Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Subsequent legislation, especially the Population Registration and Immorality Acts of 1950, facilitated its … On Monday Sir Nicholas Lyell, a former attorney general, suggested emergency legislation may be needed to clarify the legal position before the wedding. Commentators have also suggested that, as Supreme Head of the Church of England, the Queen would have been reluctant to attend a civil marriage. Serious obstacles in the way of marriage have been overcome but Panorama reveals that they may have been replaced by a new one, with some legal experts now questioning how a civil marriage in England can be within the laws that govern the royal family. The idea that a head of state can decide whom people can marry is a tawdry feudal leftover, but the problem is that the Government has decided to retain a bizarre provision that the next six people in line to the throne will still have to get the monarch’s permission to marry, which can be refused. It states that "Nothing in this Act shall affect any law or custom relating to the marriage of members of the Royal family." However, Downing Street, the Lord Chancellor and the four legal advisers who informed Clarence House were in no doubt of the legality of the wedding. try again, the name must be unique, Please It is unclear whether objectors may now apply for judicial review at the High Court. 2 Since the consent must be given under the Great Seal and passed in Council - or Muslim, or atheist. Two things we all agree – the bypassing of girls in favour of younger boys and the stipulation that neither the monarch nor an heir to the throne can marry a Catholic (or, in the deliberately offensive language of the Act of Settlement, a “papist”) are anachronisms we can dispense with. Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines. In the last 1975 referendum, Harold Wilson refused to tell even his staff how he was voting. It was among the first pieces of apartheid legislation to be passed following the National Party's rise to power in 1948. 'active' : ''"> Doubt was initially cast on whether the prince could marry in a civil ceremony because of the wording of the Marriage Act 1836, which allowed non-religious marriages to be conducted for the first time. Excluding the Speaker and his deputies, there are 27 other MPs in eight parties, and three independents. But in addition it’s changed the old Act, which said that if you didn’t get royal consent your marriage was null and void, with the provision that if you don’t get consent you lose your place in the succession. Downing Street said the Cabinet had sent their warmest congratulations to the couple but had not yet discussed whether to send a present. "Accordingly I have responded to the individual caveats and instructed the Superintendent Registrars for Chippenham and Cirencester to issue their certificates for marriage to the Prince of Wales and to Mrs Parker Bowles.". Constitutional law has to expect the unexpected, but this ill-thought through Bill will leave the succession to the caprice of the monarch’s preference for in-laws, as a future monarch could deliberately bar a child or a sibling from inheriting merely by refusing consent to marry – and then the European Court of Human Rights would intervene. We never dared tell Glenda, not even when she told us that not a single Hampstead member had thanked her, the rude so-and-sos. The most insightful comments on all subjects This is still the main Act regulating marriage in this country. real-world solutions, and more. In 1949, Parliament clearly intended that members of the Royal family could, if they wished, get married in a civil ceremony. It retained many features of the 1836 Act - including a Royal exemption. The principal grounds for objection centred on whether the law allowed Prince Charles to marry in a civil ceremony. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. The British constitution has more nooks and crannies than my great-grandmother’s loft, and Parliament has been rummaging around in one of the more obscure ones this week: the royal succession. Anyone who knowingly officiated a marriage that violated the act was also subject to a punishment: a fine was imposed not exceeding 50 pounds. It's a completely new act, and therefore does not carry over the bar on royals having civil marriages. the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949, was an apartheid law in South Africa that prohibited marriages between "Europeans" and "non-Europeans". The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949, was an apartheid law in South Africa that prohibited marriages between "Europeans" and "non-Europeans". He said a reading of the 1949 Act that prevented the Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker Bowles from having a civil marriage would "interfere with their rights" under the European Convention on Human Rights. Public access to the wedding ceremony was still under review, notably by police concerned with security issues, he added. Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate? [4] The punishment for people found to be in a mixed marriage involved arrest and a jail sentence. Lord Falconer is confident, however, that the 1949 Act, which updated the law on civil marriages, ended the bar on the Royal Family. "Nothing in this Act shall affect any law or custom relating to the marriage of members of the Royal family. Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, insists that it is, because a 19th century law banning civil ceremonies for royals nuptials was superseded by an Act passed by the Labour Government in 1949. I wrote a biography of Glenda in 1997, but one of the stories I didn’t include happened when I was working for the Labour Party as Frank Dobson’s agent in the next-door seat in 1991. From the earliest times, Parliament, not the monarch, has decided the succession, as when Edward II and Richard II were forced to relinquish the crown, when Henry VIII died, when James II fled the country and when the end of the Stuart line was imminent. Glenda Jackson has told her local party that she won’t be standing again in 2015. "The principal grounds of objection are that the law does not allow the Prince of Wales to marry in a civil ceremony. Community Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, replied to the House of Lords that in his opinion the marriage was in accordance with the 1949 Act. One Act in particular, in the view of lawyers Panorama spoke to, could pose serious legal problems for the civil marriage planned for Charles and Camilla. Other experts disagree, which could force the Government to rush legislation through to allow the marriage to go ahead, as planned, at Windsor Guildhall on 8 April. Most of the Act was repealed by the Marriage Act 1949, but not that particular section. language is not acceptable, Do not impersonate other users or reveal private information about third parties, We reserve the right to delete inappropriate posts and ban offending users without notification, -1) ? If the 1949 Marriage Act does indeed pose a problem and would prevent a civil wedding at Windsor, then there are a number of potential solutions: 17,029 pages were read in the last minute. However, the Royal family was specifically exempted from the law and apparently barred from civil marriages. ", Dr Stephen Cretney, emeritus fellow of legal history at Oxford University, said the Prime Minister should issue a "full and proper" statement about the situation. 'active' : ''"> The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. One missed flight, one angry encounter, could make all the difference to how the next election is to be fought. The couple could opt for a common law marriage something which the 18th century Clandestine Marriages Act abolished for everyone except royals.
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