Now that Prince Harry and Meghan are abdicating their duties in the House of Windsor, I've been wondering: what is this strange power that American women wield over English aristocrats?

Downton Abbey was the fictional representation of a very real phenomenon: English dukes, counts, and viscounts have snapped up a good many American women in marriage.  Some notable examples: Nancy Witcher Langhorne married Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount of Astor.  Jennie Jerome wed Lord Randolph Churchill (and later gave birth to Winston).  Consuelo Vanderbilt married the duke of Marlborough.  Railroad heiress Francis Ellen Work married James Roche, 3rd Baron of Fermoy (their great granddaughter was Diana, Princess of Wales and mother of William and Harry).

Often, these were marriages of convenience.  The English gentry needed American fortunes to help them maintain their vast estates, and rich American women sought titles.

But only extreme inconvenience can describe the marriages of a former king of England and a prince who gave up everything for the women they loved.

The story of King Edward VIII is well known.  He abdicated the throne to marry twice-divorced Wallis Simpson, and they left the land of his birth and lived the rest of their lives abroad.  He was given a new title — Duke of Windsor (Wallis was never granted a title) — and permitted to retain His Royal Highness status.

Harry and Meghan, the duke and duchess of Sussex, have a slightly different arrangement.  They've been stripped of their Royal Highness titles, will have to pay back some three million dollars in home renovation costs, and are moving to Canada.  Harry's love for Meghan must be all the greater for the sacrifice.

I think I've identified that magical quality in Wallis and Meghan that so beguiled their royal husbands.

It's crass commonness.

And Edward and Harry are Freddy Eynsford-Hills.

You may recall that in My Fair Lady, Freddy Eynsford-Hill was the aristocratic chap who fell madly in love with Eliza Doolittle (not an American, but crudely low-class nonetheless).  He saw loveliness in her Cockney speech, her alcoholic family, and her colorful enthusiasm for horseracing.  In the song "On the Street Where You Live," Freddy describes what enchanted him.

When she mentioned how her aunt bit off the spoon,

She completely done me in.
And my heart went on a journey to the moon
When she told about her father and the gin.
And I never saw a more enchanting farce
Than the moment when she shouted,

"Move your bloomin' (arse)."

This attraction of opposites, I think, is what Edward and Harry felt.  Edward was reported to have found Wallis's "domineering manner and abrasive irreverence toward his position appealing."

We haven't yet heard much about Meghan's domineering manner and abrasive irreverence, but we will.  I'm sure we will.