Intermarriage
Introduction
In the definition of the Wikipedia,
intermarriage normally refers to marriage between people
belonging to different religions, tribes, nationalities
or ethnic backgrounds. It has been especially common
among royal families in Europe, mainly for political
reasons: it strengthened the position of a royal family
if it could marry off their sons and daughters to the
princes and princesses of the foreign royal houses.
We give just one example.
In 1840, Queen Victoria
married prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Goth.
They got nine children, most of whom married
into other royal families of Europe. One of
them, who later became King Edward VII, was
even known as the "uncle of Europe",
because he was the uncle of the German Emperor
Wilhelm II, the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, the
Spanish king Alphonso XIII. King Haakon VII
of Norway was his son-in-law. King Frederick
VIII of Denmark was his brother-in-law. Among
his cousins were King Albert I of Belgium, King
Manuel II of Portugal, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria,
Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and Prince
Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
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Edward VII
"uncle of Europe" |
One big happy
family. Well, sort of...
Until World War I broke out.
Were they happy?
We don't know whether they were happy
or not. Queen
Victoria apparently was quite happy with her German
husband, but we know little about the others. Marrying
someone brought up in a different country can't always
have been easy, if only because of the language.
Now, open your
worksheet. As soon as you have opened
it, save it in your own account on your (or the school's)
computer, preferably in your portfolio. Keep it open
all the time you work on this unit.
Please do exercise 1 and 2.
Continue with the next section, which
is not about royalty but about "normal" people
who have a relationship with someone from another culture.
 
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