Is the Royal Marriage announcement important, or do we ignore such things in our modern world? If you're not British, you may well be passing on already from this page with a thinly veiled snort, and if you do happen to be from the sceptred isle, you may well be passing on anyway.
Technically speaking, the monarchy still has power; it's the Queen who dismisses and summons Parliament, who appoints the Prime Minister and who signs the Acts of parliament to make them law. In practice, of course, she does what she's told, and any refusal would plunge the country into a constutional crisis and even potential civil conflict. In principle, she could refuse to sign a new act, and have her representative in Parliament say, in medieval French, "La Reine s'avisera" (if I've got that right), which means that the Queen will think about it, which in practice would mean "bury this one". Ever since the reign of Queen Anne, however, the monarch has been saying "Le Roi le veut" or "La Reine le veut", signifying that the monarch wishes it.
One might wonder, then, why there's any fuss at all. The British have a peculiar relationship with the Royal Family: although the royals have little real power any more, the people of the country still wish to handle them as though they do, and every perceived slight or constitutional danger results in the people dictating to the royals what should happen next. It's a kind of monarchic democracy in reverse. In the 30's, when Edward VIII (confusingly actually called David) wanted to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, the establishment and the Commonwealth, prompted by the then PM, Baldwin, came down on him like a ton of bricks.
This might not happen nowadays, but the family and its court are still very sensitive to the fickle breeze of public opinion.
IMHO, C&C deserve a bit of happiness in both their lives, and the forthcoming titles have been arranged so as to avoid rocking the boat.
More ramblings on this, perhaps, in future posts.
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