Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 ··· 5 6 7 ··· 21 22

Original poster

Princess Anne the only female behind the hearse

538 replies

jeanne16 · 18/04/2021 07:35

While the funeral was beautiful, I couldn’t help feeling annoyed that Princess Anne was the only female to walk behind the hearse. Surely all the grandchildren could have been included. Instead we see Beatrice, Eugenie and Zara tottering along on high heels. It would have been so much better to see them take an equal place with the men.

OP posts:

Trixie78 · 18/04/2021 09:38

Maybe they didn't want to.

TheFairyCaravan · 18/04/2021 09:42

but very surprised folk think Z&E are such delicate flowers.

That’s a really horrible thing to say.

My grandfather died a week after DS1 was born and the funeral was when he was 16 days old. I honestly don’t know how I got through it. I’d had a ventouse, so was still sore and bleeding, I was breastfeeding and desperately hoping he’d not wake up in the middle of the service. We’d had to travel a couple of hours the night before to stay with my parents and I was absolutely knackered. I remember my cousin telling me I didn’t look well. I felt like shit, tbf. I’d have hated to have had the eyes of the world on me at such a vulnerable time and there was no way I could have walked behind a coffin.

Spidey66 · 18/04/2021 09:43

The royal family is full of pomp and ceremony. I deliberately avoided the whole thing as I have minimal interest, but if I had to come to a conclusion from your description, it would be simply because Anne is his only daughter.

LolaSmiles · 18/04/2021 09:46

God you can't have it both ways. If you accept that the ridiculous royal lifestyle and fanfare are paid for by the public you have to therefore allow it to be open to criticism. Yesterday probably costs hundred of thousands pounds of our taxes. It could have paid for all the funerals of every who died this month
Then those of this view should have the basic humanity to differentiate between a discussion about the cost of royal funerals and being utterly unpleasant about fellow humans not grieving and partaking in a funeral in the 'correct' way.

It doesn't matter if you're a royalist or Republican, there is something deeply unpleasant about women ripping apart other women for not walking behind a coffin a few weeks postpartum.

AbsolutelyPatsy · 18/04/2021 09:47

Close friend is how the media describe her

rwalker · 18/04/2021 09:49

FFS it's not about men v women he only had 1 daughter and I'd put money on Peter Philips was there between Harry and William due to whats gone on between them.

GingerScallop · 18/04/2021 09:50

You are right OP. No women, no LGBT reps, no persons of colour, no vegan representation, no persons with disabilities as far as I could tell, no immigrant rep (esp given he was an immigrant himself).

OP as much as it was a "national" ceremony, it was also a funeral. And even if it had been 90% women, that would have done little if FA to help address the many and urgent challenges women in this country face.
What was your question again?

spongedog · 18/04/2021 09:50

@MakingPlans21

Princess Anne is often voted the hardest walking royal.

Sniggering at this typo as it is just as appropriate as "...hardest working royal.."

AbsolutelyPatsy · 18/04/2021 09:51

peter was not in between harry and william to stop them fighting! that is ridiculous

NeedToKnow101 · 18/04/2021 09:52

@MakingPlans21

Princess Anne is often voted the hardest walking royal.

😂😂😂

RedcurrantPuff · 18/04/2021 09:54

@rwalker

FFS it's not about men v women he only had 1 daughter and I'd put money on Peter Philips was there between Harry and William due to whats gone on between them.

Or he was in the middle as he’s the eldest grandchild?

AbsolutelyPatsy · 18/04/2021 09:54

Anne — the only daughter of Philip and Queen Elizabeth and the sole woman in the procession — walked alongside older brother Prince Charles, who followed directly behind his father's coffin. Although it is tradition for only men to take part in royal funeral processions, Anne previously took on the role in 2002, during the funeral for her grandmother, the Queen Mother.

lljkk · 18/04/2021 09:55

FairyCaravan. We can agree that it's unwise & intrusive to speculate about why they did or didn't walk - based on their recent give-birth status and what that might mean about their health status now. I didn't start that speculation - I guess every day's a school day since I did not know this expectation (2 months later a 10 minute walk was likely to be onerous) was so common, and it was that expectation that surprised me.

They could have never given birth & still have strong health reasons not to walk, too.

AbsolutelyPatsy · 18/04/2021 09:55

it is traditionally men

GaryUnicorn · 18/04/2021 09:57

You’re ‘annoyed’ because the funeral procession order wasn’t to your personal preference?

JustLyra · 18/04/2021 09:57

@AbsolutelyPatsy

Close friend is how the media describe her

And we know how accurate they get things...

Laggartha · 18/04/2021 09:58

I'd put money on Peter Philips was there between Harry and William due to whats gone on between them.

Really? What do you envisage happening if he hadn't?

JustLyra · 18/04/2021 09:59

@rwalker

FFS it's not about men v women he only had 1 daughter and I'd put money on Peter Philips was there between Harry and William due to whats gone on between them.

....or he was simply being given his place as eldest grandchild...

JaninaDuszejko · 18/04/2021 09:59

@JustLyra

Earl Snowdon was his nephew.

His children, his grandsons, his nephew and his son-in-law is hardly a bunch of outliers or odd choices.

Exactly. When DDad died his pall bearers were his sons, his SIL, his BIL, and his nephews. The modernising element of this Royal Consort's funeral was Anne being there, in comparison there were no women at Prince Albert's funeral.

Spidey66 · 18/04/2021 09:59

Shows how much attention I pay the RF. I've only found out by this thread that Zara has had her third. I think it registered with me that Eugenie was pregnant, though i may even have got her mixed up with Beatrice. Ive only just realised Peter Phillips has split from his wife and that him and Zara have a half sister though Mark Phillips.

Butchyrestingface · 18/04/2021 10:00

@MakingPlans21

Princess Anne is often voted the hardest walking royal.

I totally have a vision of her leaving craters in the ground in her wake now.

AC12theletterofthelaw · 18/04/2021 10:02

Oh dear, what a tasteless thread to start OP.

The DoE by all accounts planned his funeral precisely. His funeral and his wishes. Just leave them be.

Laggartha · 18/04/2021 10:05

I did find myself wondering what Harry made of it all, to be back in a situation where he is fairly senior and central. The familiar protocol and ceremony that he'd grown up with all his life. With a large family that, no matter how unusual their situation, all love him. The Englishness of Windsor on a sunny April morning.

I did wonder how he would feel on the plane flying home to LA and away from it all. I wondered if he would feel relief or regret.

NeedToKnow101 · 18/04/2021 10:06

Sponge dog - i think it was a joke, not a typo

ILoveYou3000 · 18/04/2021 10:07

I'd put money on Peter Philips was there between Harry and William due to whats gone on between them.

Oh give over. He was in the middle because he is the eldest grandson. William and Harry were chatting quite amicably on the way back up the hill. No one between them then.

Flip

1 2 ··· 5 6 7 ··· 21 22