Victoria: The Art of the Trade, or About Morganatic Marriage

On this week’s episode of Victoria, our protagonist had to work things out with her uncle, the Duke of Sussex, but why did his wife’s title matter to him?

Honestly, it seems a bit surprising that it took so long for a real question of etiquette to be a plot point in Victoria. After all, the common perception of the age is that it was full of stuffy people. (Okay, well, we are also learning that Victoria and Albert totally enjoyed the bedroom, which we’ve noted before is pretty much accurate.) So, on this week’s episode, in order to have Albert be able to escort his own wife into dinner, Victoria had to cut a deal with her uncle, the Duke of Sussex, because his own wife wasn’t the Duchess of Sussex.

“But wait,” you may say, “what about the Duchess of Cambridge / Princess Kate / Kate Middleton?”

Although Catherine Middleton became the Duchess of Cambridge upon her marriage to Prince William, Queen Elizabeth II had to actually announce those titles the morning of their wedding, as reported by the Telegraph. (Also, His Highness actually had to ask his grandmother if he could get married, as noted by BBC America. She was clearly cool with it.) On the other hand, Victoria’s uncle did two things which resulted in his wife not appearing at court.

First, he violated the Royal Marriages Act of 1772. This would be the same act that meant Prince William had to check with his grandmother. (A 2013 act finally replaced it. No, that is not a typo.) The text of the act effectively states that should you be a descendant of George II, you have to seek permission from the current sovereign to marry. The Duke of Sussex did not do this.

Second, it’s mentioned in a line during the episode that the marriage is morganatic, meaning it was a marriage of unequal ranks. The lack of permission really ended up as the worst offense, especially since the Duke of Sussex did it not once, but twice, as noted in this biography from Leeds University.

We can actually pinpoint when “The Queen’s Husband” takes place because of these events. As noted by a digitized form of the London Gazette, Cecilia Underwood became Duchess of Inverness at the end of March of 1840.

By the way, this also means Victoria is already pregnant with her first child. The younger Victoria was born in November of 1840. Her parents married in February that same year.

Sorry, but the jumping just won’t work. At least she succeeded in getting Albert to walk her in to dinner.

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Victoria airs Sundays on PBS.