The Queen got an early lesson in royal protocol when she had to decline the role of bridesmaid at the wedding of Edward VIII to divorcee Wallis Simpson |
When the divorced Princess Royal married Tim
Laurence in Crathie Kirk in 1992, the Queen sought
assurances from leading clerics that her presence at the service wouldn't in any way compromise her role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
Since she doesn't have the same role within the
Church of Scotland, it wasn't a problem.
At the time, the Queen must have reflected on the
irony of how, 56 years earlier, the decision of King Edward VIII to marry American divorcee Wallis
Simpson rocked the monarchy to its foundations. By
the time the King had abdicated and was preparing
for his wedding day, the young Princess Elizabeth had already been bridesmaid to Edward's two brothers. He naturally assumed she would attend his bride, too, but one by one his royal relations declined his invitations. It was not considered appropriate for any of them to attend a civil wedding of a Prince to a divorcee. This early lesson in royal status and the
problem of marrying divorcees was one the 11-year-
old Elizabeth would never forget.
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