Queen Elizabeth was not one to break royal protocol often, but she did for Princess Dian for a heartbreaking reason – and royal fans have branded the act ‘remarkable’

Queen Elizabeth broke royal protocol to pay respects to the late Princess Diana at her funeral, and royal fans still look back fondly on the ‘remarkable’ gesture.

When the late People’s Princess passed away in August 1997, it sparked worldwide grief and mourning. An estimated 60 million bunches of flowers were left in Diana’s memory at landmarks like Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and Althorp House, where she was buried.

At the time of her passing, the royal family were holidaying at the summer estate of Balmoral Estate in Scotland, where they stayed after the news to look after Diana’s two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. But the Queen was still determined to pay her respects.

At Diana’s funeral the late monarch – who passed away in 2022 – broke one royal protocol that had “never been done before”.

Queen Elizabeth paid her respects to Diana one last time at the late Princess’ funeral ( 
Image:
ANDREW FOX)

In a TikTok video shared by @royalnewsdaily, it was explained the Queen “tilted her head” when Princess Diana’s coffin passed by Buckingham Palace. This broke the rules as the monarch should “never bow her head to someone lower in rank than her,” according to the video

The video detailed: “As the days went by after Diana died, Buckingham Palace was dead silent. Queen Elizabeth didn’t make an official statement and the flag wasn’t lowered in grief. But everyone in Britain and the rest of the world was in grief. It was natural to feel the pain and dissatisfaction of the people, and because of this, Queen Elizabeth felt she had to break the rules and do something that had never been done before.

“Diana was buried with all the honours that a Princess should have. The most moving moment, though, was when Diana’s coffin passed in front of Buckingham Palace. Queen Elizabeth did something that no one saw coming – she slightly tilted her head to show that she recognised [Diana] for one last time.”

And that wasn’t the only royal protocol broken for Diana either. In fact, the late Princess of Wales’ passing is the reason you can see a flag flying at Buckingham Palace even when the monarch isn’t at home.

Since the first monarch lived at Buckingham Palace up until the day of Diana’s funeral on September 6, 1997, it had been customary for the Royal Standard to be flown over the palace to denote that the monarch was in residence.

When Diana died, Her Majesty was at Balmoral Castle which explained why there was no flag on display over her London residence. However, some members of the public argued a flag should be flown at half-mast to show respect to the late princess. The Queen ultimately relented and allowed the Union Flag to be flown at half-mast over Buckingham Palace on the day of Diana’s funeral.

Now, the Union Flag flies at Buckingham Palace all the time and is changed to the Royal Standard when the monarch – now King Charles III – is home. The flag is lowered to half-mast at times of national mourning.