Tomorrow people around the world, and particularly in the UK and Commonwealth, will be celebrating the Royal Wedding of the year, that of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, known as Kate.
As a Brit, I will be taking the day off tomorrow to celebrate the wedding and to enjoy a garden party, complete with barbecue, a hat competition for the ladies (I’m wearing a French hood!) and an archery competition. Even our roving reporter, Sir Tim Ridgway, is travelling forward in time from 1536 to enjoy the day with us!
The actual marriage ceremony begins at 11am GMT at Westminster and you can see the full schedule on the BBC News website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13097243. The BBC are providing comprehensive coverage to viewers and those in countries outside of the UK will be able to see coverage on their news website – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13132410 and their Royal Wedding page – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11767495 which also has a wedding route map, information on past royal weddings and a complete guide to this very special occasion.
For those of you who are not into the whole Wills and Kate wedding, I thought you might be interested in the details of the weddings of other Royal Catherines, those from the Tudor era:-
- Catherine of Aragon and Prince Arthur on 14th November 1501 – See the History Today article Wedding of Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon and Arthur, Prince of Wales.
- Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII on 11th June 1509 – See The Marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.
- Catherine Howard and Henry VIII on 28th July 1540 – See The Marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine Howard.
- Catherine Parr and Henry VIII on 12th July 1543 – See The Marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine Parr.
The Anne Boleyn Files wishes His Royal Highness the Prince William and his bride, Catherine Middleton, a lifetime of happiness. We pray that she will be happier than her royal namesakes!
Well, at risk of or perhaps in hopes of sparking a debate, I’d like to say that I certainly wish Wills and Kate well in their future happiness… but my interest in the event extends no further than that polite courtesy. I am a Brit, currently living in Britain, so I too will garner a day off tomorrow, but my interest in the modern day royals is minimal. That may sound strange coming from me, as I am actually an historian and obviously interested in royals of the past seeing as I’m here on this website, but for me the modern day royal family is interesting only as a living relic of our very interesting history. I must also credit them for bringing in foreign tourism cash flow into the economy, but that’s about as far as my interest goes. To me, they’re simply no longer neccessary for the smooth functioning of government in this country – and no doubt many people might add that the money spent on them can be better spent elsewhere, though to me I care less about that argument since the foreign tourism possibly balances that out. As individuals though, I am quite willing to wish Wills and Kate well and all happiness.
What do you think about the modern British monarchy?
I’m a Brit and although the monarchy is constitutional these days and the royal family have no real function in governing our country the amount of good they do with their charity work is amazing and I applaud them for that. When I’m 85 years old I don’t think I want to be coping with the Queen’s schedule!
For me, the royal wedding is a time to celebrate the good that this family does in Britain and in the world, to get together with friends and family and enjoy a day off. Communities are coming together to celebrate and that is quite unusual in today’s world where people often don’t know their neighbours or have anything to do with them. I hope the street parties and events will result in new friendships.
I admire the royal family and I wish William and Kate a very happy wedding day and future together. They have a lot on their plates!
I think the Royal Family have a role to play in calling attention to those in need, good causes and charities. Diana did this so well with the Centrepoint charity for the homeless, people with Aids, and her landmine campaign. William & Harry seem determined to do the same so good luck to them. I will certainly be watching the wedding tomorrow.
William is on TV as I type, and behind him there is a fireplace with 1537 carved into it. If I wait long enough will our roving reporter pop up? 🙂
Is that HVIII’s giant man claw on her left shoulder? “Come hither, you fine bit of stuff.”
They seem a good couple, good luck to them.
I wonder what Holbein would have made of the Mills & Boon clinch and the giant smiles. Nothing in that portrait to warn them of death and the abuse of power.
Even thugh I’m American, I have always had a fascination with history and especially royalty-thus following the Tudor series and the Anne Boleyn Files. I got up at an ungodly hour to watch Charles wed Diana in 1981 and intend to wake up at another ungodly hour to watch William wed Catherine. Whatever one thinks about a monarchy, you Brits still have one, it’s important to you and tomorrow is a day of history in the life of a potential monarch. I always like Princess Di even though she had her demons. She, like Anne (and Catherine, Jane, Anna, Catherine, and Catherine) unfortunately, showed that the girl(s) who marries a Prince (or a King) doesn’t always live “happily ever after.” Maybe it is my wish that this one does.
I am all for the British Royalty. May they be happy and live long.
….Robert
Again at the risk of being controversial, I must disagree with our American friend. I’m British, born and bred, and the monarchy is not important to me. I don’t care about the potential monarch.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, I would like to put a question out there, to any non-Brits, who are very much looking forwards to the wedding. As someone who is a Brit but has very minimal interest at all in the current monarchy, I have a great deal of difficulty understand why on earth foreigners, whose royal family this isn’t even, have such a great obsession and enthusiasm for it. To me, it’s no big deal and I really couldn’t care less about the royal wedding, and they’re my royal family. So why do non-Brits care so deeply, is my real question? Especially, I don’t understand why Americans love it so much – didn’t you guys fight for independence from the British monarchy? Didn’t you guys choose to be a republic and throw off the monarch?
Sure, they do charity work. But anyone can do charity work. You could pick up and plop down any family into their position, and any decent family would do their best to do the charity work. Who cares? I don’t mean to sound offensive when I say that – I am genuinely asking, I am inviting someone to try and answer me. From my point of view, I ask the question what purpose or function if you will do the royal family serve (that no one else could do equally as well), and why exactly should they gain so much interest especially from non-Brits – why have they gained your interest? What did they actually DO to gain that interest, besides by an accident of birth being born?
