Put a meeting with Queen Elizabeth: here is the etiquette to avoid fool

THEmeet the queen Elizabeth II or another member of the royal family is not an everyday thing, but if he should enter how should we “plebeians” behave to avoid fool? The official website of the British royal family states that ‘there is no mandatory code of conduct when you meet the sovereign or a member of the royal family ». However there are traditions that many continue to follow to avoid royal gaffe. First, as he explains People, the royal protocol forbids calling the sovereign with her first name, Elizabeth, or worse still with the nickname given to her as a child, Lilibet. At the moment you are introduced to us we have to call it “Your Majesty” and then during a possible conversation “Ma’am”, pronouncing the word with a short “a”, as in “Jam”. Another fundamental rule: the queen must be greeted with a bow. Maybe accompanied by a handshake, but only if The Queen offered her first. It’s still: never raise your voice in the presence of Her Majesty, never answer the phone in her presence, never try to restrain her if during a conversation she moves her purse from one arm to the other: it means that she wants to get rid of us, and her lady-in-waiting is about to run in his help. But most of all, it is forbidden to touch The Queen.

In 2009, during a meeting on the occasion of the G20 summit, Michelle Obama broke the rule, embracing the sovereign. A surprising scene that went around the world. Nine years later, in the autobiography Becomingthe former First lady explained that at that time she and the sovereign were complaining to each other of pain in their feet caused by shoes and that the sovereign was happy to receive a hug from behind, as if to support her. “It is as if we had forgotten at that moment the fact that she sometimes wore a diamond crown and that I had arrived in London on a presidential flight: we were just two tired ladies, oppressed by their shoes“. That affectionate embrace was considered “a sensational false step” that Michelle has never regretted: “If it is true that I have not done the most appropriate thing, at least I have done the most humane. I can say with certainty that the Queen also appreciated because when I touched her she came closer to me placing her hand with the glove, lightly, on my back ».

One time members of the British royal family they were distant from mere mortals. Inaccessible. But times have changed. From the label, as he explains People, meeting a male member of the royal family we should call him at first “Your Royal Highness”, then during the conversation “Sir”. For female members: «Your Royal Highness» at the time of introductions and then «Ma’am». Yet last March the Prince William And Kate Middleton they didn’t flinch when during their visit to Wales a cheese seller, overwhelmed by emotion, violated royal protocol: she called them not by their titles but, simply, “Will and Kate”.

It is not the only example. In 2018 the Cambridge had lunch at the Centrepoint charity headquarters. The other guests had been given a laminated card with a quick rundown on how to interact with the royal couple. Among other things, the guidelines explained to address William and Kate as “Your Royal Highness” (and then “Ma’am” and “Sir”) and to greet them with a bow. One of the guests, Ms. Chelsea Jenkins, said that Prince William seeing that note burst out laughing and said: «It should be updated“.

What about selfies with the royal family? Those, in theory, would be taboo. But even here the violations of the protocol are not counted. Harry, William and Prince Charles many times they posed for a self-portrait with a fan. Even the queen Elisabetta, who in the past called selfies “unpleasant”did not flinch, in 2014, when a teenager stepped in front of her to take a picture with Her Majesty. In short: if during an (unlikely) meeting with a Windsor the royal fan in us should take over and make us clearly violate the protocol, do not worry. As he jokes People“We will not end up imprisoned in the Tower of London.”