A New Royal Wedding

Royal Wedding 2018

It was the announcement that royal watchers have been expecting for months. But this morning their patience was rewarded when Clarence House, the office of Prince Charles, officially announced the engagement of his younger Prince Harry to US actress Meghan Markle.

The engagement announcement came not from Harry's team at Kensington Palace, but from the offices of his father, the Prince of Wales at Clarence House.

The couple, who first met in May 2016 and became engaged earlier this month, will walk up the aisle sometime in the spring of 2018.

It has been a far shorter courtship than that of Harrys older brother William, who lived with his now-wife, Kate, for more than ten years before they announced their engagement. Although their close family and friends were in the know, no-one in either family had been told that November was the day they intended to announce it to the world.

With her role in Suits already making her a household name in the US, Meghan's private life, (which until her relationship with Prince Harry had become official) had been artfully detailed on her official Instagram page where she shared many sultry selfies and self-empowering posts.

However as the relationship continued to blossom, Meghan wound down her social media presence. Signs that the relationship was far from being a passing fancy started to show when in April 2017, when just shy of a year after meeting Harry, Meghan announced the closure of her lifestyle blog, The Tig.

The Royals, by tradition, are notoriously private and tend to shun social media. The Queen has shown herself willing to experiment with social media, however, she does not approve of the need to share absolutely everything with the world on a public forum. She has never sat for an interview one on one with a reporter. She has narrated for a documentary on Royal life and who can forget her brilliant "oh really" moment in the Invictus Games video or the parachute stunt at Olympic Games opening ceremony.

However, we must not forget, that Her Majesty comes from a very different generation. One where it was considered immoral for a woman to be seen out in public without a hat to cover her hair, and when being a senior member of the royal family meant marrying someone from either land or money, with a title thrown into the mix (ideally all three.) The idea of the establishment welcoming a divorcee into their midst was unfathomable, as her uncle, David (Edward VIII) discovered to his great cost when he fell in love with Wallis Simpson a two-time American divorcee.

Like Wallis, Meghan herself is an America divorcee. Her marriage to Trevor Engelson ended in 2013 after just two years together. But where the royal doors of Buckingham place were firmly shut in Wallis's face for this reason. For Meghan however, they have been thrown wide open. The Archbishop of Canterbury is even willing to permit them to marry in Westminster Abbey. A prospect that was considered unthinkable for Wallis, who eventually married her man only after he was forced to abdicate his throne and agreed to leave his country to be ruled by his brother George. A job he never wanted. The strain of becoming King only aggravating King Georges fragile health. Which both the Queen and her mother blamed both Wallis and her husband for.

The couple eventually married in June 1937 at the Chateau de Cande in France, but only after the King had been forced to abdicate in favour of his younger brother.

Not for Meghan the strain of being hated by both her lover's people or his family, forced into exile in a foreign country When she marries Harry, she will, like Kate, did six years ago, become a royal Duchess (the Dukedom of Sussex has long been reported to have reserved for Harry, reportedly due to the fact that the title has not been occupied by a royal since 1843.

Although Kates titles will change as the year's progress, Princess of Wales, Queen Consort etc. The titles that Meghan and Harry receive on the day of their wedding will be theirs for the rest of their lives together.