The Ring and the Crown: A History of Royal Weddings 1066-2011

[wannable]

Once again, the timing is perfect. Right in the middle of an economic slump, when confidence in the Royal family's marital acumen has been sapped by a succession of disastrous marriages, the couple are poised to offer the same momentary shaft of brilliance; an article of faith in the future. And by happy chance, in the communal swoon of their nuptials, less attractive royal stories can be softly suffocated.
"The family can hardly have foreseen the furore about Prince Andrew's business interests," says the historian Sarah Gristwood, "but it has to be for them a lucky coincidence. I am sure they will be glad to have attention diverted from him. This wedding will make people feel so very positive and take the taste of that away. A royal wedding is a perfect storm, isn't it? On the one hand it is a ceremony that makes everyone feel warm-hearted, because weddings are something they have in their own family, and on the other, they are important ceremonies for the future of the monarchy."
Gristwood is co-author of The Ring and the Crown, a cleverly timed history of royal weddings from the private, semi-clandestine ceremonies of earlier times to the pomp and circumstance ushered in by Queen Victoria that set the pattern since. On the day that William, 28 , and Kate, 29, announced their engagement last autumn, Gristwood and three other historical biographers – Alison Weir, Kate Williams and Tracy Borman – the self-styled History Girls, decided to carve up 1,000 years of royal marriages between them according to their special interests.   

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/8406842/A-marriage-made-in-history.html