Prince William and Kate Middleton, April 29, 2011
2011年4月29日，威廉王子和凯特·米德尔顿
Prince William and Kate Middleton met during their freshmen year at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and embarked on an eight-year courtship that earned Kate the nickname "Waity Katie." Middleton, who grew up in Berkshire, has drawn numerous comparisons to Princess Diana, from her sartorial choices to her aversion to the press. William even proposed with the 18-carat diamond and sapphire ring that had belonged to his mother. The pair announced their engagement to the public on Nov. 16, 2010, and the royal wedding is expected to take place in the spring or summer of 2011.

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Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, April 9, 2005
2005年4月9日，查尔斯王子和卡米拉·帕克·博斯
Camilla Parker-Bowles first began seeing Prince Charles in 1970, and over four decades, their relationship has endured on and off, even through each of their first marriages. Princess Diana — who referred to her as "the rottweiler" — famously blamed Camilla for ending her marriage with Charles, saying, "Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded." Charles and Camilla resumed their courtship following their respective divorces and became engaged on Feb. 10, 2005. They were married two months later, making Camilla the Princess of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall and Rothesay.

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Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones, June 19, 1999
1999年6月9日，爱德华王子和苏菲·里斯·琼斯
Prince Edward's engagement to Sophie Rhys-Jones came amid tabloid reports that the prince was secretly gay. On June 19, 1999, the duo married at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in a ceremony much smaller than those of his brothers. Upon their union, Queen Elizabeth II's youngest son became Earl of Wessex and Viscount Severn, while Sophie became Countess of Wessex.

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Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, July 23, 1986
1986年7月23日，安德鲁王子和莎拉·弗格森
After a courtship of about two years, Queen Elizabeth's second son married Sarah, known as "Fergie," at Westminster Abbey. Upon their nuptials, the Queen bestowed on them the titles Duke and Duchess of York. They too endured a rough marriage, as Andrew was frequently called away on naval or royal duties and Sarah was seen in the company of other men, most notably John Bryan, an American financial manager who was photographed sucking the topless Duchess' toes. The couple agreed to divorce in 1996.

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Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, June 29, 1981
1981年6月29日，查尔斯王子和戴安娜·斯宾塞
The crowning moment of a romantic, "fairy tale" courtship, the wedding of Charles and Diana was viewed live on television by a worldwide audience of approximately 750 million people and was attended by a host of Europe's crowned heads. The couple's marital bliss, however, was short-lived. Charles maintained his long-standing friendship with Camilla Parker-Bowles, while Diana grew increasingly unhappy, allegedly entering into affairs of her own. By the late 1980s, the two were already living in separate residences; their divorce was finalized in 1996. One year later, Diana was killed in a car crash in France.

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Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, Nov. 14, 1973
1973年11月14日，安妮公主和马克·菲利普斯上尉
Elizabeth's only daughter married Phillips, a lieutenant in the Queen's Dragoon Guards, in a televised ceremony at Westminster Abbey. Their union lasted until 1989, when they formally separated. Shortly after their divorce was finalized in 1992, Anne remarried, wedding Timothy Laurence, then a commander in the royal navy.

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Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones, May 6, 1960
1960年5月6日，玛格丽特公主和安东尼·阿姆斯特朗·琼斯
After an ill-fated engagement to a captain in her father's personal service, Queen Elizabeth's younger sister Margaret announced her plans to marry Armstrong-Jones, a photographer. Their ceremony was the first to be broadcast on television. The title Earl of Snowdon was created for the groom, who enjoyed an extremely successful career as a portraitist, specializing in celebrities and the royal family.

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Queen Elizabeth II and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Nov. 20, 1947
1947年11月20日，伊丽莎白二世和爱丁堡公爵飞利浦
The current reigning monarch met her future husband, who held the title of Prince of Greece and Denmark at the time, when she was 8 years old, and she is said to have fallen in love with him when she was 13. Before the marriage, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish titles and converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism. The union was initially controversial in that Philip had no financial standing and, though a British subject, was born on foreign soil. Upon their marriage, the title Duke of Edinburgh was created for him.

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The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, June 3, 1937
1937年6月3日，温莎公爵和夫人
The eldest son of the Duke of York, the future Duke of Windsor, ascended to the throne as Edward VIII in January 1936, but his reign was short-lived. His desire to marry the American socialite Wallis Simpson, a woman with two living ex-husbands, caused a constitutional crisis, and Edward chose to abdicate the throne in order to "marry the woman I love." To accommodate this unprecedented situation, the House of Windsor created a special title for him: the Duke of Windsor.

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The Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, April 26, 1923
1923年4月26日，约克公爵和伊丽莎白·博斯·莱昂
George V's second son proposed more than once to Elizabeth, but she rebuffed his overtures, fearing the burdens of royal life, until finally relenting in 1923. Their union was groundbreaking in that Elizabeth was technically a commoner, and up to that time, royals were expected to marry other princes and princesses. George's freedom to choose her represented a gesture in the direction of political moderation for the royal family. He would ascend to the throne after his brother abdicated (see following slide). Later in life, Elizabeth would be popularly known as the Queen Mum.

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George V and Princess Mary of Teck, July 6, 1893
1893年7月6日，乔治五世和玛丽公主
Princess Mary was engaged to Albert Victor, the Prince of Wales' eldest son, but he died of pneumonia. However, the young man's grandmother Queen Victoria still wanted her in the family and pressed Albert's brother George to consider her. One year after Albert's death, George proposed. The couple remained devoted to each other throughout their lives. George ascended to the throne in 1911.

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Edward VII and Princess Alexandra of Denmark, March 10, 1863
1863年2月10日，爱德华七世和丹麦公主亚历山德拉
The Prince of Wales at the time of his wedding, Victoria's eldest son Edward encountered numerous scandals in royal circles with his marriage to Princess Alexandra. First, many of Edward's mother's relatives were German, and Germany at the time was engaged in a dispute with the bride's nation over the territories of Schleswig and Holstein. Further, Edward was a notorious womanizer, rumored to have consorted with commoners, nobility and several famous actresses of the era.

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Victoria and Prince Albert, Feb. 10, 1840
1840年2月10日，维多利亚和阿尔伯特亲王
As an unmarried young woman, Victoria, though already Queen, was required by the social conventions of the day to live with her mother, whose close proximity she complained would "torment her for many years." Salvation came in the form of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, to whom she proposed in 1839. He became not only the Queen's companion but also an important political adviser for her in the first half of her reign.