In 1936, royal aides were horrified by the prospect of an American divorcee marrying the King.

Heaven knows, then, what they would think at the prospect of any union between the second-in-line to the throne and the latest young woman to put herself forward as William's Princess?!

In the week she returned to the stage following a spell in rehab, Britney Spears has suggested she could get together with the newly-single William, declaring: "We'd make a great couple."

The troubled star has long claimed she enjoyed an e-mail correspondence with Prince William in the years before he began dating Kate.

In 1999, it was even claimed that Britney had told friends she was going to meet William on St. Valentine's Day the following year. The two had allegedly started writing to each other after she publicly revealed she had a "massive crush" on the young royal.

However, such newspaper gossip as this, frequently repeated in reports on both the pop star and the Prince, is surrounded by some mystery, with royal courtiers condemning such claims as 'nonsense' and little more than a publicity stunt by the pop star and her aides.