A Comment On Royal Marriages…

Over at his blog Big John is having a go at the burying of an inconvenient story by releasing (leaking) “good news” – the marriage announcement of Charles Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker-Bowles. I want to take a sideways look at the thing.

Now as a staunch republican, I really couldn’t give a hoot what they do – and believe me all the hyperbole about what the nation thinks and the constitutional ramifications make me want to heave. Does it matter if one or either of the couple is a divorcee? It seems that the sanctimonious Church of England thinks so. Excuse me, but a little history lesson is in order here. The Church of England exists because a monarch decided to defy the church of Rome and get a divorce. Yes, the whole rotten corrupt edifice is built on divorce. Henry VIII was a divorcee and it was okay for him. Mind you, he also murdered two of his consorts but I’m not suggesting that’s okay.

Hypocrisy abounds here and it leaves a foul odour in its wake. It still lingers from the nineteen thirties’ abdication crisis and the nineteen fifties when Princess Margaret wanted to Marry Group Captain Townsend whereupon the same stuffy nonsense was regurgitated. Personal happiness was sacrificed in the name of “duty”. What duty – what exactly do these people do that is so dutiful? And what do they do that requires them to live by such ridiculous codes of conduct? Certainly morality doesn’t come into it as extramarital affairs abound and seem to be accepted. Indeed, it is almost obligatory for Princes of Wales to cast their wild oats far and wide – at least if history is accurate. If that is so, then marriage to a divorcee is certainly not an issue.

Then there’s the nonsense about what Camilla will be called – not princess of Wales, but Duchess of Cornwall. Not Queen, but Princess Consort. So what? Should we care? I watched people being interviewed on the BBC News last night and between bouts of nausea, I heard one woman insist that Charles remain single because that is what is right. Is it? Okay, he screwed up. Certainly the Royal family treated his first wife badly, but how would staying single make any difference and whose business is it anyway other than theirs? Which of us has not done or said things which we now deeply regret? Which of us is so pure we can cast judgement?

How many of us made errors of judgement in our youth? For Charles, it was going to sea without marrying Camilla. Had he followed his heart then a great deal of heartbreak would have been avoided – and, indeed, this discussion. Now, thirty years later, they choose to do what they intended to do all those years ago. And why not?

If this country was a republic, it wouldn’t even be an issue – now there’s a thought.