"'Unlike the Jews, the Irish, and the Germans, the English are pleased to be thought even more mongrel and exotic than they are. It appeals to the streak of romantic sensibility in the English temperament. Tell an Englishman that he is pure-bred Anglo-Saxon or a hundred per cent Aryan, and he will laugh in your face; tell him that his remote ancestry contains a blend of French, Russian, Chinese or even Arab or Hindu, and he will listen with polite gratification. The remoter, of course, the better; it is more picturesque, and less socially ambiguous.'
"'Socially ambiguous? Ah! you admit, then, that the Englishman in fact despises all other races but his own.'
"' Until he has had time to assimilate them. What he despises is not other races but other civilisations. He does not wish to be called a dago; but if he is born with dark eyes and an olive complexion, he is pleased to trace those features back to a Spanish hidalgo, cast away upon the English coast in the wreck of the Great Armada. Everything with us is a matter of sentiment and association'".
D L Sayers, circa 1936
In recent weeks, there have been allegations of racism in some comments about the Ms Markle who married, a couple of years ago, into the House of Battenberg. You have to be careful, nowadays, how you express racism; you might get away with more by using crafty periphrasis ... and rumour has it that somebody referred to Ms M as bringing some 'exotic DNA' into the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Some years ago, a paparazzo came up with a neat retort. Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark had just advised this camera-wielding foreigner to "Go back home". Backing deftly away, the man, tugging his hellenic forelock, cried Efaristo! Efaristo!
Surely, racial miscegenation is the main activity of 'Royalty' and of the international upper classes. It always has been. Alliances have had to be cemented; heiresses have had to be hoovered up. For such people, racial intermarriage has always been an everyday reality. 'Prince Henry of Wales, Duke of Sussex', chose his bride in strict conformity with these ancient traditions of aristocratic life. The genealogists inevitably discovered that Ms M is in fact descended from the ancient family of the Earls of Northumberland, the Percies. No surprise to me! (On the other hand, I've not heard that anybody has made interesting discoveries about the antecedents of poor ordinary Ms Middleton. Black mark there.)
The hypothesis has been plausibly advanced that Queen Elizabeth is herself descended ... via the South of Spain ... from a grandchild of the Prophet Mohammed.
More than likely. Perhaps the Security Services should watch out for signs that she has been 'radicalised'.
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If Her Majesty has been radicalised she does a good job of hiding it. Her Christmas speeches that I have watched recently (via YouTube being on the wrong side of the pond) seem to make no bones about bringing out the real reason for the feast. I suppose it is to be expected since she still is Fidei Defensor. Something that has been verboten in these United States in recent years although Trump has started to move away from the De Facto position of Atheism as our state religion.
Excuse me, but did Meghan Markle really marry, or was she already married and her husband still alive?
Efaristo! - Efkharisto?
She was received into the C of E by Baptism. I have no knowledge of how precisely her sacramental status ... and hence, her capacity to contract Christian Marriage ... was investigated.
Miss Markle was married to Prince Henry in the C of E where they do not hold to the same theology we in the Catholic Church do. I find even C of E Anglo-Catholics hold to double standards. The C of E leaves it, I believe, to the conscience of the individual minister as to whether he will officiate at the marriage of a divorcé(e). I know many Anglo-Catholic priests will decline the Rite of Marriage but bless the couple after a civil ceremony - double standards as I say.
Does the C of E not have protocols for declaring nullity for a previous attempt at marriage, as the Episcopal Church does in the US?
@Brian M: No! There is no such provision, to the best of my knowledge, in the Church of England. I was indeed interested to learn the TEC does. I thought no Anglican church made such provision.
"(On the other hand, I've not heard that anybody has made interesting discoveries about the antecedents of poor ordinary Ms Middleton. Black mark there.)"
Poor ordinary Ms Middleton is also a descendant of the Percies -- her father is descended from the Fairfaxes, who in turn descend from Sir Thomas Fairfax, of Walton, Yorkshire, who married Anne Gascoigne, daughter of Lady Mary Percy, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Northumberland. The 3rd Earl was Hotspur's grandson -- Hotspur's daughter Elizabeth married John de Clifford, and they are ancestors of Megan Markle.
Oh, in that case I may have wronged the couple, if the prior marriage was merely natural it could be dissolved by divorce, of course.
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