Royal Fairy Tales
Queen Victoria who died in 1901 had encouraged artists and writers though her long reign with her belief in fairies. Christopher Howse of London’s Daily Telegraph has written a delightful article explaining the beginning of “fairy- tale” weddings for heirs to the throne.
In 1893, George saw his bride May (later Queen Mary to his George V) as Cinderella, for her parents had in her youth fled England with debts to tradesmen of £20,000. Their son Bertie ” later George VI ” was kissed by the Good Fairy, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, and was wed to her in Westminster Abbey, the first royal prince to be married there since Richard II.
The marriage delighted the country, as did that of the present Queen in 1947. Yet it was not wise in 1981 for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, to declare the wedding of the present Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer “the stuff of which fairy tales are made”. Thirty years on, it is equally unfair to force a pre-confected spell on the next royal couple. We should wish them well as flesh and blood, not fairy-tale figure