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INTERACTIVE
Updated 6 years ago
World

Meghan Markle isn't the first: Here are some of the commoners who married British royalty

Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II’s sister, broke the mold when she married photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones in 1960
Image: Princess Margaret wedding
Britain's Princess Margaret married Antony Armstrong-Jones on May 6, 1960.Getty Images file
By Petra Cahill

LONDON — For centuries, European royal families sought marriages with other nobles as a way to secure bloodlines and power.

In the U.K. marriage to a commoner — someone who was not a member of the British nobility — was frowned upon, especially after King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

But Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II’s sister, broke the mold when she married photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones in 1960. Looking back, she was a trendsetter.

Take a look through some of the other commoners who married into royalty: