Royal Marriages
Nearly all house laws have regulated dynasts' right to marry. Paul I of Russia established the house law of the Romanovs (the Pauline Laws), one of the strictest in Europe. The consorts of Russian dynasts had to be "equally born" (i.e., belong to a royal or ruling house) and be approved by the tsar.
While some German dynasties included in their laws language requiring or urging the monarch to consent to any "equal" marriage, some heads of dynastic houses rejected royal matches on behalf of their family members. The French pretender denied his daughter, Princess Hélène d'Orléans, the opportunity to become Queen Consort of Britain by refusing her permission to convert to Anglicanism to marry Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence. In the late 19th or early 20th centuries the monarchs of Belgium, Russia, and Spain all withheld consent from members of their families to marry for love into foreign dynasties: Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia and Infante Alfonso de Borbon-Orléans of Spain sought to marry a pair of sisters who were also British princesses, Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh and Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh, choosing to elope and endure (temporary) banishment rather than obey their sovereigns' commands.
Read more about this topic: House Law
Famous quotes containing the words royal and/or marriages:
“You know, he wanted to shoot the Royal Family, abolish marriage, and put everybody who’d been to public school in a chain gang. Yeah, he was a idealist, your dad was.”
—David Mercer, British screenwriter, and Karel Reisz. Mrs. Dell (Irene Handl)
“Women have entered the work force . . . partly to express their feelings of self-worth . . . partly because today many families would not survive without two incomes, partly because they are not at all sure their marriages will last. The day of the husband as permanent meal-ticket is over, a fact most women recognize, however they feel about “women’s liberation.””
—Robert Neelly Bellah (20th century)