So this weekend, I like many other people watched the latest Royal Wedding. It was glorious. The ceremony was gorgeous, the bride and groom looked like they were truly in love. I still cannot get over how lovely the bride’s mother was. It was pure class all the way through.
It also was astoundingly progressive for the royal family and a good marker of how the British monarchy has changed and evolved.
For those of you who might not be aware of it, the last time a member of the Windsor family fell in love with an American divorcee, it ended up with a constitutional crisis only resolved by an abdication and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that it broke the royal family for several generations.
The abdication of Edward for Wallis Simpson was seen by many people as one of the highest forms of betrayal/treason. He passed up on his sworn God-given duty for the love of a woman who at the time was in no way politically or socially suited or suitable to be Queen consort, according to the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions. It also conflicted with Edward’s position as the titular head of the Church of England, which at the time, frowned deeply upon remarrying after divorce if the ex-spouse was still alive. That’ll be important later.
With his abdication, the throne passed to his brother, King George and it made his niece, Elizabeth, the new Heir Presumptive, later Queen.
The effects of the abdication were still felt years later on, as her sister, Princess Margaret wanted to marry Group- Captain Peter Townsend, a divorce, with two sons from the previous marriage. Likewise with her uncle, Parliment did not approve, and Elizabeth as Queen and Head of the Church, could not approve. The romance was eventually fizzled out (with significant help from the government) and both parties married others, however it did open a breach between the sisters.
Still later on, in 1992, her annus horribilis (horrible year), both Princes Andrew and Charles separated from their wives and Princess Anne separated from her husband. All three separations ended in divorce. Out of the three, only two of them ever remarried. The Princess Anne and Prince Charles.
Any controversy over Charles, who would inherit the title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England, marrying a divorcee were laid to rest when the Queen, the government, AND the Church of England all gave their consent to the marriage. That was 2005.
Now, in 2018, Prince Harry has been able to marry a gorgeous mixed-race American divorcee in Meghan Markle with the full blessing of his grandmother and the government. So instead of breaking the family further instead it seems like this marriage will heal a lot of the previous damage done. Several commentators remarked on how this wedding moreso than some of the previous royal weddings will be the one to change the world. It has already changed England.