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How Charles and Diana broke 300-year-old royal tradition on their wedding day
doomed marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles started with what appeared to be a fairytale wedding.It took place in St Paul’s Cathedral - a historic London landmark - and Lady Diana Spencer wore a wedding dress with a huge 25-foot train fit for royalty.The church was packed to the rafters, the bride and groom arrived separately by horse-drawn chariot, Diana entered with five bridesmaids following behind her and the Archbishop of Canterbury - then Robert Runcie - conducted the marriage.But there was a subtle but significant difference to past royal weddings during one crucial element of the church service.And that alteration has stuck, with modern members of the royal family emulating Diana in breaking a 300-year-old tradition.Princess Diana tweaked the vows by omitting the word “obey”.Since 1662, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer listed the line in the marriage vows: “To love, cherish and to obey, till death us do part.”Previously, all royal brides had committed to show obedience to their husbands.But when it came to tie the knot in July 1981 to the heir to the throne, Diana became the first to drop this word from her own vows.Instead, she promised to Charles to "love him, comfort him, honour and keep him".When Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, married Prince Andrew five years later, she opted to stick with the word “obey”.However, more recent weddings have seen the brides take a different approach.Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, followed her late mother-in-law’s lead during her nuptials with Prince William - 30 years after the tradition was first broken.Meghan Markle, during her wedding to Prince Harry, did likewise, as did Princess Eugenie.The changing of the wording was not the only difference
