THERE IS only one proper way for republicans to react to the news from Clarence House. We have to accept — with stoic resignation — that for two months Britain will be engulfed in a tidal wave of trivia. But, despite our justifiable irritation, we ought to wish the happy couple well. Neither blood nor birth sets the Windsors aside from the rest of humanity. They are entitled to enjoy the pleasures in which their more humble subjects rejoice.

Sometimes their exalted status makes that difficult. Getting the marriage off to what commoners call “a good start” may depend on setting aside the precedents that overwhelmed great-uncle Edward. We are told that Camilla Parker Bowles will, on the model of Albert the Good, become Princess Consort on the Prince’s accession. So there are no problems while her husband remains Prince of Wales. If, or when, he succeeds to the throne the situation becomes more delicate.

A few weeks before his abdication, Edward VIII was visited by Lord Harmsworth, the proprietor of the Daily Mail. His purpose was to persuade the King to consider a morganatic marriage. Edward had his doubts and Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, was sure that the Cabinet would reject such a notion. Nevertheless, he took constitutional advice. It was unequivocal. The King’s wife is Queen unless Parliament passes a Bill which relieves (or deprives) her of that status and title.

The Attorney-General agreed that he could draft a suitable Bill. But it would have to begin with a long title which stated its purpose. He suggested: “Whereas the present King desires to marry a woman unfit to be queen . . . ” Nobody could possibly imagine that such words could be used about Mrs Parker Bowles. But it is still hard to think of an acceptable preamble. “Whereas the wife of the King does not wish . . . ”?

The Times dismissed the idea in savage language: “The Constitution is to be amended in order that Mrs Simpson may carry in solitary prominence the brand of unfitness for the Queen’s throne.” Unfitness would be an absurd word to use in the new circumstances. But what would the right word be? It has to be Queen or nothing. Nothing was excluded yesterday. We republicans ought to accept Queen as one step towards reality about the monarchy.

Roy Hattersley’s latest book is The Edwardians