The only previous Duke of Sussex was Prince Augustus Frederick, the sixth son of George III and Queen Charlotte, who was born on January 27, 1773. The title was conferred upon him on November 27, 1801. But Augustus’s nuptial history is hardly illustrious. He wed twice, both times in contravention of his father’s Royal Marriages Act 1772, which requires the monarch’s consent to a marriage.
While he was touring Italy, Augustus met Lady Augusta Murray, the flaxen-haired second daughter of the 4th Earl of Dunmore. The pair had a secret wedding in Rome on April 4, 1793, when the prince was only twenty years old. Gus and Gussie were hauled back to London, where they had a second ceremony at St. George’s Hanover Square, Westminster. Both marriages were performed without the knowledge or consent of Augustus’s father the king. The marriage was annulled the following year, but the couple continued to live together—with their children—until 1801.
Thirty years later, Augustus once again flouted the law. By then he was a widower, Augusta having died the previous year. In 1831, the Duke of Sussex married Lady Cecilia Letitia Buggin, a pretty honey-blond widow who was the eldest daughter of the 2nd Earl of Arran. By then Augustus was Duke of Sussex, but his older brother George IV adamantly refused to accord Augustus’s wife the title of Duchess of Sussex, despite his own extremely checkered marital history. George IV was an alleged bigamist, having secretly wed the Catholic Maria Fitzherbert ten years before he was compelled to marry his German first cousin Caroline of Brunswick—bribed by his father, who agreed to pay off his exorbitant debts if he did so.
It was Queen Victoria who gave Lady Cecilia a title in her own right. By then she had ditched her late husband’s surname Buggin and taken her mother’s name of Underwood. In 1840, Victoria created Lady Cecilia Duchess of Inverness so that she could accompany her husband to royal functions as an equal in rank. Because Cecilia had never been made Duchess of Sussex, for the first nine years of her marriage royal protocol had denied her the proverbial seat at the table.
The dukedom of Buckingham is also available; but a fair number of previous holders of the title conjure unpleasant memories as well. Edward Stafford, the 3rd Duke of Buckingham, was beheaded for treason by Richard III in 1521; although it could be argued that in contravening some of Richard’s autocratic orders, he was acting in good conscience.
After Stafford’s death the title became extinct; but it was revived in 1623 by James I, who bestowed it on his bisexual lover George Villiers, starting the clock again by naming Villiers the 1st Duke of Buckingham. Villiers had a lengthy tenure at the Stuart court, becoming an advisor to James’s son and successor Charles I. He is the Duke of Buckingham in Alexandre Dumas’s classic novel The Three Musketeers, who becomes embroiled in a passionate but unconsummated love affair with the queen of France, Anne of Austria, the wife of Louis XIII. That part is historically accurate. The 1st Duke of Buckingham, who was also Britain’s Lord Admiral, maintained a shrine to Anne in his cabin aboard his flagship. He was stabbed to death in an English pub by a disgruntled sailor, angry over Buckingham’s encouragement of Charles I to involve Britain in the Thirty Years’ War.
The 2nd Duke of Buckingham (and second George Villiers) was a top advisor to Charles II and was best known for his sexcapades. He eloped with his wife, Mary, while the banns for her marriage to another man were already being read in church. And his cousin Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine and Duchess of Cleveland, titles earned on her back, was one of the king’s most notorious and fecund mistresses, mother to five of his many royal bastards.
Harry and Meghan will also receive Scottish titles, just as William and Catherine did. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are also the Earl and Countess of Strathearn. The earldom of Ross is available, but it may bring bad luck. A former Earl of Ross was King Charles I, who was beheaded by his own people in January 1649 during England’s civil war.
