I notice that several heirs apparent to European thrones have married commoners without noble ancestry, including the Crown Princes of Spain, Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands. (I think the former may be the first Prince of Asturias in several centuries to have married someone actually from Asturias.) The current Queen of Norway also was of common descent.
Do note that there is a huge gap between Royal and Commoner: there’s Nobility & Gentility also.
Too many dudes say “she was a commoner” when “she” was actually of noble but not royal blood.
Indeed the Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was technically a commoner when she married the Prince Albert, Duke of York. This was considered quite shocking as he was expected to marry a foreign princess.
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Your link is broken, but are these the correct way around? My experience is that “what?” is considered impolite, and “pardon” polite. Or is this one of those odd Upper Crust things?
Yes, it’s an upper crust thing. I gather that the real blue-bloods of the English aristocracy just say “what”. They all know/are related to each other anyway, so it’s not considered rude. Saying “pardon” is a dead giveaway that you’re middle class.
What?
Kate Middleton link - should work better.
Every time I read an article mentioning Kate Middleton, I think of the time when I was 15 and my friends and I convinced two girls to come home with us, get completely naked, and make out with each other.
One of the girls was named Kate Middleton.
In the case of Queen Sonja of Norway, she was a commoner. Norway has no nobility; it’s in our constitution. Sonja Haraldsen was from a well-to-do family, but one with no titles or special status. As far as I’ve been able to find out Crown Princess Letizia of Spain also comes from a completely untitled background.
Yep, she was a TV journalist. Crown Princess Mary of Denmark was an Australian advertising worker, and Princess Maxima, wife of the heir apparent to the Dutch throne, was an Argentinian investment banker.
Perhaps, but I believe that at least in England, you aren’t necessarily nobility or gentility just because one of your parents is. It’s my impression that the children of most English nobles are commoners.
Strictly speaking everone who is neither the sovereign or a peer is a commoner.
I’m dead common, common as muck, that’s me 
What’s more I’m bloody proud of it…royals!.. my arse, as Jim Royle would say.
Lavatory? Toilet?..it’s Bog fergawdsake 
You mean nobility and gentry.
On the Continent, the gentry (think Dutch Yonkheers or German Junkers) were considered untitled nobility. Such a person, if Old Nobility, might have had higher status than a new Baron or Count. By analogy, I think this would make people like the fictional Bennetts of Pride And Prejudice nobility, though I don’t believe they would have been considered such IRL.
In Great Britain, the quality of being noble is reserved only to the patriarch, who possessess all the titles and honors that belong to the family, and, I think also his spouse. Beyond them, everyon else in the family is, technically speaking, a commoner, even though they may be able to use courtesy titles like Lord Sebastian Flyte or Lady Diana Spencer.
Saying “she was a commoner” probably had more weight in the case of someone like the Queen Mother. She was an Earl’s daughter, so she obviously wasn’t plebian, but still, she was technically a commoner, in an age when young Royals were expected to marry Continental princesses or princes.