During ancient times up to the present days the mesmerizing image of the King's wife invigorated the monarchy as she represented the myth of the establishment. Her duty is formidable; she is not only required to provide a throne its next ruler but also serves as a unifying symbol of the institution. She is the role of virtue and decency that always look up by the adoring subjects.
By these reasons there's no doubt that the mystical survival of the British throne into the modern age partly attributed to the magical image of a fairy tale Queen Consort. Arranged marriages in the past centuries among royalty proved to be helpful in preserving this magic as the consort came from the same illustrious circle and the myth is safe. Until commoners join the royal court. The disaster started to surface.
Andrew Morton was quoted in his controversial biographical book: Diana, Her true story (exposing the sordid life of the late Princess of Wales, Diana into the British establishment): “Grafting commoners into the Hanoverian tree proved to be disastrous”. These “outsiders” (royal family's term for commoners), unfamiliar with the royal routine and the essence of duty and decorum, plunge into dilemmas and anxieties on how royals should behave, became disillusioned with their roles in the monarchy that they started messing up, slightly lifting the veil of the crown and exposing what is inside. With the exception of the marriage of King George VI to the former Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon (an aristocrat daughter of a Scottish Earl but was regarded a commoner because she did not have any independent noble title), all marriages between the commoners and the royal bloods went into drain.
Royalists are now debating whether commoners should be rightfully accepted into the royal fold or better keep themselves in the sidings. With the collapsed of some European royal houses in Europe, supplies of royal brides diminished that the British royal family since the reinvention of the House of Windsor in 1917, scampered on nobility. Nobility recruits included Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, a Scottish Earl daughter became a wife of Prince Bertie, the Duke of York later ascended as King George VI on the abdication of his older brother King Edward VIII. Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas Scott, a daughter of the 6th Duke of Beacleaugh and a descendant of King Charles II through his mistress Lucy Walter married George VI's younger brother, Prince Henry, the Duke of Gloucester. Lady Diana Spencer, the pretty daughter of the 8th Earl of Althorp and a descendant of King Charles II through his two mistresses Barbara Palmers and Louise Lennox. The last royal blood Princess married into the British royalty was Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, granddaughter of King George I of Greece, she married the youngest son of George V, Prince George the Duke of Kent (the last royal blood Prince married into the British royalty is Marina's first cousin Prince Philip the former Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark who was made the Duke of Edinburgh by his father-in-law King George VI on his marriage to the future Queen Elizabeth II)
So what is the ideal Future Queen Consort looks like? Ideally a royal bride should be titled, with royal or noble lineage, free from any sort of scandals, socially inexperienced, no career of her own, not a Roman Catholic, single (literally not divorce) and must be a pretty protestant without a past ( a Virgin Princess is still the best option among royalty to rightfully produced royal children). Her “job” as the Princess of Wales and eventually Queen varies as her titles and as what Princess Diana found out, “painfully tiring” and “unbearably stressful” plus the distressing reality of losing privacy.
One of the most famous Queen Consorts in British history was Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the wife of King George VI who became the Queen mother at her daughter's accession (Queen Elizabeth II) in 1952. Her charm was legendary, fiercely protective of the royal family, she became the custodian of the royal secrets and myths. She was the model on how a royal should behave in public. She was discreet, reserved and had a high standard of moral ethics. She became the pillar of strength to his frail, nervous husband whose surprise accession in 1936 put him forcibly into the public life. The Queen consort's duty and responsibility in the monarchy is not only the supportive better half of the ruling sovereign but as a strong willed, dignified Queen of England. The Queen Mother leads an elegant life, she performed her role with discretion, as what English writer Noel Coward puts it: She was a commoner transformed into a royalty but retained a common touch. She died at the ripe age of 102.
