HarryMeghan marriage heralds a new era
Markle is a highly unusual royal bride: A biracial American three years older than the groom, with her own career
WINDSOR: A thousand-year-old English castle echoed with the exhortations of an African-American bishop and a gospel choir on Saturday, as Prince Harry wed Meghan Markle, nudging the British royal family into a new era.
Markle, who has long identified herself as a feminist, entered St George’s Chapel alone rather than being given away by her father or any other man, a departure from tradition that in itself sent a message to the world. She was met halfway by Prince Charles, her future father-in-law and presumably the future king of Britain.
Prince Harry, who is sixth in line for the throne, has long called on Britain’s monarchy to draw closer to the daily life of its people. But the most extraordinary thing he has done is to marry Markle, an American actress who is three years his senior, biracial, divorced and vocal about her views. Their choices at Saturday’s wedding, many of them heavily influenced by black culture, made it clear they plan to project a more inclusive monarchy. In a time of tribalism and separation, it was a clear move toward an integrated modern future from the oldest of houses.
Seated directly opposite Queen Elizabeth II was Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland, the descendant of slaves on plantations in the American South.
In the knight’s stalls supporting Markle, beneath rows of medieval swords and helmets, sat a constellation of American celebrities, among them Oprah Winfrey who, with a great gift for openness and emotional candour, has become an icon for black women.
There were the Hollywood and humanitarian megacelebrities George and Amal Clooney, and tennis star Serena Williams. A gospel choir sang the Ben E King song Stand By Me, and the couple exited to the rousing civil rights anthem This Little Light of Mine.
In short, it was not your average royal wedding. Among the throngs who filled the streets of Windsor on Saturday were black women who had flown in from Houston and Atlanta, moved, sometimes to tears, to see a woman of colour so publicly adored.
The most startling moments came with the sermon by the Most Rev Michael Curry, the Chicago-born bishop of the Episcopal Church. In the great tradition of black preachers, he delivered a loose, improvisational sermon that built to a passionate, shouting climax, name-checking Martin Luther King Jr and slave spirituals along the way. He punctured the hallowed, starchy decorum of the day, visibly shocking some members of the royal family. Zara Tindall, a granddaughter of the queen, looked as if she might fall off her chair.
When the couple stepped out of the church and into the sunshine, a jolt went through the waiting crowd, which cheered their first kiss as husband and wife.
For Britons, there was a sense of an old heartbreak being mended. Many people here feel a special affection for Harry, who was only 12 when his mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash. On the day of the funeral, Harry was made to walk behind her coffin, and much of the country watched as his face crumpled.