It's certainly not about 'the English peerage', since there was a distinct tendency to marry foreign royalty (that includes Prince Philip, who got that title from his membership of the 'Greek' royal family (Danish by descent, imposed on the Greeks) at birth). I'm not sure there's a precise definition of "the peerage" you could apply for women (who are mostly not allowed to inherit the family titles) anyway. The one rule there was about spouses was they couldn't be Catholic - though that was got rid of in 2013, at the same time as the "sons inherit in preference to daughters" rule. As pointed out here, there is no theoretical reason a monarch's spouse can't be the same sex as them now, too. The reigning monarch does have to approve the marriages of the next 6 in line to the throne.
I expect that if they do get married, Meghan will get British citizenship beforehand, fast-tracked; I don't know if she'd be asked to given up her American citizenship. Peter Philips, the Queen's eldest grandchild (Anne's son) married a Canadian who retained her Canadian citizenship. As far as I know, she didn't add British citizenship, but since Liz is Queen of Canada too, that didn't really matter. She did convert from Catholicism, since their marriage was before the law was changed.
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