Prince Harry and Meghan Markle name the date

So there will not be an additional bank holiday.

But there will be a tussle between families – and perhaps even broadcasters – over where to focus attention on the afternoon of Saturday 19 May.

The wedding of Prince Harry and his American fiancée Meghan Markle? Or the FA Cup final at Wembley?

Either way, we now know when the prince and the TV actress will tie the knot.

Kensington Palace made the announcement this afternoon – after previously only saying that the event would happen in May.

It is taking place at St George’s Chapel – the magnificent Gothic building inside Windsor Castle.

Now that a date has been confirmed, the green GO buttons can be pressed on many a royal souvenir production line so that – come next year - we won’t have to suffer from a lack of mugs and tea towels.

By the time of the wedding, Prince Harry will be sixth in line to the throne (before his new nephew or niece is born in April he will remain fifth) but that will not diminish interest in this occasion.

Harry’s older brother and sister-in-law, Prince William and Kate, may be King and Queen one day, but the marriage of a British royal to an American actress has given this wedding an additional dimension.

American broadcasters are hugely interested in this romance and have followed it closely since Harry and Meghan’s relationship was announced in the Autumn of 2016.

You can be sure to find their cameras in Windsor in vast numbers in May of next year.

International interest in our Royal Family has also been given an injection of steroids following the Netflix series The Crown, which dramatises the early years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

It will mean Windsor will be the focus of world attention next May – even if around a fifth of the public in Britain would like to abolish the institution of Monarchy.

But be that the case, tens of thousands of others will soon be heading out to buy a mug with the faces of Harry & Megan and now the date: Saturday 19 May 2018.