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    Royal Weddings, A Very Peculiar History
    Royal Weddings, A Very Peculiar History
    Royal Weddings, A Very Peculiar History
    Ebook180 pages1 hour

    Royal Weddings, A Very Peculiar History

    By Fiona Macdonald

    2.5/5

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    About this ebook

    With the echo of regal church bells still ringing in the ears of royalists and well-wishers worldwide, Fiona Macdonald take a look at the quirky, odd and downright bizarre circumstances surrounding the weddings of the kings, queens, princes and princesses of Britain. One must leave one's sense of decorum at the palace gates as the author tells the wacky stories surrounding the preparations, dresses, ceremonies and national moods that went with the excitement of a royal wedding, from England's resident marriage addict Henry VIII, through Anne Hyde, the 'commoner' who birthed two queens, right up to Prince Charles, Princess Diana and their son and daughter-in-law to be. Featuring facts, figures and family trees, Royal Weddings, A Very Peculiar History is sure to keep one in the spirit of things, even after the last fleck of confetti has touched the ground.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSalariya
    Release dateFeb 16, 2012
    ISBN9781908759757
    Royal Weddings, A Very Peculiar History

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    Book preview

    Royal Weddings, A Very Peculiar History - Fiona Macdonald

    Ship!

    Introduction

    At last! It’s official! After years of ‘practising’ (as the bridegroom’s proud father rather unromantically put it), the world’s most photographed young couple have named the day (29 April 2011). Yes, His Royal Highness Prince William Arthur Philip Louis of Wales and Miss Catherine Elizabeth Middleton are going to get married.

    The news is welcome, but comes as no surprise. And there are surely many more important events happening worldwide. Nevertheless, according to those who calculate this sort of thing, Prince William’s wedding looks set to be ‘the biggest media event in history’, at least in terms of audience numbers.

    No fairytale

    Mercifully, the very silly word ‘fairytale’ is not being bandied about to describe Prince William’s forthcoming marriage – unlike the wedding of his father and mother in 1981. However, as at any wedding, all who join in – if only by watching the celebrations on television – will probably want to wish that the new couple lives ‘happily ever after’.

    Why?

    Why – apart from our natural pleasure at seeing people who seem happy, and apart from our sentimental excitement at the start of any new romantic enterprise – do we care?

    Hello strangers

    Attending a wedding is a sign of closeness, friendship, family belonging. But most of us will never meet this year’s princely bride and groom – or any royals, anywhere – and we certainly won’t get to know them as friends.

    Some of us may not believe in monarchy, or in the institution of marriage. We may not follow the Christian faith (any wedding held in a church is, after all, a solemn religious occasion). We may even feel outraged by public displays of inherited wealth, power and privilege, and consider formal, uniformed pomp and circumstance a ridiculous anachronism in the egalitarian 21st century. We may find lavish spending on flowers, frocks, food, drink and general flummery distasteful in a time of recession.

    Love - and marriage?

    Love seldom falls out of fashion, but getting married has been getting steadily less popular for the last hundred years, and more. According to UK government statistics, there were 232,990 marriages in England and Wales in 2008 (the last year for which figures have been published). This is the lowest number since 1895, when the population was only just over half the size it is today.

    Now, in the early 21st century, statisticians tell us that only 22.8 single men out of every 1000 are likely to marry in any one year, and 20.5 single women. When similar statistics were first calculated, in the 1860s, the equivalent figures were 58.7 per 1000 for men and 50 per 1000 for women.

    Not to be sniffed at

    In 1947 there was outrage among royal officials when a company in the north of England put on sale a souvenir handkerchief to mark the wedding of Prince William’s grandmother, now Queen Elizabeth II. Not only was the handkerchief printed (incorrectly) with the Union Jack, it also bore rather crudely drawn portraits of the bride and groom. In spite of protests, production of the handkerchief could not be stoppped; it was breaking no laws. At last, palace officials conceded that, as a souvenir, the hanky might just about be acceptable – so long as it was never, ever used!

