When Harry - Married Meghan (#65)
When Prince Harry of the House of Windsor, formerly the German derived House of Saxe - Coburg and Gotha, the Royal Family that has ruled Britain in one way or the other since antiquity, married American Actress Meghan Markle from Los Angles, California, U.S.A., he nudged the trajectory of the House of Windsor from its already changing direction and profile into a bit of an overdrive.
Universally and historically, Royalty has always derived their status and staying power by creating the myth of being vastly superior beings to ordinary humanity. The Pharaoh of Egypt claimed dependency from the Sun God, as did the Japanese Monarchy from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu and the Storm God Susanoo, as did China’s Emperors, who claimed divinity from being heaven ordained, as did just about all Royalty in one form or the other.
That is why, in the past, members of the Royal Family were forbidden from marrying non-Royals (and some even married within their own family to keep the Throne safe), and certainly were discouraged to marry the common folks, called the 'commoners'. And if a Royal did insist in marrying one, if they were not dispossessed, executed or otherwise deposed, normally, they were expected to abdicate the Throne and step down, as Harry’s great - great Uncle, King-Emperor Edward VIII had to do when he insisted on marrying the American socialite, twice divorced, Wallis Simpson, in 1937.
This marriage of King Edward’s to the American Divorcé Wallis Simpson, fatefully, resulted in Elizabeth becoming the Queen of England, and Harry’s Grandmother, as she was the daughter of George VI, the younger brother of King Edward VIII who became the King after his older brother abdicated the Throne. In a strange twist, if Edward VIII had not insisted on marrying the American, Wallis Simpson, The Queen would not have been The Queen, and Harry would not have been in the family in direct line of the Throne. So, great change was wrought in the British Royal Family by an American Socialite and Divorcé in 1937.
Certainly The Queen, Elizabeth II, has much to be thankful for to the American Divorcé, because if her Uncle King Edward had not fallen hopelessly in love with Wallis Simpson, she, The Queen, one of the World’s longest reigning and most powerful Monarchs would not have been The Queen, but would have been the niece of the King, a one of many Royals, and not in direct line to the throne, and probably would have been generally unknown to history.
Meghan Markle is an American, an Actress and a Divorcé, a compellingly similar profile to Wallis Simpson. But Meghan Markle is also of mixed racial decent, whose mother, Doria Ragland, is African American, and her father, Thomas Markle, is Dutch-Irish. This adds a welcome dash of color to the English-German Royal blood. The Colonies have arrived!
By all accounts Meghan met Harry in Toronto, Canada. The Queen is still the Sovereign and Queen of Canada. If Meghan had been a Canadian, it might have been a bit more symmetrical than her being an American, which is the famously rebellious Colony that went to War with England to win its Independence. But, fate has its own mysterious ways of manifesting destinies of British Royals and the lesser mortals from the Colonies.
While Harry is currently 6th in line to the Throne of England, he is in the immediate Family of the Monarchy, and while Meghan’s entrance into the Royal Family may not change the course of history as Wallis Simpson’s did, one does not know what fate may bring to the British Royal Family, when Harry married Meghan.
Wishing the happy couple, the Duke And Duchess of Sussex, all the very best for the future.