Britain at its best

A Royal wedding like no other

PRINCE HARRY’S wedding to American actress Meghan Markle truly demonstrated the power of love – the theme of a sermon delivered with passion and pizazz by Bishop Michael Curry to the great and the good at Windsor and the watching world.

He might have remarked that ‘two people fell in love and we all showed up’, but the wedding ceremony and celebrations also showed a softer side to the Royal family as its younger members make their mark on a 21st-century monarchy.

Unlike his older brother Prince William who was born to be King, the new Duke of Sussex has been spared this onerous responsibility and has slightly more latitude to forge his own role, hence why he could marry a mixed-race American divorcee without bringing about a constitutional crisis.

However, the one-time ‘party Prince’ appears to be a new man after emerging from his Army years with new-found maturity, confidence to confront the torment he suffered after his mother’s tragic death and a real empathy for others that he clearly inherited from the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

This is why there was such an outpouring of joy for the happy couple as a gospel choir sang Stand By Me in another break with protocol. Though no country in the world does pageantry better than Britain, there’s a real affinity for Prince Harry and his bride. And it does not end here. The genuine warmth for the bride’s mother Doria Ragland also extended to the Prince of Wales whose pride in his son – and new daughter-in-law – was palpable after the most diverse Royal wedding in history showed Britain at its vivid and glorious best.