I can so well understand Beth’s viewpoint, which is essentially my own, although against my plan I spent several hours today before my TV … and it was very nice and I am very happy for the royal family! (My only quibble was the music in the Abbey: no Händel, no Purcell, such a shame …)
I suppose that so many non-Brits love them has to do with Freudian “Ersatz”-…. It’s certainly the case in my country: when I opened my non-tabloid newspaper today there were many pages about the wedding (as has been the case for days if not weeks) on the one hand, while there was an extremely critical, even hateful interview with a (former) Catholic theologian about Sunday’s beatification of Pope John Paul II. It’s absolutely typical for my country, which is the homeland of Benedict XVI, that we (and this goes for atheists, Catholics, and Lutherans alike) constantly find fault with “our pope” but seem to love the British royals!
I am really not a royalist but I must warn everyone about “presidents of the republic” who are as expensive as they are superflous, so a queen scaled down a bit is probably the better solution. I see however one problem, especially from the viewpoint of historiography: I often feel the British could use a bit more distance to their past in the sense that they should make themselves more clear that Tudor times are really 500 years away; for example, that any problems back then are no danger to the current British state, an impression one sometimes gets from heated debates.
And of course I will be watching the pope on Suday!
I think you’re right, Christine. I’ve noticed that foreigners have a much bigger obsession with the royals than Brits do, but particularly those who lack their own royal family.
I have nothing against Wills and Kate – in fact, as I said earlier, they seem to me very nice and I wish them well – but I don’t get the ridiculous obsession with the wedding. It’s a very big personal step for a young couple and it should be their private day – since I am neither a relative or a close personal friend, how on earth is it any of my business, and why should I care about it? I mean it’s not as if the royals have any real power anymore, so you can’t really use that as an argument for why I should care about a potential future monarch. And, in many ways the institution is very outdated in many of its discriminatory practices. As two individuals in love but who are strangers to me, I politely wish Wills and Kate well – but I have no further interest. I mean, honestly, is it neccessary to have 1 hour news segments devoted purely to examining the flower arrangements or what type of cake they’re going to have?!
Now the day has come only few hours there for royal wedding so people around the world will watch the wedding T.V. media will also awaiting to live royal wedding all over the world so all wish them to live lifelong together with one or two children.
I was ten years-old and on holiday with my aunt in the state of Washington, US when Prince Charles was wed to Diana. My aunt wanted to watch the ceremony on television that day. The gowns, Westminster Abbey, the carriages, and the crowds of people were spectacles that I had never witnessed at that period of my life. I was curious as from the pictures alone, I felt a very deep tie to the architecture and the landscape that I witnessed over the television that morning. It was as though I had been there before and lived among this very odd group of people who adhered to a such a specific code of conduct whenever they “met the masses”. When Princess Diana died, I was not affected personally as I did not know her but, the reality that a portion of my childhood identity died with her that day was sadly profound. And this morning as I was getting my now 10 year-old daughter ready for school, we watched Prince William leaving the Abbey with Katherine.
As an American, I really do feel an obligation to explain the madness over Britain’s Royal Family here. An overwhelming number of Americans utilize the television as their main source of entertainment. Our news and worldly information is fed to us primarily through television stations like the Fox Network… In other words, if you’re like most Americans, everything that you see on that flat box has a wildly sensational slant to it. Everything is exaggerated beyond belief and if it’s on the tele then, it MUST be worth checking out. Americans feel compelled to watch anyone who isn’t them and “oooooh and ahhhhh” or critique the hell out of anything they witness that isn’t in-line with with their comfort zones.
Some Americans watched the Royal Wedding because they felt a connection to Prince William’s mother, I’m sure. Some Americans watched out of curiosity. Most however, probably watched because this wedding has been advertised and sensationalized to the hilt since the announcement of The Engagement. They watched for the same reason that they’re so fascinated with American celebrities: It’s something different and colorful and larger than life. ~I’m sure that there are Americans who truly admire the British Monarchy but, I believe that most are just fascinated with the differences between our government and that of Britain. ~I do not think that this Royal Obsession has anything to do with a longing to really be a part of it or jealousy at “not” being a part of it. It’s just something new and shiny and different. And well…, majority rules doesn’t it.
In short, Americans are a rather bizarre (and somewhat scary) bunch. …lol… And yes, our country is absolutely fascinated by The Royal Family.
Thank you for your thoughts, Tiffaney, that was very interesting. I must admit I chuckled at your description of the media coverage on television. I have American friends and I myself have been to America, so I do know what you mean – it’s easy to forget that American tv is really quite different from British tv. You guys seem to have ad breaks every 10 minutes (I mean, honestly, do they think you people have the attention span of a goldfish?! Here in the UK people are annoyed when we get ads every 15 minutes which is the most frequent that ads could appear over here), and everything does seem very supercharged and shouty and sensationalised… over here our television is rather more sober. For the most part, I hasten to add – in places, the “American style” of tv is starting to creep in, to my dismay. I’m also a bit surprised at how you describe the deep involvement Americans have with their televisions as their main source of… of input, I suppose. Sure, we Brits like our television, and some of us hardly do anything but watch it, but to be that involved would be unusual. And, over here, we’re less enamoured also of the royal family because, well, we have them all the time. It’s totally normal for us.