: : Also of note - a rather large retinue with : The Duchess of Grafton and 3 : Ladies-in-Waiting (perhaps one for Princess : Anne). HM usually "manages" with : only 2 these days. : There was an agreement between the Court and the then PM Blair to ´slim down´ the Queen´s retinue, I believe it was in 1998 (this was before the House of Lords act in 1999). Thus you will notice from that year there were only two ladies escorting the Queen (there used to be three), and other members of the royal family stopped attending.
In this 1970s clip, there are four ladies attending, which I guess is because one attends to Princess Anne. Also, in the beginning of the movie you can see the royal Princesses arrive. Princess Margaret was a peeress of course, but Princess Alexandra and the elderly Princess (Marie Louise?) were not, and were included by tradition as part of the Queen´s retinue.
Thank you for the clip btw, how I wish we had clear photographs of all those bejeweled ladies.
on May 20, 2016, 2:14 am, in reply to "