Descendant of Ancient English Tyrants to Wed

[FSogol]

While I like The Onions' "Unemployed Woman Marries Lifelong Welfare Recipient," Ruben Boling's Tom the Dancing Bug sums up the wedding pretty well too.



Edited for a bigger version

[nichomachus]

1. Wow -- this is really stupid. Waste of time and bandwidth.

[Buzz Clik]

2. Gawd. I hope he didn't spend more than 10 minutes putting that together.

We expect more from Tom.

[L. Coyote]

8. Lampooning the royals is just toooo easy, a 10 second task at best, but this is REAL ART

and took several minutes :rofl:

[SidDithers]

5. +1...nt

Sid

[Donnachaidh]

3. uhh, they are not *ancient English*

from wikipedia --

The House of Windsor is the current royal house of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V by royal proclamation on the 17 July 1917, when he changed the name of his family from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English "Windsor". Currently, the most prominent member of the House of Windsor is Elizabeth II, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms.

GERMAN.

[happyslug]

9. Reminds me of a Black Adder Scene frpm the Forth Black Adder

In the Fourth Black Adder, "Black Adder goes Forth", is placed in WWI. Black Adder is interrogating Captain Darling about being a German Spy, Captain Darling denies it and says "I am as British as Queen Victoria", Black Adder snaps back "So you are 3/4 German and Married to a German!!!"

[hifiguy]

20. Isn't Prince Philip of partially Greek extraction?

Whatever.

The Royals are just a Disneyesque part of the theme park of Merrie Olde English tradition. Harmless for the most part. The Queen would be legally compelled to sign her own death warrant should it be passed by Parliament and the monarch has no power whatsoever.

And the royals haven't been much in to lopping off 'eads since the Glorious Revolution brought William of Orange to the throne after the last of the Stuarts was chased away.

Let 'em have their celebration. Doesn't mean shit to a tree, really.

And yes, the Windsors are of German origins at least as far back as one of the early Georges, though after a couple of hundred years I'd have to say they should be considered thoroughly British.

[Generic Other]

4. German tyrants...

just saying....Charles is 50% German.

[Lucian]

6. Wow...that's just awful.

[Cleita]

7. Well, he seems to be half commoner through his

mother's side even though she was referred to as Lady Diana. His kids will be even more diluted by commoner because Kate is even more common than mum, Diana. Maybe the English and German tyrant blood will finally be bred out of the English monarchy.

[dgibby]

11. Di was more British than Charles. He's German.

Kinda sad when your royalty has to be imported.:rofl:

[14thColony]

13. Diana was hell and gone from being a commoner

She was daughter of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp and later the 8th Earl Spencer. Her mother was the daughter of the 4th Baron Fermoy. The Spencers are one of the oldest and most powerful aristocratic families in England, having arrived with William the Conqueror. They own more lands and estates than the current royal family ever will. In terms of aristocratic credentials and pedigree, Diana married down.

[hifiguy]

22. True enough

There were Spencers around well before the time of the Tudors, for pete's sake. There were probably Spencers there to greet William of Orange when he was brought over from the Netherlands.

[Cleita]

24. Lady Diana was an aristocrat but not a royal and

the British peerage definition regarded her as a commoner, not the same as we think of it, of course. Only a small group of the peerage are entitled to the various titles that designate them as royal.

[14thColony]

27. Cleita, you are quite right, sorry

I see now you're using the formal legal definition of commoner under UK law, as opposed to the popular definition. Yes, under UK law anyone who does not hold a substantive peerage is by definition a commoner. So legally Diana, while a member of the aristocracy (and one with royal blood) was still legally a commoner.

Of course legally Prince William is also a commoner, but this status has nothing to do with Diana. Because he holds no substantive title ("Prince William of Wales" is a courtesy title) he will be a commoner until the day he becomes king, should that happen.

Obviously the more usual popular definition of commoner is "not an aristocrat," and I wrongly assumed that's how you were using it.

[pipi_k]

23. No...

Lady Diana Spencer was descended, on her father's side, from King Charles II through one of his four illegitimate sons.

So he is definitely not "half commoner"

[14thColony]

28. Cleita's right. Diana was legally a commoner

And so is Prince William for that matter. Under UK law anyone who does not hold a substantive peerage is a commoner, without exception. Diana never held a substantive peerage, and Prince William does not currently hold one either. He will legally be a commoner until the day he is awarded a substantive peerage, which we all assume will be King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

I thought by saying commoner Cleita meant "non-aristocrat," but she was actually using the precise legal definition under UK law.

[RedCloud]

10. I say let's attack them while their guard is down.

You know they are past due for another war with us anyway.

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. lol

[14thColony]

14. Wow. This was seriously stupid. nt

[Ramulux]

15. The very concept of someone being "royalty"

is disgusting and undemocratic.

[FSogol]

18. I agree. Sad that they have so many supporters here. n/t

[BOG PERSON]

16. i thought i read somewhere the state is not paying for the wedding?

[LynneSin]

17. I do know the entire wedding will be a "Green Wedding" with a zero carbon footprint

Charles is like the Al Gore of Great Britian - he's into all this Green Technology and the kids planned their wedding so they use fair trade products, organic and local produce, and have zero carbon footprint.

Good for them :D

[FSogol]

19. Unfortunately thousands of knuckleheads flew over there to be close to the wedding.

:eyes:

[joshcryer]

29. The economic hit for the whole country stopping to observe it is supposedly in the billions.

[RandomThoughts]

21. They would not invoke ancestorial lines.

They don't have the connections.

[martymar64]

25. Oliver Cromwell had the right idea vis a vis the Royals

[Brickbat]

26. Heh. K&R.