There are no obligatory codes of behaviour when meeting The Queen or a member of the Royal Family, but many people wish to observe the traditional forms. For men this is a neck bow (from the head only) whilst women do a small curtsy.
All the royal family, except the Queen Mother, must bow or curtsey to the Queen. The Lord Great Chamberlain takes the act of deference a stage further: when the Queen opens Parliament he walks backwards as a sign of respect.
All royals are expected to bow or curtsy to the sovereign and his wife, King Charles and Queen Camilla.
May 6, 1960. Princess Margaret curtsies to her older sister, Queen Elizabeth II, during her wedding to Antony Armstrong-Jones.
The one concise rule is that all members of the Royal Family are required to bow or curtsy to King Charles and Queen Camilla.
Royal biographer Tom Bower highlighted a crucial moment during the coronation on May 6, where Kate deviated from tradition and chose not to bow or curtsy as Camilla and Charles exited Westminster Abbey.
Prince William defied royal protocol at the King's Coronation when he chose not to bow to Queen Camilla at the Coronation Concert.
According to protocol, Meghan is supposed to curtsy to those who outrank her. This includes the Queen, Prince Phillip, Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla. Because William is due to be the future King of England, he also receives a curtsy, and by extension so does Kate Middleton.
The Sussexes were right behind the new Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince Harry and Kate. Kate, too, dropped into a curtsy as she passed the Queen's coffin. Earlier this week, as the coffin was brought into the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Princess Anne dropped into a deep curtsey out of respect for her late mother.
As the Countess of Wessex, Sophie had to curtsy to the Duchess of Sussex because it ranked Meghan higher, but this is no longer the case.
Princess Anne is the Queen's second-born child, but she's below her two younger brothers in the line of succession because, as with Lady Louise above her, the 2013 Succession of the Crown Act doesn't apply retroactively.
"But there is no hard and fast rule, and if you can't do it or don't feel comfortable doing it or don't want to do it that's fine; it doesn't mean you hold the queen in any less respect and you won't be sent to the Tower." Another royal source added, "People do tend to bow or curtsy to the queen, and that's just good ...
It is known that before the Queen, who is the symbol of national unity, everyone bowed. "But that day, it is Elizabeth who bowed her head as a sign of respect for the passage of Diana's coffin, the woman who wore more than anyone else had defied the conventions of the palace."
The queen stood with her family, and as Diana's funeral cortege passed by, she bowed her head. It was not a quick bow, nor a shallow one. The woman accustomed to being bowed by the world now lowered her head and humbly honored the princess.
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Meghan made a number of public curtsies to the queen during her lifetime, including on her wedding day at St George's Chapel in 2018.
At the Palace of Westminster, the royals stood for a short service, and as they exited, Meghan, Kate, and other royal women curtsied to the Queen's coffin. Viewers of the service of the royal family noted Meghan's deep curtsy, in particular.
During the coronation concert at Windsor Castle, Princess Kate curtseyed as Queen Camilla passed her on her way to her seat, with the act an age-old sign of deep respect when greeting a monarch.
"The general rule of thumb to remember is that a Royal Highness does not curtsy to another Royal Highness," Myka Meier, an etiquette expert and the author of the book Modern Etiquette Made Easy, tells PEOPLE.
“And that's because they were angry with Camilla.” Bower went on to explain that the anger at the monarch was palpable throughout the venue. “All the people that helped Camilla get the crown on her head were excluded from that coronation, and they were furious,” Bower claimed.
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The monarch isn't a fan of a deep bath either, she is said to bathe in “no more than seven inches of water”, according to royal author Brian Hoey for the Daily Mail. Seven inches is equivalent to 17.8 centimetres.
According to a source, the royal women not only curtsy to one another in public, but from the comfort of their own homes too.
King Charles and Queen Camilla's love story has been anything but conventional. Despite marrying Diana Spencer, Charles never got over his former girlfriend—and against all odds, they got their happy ending 35 years after they first met.