In the old days, the youngest brother in the royal family had an important role.
He didn't inherit the crown, but he could have bolted for a key position in the army or the church, or secured an important alliance through a strategic marriage.
If he was lucky and his elder brother died without heirs, he or his children could inherit the crown themselves.
They called it Heir and Spare - the decorated and unnecessary, the heir and it's good to have.
But the monarchy's influence has declined in the Western world, and the second son is in a strange place where his ancestry forces him to obey laws when he is not required to play a real role.
From this paradox Prince Harry sought to escape when he and his wife Meghan Markle announced their "retirement" from the royal house in 2020, but since then it seems as if they have only become more entangled in it.
In interview after interview, they are determined to show how much they want to break away from the House of Windsor while the many headlines they have provided have only tied them more tightly to the royal family.
Harry's new autobiography, Spare, is just another example of this paradox.
The 38-year-old Harry talks about his life for more than 400 pages: about the problematic relationships with the other members of the royal family before and after the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
about his military service, and the number of people he killed in Afghanistan.
About his previous relationships, and the difficulties with the media.
for his philanthropic work all over the world.
And of course, about Megan.
The one who set him free because she "didn't see him as the Spare".
Harry with his brother William and his father King Charles, photo: AP
The problem is that any of these insights would be considered completely banal if they did not come from within the royal household.
Harry recalled the traumatic experience of his mother's death in 1997, and the flashbacks he experienced with his great-grandmother five years later.
The time he smoked a joint in Africa and found out afterwards that he had been rolled a cigarette with basil.
The shame he felt after wearing a Nazi uniform at a costume party.
His fear that Camila will be an "evil stepmother" like in fairy tales.
These are new sides to familiar stories - but it is not certain that Harry is the man who should deliver them.
In fact, even when Harry can leverage his special status to provide "inside" insights, he is revealed as a rather shallow person.
In describing the Queen Mother's funeral, Harry dwells on the Kohinoor - a huge Indian diamond that became the property of the royal family in the 19th century and was placed on her coffin.
There is much to be said about the responsibility of modern Britain for the crimes of the past, and the place of the royal house in the story.
But Harry?
He quips: "The diamond was 'acquired' at the height of the empire - some would say it was stolen. I heard it was mesmerizing and cursed. Men fought and died for it, so this curse was masculine. Only women were allowed to wear it."
what?
Like the multitude of interviews he gave before and after his release, Spare was primarily intended to provide employment for the press, material for debate for lovers and haters of the royal family, and the basis for the semi-fictional screenplay for a film released in a few decades starring some red-haired actor or another.
If everything written in the book is true (and some claim that parts are falsified or exaggerated), the Windsors are a much more screwed-up family than we thought.
But as an autobiographical book, Spare is mostly banal.
In his attempt to escape the long shadow of the monarchy, Harry has only shown how belonging to the royal house is really all that makes him worthy of attention.
Would you be interested in these stories if they were written by Eran Mahod Hasharon, and not Harry from London?
Most likely not.
The author is a doctoral student in history at Tel Aviv University and co-host of the podcast "Big and Small History"
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