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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"I just found out. That's what this says. I'm an honest-to-God prince! Will you marry me?"''|'''Lone Starr''', ''[[Spaceballs (Film)|Spaceballs]]''}}
 
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 Withwith 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 forbidden -- not by her parents, but by law or the rules of society.
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* 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 (Film)|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 betrothed--however, he seems completely willing to marry a peasant girl anyway, and his father seems to be at a loss to stop him. It turns out to be a [[Perfectly Arranged Marriage]].
* Disney's ''[[Cinderella (Disney film)|Cinderella]]'' was an aversion--it's never required that Cinderella be a princess or nobility, but rather that she be the same woman that the prince fell in love with. Every woman in the kingdom is tested, and Cinderella is discovered while she's still a servant to her family.
** 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 -- her step-mother just didn't want Cinderella to get everything while her own daughters only got dowries with a marriage.
* 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!}}
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** Well, not exactly. Jane finally 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. To a mad woman who still lives. Unable to marry him and refusing to be a mistress, Jane flees. When they meet again at the end of the book, Bertha Rochester has ''died'', making it morally and legally ok for Jane to wed him.}}
*** However, it's still strongly implied that she really was foolish to agree to marry him earlier, but has a much better shot at happiness with him once they are on more of an equal footing.
* 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 (Literature)|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 that -- they are chiefly glad that his amnesia did not hide that he was already married.)
* In [[Gene Stratton Porter]]'s ''[[Freckles (Literature)|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.
 
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* Even 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|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]].
* A slight variant occurs in ''[[Arsenic and Old Lace]]'': {{spoiler|"Darling, I'm a bastard!"}}
** {{spoiler|Since all the ''real'' Brewsters are [[Ax Crazy|Ax Crazy,]] this is a ''good'' thing. }}
* In Stuart Pattison's version of ''[[Cinderella (Literaturenovel)|Cinderella]]'', Cinders rejects [[Prince Charmless]] in favour of Callum the stable boy. Who then turns out to be [[Lost Orphaned Royalty]] of a neighbouring kingdom.
 
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Dragon Quest VIII (Video Game)|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 ''[[Runescape]]'' quest, when Bob the Cat finds out he was once a human warrior, Neite agrees to elope with him.
 
== [[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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