I'm not usually very interested in royalty, but I read this morning about this site called www.royal.uk and what it had done to a vaguely unsuitable royal wife. What I read turned out to be true: Meghan Markle has been airbrushed out of history!

According to this site, someone called "Her Royal Highness" or "the Duchess" did a number of rather worthy things for charity and women's rights at various times in the past, although no such person actually existed before Saturday. The image is of a standard-issue royal princess, very properly brought up and probably educated by a governess. The sort of girl who might well have been expected to marry a prince.

There is of course no mention of anything so vulgar as an acting career, or TV soaps, or broken families, or a previous marriage, or even an African heritage.

Poor Meghan! She seemed a nice girl, but it's clear that she no longer exists. Now we only have the Stepford version.

I have read the section on the "Duchess of Sussex" in full and upbringing, studies, acting career, etc is all mentioned.

You're right though that "broken families", the previous marriage or her racial background is not mentioned on that site...

As long as Meghan stays away from any tunnels whilst Prince Phillip is still around... she will continue to exist

I don't know where to start on this!

"vaguely unsuitable" — How?

"… someone called "Her Royal Highness" … did a number of rather worthy things … although no such person actually existed before Saturday."
She got married. She changed her name. It happens. Would you switch between Joan Brown and Joan Smith, depending on which period of her life you're referring to?

"no mention of … an African heritage." Last time I looked, we all have an African heritage. The USians may be obsessed by race but surely we aren't. What about her British heritage? The Duke and Duchess turned out to be cousins, both descended from Ralph Bowes, High Sheriff of Durham in the 15th century!

Hate to bust any fantasy bubbles out there...but as David mentioned they are related, she is of Royal blood otherwise they would not have been permitted to marry. She is a direct descendant of King Edward III, shares the same family blood line as Harry (real name Henry,they are 17th cousins) and is also related to at least 8 US Presidents. This is not the fairy tale common girl gets married to the prince that the media (and perhaps Royals as well) wants you to think it is.

Do a DuckDuck search before they purge that info as well.

PS: Her name is Rachel, Meghan is her middle name.

Seems to be a pretty easy-to-fulfill condition.

https://community.dur.ac.uk/a.r.mill...IIIDescent.php

Every time someone mentions royals my mind wanders off to favourite scenes from the Holy Grail ... :yawn:

I understand that the Royal Family is a symbol of Britain and its heritage and continuity and all that (and a quite expensive symbol at that). (And, frankly, we could use some of their dignity in these crazy times.)

What I don't understand is why citizens of my country, who fought a war to get rid of a king, go gaga over the British monarchical family when they could be watching The Young and the Restless. Maybe it's wishful thinking . . . .

That sort of sordid frivolity is far too crusty for the upper crust.

It's the same with Alfred the Great. We're all related to him in one way or another.

Meghan is a controversial figure and few people that I've spoken to over here like or trust her. It's nothing to do with her African heritage but the fact that she only appears to be in this for the money. Only one of her family members was at the wedding but the whole thing was chock-full of celebrities. Piers Morgan was correct when he said the whole thing reeked of shameless social climbing.

The letter that her brother wrote to Prince Harry is interesting as well:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/629801...royal-wedding/

While I do see your point, countries such as the US have simply replaced traditional monarchies and the landed gentry with a rich and privileged elite of big land owners, oil men and other assorted tycoons...

Not expensive, actually. The Queen's income comes from the Duchy of Lancaster estate and she hands over 85% to the government. The Prince of Wales and his family live off the proceeds of the Duchy of Cornwall estate and they hand over about 40%. If those estates were taxed as corporations, they'd pay just 19%. I haven't checked, but I expect all that extra money pocketed by the government will cover their expense claims.

Nostalgia for style, elegance, and spectacle? And that should be "which", not "who", unless any of them are at least 250 years old!

I was certainly not arguing that US has no elites or wannabe elites. Merely ill-mannered ones.

I think Rowan and Martin's Farkle family is funnier.

Nice bit of info. Thanks.

. . . just like Catherine of Aragon? (Grin, duck, and run.)