People who marry into the aristocracy

[GettingThereEveryDay]

I’m watching Clodagh McKenna’s new show on ITV, scratching my head as to why this cringey “oh look how bubbly and fun I am” complete with permanent rictus smile is suddenly everywhere from nowhere and read that she is married to Henry Herbert, son of the 7th Earl of Canarvan.

AIBU that my heart sinks that yet again here’s another example of success being about marrying into the establishment and connections rather than genuine talent?

Enlighten me then! Why would TV producers be influenced by that?

You've chosen a bad example in Clodagh McKenna. We don't have aristocracy in Ireland and Clodagh would certainly not have been exposed to such a life growing up. Any titled people or "aristocrats" in Ireland are of British origin. Someone mentioned Dominic West, he married a British aristocrat living in Ireland, not an Irish aristocrat. His wife may be Irish but the nobility title is British.

Clodafh works hard and earns a lot of money herself. She is not relying on her husband for income. Maybe she loves him? :)

….. or James Blount?

All these people casting aspersions on relationships with aristocracy clearly haven't really known anyone from the aristocracy. They can be anything from funny to grumpy to boring to interesting to charming to rude to kind to selfish. Remarkably like most groups of people actually. Amazingly some might even be attractive or appealing (or not) in and of their own right.

I'd have thought that knowing all we know about how life is for people who marry into that family and role would be enough to have anyone running for the hills.

I always think Catherine (and Camilla) must have really loved their blokes because by Christ the scrutiny, the nastiness, the lack of privacy, the inability just to walk down a street or meet a friend in town ever again is enough to drive anyone insane.

the current members of the HoLs are unelected people who wield immense influence by sheer virtue of birth

Does ‘sheer virtue of birth’ mean aristocratic? The Labour peers in the HoL may not consider themselves as such. In fact they’d be horrified to be so described.

The aristocracy cannot help
the families they were born into any more than you & I can.
And I can assure you that for every high profile ‘aristocrat’ there are dozens of boring low key people of similar backgrounds just going about their lives who you wouldn’t look twice at.

Exactly

I am very familiar with a lot of these families from all parts of the spectrum.

some are better human beings than others.

but one thing they all have in common is an innate, deeply ingrained sense of superiority.

We don't have aristocracy in Ireland
I just checked and it seems that, while aristocracy in Ireland was made unconstitutional after 2003 , there are surviving families with direct patrilineal lines going back to the ruling Gaelic Kings, and to the Norman Knights. The Tudor and later conquests stripped them of power but there are Catholic aristocratic families who somehow survived. They are likely conscious of their history and ancestry.

And the title has gone dormant because the last Knight had no sons. Proper order, too. It’s insane these remnants of a colonial system exist in a republic.

Did you ever find out?

Is there a particular reason you are assuming most people are jealous misogynists and not just debating something?

What is your background, then?
And why do you hate the aristocracy?
Personally, I don't know any aristocracy (not to my knowledge, anyhow).

I follow the American Viscountess on social media, she married the Earl of Sandwich and that woman is fun ragged! Jealous of the country pile, yes, certainly not the man she's married to nor the lifestyle.

There is no aristocracy. It’s long gone.

A friend of mine is aristocracy. And she married someone dirt poor.

Because of where they met, where she was (and is) living, and what she was doing with her life at the time, he didn't have the first clue about her background. Even now he probably doesn't realise the extent of it.

So yep, it's not just vacuous women that find themselves in that world

Would that this were so, but alas, it’s alive and well.

Clodagh McKenna is not ‘suddenly everywhere from nowhere’.
She started out in food TV nearly 25 years ago and she has written numerous books.

Mike Tindell?

Of all the titles out there, I think I would be fun to be called Lady Sandwich.

Who cares? I wasn’t being entirely serious, I am more than comfortable being the middle class professional that I am.
And neither, I feel, was the question (on how to join the aristocracy) that I tried to answer, tongue somewhat in cheek. I’m sorry you missed that.