ON HER WEDDING day, Meghan will become not only Princess Henry of Wales, a princess by marriage of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and Northern Ireland, but either Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Clarence, HRH the Duchess of Sussex, or HRH the Duchess of Buckingham, in addition to any Scottish and Irish titles the Queen may bestow. Sussex would seem to be the ducal title that bears the least amount of baggage. Meghan would be the first-ever Duchess of Sussex, because the first duke’s wife, Queen Victoria’s aunt by marriage, was never granted that title. However, she will no longer be Meghan Markle, although people will likely continue to call her that, just as the Duchess of Cambridge is often referred to as Kate Middleton despite several years of marriage to William. After she becomes a royal, Meghan will sign her name as they do, with her first name only. Her new last name, if she chooses to use it, will be Mountbatten-Windsor, but the royals rarely use their surnames. Meghan’s credit cards and driver’s license will show her title as her name. And it remains to be seen how her passport situation will be handled, as it will take at least five years for Meghan to become a citizen of the UK. She doesn’t get to jump the queue just because she is marrying the Queen’s grandson.
Harry did earn a military promotion prior to his wedding. On Tuesday, December 19, 2017, after serving as Captain General Royal Marines for sixty-four years, Prince Philip stepped down from his role, and the Queen appointed Prince Harry to succeed him. Harry, who had already begun preparing for the position, accompanied his grandfather in his final duty as Captain General, as Their Royal Highnesses received the incoming and outgoing Commandants General at Buckingham Palace.
There will be a learning curve for Meghan when it comes to royal protocol, but even those born into the House of Windsor must learn such things as which utensil to use and when; and whom to bow and curtsy to according to the Order of Precedence, a list that itself should be committed to memory.
Meghan has perfected the wave that will not blur on camera, but will have to master the official way to enter and exit motorcars and helicopters, by bringing one leg to gracefully meet the other, keeping the knees together as much as possible; and “the duchess slant”—sitting in a chair with the legs closed and off to one side, so that photographers can’t get a glimpse up her skirt. Other options when sitting are to keep her legs together or to cross them at the ankle. Meghan has been accustomed to being in the public eye, posing for cameras for the past several years, so it’s highly unlikely that the royal family needs to worry that Harry’s bride might get caught in any Britney Spears moments. Even her older half sister Samantha admitted that Meghan was always “very classy, prim and proper, even when she was a child.” Yet there are other arcane rules that Meghan will be expected to follow, including skirt length (no more minis) and natural-hued nail polish. Meghan nailed that one on November 27, 2017, during the engagement photo op when she showed off her ring.
Both the Queen and the Duchess of Cambridge have a go-to neutral shade that any woman who wishes to emulate them can find at her local drugstore: Essie’s Ballet Slippers. In her wildest dreams, how could Essie Weingarten, a Jewish entrepreneur from Queens, New York, have imagined that the Queen of England would be wearing her nail polish!
It’s also a requirement for women of Britain’s royal family to wear pantyhose during official engagements. Meghan’s bare legs on the day she and Harry appeared in KP’s Sunken Garden to announce their engagement either broke or flouted protocol.
There were reports that Meghan would have to learn henceforth to speak the Queen’s English. Lavatory should replace any synonyms; and from now on she should say sofa instead of couch (perhaps couch is what one does to one’s words). In any event, if there really is a vocabulary list, it’s not difficult for a professional actress to memorize a script.
Nevertheless, the notion than an American needs to learn to “tawk” properly smacks of the insults Catherine Middleton’s mother received when she allegedly used the “wrong” (read: low class) vocabulary around the Queen, which the British toffs were certain would end any chances of Kate’s ever wedding William.
Perhaps the most
unusual preparation that Meghan had to undergo was military training, standard operating procedure for anyone marrying into the royal family. Memorizing which fork to use is nothing compared to learning what to do in case you are taken hostage. As part of her training exercises, Meghan might have been put through a simulation as if she were already a hostage and instructed on how to act when the room is stormed by the Special Air Service (SAS). She would have been taught how to slip out of zip ties and duct tape and how to convey information when she’s under duress, using micro expressions and key words. Additional training would have included how to act without close protection—in other words, what to do if something goes horribly wrong and your protection officers are not able to do their duty.
Catherine Middleton underwent similar instruction before her marriage to Prince William; and even Diana and Prince Charles headed off on a secret mission to the Hereford headquarters of the SAS in 1993 for antiterrorist and kidnap training.
