Royal wedding with a modern twist at last
What Meghan Markle’s engagement to Prince Harry says about how dated traditions have had to change
There is to be another royal wedding and the inevitable media frenzy has begun. The marriage between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is different because it signals a decisive break with the past. Writing for online magazine Slate, Ruth Graham put it this way: "The future Duchess of Sussex is a 36-year-old biracial American divorcée who was previously best known for acting in a basic cable drama. At one point, any one of those descriptors — her age, race, nationality, marital history, or profession — would have effectively disqualified her from a royal marriage." The precedents for marrying a divorced person are harsh. Princess Margaret was famously forbidden from marrying Captain Peter Townsend in the 1950s because he was divorced. She would have had to forfeit her royal rights and go into exile for five years. She broke up with him. The Times (of London) chimed: "It is one of the clearest signs of how much the royal family has evolved over the last century that the fifth in line to...
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