I learnt a new word today. From my The Chap calendar, actually. December started, so I turned the leaf, and on certain dates is entered a historical event. The one filling the 10th is that Edward VIII abdicated the throne after being refused permission for a morganatic marriage.
Now I know the story (king falls in love with American divorcée; king abdicates when he is not allowed to marry her), but the term "morganatic marriage" was new to me. It sounds excellent. Actually, it sounds like it has some sinister link to Morgana Le Fay. But that may just be in my brain.
At any rate, I assumed it would mean marriage to a divorcée, although I wondered why they had given it such an exotic name. But then I checked, and it turns out a morganatic marriage is a marriage between a royal, or noble, and a person of inferiour rank, "where the rank of the inferior partner remains unchanged and the children of the marriage do not succeed to the titles, fiefs, or entailed property of the parent of higher rank" (according to merriam-webster).
So. I learnt something new today.
Now I know the story (king falls in love with American divorcée; king abdicates when he is not allowed to marry her), but the term "morganatic marriage" was new to me. It sounds excellent. Actually, it sounds like it has some sinister link to Morgana Le Fay. But that may just be in my brain.
At any rate, I assumed it would mean marriage to a divorcée, although I wondered why they had given it such an exotic name. But then I checked, and it turns out a morganatic marriage is a marriage between a royal, or noble, and a person of inferiour rank, "where the rank of the inferior partner remains unchanged and the children of the marriage do not succeed to the titles, fiefs, or entailed property of the parent of higher rank" (according to merriam-webster).
So. I learnt something new today.
*MySmiley*
structured procrastinator
structured procrastinator
This message last edited by Camilla on 01/12/2009 at 09:47:50 AM
Morganatic marriage
- 01/12/2009 09:03:24 AM
2323 Views
Left-handed marriages and misalliances
- 01/12/2009 09:27:35 AM
742 Views
weird
- 01/12/2009 09:29:21 AM
750 Views
I've known about this since 1998, when I learned about Franz Ferdinand's marriage
- 01/12/2009 05:47:21 PM
1413 Views
It is hard to believe
- 01/12/2009 06:28:21 PM
665 Views
The HohHabsburgs marriage pool was limited.
- 01/12/2009 06:42:57 PM
743 Views
yesyes
- 01/12/2009 06:44:13 PM
756 Views
There was a joke in there? What was it?
- 01/12/2009 06:47:01 PM
616 Views
awwww 
- 01/12/2009 06:49:11 PM
706 Views
- 01/12/2009 06:49:11 PM
706 Views
That was a joke?
- 01/12/2009 07:44:01 PM
620 Views
hmph
- 01/12/2009 07:50:50 PM
694 Views
I both got it and appreciated it,
- 01/12/2009 08:00:45 PM
665 Views
Re: I both got it and appreciated it,
- 01/12/2009 08:03:43 PM
776 Views
Dude, that was totally a joke
- 01/12/2009 07:55:17 PM
1091 Views
then why did you tell me it wasn't a joke, but a "witty comment"?
- 01/12/2009 07:56:22 PM
1511 Views