No Fairy Tale

William and Kate's Modern Love

As Prince William prepares to take his oath to Kate Middleton on Friday, the ceremony will represent not only a new chapter in his life, but in the history of the monarchy. After all, he’s the first heir to the throne granted the right to freely choose his own mate on the basis of love, an ideal the rest of the Western world embraced in the late 18th century. The last time a British monarch wanted to marry the woman he loved, in the 1930s, he had to give up …