British Royalty Hold Court on the Internet

Her Majesty the Queen is accessible, but she will not interact.

Visiting a public school in London this week, Queen Elizabeth II formally inaugurated Buckingham Palace’s royal home page on the Internet.

The official royal Web site is at https://www.royal.gov.uk

The queen may be online, but the royal Windsors aren’t talking.

There’s no two-way e-mail, although you can leave word in a visitors’ book that you called. But prepare to wait: Early response has overwhelmed the Web site, and many people, particularly on the American side of the Atlantic, have been unable to connect.

Palace officials, however, promise that the 150-page Web site will offer quicker access to a wealth of information about Britain’s royals than is now available through a profusion of palace booklets and fact sheets.

Illustrated with color pictures, the royal site promises to be a homework boon, offering information about the queen and her family, including facts about royal personages and palaces, as well as a diary of royal activities.

“The British Monarchy, The Official Website,” says the page, showing a picture of the jewel-studded coronation crown and pointing travelers to categories such as “Today’s Royal Family.” There are official biographies, photos and even a royal family tree.

With the merest of electronic curtsies, browsers are admitted to the royal art collection and to a section that answers frequently asked questions: Who was the last monarch to fight in battle? (George VI--before he became king--in the 1916 naval Battle of Jutland); how many people receive congratulatory messages from the queen each year? (In 1995, 4,714 centenarians and 10,817 couples celebrating their diamond wedding anniversaries.)

Mostly culled from existing documents, the information includes swatches of history, accounts of royal finances, public documents, statements and press releases.

The release hottest off the press Thursday announced the appointment of a 30-year-old assistant press officer to the queen.

The palace said the site will be regularly updated, probably for the first time with the addition of the queen’s Commonwealth Day message Monday.

“We regard the site as an important part of our public information work which will make the monarchy more accessible, reaching a wider and potentially huge audience,” a palace spokeswoman said.

The site is not expected to affect the flow of snail mail to the queen, about 200 letters a day now, the spokeswoman said.

The site, under construction for more than a year, is being financed under the palace’s publicity budget in a venture by the technologically staid royal family in image-promoting after its standing has been damaged by divorces, too-public love affairs and a parade of lurid headlines.

Royalty watchers have long had access to unofficial online information about the lives and times of the royals, with British publications regularly publishing Internet addresses for Web sites ranging from serious to scurrilous.

“A Guide to British Monarchs”--https://www.ingress.com/gail/--offers basic historical information on all kings and queens, Britain’s Press Assn. reports.

And “The Royals Network”--https://www.royalnetwork.com--takes a satirical view of all things royal.

Diana, the divorced princess of Wales, is the most popular royal in cyberspace, the association says, recommending a link to several spots via https://members.aol.com/douglasb52/links.htm

Two months ago, the British government beat the palace into the ether, establishing a Web site that answers common questions about the operation of the prime minister’s office at 10 Downing Street. The address is https://www.number10.gov.uk

Like the new palace site, number10 is only supplying information for now.

The addition of e-mail is planned there later, however, a spokesman at the prime minister’s office said.