Princess Martha Louise of Norway will marry Shaman Durek this August, in a ceremony which is likely to break convention from all royal weddings before. The couple may be controversial, but have spoken of their romance passionately since they first met in 2019. Whilst the shaman sought (and received) the blessing of King Harald and Queen Sonja, that seems to be where traditions will end.
The four-day August celebration on the banks of a UNESCO-listed fjord, the event will encapsulate the couple’s bohemian vibes with a meet-and-greet party (dress code: ‘sexy and cool’), a three-hour boat trip around the Norwegian coastline, and evenings of dinner and dancing. The monogram – which is ‘unofficial’ since Märtha Louise relinquished her titles and patronages in a - step-back from royal life – is a combination of their initials, styled, naturally, in the manner of Egyptian hieroglyphs. They are far from the first rebels when it comes to royal weddings.
Among them, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, who last year celebrated 50 years of marriage. Prince Richard and his Danish bride, Birgitte van Deurs, wed in 1972 at St Andrew’s Church, a short walk from Barnwell Manor, their family seat. The bride arrived a few minutes late – but that is where tradition ended.
The rest of the wedding was unconventional and certainly did not display royal grandeur. Van Deurs held the train of her Norman Hartnell gown herself, having opted neither for bridesmaids nor flower . She wore no tiara, but instead wove stephanotis flowers through her blonde hair.
The then Duke, the groom’s 72-year-old father, missed the ceremony on account of his failing health, but the small wedding party returned to the manor to celebrate with him afterwards. The prince was never expected to adopt an important role in the Royal Family. Instead, he and van Deurs enjoyed life on the fringes of the Firm: he as an architect, she working at the Danish embassy.
But within two years of their marriage, both the Duke and his heir, , had tragically died. In 1974, Prince Richard inherited his father’s title and became the Duke of Gloucester, and his wife of just two years, the new duchess. Royal history is not always defined by pomp and splendour.
Whether or not the marriages lasted, humbler nuptials play their part too. Here charts the that, for a variety of reasons, broke with royal convention. Heavy snowfall on 12 January 1961 didn’t stop thousands of well-wishers gathering in sub-zero temperatures outside a small church in Asker to catch sight of Princess Astrid of Norway – daughter of King Olav V and de facto First Lady since the early death of her mother – marry her sweetheart Johan Martin Ferner (an Olympic sailor and divorcé).
Not everyone was thrilled about the union. The Bishop of Nidaros was the only one willing to officiate a marriage between a Norwegian royal and a divorced commoner. The church, with a capacity of 200, made for a less than ideal royal wedding venue; and the boho bride ditched a tiara for a simple veil.
But the wedding wasn’t completely absent of diamonds – Princess Margaret arrived wearing a regal tiara. Smoke bombs were set off during the wedding procession and protesters gathered outside the church. 300,000 people had signed a petition against their union, but no such commotion could stop Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands saying ‘I do’ to Claus van Amsberg, of the German House of Amsberg.
Beatrix might have loved her beau but her people were not convinced. A former member of the Hitler Youth, Claus was a controversial figure in the Netherlands. The Nazi occupation of the country had ended barely 20 years earlier and national wounds were still fresh, the trauma ever visceral.
Despite public disquiet, the couple went ahead with their wedding – but the ill feeling was absolutely present. A reduced carriage ride to the church and a significantly smaller crowd of wellwishers than might have been expected would have to do. (Astutely, Claus did not wear his military uniform.
) Claus became Prince Consort and the couple remained united until his death in 2002. It was no fuss, no nonsense when Princess Margrethe – now Queen Margrethe II of Denmark – married diplomat Henri, who was given the title Prince Henrik. Their 20-minute ceremony honoured traditions of normal Danes, rather than the hours-long royal folderol.
