I wonder if Queen Elizabeth knows about Chinese superstition and fortune-telling. It’s on my mind right now because my ma, the Squawking Chicken, has been dispensing the upcoming Year of the Dog readings to me every night the last few nights, two zodiac signs at a time. I’ll be posting these, as per annual tradition here at LaineyGossip, as we approach the Lunar New Year. For now though, if you’ve been reading ma’s annual advisories over the years, you know that big celebrations and festivities are often recommended as a way to thwart, or reduce, bad luck. And now Her Majesty has two major family celebrations on her schedule. 

It was announced today that Princess Eugenie will marry Jack Brooksbank. 

Some people are now talking about how similar Eugenie’s engagement ring is to her mother, Sarah Ferguson’s. Bad omen? (I mean, if we’re talking bad omens, think about Princess Kate’s engagement ring. Maybe this family isn’t superstitious after all.) Other people are talking about another kind of closeness. As in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle who are also getting married this year and who will also get married, first, at St George’s Chapel. Potential for any drama? Will this turn into a competing situation? 

For those of you who weren’t online during the holidays, you might have missed this post which included this amazing moment: 

Anyway, all of this, a wedding in the same year and at the same venue, would be a regular person concern, sure. People in non-royal families squabble often over wedding dates and I’ve heard many times the “but I wanted to get married this year!” argument that has divided brothers and sisters and cousins and more. The thing with the royals though is… well… they’re not regular, and one of the ways they’re not regular is that they’re rich as f-ck. Regular people have to worry about reserving certain years for their weddings because we peasants can’t afford 8 family weddings a year and we also have to wait for popular wedding venues to become available. Royal people though? This is why their engagements are comparatively short. Because they don’t have to save up to get married and because there’s always a royal church and a castle around the corner they can use for the reception. 

Harry is said to be quite close to Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. More interestingly, the Queen is said to be very fond of both Beatrice and Eugenie. And that is where the drama will be, if you’re looking for any. Not between Harry and his cousins but involving between Prince Andrew and maybe Prince Charles. I have linked to this article many times but it’s worth a revisit – Vanity Fair’s 2011 piece on “The Trouble With Andrew” about how the Queen has always indulged his worst compulsions, about how he’s kind of a mess, and about his shady private dealings. If you watch The Crown, they allude to this in the second season when it’s mentioned that the Queen wanted to have more children, after Charles and Anne, because she wasn’t around much when they were young and she hoped it could be a sort of do-over. 

There have long been rumours that Charles and Andrew don’t get along, that Charles disapproves of his brother’s lifestyle and that Andrew resents Charles and is worried that Charles will cut him off when he becomes king. Knowing of his mother the Queen’s affection for his daughters, some believe that Andrew uses them to ensure that he gets the royal bonuses. So it’s not the younger royal generation you want to pay attention to as you’re watching these royal events unfold, it’s the older generation. Will Andrew try to make this wedding about him? And will Charles stand for it? Will Andrew push to have Eugenie’s wedding televised and will Charles block it?