The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Sunday 20 February 2005

The Ghost of Divorces Past

Well, they are going to get married. Royal news sites and discussion boards have been atwitter. The thing that strikes me the most strongly is how the Queen’s life, reign, and family have been affected by divorce more than any monarch since Henry VIII. And in a way, the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla will bring the story full circle.

The events of 1936-7, when Edward VIII abdicated and Elizabeth’s parents were thrust unwillingly onto the throne had to have had made a deep impression on the ten-year-old Princess Elizabeth. Ten is just the right age to know too much, and yet not enough, in a confusing and fearful time. Especially when you are a very responsible child like "Lilibet." At a very elemental level, the old stories told by the disgraced and un-favored nanny-turned-author Marion Crawford depict the daunting transition of the York family from a fairly modest and cozy townhouse in London to the vast corridors of Buckingham Palace. The Princess was, typically, especially concerned about how her collection of toy horses would fare in the move. And then came war, and then the King’s death, and then the throne.

Though the royals eventually - in 1967! - made an outward show of some reconciliation with the aged former king and his wife, it is well known that the Queen Mother never really forgave or forgot what her brother-in-law had done to her family because of "the woman he loved." So far as I know, the Queen has never really shown her hand concerning her personal thoughts and feelings on the whole Windsor saga. But it strikes me that had Edward VIII remained king until his death in 1972, Elizabeth would have had an additional twenty years of fairly private life in which to raise her family and enjoy the country pursuits that she prefers.

Charles himself has always been somewhat haunted by the ghost of the Duke of Windsor. I remember reading discussions in the 60s and 70s about how his predecessor as Prince of Wales was a model to be avoided. I suspect in various ways he had the message "Don’t be like Uncle David!" ground into him from the day of his birth. And yet here he comes to wed, a divorcee marrying a divorcee after an admittedly adulterous affair. Very different, and hauntingly similar!

Thus, the planned wedding of Charles and Camilla at Windsor is almost poetic. It was there that Edward VIII abdicated, and made his famous broadcast to the empire. It was there, in the chapel where this union will be blessed, that the Duke of Windsor’s funeral service was conducted. It was there that the Duchess of Windsor’s funeral also occurred. Will thoughts of those events flit through the minds of the Queen, Charles, and Camilla on April 8? (They probably will be in the mind of the Earl of Wessex, whose "Edward on Edward" was one of the better efforts in his television career.)

But I also suspect another ghost will be lurking in the shadows of St. George’s during the service of blessing. The ashes of "Dear Aunt Margo" - as Charles called her at the time of her death - lie there in the crypt with her parents. We now know that the Queen was not, as previously thought, the villain in Princess Margaret’s decision not to marry Group Captain Townsend. But the popular perception of Margaret as the woman who renounced the "man she loved" for the sake of Church and Crown, was part and parcel of the royal mythos for over forty years. And the discussions from the era of the controversy do show a world in which a royal marriage to a divorcee was still pretty risqu� and controversial.

There will also be some living ghosts at this wedding, particularly those named Anne and Andrew. Perhaps the Queen’s cousin, the Earl of Harewood, may get an invitation as well? All show the degree to which the social changes surrounding marriage have figured into the second Elizabethan era at various stages and times.

And then, there will be Diana. Will she be a friendly or angry ghost? Various sources, ones who should know, have been saying for years that before her death Diana had made her peace with the divorce and simply wanted Charles to get on with it and "make an honest woman" of Camilla. I’ve always seen that as a great sign of Diana’s own healing, and her entry into a new level of maturity.

Maybe that’s the thing. Though it has its unsettling aspects, in a way this marriage and blessing may let the specter of divorce finally settle a bit, and let everyone step into a new level of relational reality. Scandalous Edward and Wallis can perhaps rest a bit better at Frogmore. Naughty Margaret can sleep more comfortably in the crypt. Even St. Diana’s spirit may find some deeper serenity in her island grave at Althorp. More importantly, maybe the Queen, and the Prince of Wales, and Britain, can finally lay some of these ghosts to rest in their own psyches. Maybe we all can.

Yours aye,

- Ken Cuthbertson