grandchildren, and presumptive heirs of the sovereign, male or female,
other than the issue of princesses who might be married into foreign
families, should be capable of contracting a valid marriage without the
previous consent of the reigning sovereign, signified under his
sign-manual, and that any marriage contracted without such consent
should be null and void. The King or the ministers apparently doubted
whether Parliament could be prevailed on to make such a prohibition
life-long, and therefore a clause was added which provided that if any
prince or princess above the age of twenty-five years should determine
to contract a marriage without such consent of the sovereign, he or she
might do so on giving twelve months' notice to the Privy Council; and
such marriage should be good and valid, unless, before the expiration of
the twelve months, both Houses of Parliament should declare their
disapproval of the marriage. The concluding clause of the bill made it
felony "to presume to solemnize, or to assist, or to be present, at the
celebration of any such marriage without such consent being first
obtained."

The bill was stoutly resisted in both Houses at every stage, both on the
ground of usage and of general principle. It was positively denied that
the "sovereign's right of approving of all marriages in the royal
family," which was asserted in the preamble of the bill, was either
founded in law, or established by precedent, or warranted by the opinion
of the judges. And it was contended that there never had been a time
when the possession of royal rank had been considered necessary to
qualify any one to become consort of an English prince or princess. It
had not even been regarded as a necessary qualification for a queen.
Three of the wives of Henry VIII. had been English subjects wholly
unconnected with the royal family; nor had the Parliament nor the people
in general complained of any one of those marriages; moreover, two of