Queen Victoria had strong views about almost everythingespecially actresses. She once said: "Any gentleman wishing to become an officer in my Household troops will not be eligible if he marries a woman on the stage." George Charles Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, a 20-year-old militia officer who wanted a commission in The Blues, thus hesitated to wed pretty Actress Eva Raines.
In 1886 George and Eva got married in Scotland without benefit of clergy, "by mutual exchange [of vows] and consent." Such a marriage was valid under Scots law. Two years later, just to make sure, George and...