Queen Elizabeth Boldly Decided to Use This 1 Controversial Word in Her Wedding Vows to Prince Philip
Queen Elizabeth decided to use one controversial word in her wedding vows to Prince Philip. Here’s what Her Majesty said and why it was such a bold move.
Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth had a royal wedding after years of courting through letters
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip got married in a royal wedding at London’s Westminster Abbey. The couple first met at Prince George and Princess Marina’s wedding in 1934, when Queen Elizabeth was just eight years old.
After their second meeting, when Her Majesty was 13 and Prince Philip was 18, they began exchanging letters and fell in love. They got engaged in July 1947 and married the following November.
“Princess Elizabeth with her marvelous complexion and Prince Philip such a devastatingly handsome naval officer. He looked tender, she was adoring,” bridesmaid Lady Pamela Hicks told Telegraph (via Hello Magazine). “They really were a dream couple.”
Queen Elizabeth kept this controversial word in her marriage vows to Prince Philip
During the wedding of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Her Majesty chose to keep one controversial word in her wedding vows.
She promised “to love, to cherish, and to obey” the Duke of Edinburgh. Many thought the future monarch should not promise to obey anybody, including her husband.
A 1928 revision to the Church of England marriage service intentionally excluded the word “obey.” In 2006, the Church of England Archbishops’ Council formally acknowledged problems with the “obey” wording. They published a report on domestic violence, noting that the promise was a problematic and outdated part of “standards or expectations of women and men within marriage” (per Time).
But, as Time also reported, “Elizabeth chose to communicate her devotion to her spouse and her comfort with the traditional duties as a wife by pledging herself to him as other wives would in their marriage promises.”
Many other royals have eschewed using the word ‘obey’ in their marriage vows
Princess Diana famously broke the tradition of royals promising to “obey” their husbands when she excluded the word from her marriage vows to Prince Charles at their 1981 wedding. Her decision was controversial at the time, and others continued to promise obedience when marrying into the royal family. Sarah Ferguson (Duchess of York) used “obey” in her 1986 wedding vows, as did Sophie Rhys-Jones (Countess of Wessex) in 1999 (per People).
But in 2011, Kate Middleton followed in Princess Diana’s footsteps by omitting the word “obey” from her vows to Prince William. Similarly, Meghan Markle also chose not to use “obey” in her marriage vows to Prince Harry.
