A-Z Characters & Transformation: Is the Transforming Royal Fact or Fiction?

In my latest A-Z list--characters who transform--I've reached Prince and Princesses. 

A remarkable number of prince and princesses have transformed, from bad people to good ones; from being in disguise to being revealed. 

Prince Hal is supposedly one of the former. In reality, he never went through a dissolute phase and even in Henry IV, Parts 1 & 11, Shakespeare remarkably has him confess, in monologue, that he is mostly playacting. He is quite clear with Falstaff, even as prince, that Falstaff's influence on him is negligible and will eventually die. 

But the IDEA of a playboy reforming to be a good king is too good to pass up. It's the underlying character evolution of Gilgamesh! So the oldest tale on record has a prince (he is actually a king when the tale begins) acting like a playboy and annoying his citizens--until Enkidu comes along. It is Enkidu's death that propels Gilgamesh to hunt for answers to something larger than "hey, yo, how drunk should we get today?" Upon his return to the city, he retakes his place as a wise and productive sovereign. 

The manga and anime, Royal Tutor, presents a back story of a not-exactly-playboy prince but a prince who doesn't seem to be all that aware of his citizens' needs...until he begins to sneak out at night and pal around with Heine. While Mark Twain uses growth and disguise with his prince, who also learns about real life. 

In C.S. Lewis's quest for a prince, the prince is enchanted (disguised) as a kind of blithe, unthinking playboy (with a mommy complex). When he is chained to the silver chair, his underlying nature is revealed: he is, in fact, a prince in captivity. I think it would be quite easy to back-write a playboy attitude into the prince's character development. He is ensnared by the enchantress when his mother dies but, seriously, what was he doing rushing off to act all angsty around the first smooth-talking fae who crosses his path...rather than sticking by his dad and assuming more responsibilities? 

That is, in many of the above cases, it is trials that hone the prince into someone who CAN be a good king. 

I'm not sure that outside of narratives, this type of honing is a given: Prince Harry doesn't seem to have imbibed the American idea that work = virtue. But I suspect that politicians and celebrities are so cushioned by sycophants, they require a certain amount of chutzpah to see through the fawning to begin with.