Should Love Trump Royal Bloodlines
Every fairy tale that we read to our young children always has a pairing of a prince with a princess. They always fall madly in love and usually overcome some huge obstacle in order to be together, or they just ride off into the sunset in complete bliss after meeting for the first time just hours earlier. Do fairytale endings exist for real life princes and princesses?
Royal attitudes have recently changed as to how marriages are chosen and approved for those in line to the throne. For hundreds of years, monarchies have been following the rule that monarchs and those in line for the throne have to marry someone from a royal or noble family. Since marrying within royal or noble bloodlines was the way for so long it’s hard to believe that every royal marriage was based solely on love. It seems that in reality most princes and princesses selected a mate to keep the royal lineage intact with complete disregard to whether the union was based on love (or even liking) the chosen bride (or groom). But recently that attitude has changed, and royalty can now marrying for love instead of blood lines, resulting in unions between Royalty and commoners. The marriage of Prince William to Princess Catherine is a great example. Catherine and William met at St. Andrews and fell in love there, moved in together and then made the decision to get married. It seems logical that their relationship will have a better chance of lasting because they’ve known each other longer and they chose to be with one another without the intervention of Buckingham Palace. But it doesn’t fit the perfect fairytale that we’re used to – but maybe that ideal fairytale can change.
Only a person of strong character – or one constantly in the public eye – can handle the scrutiny and pressure of being a member of the Royal Family. If the new bride isn’t used to being scrutinized, being in the media and being the center of attention, it can sap a lot of energy away from her and it can drastically change her life. When two people get married who are used to all of the attention and scrutiny brought about by the royal way of life, there isn’t such a big adjustment to their new life as a married couple. But as we all know, these similarities aren’t all that’s necessary for a successful marriage. It seems that historically, politics and convenience may come into play in choosing a royal mate more than actual love. A fairytale based on an arranged marriage would never make the top 10 best seller list. So instead, we read stories about a girl meeting her one true love, becoming a princess and living happily ever after – but that’s very rare for anyone, much less an actual princess. But did the new princess craft this fairytale outcome herself? Did she have some sort of special powers over the royal family? Or did the inhabitants of Buckingham Palace realize that marriages such as Prince Charles to Diana Spencer and Andrew, Duke of York to Sarah Ferguson weren’t matches made in heaven (even though they were matches of royal bloodlines)?
Prince Charles and Diana Spencer (Prince William’s parents) scarcely knew each other when they were wed. It seemed more important for the Queen and her family that Charles marry a young, virginal bride from a noble family than a girl that he actually adored but who was in fact a commoner. As it turned out their union was not one made out of love. Prince Charles has been quite honest in the fact that the one woman that he had truly loved, and wanted to marry, was in fact not Diana, but Camilla Parker Bowles – a commoner. Prince Charles followed previous tradition and married Diana Spencer, who was from royal blood, when in reality he wanted to marry Camilla Parker Bowles.
Prince Charles met a young and naïve Diana Spencer for the first time in 1977 at her family’s home while he was dating her sister, Lady Sarah Spencer. As it turned out the union between Charles and Diana was not one that came from love. Prince Charles has been quite honest in the fact that the one woman that he truly loved since before his first marriage was Camilla Bowles, a commoner who was not from a noble or royal family. Camilla’s closest tie to any royal family comes from her great grandmother who was a royal mistress to King Edward VII.
Prince Charles was first introduced to a then Camilla Shand at a polo match in 1970, and they began dating soon after. But after Charles entered the military in 1971, their relationship terminated (for the time being), and Camilla ended up marrying Major Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973. Charles and Camilla didn’t begin their affair until 1986, after Camilla had been married for 13 years and Charles for five. Princess Diana is famously quoted as saying in a 1994 interview after Charles’s public admission to having an affair, “there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” Camilla and her husband divorced in 1995 and Charles and Diana divorced in 1996. Instead of Charles just marrying commoner Camilla to begin with, and bucking the royal bloodlines, he instead married the more appropriate choice for a princess. This choice ended up in an affair, two divorces and finally a marriage for true love.
The marriage of Prince William to Catherine Middleton surely represents a fairytale ending to many. Their union is one that has been tested for a a number of years and has withstood all that was put up against it. Prince William’s choice to marry a commoner is one that may help shape the future of our children and their ideas of fairytale weddings and unions. Even though Catherine is a commoner, she married her prince for true love and to most they would see that as the fairytale ending rather than how most princesses become royalty. Let’s hope that Prince William and Princess Catherine’s example will help change the old traditions and bring to life the idea of a prince and princess marrying for love.
This article is courtesy of Everything Princesses, your source for all things princess including princess crafts, dress up clothes and jewelry.
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