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If Britain's Prince William doesn't mind losing his chance to be King of England someday, he can marry absolutely anyone he chooses. However, if he wants to keep his place in the line of succession, he has to follow a couple rules. There is no legal requirement for him to marry a woman of British ancestry, but there are two key restrictions placed on Prince William as he chooses a mate. As mandated by the Act of Settlement of 1701, Prince William cannot marry a Catholic. This law was created during a time
of fervent anti-Catholic sentiment. In 1534, King Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church and declared himself (and all future monarchs) head of the Church of England. Recently, the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster and The Guardian newspaper have spoken against the Act of Settlement and are agitating lawmakers to repeal it. The second restriction placed on Prince William is that if his intended wife has been married and divorced, her ex-husband must be deceased. This rule is also related to the Church of England. The Church allows divorce, but a divorced person may only remarry if the former spouse is dead. This, in part, caused King Edward VIII to abdicate the throne in 1936. He planned to marry the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson, and, at the time, the Church of England forbade divorce completely. The fact that she was an American may have been cause for disapproval, but it was not as big an issue as her divorcee status. These days, the Church has considered revising its divorce/remarriage position and allowing parish priests to decide whether or not to perform such marriages. Some suspect that William's father,
Prince Charles, might take advantage of such a change to marry his longtime companion, Camilla Parker-Bowles (who is divorced with a living ex-husband). There is one last obstacle for Prince William to surmount before he can marry. According to the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, members of the royal family who are under the age of 25 must receive permission from the Queen in order to marry. Wills (as he's called by friends) is just 20 years old. Once he turns 25, he can marry without the Queen's approval, but he must notify the Privy Council and Parliament. The Houses of Parliament have one year in which to stop the marriage, if they wish. After the year's notice, William can legally marry the person, despite official disapproval.
Many royal watchers speculate that Prince William will eventually marry an upper-class British woman. Sorry, Britney.
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