July 5, 2018
≪TIME June 4, 2018号電子版 The Royal Wedding 特集記事≫
an american in windsor
why meghan markle is revolutionary
kind of royal
How Meghan Markle Is Giving the Royal Family the
Shake-Up It Needs
May 17, 2018
The last time a member of the British royal family
announced his intention to marry an American divorcée, there was a constitutional crisis and the future of the monarchy seemed to be in
doubt; indeed Edward VIII had to give up his throne in order to marry the woman
he loved, Wallis Simpson. When she began her affair with the Prince, Simpson
was married to her second husband Ernest Simpson, whom she would divorce two years later. Her nationality and her marital
career made her unacceptable as a royal bride to almost every section of
society. The diarist Harold Nicholson remarked at the time, “the upper classes
mind her being an American more than they mind her being than divorced. The
lower classes do not mind her being an American but loathe the idea that she
has had two husbands already.”
Perhaps the British might have accepted a commoner,
and at a pinch an American. But a woman who had been married twice before
marrying the man who was also Supreme Governor of the Church of England was
completely beyond the pale. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior
cleric in the Anglican church, said in 1935 that no Christian could marry again
while their ex-wife or husband was still living. Couples who had been divorced
could not be received at court.
How times have changed. In the vast coverage of the relationship
between the American divorcée Meghan Markle and Prince Harry there has hardly been a ripple of
disquiet that Meghan has been married before. Divorce is no longer considered a
stigma in Britain, either to remarriage or to being received into the royal
family. Three of the Queen’s four children have broken marriages. When Prince
Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005, they had a civil ceremony
followed by a blessing in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, because they had
both been divorced. Thirteen years later Meghan, a convert to Anglicanism, has
been given dispensation to have a full church wedding in the same chapel.
Perhaps Charles’s wedding was more sensitive
because so many of his subjects
remembered his first wedding to Lady Diana Spencer and the couple did not want to draw
comparisons in the public’s mind. But
the ceremony on May 19 finally proved that divorce is no longer an obstacle to the
nation’s desire for a full-on fairy-tale royal wedding.
One of the most striking things about Meghan is that
at thirty-six, she is the same age as Harry’s mother was when she was killed in
a car crash. Diana married when she was only twenty. Then, it was considered
essential that a royal bride should be a (literally) virginal youth, and not
much thought was given to the age gap of thirteen years between bride and
groom. Meghan is not only three years older than her husband-to-be, she is a
fully-formed adult who has already had a successful career. The British royal
family have long been fond of actresses; Charles II made Nell Gwyn his mistress, and Edward VII had an affair with Lillie
Langtry while Prince
of Wales. But in each case, there was no question of marriage. Until relatively
recently, acting was not considered a respectable profession. Now it seems to be
the ideal training ground for prospective royal brides.
One of the reasons that Meghan has settled so
quickly into royal life is that she already knows what it’s like to look down
the barrel of a dozen telephoto lenses and smile as if she hasn’t a care in the
world. Anyone who has worked the red carpet for years will be inoculated
against the spiteful tabloid comments about a glimpse of cellulite, or a stray
gray hair. Not many civilians can adjust seamlessly into the rigors of working
for ‘The Firm’, as the Royal Family is sometimes nicknamed. But as
a successful television actress, Meghan already knows what it is like to be in
the public eye, and how to say the same thing over and over again as if she
means it. Kate Middleton had nearly ten years to learn how to smile and wave
before she became the Duchess of Cambridge. Meghan has had just a few months
but she is already the mistress of the walkabout. If she breaks royal protocol by
posing for a selfie, that only endears her more to the public.
The real challenge for Meghan will come after the
wedding. In the days when she had a social media presence, she described
herself as a “strong, confident mixed-race woman” and a “feminist.” But as a member
of a family which carefully eschews anything that looks like a political
statement, Meghan will have to walk the tightrope between personal belief and
her royal persona. As Harry’s bride she has become one of the most famous women
in the world, but as a royal her celebrity is conditional. The enduring
popularity of Queen Elizabeth is based not on her zealously guarded personal
opinions, but on her extraordinary durability. She is a symbol of continuity in
an increasingly restless world, a royal poker face in a deck of hyperactive
tweeters. The Queen knows the power of being both visible and yet unknown;
perhaps the only thing we can be certain of is that she likes animals. She is a
constant presence in the lives of the British people, but her absolute
self-control means that the public is always left wanting more. Meghan will
have to balance her laudable desire to use her royal status to make the world a
better place, with the discretion—or neutrality, almost—that is an inescapable
part of the job. There is no room, currently, for a hashtag princess.
But the power Meghan has is in the optics. At a time
when Britain’s social contract has been shaken by Brexit, and scandals like the
Grenfell
tower fire, there is enormous— value in having a member of the royal family who is
not white, nor especially privileged. The fact that a woman of Meghan’s
background can become a royal duchess makes the House of Windsor a lottery
rather than a cabal. Every little girl now can legitimately dream of marrying
Prince George, whatever their color, nationality or sexual history.
It would be fascinating to know what Queen Victoria would make
of the direction in which her great-great-great-great-grandson Harry is
taking the royal family. She was
extremely interested in the marriages of her children and grandchildren, and
wherever possible she used them to create her own unofficial European Union.
Every royal marriage in Victoria’s time was part of a project to consolidate a
constitutional monarch’s diplomatic power. If Victoria were alive today, I’m
sure she would quickly grasp that in a time when there are no more royal
dynastic alliances to be made, it is astute to choose a bride whose experience
and traditions enrich the royal landscape. The present Queen understands this
too. If the royal family is to survive, it has to continue to be a global
brand. The real threat to the monarchy is not unconventional new members, but
public indifference. Harry has always had star power, but by choosing Meghan he
has given himself and his family a ratings boost. There can be no doubt that
their marriage is a love match but in his choice of bride Harry has shown that
he has his mother’s flair for riding the zeitgeist.
It is the ultimate paradox that the qualities that made
Wallis Simpson so toxic to the British public eight decades ago are in Meghan
evidence of a new dawn for the royals. Wallis was seen as a vulgar American
adventuress, while Meghan is perceived as a career woman who isn’t afraid to
admit her mistakes and move on. The American nationality seen as an affliction
in Wallis gives Meghan a glorious advantage, in that it instantly removes her
from the English stratification of class. While Kate Middleton was described as
a commoner, Meghan Markle is simply an American. The Italian writer Giuseppe di
Lampedusa once said that “for things to stay the same, everything must change.”
As sixth in line in the throne Harry will never be king. But by choosing Meghan
he has made sure of his place in royal history.
Daisy Goodwin
is a bestselling author and creator and screenwriter of PBS Masterpiece’s
Victoria.
This appears
in the June 4, 2018 issue of TIME