The sound of smashing porcelain paralysed us with fear. Looking down at the kitchen floor, ‘29 July 1981’, read one of the shattered pieces lying next to the heart shaped portraits of the Prince of Wales and his broken bride, tragically cracked in two. My best friend had dropped the most precious thing we had ever been given. His mum was going to kill us.
I sometimes reflect on my hapless friend’s royal wedding cup with the detached eye of an archaeologist. It, doubtlessly, ended up in a Yorkshire landfill, where it now rests in the July 1981 layer. Modern royal weddings spawn all manner of disposable souvenirs and paraphernalia, but what survives from earlier periods of history? Moving further back into the past, how much archaeological evidence remains for other royal weddings? Can archaeology, with its long, unsentimental view of history, tell us anything we do not already know about these celebrated occasions?
What lies beneath?
Weddings are the least considered, among all the ‘rites of passage’ studied by archaeologists. We are on much firmer footing with funeral rituals, because so much material survives in the ground for us to study. A royal funeral may demand the construction of monumental architecture and burial with a wealth of grave goods, but what type of evidence might be expected for royal weddings? Recorded history from 1066 onwards suggests that they leave little or no trace. Throughout the Medieval period, royal weddings were small private affairs – with big political consequences.
Ratting out