Prince Charles of
England weds Lady Diana Spencer.
Tagged
as The Wedding of the Century, it was watched by an estimated 750 million
people around the world, making it the most popular program ever broadcast.
3500 guests waited in the cathedral to watch the historic event. Estimates ranging from 600,000 to two million spectators lined the streets with
4000 policeman to control the crowds.
The wedding gown, which barely fit into
the coach that drove the bride to the church, had 10,000 pearls. The 25-foot train was longer than any other
train worn by any royal English wedding bride, before or since. (Queen
Elizabeth’s train was 13 feet long.)
A video that begins
with Diana disembarking from the Glass Carriage to begin the long walk down the
aisle at the cathedral can be seen by clicking HERE.
After she became
Princess of Wales, Diana automatically became the “third highest ranked woman
in the United Kingdom Order of Precedence, after the Queen and the Queen Mother.”
Trivia from www.history.com:
- Diana was the first British citizen to marry the heir to the English throne in 300 years, the last being Anne Hyde who married future King James II in 1660 (while seven months pregnant).
- Coincidentally, Diana’s son, William, became the first heir to marry a commoner since King James II in 1660. (Diana was not a commoner; she came from an old English noble family. Before the wedding her courtesy title was Lady Diana Spencer.)
- Charles and Diana were the first British royal couple to omit the word “obey” from their wedding vows.
- Charles forgot to seal his vows with a kiss at the altar but the couple established a new royal tradition of giving a public kiss on the balcony after the wedding. The tradition was continued with Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, and with Prince William and Kate Middleton.
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