PRINCE’S MARRIAGE CHOICE

Evening Star, Issue 18140, 2 December 1922, Page 11

PRINCE’S MARRIAGE CHOICE

LEGAL RESTRICTIONS. AMENDMENT NEEDED. Tlie time has passed when Royal matters had to bo touched' upon' with a pen clogged with adulation or ambiguity ; the Throne is now happily in tune with democracy, and its interests are those of the is a matter of vital necessity for the Prince. For dynastic reasons it is imperative that he make a happy choice. His grandfather and other former princes were married at a much younger age. Bub there are difficulties not perceived' by the loval people who ask so “Who is "to tie the bride of the Prince?” There is a stumbling block, and that obstacle is an Act of Parliament that is in urgent need of drastic, revision;. Until it is altered the Prince is practically condemned to “single blessedness” or to marry a foreign bride. The last contingency will doubtless be singularly unpopular after the unhappy effects of bygone alliances with German princesses. How many people realise the limited choice of the Prince through the provisions of the Royal Marriages Act? It is interesting to see whom he can not many—and this will give the death blow to many rumors that have been floating around since the Princess Mary wedded a “commoner.” George 111. had seven sons, and they a!! sowed their wild oats with considerable zeal. Moreover, they had a fondness for contracting marriages with “ undesirables ” -irom a Royal point of view. George (afterwards George IV.) wedded Mrs Fitzherbert; the Duke of Clarence, dubbed “ Silly Billy,” had .an entanglement that was probably a legal union; Cumberland, the “ wall-eyed ” duke, certainly married an obscure cook, and so forth. At last poor old George 111. _ induced Parliament to .pass an Act designed' to regulate the marriage of Royal princes in the direct succession. The idea was a good one—in those days when the princes of the blood were wild creatures, whose idea of possible princesses was remarkably low. . They meant well, the framers oi this Act. By this Act it is enacted, first, that the future Queen of England must be drawn from the “ blood royal.” This, of course, was to prevent persons of low birth from matinw with Royalty, and struck at the Georgian habit of trying to spouse cooks and actresses. AdxoiLkdly JJim dUISLWJM

Jaied to the Royal Family who come withini this circle, but the number can he counted upon tho fingers of on© hand. And—they may not be the choice of the Prince. This enactment accounts for the fact that formerly a British prince has been compelled to go abroad for a bride. But the shrinking of tho European reigning houses has narrowed this circle so remarkably that our Prince would be hard put to find a bride of “the Mood royal” suitable in age, etc. But there is another obstacle that narrows the “possibles” more alarmingly. She must bo of the Protestant faith. When the Act was framed it was a time of “No Popery !” scares. To-day our monarch, must be a Protestant and his queen of the same religion. Therefore those who have toyed with the idea of the Prince forming a matrimonial alliance with a daughter of tho King of Italy, for instance, are losing sight of the fact that, as an oldl Catholic dynasty, the union would l ho barred by tho Act. The shadow of insanity hung over poor George 111. Ho was responsible for tho Act, and his horror of insanity is seen in one of its clauses. Tho future bride of the Prince must have a sound medical report—be able to bear children—and, moreover, her progenitors must be free from ■any taint of insanity. It is a hard matter for a prince to choose a bride! Then Parliament must approve. Tho Commons are'all-powerful, and they have bad bitter experience in the past of unsuitable wives of monarchs. So the choice must receive the full approval of Parliament, who also arrange the financial part of the union. After this it is almost comical to add that finally the King must approve his son’s choice. For history has some piquant cases of Royal fathers who have had long feuds with very unsuitable daugh-ters-in-law. Therefore, the choice of the Prince is fettered by dynastic, religious, physical, parliamentary, and financial considerations. No wonder “Our Young Mon” is still a bachelor! The Act was passed l with good intentions. But it baa outlived its usefulness. The Great War has swept away many old customs, and the idea of our Prince choosing a foreign bride is now entirely unpalatable. What the nation desires is to see him settle down with some real British lady of the aristocracy—for his exalted position naturally necessitates a bride who has been nurtured in the highest circles of society. Such a union would) be hailed with tremendous joy. The provisons of tho Act could easily bo amended by Parliament and made more elastic to allow of a choice as indicated above, and the sooner tho better I—Exchange.l—Exchange.