. Theirs was an affluent upbringing: private schools, Brownies for Kate and skiing holidays, amateur dramatics (Middleton played Eliza Doolittle, the archetypal story of a working-class girl transformed into a lady, in a school production of My Fair Lady, aged 10) and sports.

At Marlborough public school in Wiltshire, she became captain of the hockey club and gained a reputation for quiet seriousness, unlike some of her contemporaries. As Jessica Hays, one of her schoolfriends, told the News of the World wonderingly: "I never once saw her drunk. Even after our GCSEs finished, she only drank a couple of glugs of vodka."

Although there were boyfriends, it may have been that Middleton was struck by the idea of the young prince long before she ever met him. At school she was known as the princess in waiting and, according to Hays, this time to the Mail on Sunday, was said to have joked: "There's no one quite like William – I bet he's really kind. You can just tell by looking at him." This may not have been an entirely farfetched ambition: certainly some of her Marlborough friends from the Cotswolds county set already knew the prince.

Both went up to St Andrews University in 2001 – Middleton with two As and a B at A-level – to read history of art and both were placed in the same hall of residence.

She first came to media attention while modelling for charity in a sheer black lace dress at a fashion show the following spring, where it was noticed that the prince had paid £200 for a front-row seat. Middleton was credited with helping to persuade William not to drop out of university at the end of his lonely first term and to switch courses to read geography.

The following year they shared a flat with two male students in a Georgian terraced house in the middle of St Andrews and the year after that the four of them moved on to a more remote cottage on a nearby country estate. In 2002, Middleton's parents bought a strategically useful flat in Chelsea which their daughter could use.

The pair have been an item, with only one apparent serious blip in their relationship ever since, for a few months in 2007. The blip was allegedly caused by Middleton's frustration about the prince's reluctance to commit fully to their relationship, earning Middleton the tabloid soubriquet "Waity Katie". They were soon seen out together again, though generally Middleton's public appearances, at events such as William's passing-out parades at Sandhurst and RAF Cranwell, have been carefully choreographed affairs.

Middleton was given a part-time job as an assistant accessories buyer by John and Belle Robinson, owners of the Jigsaw fashion chain – perfect for someone who might need to spend long weekends accompanying a prince on pheasant-shooting expeditions or operations in remote parts of the country with the RAF air-sea rescue service.

From the royal family's point of view, Middleton is serious and discreet. She does not fall out of nightclubs and she does not give interviews. Practically her only – overheard – quote has been "He's so lucky to be going out with me." So there is a chance of avoiding the pitfalls of some of the prince's predecessors: an arranged marriage to a dull princess he has scarcely met, or, like his father, to a much younger, aristocratic bride who has no interest in his interests.

William and Middleton, who we now know became engaged on holiday in Kenya last month, have been together already for longer and know each other better than those involved in previous royal matches and there is no sign of a royal mistress lurking in the shrubbery.

Middleton – unlike Hyde in 1660 – will certainly not have to be smuggled into the palace for a secret midnight marriage and won't face accusations that she has slept with half the court. No wonder the Queen is said to be delighted.