King Charles III

King Charles and Prince William appeared and greeted the well wishers queueing to see the Queen lying in state. What a wonderful thing to do although the cynical will say what a wonderful publicity stunt.

Just watched Prince Edward and Sophie on a lengthy walk about outside Buckingham palace. Sophie is enthusiastically shaking hands with everyone but Edward appears to be declining handshakes. I wonder if he has a painful hand. It was a pity one of his aides didn’t go ahead of him and advise people he wouldn’t be handshaking. It looked rather awkward when he was ignoring outstretched hands.

It is a lovely thing to do and will be appreciated by those who have valued this opportunity to pay their respects.

An informal exchange of vows ? Yes it happens, it happens
when a couple have their meeting with the priest before their
wedding, it’s called a rehearsal.

A priest cannot say what took place during a conversation with
anyone he/she has a private meeting with.

No, a rehearsal is called a rehearsal.

An exchange of vows is called an exchange of vows.

?

Anniebach

An informal exchange of vows ? Yes it happens, it happens
when a couple have their meeting with the priest before their
wedding, it’s called a rehearsal.

A priest cannot say what took place during a conversation with
anyone he/she has a private meeting with.

It's a rehearsal. We had one.
You could repeat the vows as often as you want
It's not usually a dress rehearsal.

However, it's not a legal marriage unless there are two witnesses and the register is signed by the celebrant, the couple and the witnesses.

Some people don't need the state, the paperwork and the big sky fairy to feel that they are married.

Feeling married isnt the same as being married.

It is if it's a common law marriage or a Scottish irregular marriage. But to be fair, they haven't been allowed since 1932.

Some couples used to 'jump the broomstick' in England and Wales in the 1800s.

So she meant we felt married 3 days before we married

Oh well if you only have to feel married. ??? DH and I shared a washing machine at the laundrette for a while as a money saving necessity and that certainly ‘felt’ like being married!

It only matters for MM because she made the mistake or not of publicising it.

What is the problem with M and H exchanging their vows in a personal and private way that was meaningful to them? They then went through the whole public pantomime that was expected of them - public happy, M and H happy .... what's not to like, as they say?

Why was it a mistake to tell people? If she hadn't and it was discovered she would have finished up being accused of hiding things - she can't win for sure!

If one feels married is the same as being married then one can
be next of kin because they feel next of kin

Yep. Pretty much. It's the end of civilisation as we know it.

I was interested to see volver refer to common law marriage. There is no such thing in England or Wales. Is it a legally recognised status in Scotland?

No idea.

There was however, irregular marriage, until 1932. My great grandparents had one.

Common-law marriage does not exist in Scotland.

It's fine unless one partner dies and there is no will.

Volver wrote:

"Some people don't need the state, the paperwork and the big sky fairy to feel that they are married."

It works when earning power or psychologial power is equally distributed between the spouses and neither needs the law to protect their partnership rights.

Some might find it romantic that a couple see themselves as linked to each other forever by making their own vows between themselves with a priest present. Especially when they know they are going to do the establishment thing 3 days later.

Some might think its unforgiveable because marriage is all about money and wills and religion.

Quite right Calli. So many women still refer to themselves as common law wives, believing they have some sort of recognised status, and find out the hard way, when the partner leaves them or dies, that they have no status or rights at all.

Yes volver I have come across irregular marriage when doing my husband’s family tree. One of his ancestors had one. Very interesting. Perfectly valid.

???

If only the Archbishop could speak up.

What was unforgivable about what Meghan said was that, if it had been true, the Archbishop of Canterbury would have been in deep trouble. He had to make a public statement saying it was untrue.