If you’re reading this on Friday afternoon, you are tardy for the party. Prince William has already married Kate Middleton in a lavish ceremony that took place at Westminster Abbey in London earlier today. For some, the fanfare surrounding the royal wedding stemmed from the well-kept secret of Middleton’s wedding gown.† For others, it was the pomp behind the seemingly outdated traditions of the British monarchy. For me, though, the fascination started with my Independent Study, which focused on† representations of the first two wives of Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, in modern film and literature.
Over the course of the year, while I read everything I could get my hands on the two women and watched every film available, including “The Other Boleyn Girl” and “The Tudors,” I couldn’t help but notice the striking parallels between Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn and the women in the modern British monarchy.† Like the women who ruled Henry VIII’s court and heart, their 20th century counterparts’ stories included lavish royal weddings, royal mistresses and violent, tragic deaths.
William is not the first monarch-in-waiting to marry a “commoner.”† In the 15th century King Edward IV caused quite a stir when he married his attractive courtier, Elizabeth Woodville.† Although it was protocol for English kings to marry foreign princesses, Woodville famously told him, “My liege, I know I am not good enough to be your mistress, but I am far too good to be your wife.”† Edward, taking the hint, promptly married her.
Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII, was first married at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, where, almost 500 years later, Princess Diana married Prince Charles in a lavish† public ceremony. Catherine’s wedding ceremony was an enormously public event that all of London came to witness, while Diana’s was broadcast for the entire world to see.
Although in Henry VIII’s time, royal mistresses were to be expected, his most famous mistress and second wife, Anne Boleyn, rivaled every other woman at court, including Queen, Catherine, who he famously divorced for Boleyn. Similarly, Diana’s marriage to Charles famously disintegrated because of his continued relationship with his former girlfriend, Camilla Parker-Bowles, whom he married in 2005. Diana famously told the press after the demise of her marriage: “It was a bit crowded because there were three of us in the marriage,” a jab at her husband’s lengthy infidelities with Parker-Bowles.
While modern historians have universally declared Anne Boleyn’s innocence, Henry VIII and his ministers charged her with accounts of incest and adultery, which led to her beheading at the Tower of London in May 1536. Princess Diana also suffered a tragic death in a car accident in Paris while she was chased by the paparazzi in 1997. Despite the divorce, she was given a royal burial as the mother of the future king of England, and Elton John sang “Candle in the Wind” at her star-studded funeral.
Given the dramatic lives of the British monarchy, it’s no shock that the world has been a twitter with excitement for the royal wedding.† More dramatic than any story written in a novel or for a film, their lives have splattered the page of less-than-friendly British and American tabloids and media outlets.
But maybe the fascination with the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton simply stems from the Disney dream that “someday my prince will come.” If that’s the case, then millions of women worldwide shouldn’t give up hope.† After all, William’s brother, Prince Harry, is still single.
Margaret Donnelly is an Editor in Chief of the Voice. She can be reached for comment at MDonnelly11@wooster.edu