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She loves him. He loves her. But [[Star-Crossed Lovers|they can never marry]], because she's a [[Royal Blood|princess]], and he's not a suitable match for a [[Everything's Better with Princesses|princess]].
Maybe they're hiding it from each other, because "I can't allow myself to love someone like him"/"A princess could never love a guy like me". [[The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask|Maybe she'd like to run off with him, but can't because her people need her]]. But their marriage is
And then, his real parentage is discovered, and he's really a prince. Or maybe her royal father, realizing the law is unfair to his beloved daughter, repeals it.
If society would not accept it, the characters may resolve on defying
Differs from [[Parental Marriage Veto]] in that it isn't the parents making the rules, and just sucking up to them won't fix it. Can lead to [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]] by one or both parties. If the [[An Aesop|Aesop]] has been divulged and is suddenly [[Broken Aesop|broken]], it's a bad case of [[Sweet and Sour Grapes]]. Expect spoilers afoot!
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Faked in ''[[Vampire Game]]''. Yujinn manufactures a royal pedigree for Darres so he and Ishtar can get married.
== [[Film]] ==
* In ''[[King Ralph]]'', a commoner likes Ralph for who, rather than what, he is, but even being seen with her is scandalous, since they can't marry until {{spoiler|he resigns the crown}}.
* ''Island Princess'' [[Barbie]] film had this. She's actually the ''main character''. {{spoiler|Who turns out to be the missing daughter of [[Missing Mom|a queen]].}}
* ''[[Spaceballs]]'', as shown in the page quote.
* In Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', by law Princess Jasmine may marry only a prince. Once it's revealed that Aladdin isn't a prince, that rules him out... until the Sultan changes the law so that she can marry whomever she wishes. Ironically, Aladdin WAS a Prince of a sort already... {{spoiler|thanks to his Dad, you might as well call Al The Prince of Thieves}}.
* In ''[[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Sleeping Beauty]]'', Briar Rose is told she can't marry whom she wants because she is a princess and betrothed. But it is subverted in that Prince Phillip is told that he can't marry a peasant girl because he is a prince and
* Disney's ''[[Cinderella (Disney film)|Cinderella]]'' was an
** Subverted somewhat in that Cinderella's family was noble from the start, and as her father's only true heir, she's the only one legally entitled to inherit his entire estate
* In ''[[Thoroughly Modern Millie]]'', it is revealed that {{spoiler|Jimmy is actually a billionaire, and more so, Muffy's stepson, and MORE SO, Miss Dorothy's brother! So Millie can marry for love and still end up with loads of dosh!}}
* In ''[[Coming to America]]'', [[Eddie Murphy]] plays an African prince who is arranged to marry a general's daughter, who has been groomed from childhood to be the "perfect wife" (i.e. a pliant, willing sexual partner with no independent thoughts or wants). He wishes for a woman who is more his intellectual equal and goes to New York to find one. He meets and falls in love with the daughter of a fast food restaurant owner and she falls for him as well, but the King ([[James Earl Jones]]) arrives and explains her the situation. She tells the prince they are from two different worlds and that she can not marry him, even though he offers to abdicate his throne and renounce all his titles. He finally leaves with his parents back to Africa and his mother berates the king for messing with true love, but the king replies that he can not violate tradition. She points out that he is the king and can do anything. The wedding day comes, and the prince meets his bride only to lift up the veil and see his love.
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* In [[Walter Scott]]'s ''Talisman'', the protagonist, a seemingly normal poor knight who loved an English princess, {{spoiler|is finally revealed to be a Scottish prince}}.
* In [[Twelve Houses|''Reader and Raelynx'']], by Sharon Shinn, Cammon, a common man, and Amalie, the princess, fall in love. They then subvert this trope by {{spoiler|persuading another noble to pretend Cammon is her bastard son to make him into this trope}}.
