Prince Harry Marries His Heartthrob: Congratulations...with some bitters.

Prince Harry, or 'Arry' or Henry, has just married his sweetheart, Meghan Markle, in, as you would expect, a lavish ceremony at Windsor Castle. The show was grand, happy, attended by the high and the mighty and accompanied by the most glittering pomp and ceremony that could be mustered. We on this forum are not immune to some mischief and while we eat and drink and savor this wonderful occasion, we might try some bitters to accompany and flavor our...er...
In case the wine may dull our senses, we should not forget that some of the troubles that had bedeviled the British Monarchy of recent have emanated from marriages. We could start from the abdication of the throne by Edward VIII in order to marry his heartthrob, the American socialite, Wallis Simpson. The whole affair almost engendered a constitutional crisis but love eventually won and the king had to abandon the comforts of the throne for the comforts of the bosom of his mistress. His abdication led to the enthronement of George VI and then the present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, grandmother of our prince.
The present ceremony reminds us of another one, in 1981, Princess Diana getting married to the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, father of our Prince Harry. In ample display was a lot of blushing and laughing and loving. What turned out to be displayed in equal abundance was the confounding ruckus that the marriage, and wedding, had been a bit contrived. Royal blood or half royal blood or things like that. We are glad we are not hearing such things now, Meghan Markle mother's being black, or African-American, according to the latest taxonomy. The only blue blood that has ever been seen is the one poisoned by carbon monoxide. God forbid. You can also see green blood in the horrid alien in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film 'predator'. It wasn't a little turmoil that the indiscretion brought into the monarchy. Nobody can say for certain that the Princess of Wales loved her Prince but it was clear to all, as it later turned out on the pages of the most lurid and obstreperous tabloids that ever suffered to be printed on earth, that Prince Charles actually had his heart locked in Fort-Knox like vaults with that of Camilla, now Duchess of Cornwall. Princess Diana, whom we think is not a princess but just a smart modern girl, was to seek other hearts to lock hers with, an adventure that culminated in a fatal crash in Paris with her lover, Dodi Fayed. Moments before the crash, folks claimed a red vehicle was seen behind her limousine and it wasn't long before Bond-like conspiracy theories surfaced. The controversies are yet to die down. The Queen seemed to have learned some lesson and Prince Andrew, brother to Prince Charles, was certainly given freer hand to choose her bride. The marriage to Sarah Ferguson wasn't all that more successful too and it all ended in divorce. The world is a much more modern, less stable place and there was no way the monarchy was going to secure itself against divorces, love and modern interpretations of marriage.
But not to worry. Marriages or weddings, successful or not, are not what keeps the monarchy going. King Henry VIII launched a torrid rebellion against the Pope in order to divorce his queen, Catherine of Aragon, and marry Anne Boleyne. Whom he then had executed on trumped-up charges in order to marry a third wife. And here we are still celebrating another royal wedding, hundreds of years later. So let's all pour the wine, raise our glasses and holla: 'Congratulations, Prince Arry!'