Awkward wedding nights are not just the preserve of us mere mortals, but with the fate of Kingdoms often on the line, they can prove equally challenging for Royalty.
On the latest episode of the Mail’s ‘Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things’ podcast, Royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Kate Williams look back to some of the most disastrous Royal weddings in history, that, in some instances, caused the collapse of entire dynasties.
One such collapse came through the union of the Prince of Orange, soon to be King William III of England, and Princess Mary, the last of the Stuart monarchs.
The Wedding of William and Mary
In 1677, Prince William of Orange married his cousin, Princess Mary, to firm up ties between the Royal courts of England and Holland.
Mary was the eldest daughter of England’s last Catholic ruler, James II, the son of the reviled Charles I, who had been executed during the civil war.
Their union was vital to the stability of the realm: Mary, the last of the English ruling house of Stuart, and William, the first of the Dutch Kings invited to invade after the turmoil wrought by Britain’s ill-fated Commonwealth, led by Oliver Cromwell.
That Mary and William produce a child was imperative, given that the monarchy’s power and legitimacy was probably the weakest it had been in over a century.
Historian Kate Williams: ‘William is cold – he had no interest in the bedding ritual’ Listen here
Historian Kate Williams: ‘Mary, at 15, was told she had to marry her 26-year-old cousin. She cries and cries, and the marriage would not be very successful’ Listen here
Royal biographer Robert Hardman: ‘Maybe there’d be no Queen Victoria, it’s a what if, but it’s totally fascinating’ Listen here
Their wedding, however, would prove a disaster. As historian Kate Williams describes: ‘Mary, at 15, was told she had to marry her 26-year-old cousin. She cries and cries, and the marriage would not be very successful.
‘William is cold – he has no interest in the bedding ritual. He goes for the equivalent of a 17th-century kebab in town, leaving his bride and the King of England waiting until midnight.
‘He then refuses to take off his woolly draws in bed. He tells Charles II that he’s accustomed to wearing them in bed and that’s not about to change.
‘Charles II begins to panic, worried he’s seen his niece into a terrible marriage and gets really drunk.’
The bedding ritual was a bizarre tradition, a holdover from medieval times. Royal courtiers and family members would be invited into the bedroom of the new bride and groom, so to be assured the marriage was being consummated.
The fact that William was cold on the tradition would have rang alarm bells at court, given that marriages were not seen as legitimate if they were not consummated.
Their wedding night would prove telling of their marriage, with the couple unable to produce an heir.
As Royal biographer Robert Hardman explains: ‘There is no child in the marriage – if there had been, it wouldn’t have been the end of the Stuarts.
‘There was poor Queen Anne, who had children who never lived to adulthood, but then it was over to the Germans, the Hanoverian dynasty.
‘If maybe William had taken off those woolly draws and not gone out for a kebab the night before, we’d never have lost the Stuarts.
‘Maybe there’d be no Queen Victoria, it’s a what if, but it’s totally fascinating.’
To learn more about awkward Royal marriages, search for Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things – wherever you get your podcasts.