* [[Jane Eyre]], though of respectable family, is penniless, friendless, and must work for her own living, and all these distance her irrevocably from her love, the gentleman Mr. Edward Rochester. He doesn't mind, and is happy to marry her anyway, but she herself cannot abide the thought of being utterly dependent on (and dolled up by) her husband. Jane eventually gives in and agrees to marry Rochester when she realizes how in love they both are. Though she is still uncomfortable with all the finery, she makes a few deals with him about keeping her modesty and the plan the wedding. Things get called off though when {{spoiler|it is revealed that Rochester is ''already'' married. [[Madwoman in the Attic|To Bertha, a mad woman who still lives]]. Unable to marry him and refusing to be a mistress, Jane flees.}} However, once {{spoiler|Jane comes into her rights as a substantial heiress,
* A variant occurs in one of [[Robert E. Howard]]'s ''King [[Kull]]'' stories: the law forbids a certain young [[Blue Blood|noble]] from marrying the girl he loves, because she's a slave. Even the King can't change the law, although he's thoroughly sympathetic to the lovers. And then the girl learns of a plot against Kull, and her lover rushes to the King's aid ... and Kull, at the end of the story, [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right|smashes the tablet on which that law is inscribed]].
* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[The Monster Men]]'', Virginia is willing to love and marry Bulan even if he was a product of her father's experiments; Professor Maxon, while horrified by what he did while [[Mad Scientist|mad]], concedes they may once he finds out that Bulan is actually a human with [[Easy Amnesia]]; but we still learn at the end that he's the son of a very wealthy American. (To be sure, neither he nor she dwell on
* In [[Gene Stratton Porter]]'s ''[[Freckles]]'', Angel would take him without such a background, but Freckles refuses. So she dug it up.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Played with in ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''. George Michael finds out that {{spoiler|his beloved Maeby is [[Not Blood Siblings|not biologically his cousin]]. His father tells him that she's still family and they can't have a relationship. Maeby wasn't too interested, anyways.}}
* ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'': When Leonard starts dating Leslie Winkle, suddenly Sheldon loses his opposition to Leonard/Penny.
* A common theme in classical Hispanic [[soap opera]]s. The humble heroine that the hero couldn't marry because she was a [[Orphan's Ordeal|pennyless orphan]] usually turns out to be the lost children of some millionaire.
== [[Theatre]] ==
* [[Zeroth Law of Trope Examples]]: In [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''The Winter's Tale'', the young prince falls in love with a shepherdess who is eventually revealed to be the believed-dead princess of the neighboring kingdom. The subtext there is that the prince could never have fallen in love with a real shepherdess, since she would've been vulgar and coarse; what he falls in love with are her inherent royal qualities shining through.
* Even [[The Oldest Ones in the Book|older than Shakespeare]] is the classical Sanskrit play ''The Recognition of Sakuntala'', King Dushyanta laments that he cannot marry Sakuntala as he is a Kshatriya and she a Brahmin; however, he later rejoices on hearing that she was adopted by the sage Kanva and is really a Kshatriya too.
* [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] used this device in ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]'' and ''The Gondoliers''.
** Also in ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]''. In the final scene, {{spoiler|Ruth reveals that all the pirates are "Noblemen who have gone wrong." The Major General is suddenly eager for the buccaneers to marry his daughters, as are the girls themselves. "For all our faults, we love our House Of Peers!"}}
* In [[Oscar Wilde]]'s play ''[[The Importance of Being Earnest]]'', Jack can't marry the woman he loves because he's an orphan who as a baby was left in a handbag at a railway station. At the end of the play it turns out his parents actually were of good standing, and left him by accident, thus making it acceptable for him to marry a high society lady. Probably a parody of this trope considering the silliness involved. With a side of [[Values Dissonance]]: How do they know he's of appropriate social standing? He's the woman's [[Kissing Cousins|cousin]].
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]'': The princess who was a horse throughout the game has to marry [[Prince Charmless]] (literally) because of a political alliance between the two kingdoms. But wait! It appears the main character is [[Contrived Coincidence|Prince Charmless's cousin.]] [[Deus Ex Machina|What luck!]]
* In a ''[[
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Spoofed a bit in ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]''. Numbah 3/Kooki and Mushi go on a Rainbow Monkey water ride with automatronic monkeys playing a kid-friendly version of [[Romeo and Juliet]] (no tragic deaths). The girl monkey is of royalty and can't marry the charming boy monkey, but he tells her a long family tree explanation that he's actually royalty. "That means..." A Rainbow Monkey wedding with its iconic theme tune!
== [[Real Life]] ==
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[[Category:Wedding and Engagement Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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