The bride was understated: although her gown had a six-metre train, she carried a bouquet of daisies – a nod to her maternal grandmother, Queen Ingrid, whose name translates as ‘daisy’. One shadow hung over the day: the absence of the bride’s sister, Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, who was barred by the government because her husband, Constantine II, was the nominal ruler of a state in which a military junta had recently seized power. George Windsor – the eldest son of the Duke and Duchess of Kent – was 24 when he asked a 30-year-old Canadian academic, Sylvana Tomaselli, to be his wife.
He would not have been naive about the price he would have to pay. Not only was his intended wife a divorcée, she was also a Roman Catholic: a double whammy for the Firm in its former mindset. Under the law of the time, George had to forfeit any right of succession to the throne by marrying a divorcée and a Roman Catholic.
Additionally, divorced couples were barred from ‘remarrying’ by the Church of England. But love proved worth holding onto. The couple eloped to Scotland and tied the knot in a civil ceremony in Leith – the bride wearing a royal blue polka-dot velvet suit with matching cossack-style hat.
After all that, in 2013, the law changed and royals who married Roman Catholics could inherit the throne. The Earl’s right to succession was reinstated. Not that weekly audiences with the prime minister are likely in the future: the Earl of St Andrews is currently 42nd in line to the throne.
Princess Alexandra of Kent’s only daughter, Marina Ogilvy, was the ‘wild child’ of the 1980s. Her out-of-wedlock pregnancy announcement dominated the headlines in 1989, forcing her into a shotgun wedding to the baby’s father the following year. The gentleman in question was Paul Mowatt, a photographer of no noble blood.
On the day of their nuptials at St Andrew’s Church, Ham, the 23-year-old bride turned heads – she was five months pregnant and wearing a rebellious black velvet dress, rust bolero jacket and wide-brimmed hat. Prince Charles might be her godfather, but no senior royals were in attendance on the day – bar Marina’s parents, and her brother James. The youngest child of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier III of Monaco is known for her romantic attachments to traditionally unsuitable partners – from her bodyguard to an elephant trainer.
The former stole her heart. Princess Stéphanie married Daniel Ducruet in 1995 in a quaint ceremony away from prying eyes. The couple had two young children, Louis and Pauline – a fact which swayed Prince Rainier into giving his daughter his blessing.
A rock-chick rebel royal, Stéphanie made history by wearing one of the shortest mini-dresses ever seen on a royal bride. It will remain but a memory: the couple divorced a year later. The eldest daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester wed the New Zealander Gary Lewis – a sheep-shearer and carpenter – in a wedding ceremony in the chapel of Kensington Palace, her childhood home.
Shying away from all royal traditions, Davina refused to wear a tiara, and wove blue and white flowers into her hair instead. In a sweet nod to her new role as a stepmother, her 12-year-old stepson Ari gave a reading in Gaelic. The insanely private royal house of Luxembourg was rocked by the revelation that Grand Duke Henri’s 19-year-old son, Prince Louis, was due to have a baby with Tessy Antony, his up-till-then secret girlfriend.
Gabriel was born, and whoosh: Louis renounced his succession rights, and they scurried down the aisle. The church wedding was a quiet family affair and, despite the beauty of the bride – who wore an off-the-rack Pronovias gown – the star of the show was six-month-old Gabriel, who stole the hearts of well-wishers. Crown Princess Victoria’s decision to be escorted down the aisle by her father, King Carl XVI Gustaf was considered outdated in ultra-liberal Sweden (where it is customary for the bride and groom to walk down the aisle as a couple).
A compromise was reached: the king walked his daughter halfway, before she was met by her groom, the personal trainer Daniel Westling. The wedding became the most-watched event in history on Swedish television and the couple became the Scandinavian equivalent of Prince Charles and Diana, as an estimated 500,000 royal fanatics cheered them in the streets. ‘Japan’s Harry and Meghan’ read headlines as Princess Mako gave it all up for love and relocated to New York with her university sweetheart Kei Komuro.
Japanese royalty still lose their status when they marry commoners, and Komuro had been attacked for anything from his ponytail to his family’s finances. They married in a civil ceremony, and Mako refused a payout given to royalty who marry outsiders, saying, ‘Kei is irreplaceable for me.’.
