Prince Henry to wed Rachel
They’re Meghan and Harry’s real names – used by Queen as she gives blessing
tens of millions will be glued to their screens in May to watch Harry marry Meghan.
But according to an official blessing by the Queen, the happy couple tying the knot in Windsor are... Henry and Rachel.
the monarch has formally given permission for her grandson to wed his actress fiancée – but uses the names the pair were christened with.
At a Privy Council meeting on Wednesday, she issued her approval – known as a Declaration – to the nuptials of her ‘most dearly beloved grandson’ Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales and Rachel Meghan Markle.
the prince was christened Henry after successive kings of england. However, his parents announced that they preferred to call him Harry.
similarly Miss Markle, 36, was born Rachel Meghan but has always chosen to use her middle name both privately and professionally.
Her friends call her Megs. Harry, who will wed the Us star at st George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on May 19, had to ask the Queen’s consent to marry under the terms of the succession to the Crown Act 2013.
For hundreds of years, the Royal Marriages Act 1772 had required all descendants of George II to seek the sovereign’s consent before they wed, otherwise their marriages were deemed invalid.
King George III, George II’s grandson, took action after his younger brother the Duke of Cumberland secretly married Lady Anne Horton, deemed to be a highly disreputable widow of a commoner. the law was repealed in 2013 and now only requires consent for the first six royals in the line of succession – Prince Charles, Prince William, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Harry and Prince Andrew.
If Harry had failed to get the Queen’s approval for his marriage, he and his future descendants could technically have been disqualified from succeeding to the Crown. Given the fact that the
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Indeed, it is understood the couple the wax Great seal of the Realm made a Duke after the wedding. were at Windsor having tea is attached by ribbons and used to Royal experts believe he may take with the Queen only last sunday symbolise a monarch’s approval of up the vacant role of Duke of to discuss their wedding plans – important state documents. sussex. and that the invitations are in the the declaration concludes: ‘now A Buckingham Palace spokesman process of being sent out. know ye that we have consented said: ‘Her Majesty formally
Using the grandiloquent language and by these Present signify Our gave consent to the marriage of of formal declarations by Consent..... Given at Our Court at Prince Harry and Ms Meghan the Royal Household, the Queen’s Buckingham Palace the Fourteenth Markle under the 2013 succession blessing says her consent will be day of March 2018 in the to the Crown Act.’