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Article: MARRYING FOR LOVE THE EXPERIENCE OF EDWARD IV AND HENRY VIII.
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- December 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 History Today Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Eric Ives looks at the cases of these two English monarchs who broke with convention by selecting spouses for reasons of the heart, rather than political convenience.
SHOULD THE MONARCH OR HEIR to throne marry for love? `Of course' is the answer most people in Britain would give today, but history suggests otherwise. It is not just that the 1689 Bill of Rights and the 1701 Act of Settlement rule out marriage with a Roman Catholic. Monarchs and heirs to the throne have never had the freedom of choice which their subjects enjoy.
Since the Norman Conquest (setting aside the present Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles), the only two English or British ...