It’s undoubtedly daunting to have to learn centuries of royal protocol within a brief space of time—the names, ranks, and duties of thousands of people, and what each tradition is on every occasion. But unlike Diana, or Catherine Middleton, who were nineteen years old when their respective royal relationships began, Meghan is thirty-six—an adult who enjoyed a successful career of her own before she met her prince. That career in front of the cameras, the red carpets and premieres, as well as appearing at charity and global events, have in part prepared her for public scrutiny, for being photographed all the time, and for being in the public eye. But the attention Meghan has had and will continue to receive as a young and beautiful royal is exponentially greater than she’d ever before experienced as a principal on a cable television series.
However, what may trip Meghan up is the very thing that makes her such a breath of fresh air to the royal family: her Americanism. During her January 2018 visit with Harry to Cardiff, Wales, Meghan reverted to Hollywood habits, breaking royal protocol by posing for a selfie with a teenage fan and signing an autograph, instead of politely declining, as members of the royal family are supposed to do. Yet she cleverly avoided the taboo of providing her signature by writing a cute message with a smiley face instead.
Moreover, Americans tend to be voluble, open books compared to the British. We love to share what we’re feeling. Meghan blogged for three years about everything that was on her mind. Her followers knew all about her workout routines; her passions for yoga, Pilates, and running; her favorite chefs, restaurants, and recipes. Meghan posted the recipe for her favorite comfort food, her Grandma Markle’s apple butter toast; and avid readers learned about the actress’s obsession for a decadent winter warm-up, red wine hot chocolate. Not one to mince words, Meghan once described a pumpkin fondue as “the best f*cking thing I’ve ever eaten.” If there really is a vocabulary list, then one of the words in that sentence may be on it, even though it was frequently used to great effect by Geoffrey Chaucer, a courtier to Meghan’s purported ancestor King Edward III.
In The Tig, Meghan discussed her travels to far-flung getaways, her favorite flowers, and places to get a terrific facial, in addition to posting interviews with powerful women in various professions, essays about her philanthropic work, and excerpts from articles she had penned and speeches she had delivered on behalf of the nonprofit causes she both championed and worked with—“boots on the ground,” in her words. Her Instagram feed had over three million followers. And her celebrity status afforded her the platform to speak about her humanitarian efforts with her fans and inspire them to become more involved with global and local causes.
Actors are accustomed to talking about what they are working on because promotion is part of the job. And most American actors don’t mind doing publicity tours and being amusing on chat shows, whereas the opposite tends to be true of their British counterparts. Moreover, the royal family is not supposed to give interviews, except on rare occasions, or to display emotion in public. The former ruins the mystique and magic that cocoons the fairy-tale element of the monarchy, and the latter is considered vulgar. Yet during their interview with the BBC after the announcement of their engagement, Meghan certainly didn’t dial back her effervescence or her obvious empathy for Harry when he spoke about his mother.
After Meghan marries Harry, she will also become a patron of the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Harry, which serves as the main vehicle for their philanthropic activities. Meghan is already jumping with both feet into charitable endeavors. Her first official royal appearance was on World AIDS Day, December 1, when she toured Nottingham with Prince Harry. It was a perfect blend of activism for both of them. Diana was one of the first public figures to bring international awareness to the AIDS epidemic, and Harry has continued his mother’s work with AIDS patients, researchers, and caregivers. For decades, AIDS has tragically and disproportionately affected members of the performing arts community as well.
Whether it was a rookie mistake or a declaration of independence, Meghan broke protocol during her first official engagement by carrying a handbag in Nottingham instead of a clutch. The Queen and the Duchess of Cambridge are always seen with clutches at such events. There is a method behind the madness. A lady can correctly hold a clutch in both hands, if necessary, which allows the royal to avoid shaking hands if she prefers not to.
In Nottingham, Meghan won the day, however. Just as merchants immediately sell out of whatever Prince William’s wife or their children are wearing, an influence nicknamed the “Kate Effect,” Meghan has the same magic.