    So why all the fuss when a royal wedding is announced? Why the miles of print and acres of pictures? Why the hints and denials, the deferential interviews, the guesses and gossip? Why the souvenirs – tacky or tasteful? Why the flood of commentary, from the patriotic to the prurient? And why books like this?

    Is our enthusiasm for all things royal because

    ‘the CROWN

    …is something set above

    The jangle and the jargon and the hate…’?

    Poet Laureate John Masefield,

    ‘On the Coming Marriage’

    Surely not! Those words might just have been true in 1947, when they were written, but few people would agree with them today – except, perhaps, in a strictly constitutional sense.

    If the British monarchy did not exist, we’d probably have to invent it, or else go to the trouble of choosing a president to be short-term head of state instead. But wait! Look across the Pond! Some presidencies can begin to seem strangely monarchical:

    Chelsea Clinton Marries

    in Royal Wedding

    Reuters headline, 1 August 2010

    A reflection of ourselves?

    It has been said that ‘monarchy…is about magic’. Perhaps. It is rather more likely that monarchy is a mirror reflecting our tastes and values back to us – but in an extremely selective way.

    Over the centuries, royal families have changed, along with the societies they’ve been rooted in. And so today, in an age of obsession with cash, consumer brands and celebrity, the royals are the ultimate famous family. We build them up to reflect our dreams and fantasies. We knock them down, projecting onto them, as individuals, our collective disappointments and fears (It’s only fair to add that the royal mirror also reflects several rather more positive social concerns, such as heritage and conservation).

    Public appetite

    Eagerly, oh so eagerly, we devour real or manufactured news about royal families. We cannot see too many photos of royal clothes, houses, parties, jewels and holidays, or listen to too much royal gossip – preferably about royal wrongdoings and/or royal love-lives. (Even better, as a way of selling books and newspapers, if the two are combined.)

    ‘Once the [royal] brides were English and pretty, the floodgates of schmalz opened.’

    Historian David Starkey in the Daily Mail,

    21 November 2010

    Why do we need to do this? Because we admire real-life royal people and their carefully created images? Because looking at wealth and privilege allows us to escape from harsh reality in tough economic times? Because the royals are ambassadors for (yes) or symbols of (surely not!) our nation? Or simply because young, attractive couples like Prince William and his fiancée are jolly good free entertainment, to amuse or distract us whatever the cost to their own personal privacy and peace of mind?

    Sad to say, even royal sufferings fascinate us. We gloat, as well as sympathise, when the inhabitants of our national royal zoo sometimes feel the need to rattle the bars of their gilded cages. As Prince William’s mother so tragically discovered, adoring attention from the public and the mass media is a deadly two-edged sword.

    Them and us

    Over 100 years ago, Victorian history-writer Walter Bagehot declared that ‘A princely marriage is a brilliant edition of a universal fact.’ But even though, for the past half-century, the British royal ‘firm’ (this is the royal family’s own nickname for itself, and a very perceptive one) has been keen to portray itself as the embodiment of comfortable, conservative, upper-middle-class family values, royal lives are not – and cannot be – just like ours.

    Nor can royal weddings be like ours. As second in line to the throne, Prince William knows that his marriage will be public and political, however private and personal his feelings may be. We want to look nice in our own wedding photos, but the whole world will be scrutinising his suit (or uniform) and his bride’s dress, hair, veil, bouquet and jewels. Prince William’s guest list may have to include foreign heads of state, armed forces commanders, faith leaders and government ministers, while all we have to worry about is deciding whether to invite Great Aunt Ethel, or taking care not to sit drunken Uncle Fred next to prim Cousin Mabel.

    And, although the words ‘tradition’ and ‘history’ almost always appear alongside any mention of grand royal events, royal weddings have varied quite alarmingly over the centuries. Royal chroniclers have recorded secret midnight ceremonies, scandalous elopements, bloodstained political dramas, sordid business deals, at least one kidnapping, some brisk, dutiful working honeymoons – and a few, just a few, real-life royal romances. Read on

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