King Takes a Wife

In barren little Jordan, two-thirds of King Hussein's 1,600,000 subjects are Palestinian refugees who hold no love for the desert-born Hashemite dynasty. Half a million live in filthy camps and are grimly called "the King's immortal guests" because, to get more food rations, they register births but never admit to any deaths. They are fierce Arab nationalists, who tune in on Cairo's Voice of the Arabs and can stage a nasty riot. Last week Hussein risked their displeasure and defied his own royal relatives by taking a British bride.

Relief from Cares. In the three weeks since Hussein's surprise engagement announcement, his Cabinet and the strong-minded Queen Mother Zain had tried hard to talk him out of the idea. Not that anybody objected to the girl personally. At 20, Toni Avril Gardiner is modestly pretty, modestly sized (4 in. shorter than Hussein's 5 ft. 6 in.), modestly educated (like Hussein, she never went to college)--in many ways a better match than Hussein's first wife, Queen Dina, who was taller, seven years older, and holder of an M.A. from Cambridge. Hussein got to know Toni at go-cart races in Amman, and both are fond of fast cars, planes and dancing. "Toni," said a friend, "is not very anything. She's a simple, gay girl who will cha-cha-cha with him when the day's state cares are over."

But she is British, daughter of the British lieutenant colonel who is Hussein's anti-bomb officer. And British influence in Jordan has been a sensitive issue to Arabs ever since Winston Churchill created Jordan after World War I and handed it to the Hashemites. Hussein's Cabinet and Queen Zain flatly refused to okay the marriage. Stubbornly, a smitten Hussein threatened to abdicate in favor of his neurotic younger brother Mohammed. The Cabinet preferred even Toni to Mohammed, but still threatened to resign if the marriage went through. Finally Hussein made a concession: his bride would not be Queen, but "shall be called Muna al Hussein [the wish of Hussein], with no title or position." Gratefully, Premier Bahjat Talhouni declared that his soul was filled with admiration for "the partner of your life who shares with you indifference to title or position."

Gift from Cairo. To appease enemies and critics, Hussein released 600 short-term prisoners, slashed other sentences by a third, and commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment. He even visited Amman Central Prison, released and embraced a onetime aide convicted of plotting. In a cream-colored Rolls-Royce prudently surrounded by a cordon of armored cars, the King stopped off at the Grand Hussein Mosque for lengthy prayers. He promised elections "soon," though one Jordanian predicted that they would result in a "75% pro-Nasser Parliament."

The ceremony itself was simple. In a salon at his mother's modest palace, Hussein and Toni (who has been converted to the Moslem faith) said their vows, signed five copies of the wedding contract, exchanged rings, and then everybody in the room shouted "Mabrouk!" (good luck). With his bride at his side, Hussein drove through Amman's streets in a cream-colored Mercedes to take the cheers of most of the city's population. That night the couple retired to one of Hussein's palaces, Basman, where they had the company of two pet lions.

Nobody could be sure what the Amman crowds were really thinking or how they would react to an anti-Toni campaign from Cairo. But Hussein had been engaged on what he calls "a policy of rapprochement with the Arab world," and, along with a golden bowl from the Kennedys and a silver tea service from Queen Elizabeth II, he got an important present from Nasser: Cairo radio said not a critical word about the marriage.

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