Michael Middleton

Both received two won honours, William in Geography, Kate in the History of Art.

The ceremony was attended by the Prince of Wales and by Carol and Michael Middleton, who posed for photographs with the kind of composed pleasantness that suggested they understood, at least partially, what the moment meant beyond the academic.

The world watched and drew its own conclusions.

Kate Middleton had spent four years living unusually close to one of the most scrutinized people in the world.

When Kate was two years old, the family left England.

Michael Middleton's work with British Airways took them to Amman, the capital of Jordan, where they would live for the better part of three years.

It was an unusual chapter in an otherwise unremarkable early childhood, and it is one that the official Royal Family biography specifically includes, perhaps because it gestures at something about the Middletons.

They were mobile.

They had become, quietly and methodically, wealthy.

To understand how, you have to understand who they were.

Michael Middleton came from a prosperous, well-established professional family.

His background was not aristocratic in any formal sense, but it was comfortably privileged.

Kate's childhood holidays included gathering firewood and bathing in tin baths, according to Seward.

Michael Middleton regularly took the family on adventure holidays in the Lake District, where they had a cottage.

She believes Kate's temperament is closer to her father's than to Carole's, describing her mother as feisty.

Kate's uncle, Gary Goldsmith, has also described Kate as someone who isn't precious and quietly gets on with the task at hand.