Piggybacking their success with the fashion blog What Would Kate Do? Amanda Dishaw and Christine O’Brien-Ross launched a second blog titled Meghan’s Mirror, which chronicles everything she wears, what it costs, and where her fans can purchase it. Meghan’s influence, especially if she has children, is currently projected to top the financial impact of the Kate Effect, because Meghan has already been a fashion influencer in the United States and Canada for years, and her style is trendier, less traditional, and often more affordable than Kate’s. In January 2018, Brand Finance estimated that Meghan’s entry into the royal family could bring $677 million into Britain’s economy in this calendar year alone, a figure that is only a reflection of her status as a style icon.
As an example, the $625 burgundy tricolor Strathberry Midi Tote Meghan wore on her arm in Nottingham (Harry was on the other arm) sold out within hours. The actual protocol-breaking purse Meghan carried that day was auctioned on eBay to benefit the Terrence Higgins Trust, which organized the World AIDS Day charity fair that she and Harry visited as part of their official royal tour.
It remains to be seen whether Meghan will ever resume her acting career. When she and Harry announced their engagement, she said at the time that because she had achieved success as an actress, she was comfortable starting a new chapter in her life and focusing solely on her philanthropic endeavors.
Grace Kelly was a decade younger than Meghan, with a Best Actress Oscar in her closet, when she wed Prince Rainier of Monaco. Believing she’d done it all by the age of twenty-five, she cheerfully gave up acting to marry a prince, only to regret it later. But that was the 1950s, and her husband, an old-school European Catholic who didn’t think much of independent women, had always expected his wife to be no more than a mother and Monaco’s most glamorous figurehead.
That’s not Meghan and Harry, whom Meghan has referred to as a feminist, nor is the British monarchy, for all its hidebound traditions, Monaco in the 1950s.
No one is betting that Meghan will return to filming racy scenes in law office file rooms or lounging around in her lingerie. But might she narrate documentaries that focus on the charities supported by the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Harry? Will a lifetime of attending philanthropic events and helping to raise funds for causes that are dear to her be enough?
Ribbon cutting has never been enough thus far for Harry. Both he and Meghan seek adventure as much as they seek t
o change the world for the better, and it will be exciting to see how the two of them transform and update the role of modern royals.
So what will Meghan’s priorities be, once a ring is slipped on her finger in St. George’s Chapel? Because Meghan will celebrate her thirty-seventh birthday three months after their marriage, will The Firm pressure her to become a mother right away, or will she and Harry be able to enjoy their lives together as newlyweds, allowing Meghan the time to acclimate herself to her new life in a new country? For centuries the first (and often only) obligation of a royal wife was to ensure the continuation of the dynasty by begetting an heir. Yet with each new Cambridge baby, Harry slides further down the line of succession. He adores children and has always said he would want them when the time is right. And he’s finally found the right woman.
But given the fact that Meghan has been an independent professional in her own right for years, will she be able to call some of her own shots, or will her life be mapped out from now on by the Queen or the Men in Gray? Meghan has said, “I’ve never wanted to be a lady who lunches—I’ve always wanted to be a woman who works.”
Harry still remains one of the most popular members of the royal family: the handsome, cheeky, charismatic man of the people; the rule breaker; the rebel with many causes. We live in an age of celebrity; and if Harry’s mother was the people’s princess, and William has said he aims to be the people’s king, Harry is indeed the people’s prince. And he is marrying a genuine celebrity in her own right, a woman who has already achieved what she desired in two careers—as an actress and as a humanitarian.
The couple’s popularity appears boundless. When the announcement that America’s Lifetime network had already greenlighted a cable TV movie of their romance made headline news across the world, websites as far from Kensington Palace as Qatar shared the production details. A pair of Meghan and Harry dolls in bridal finery retail for £131. And in perhaps the most unusual tribute, in January 2018, the London Zoo named its newborn okapi Meghan. Native to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, okapi, which are on the endangered species list, are members of the giraffe family, but don’t have long necks. Meghan the okapi is black with zebra-like white stripes on her legs.
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