Royal Family News: Queen Elizabeth II Could Have Broken the Law While Paying for Her Wedding Dress
Royal Family news reveals that Queen Elizabeth II used a strange method to pay for her wedding dress and it could have broken laws. Read on and we’ll give you the low down.
Royal Family News: It’s Complicated
Royal Family news reveals that, according to Express UK, Queen Elizabeth II used an unusual method in 1947 to pay for her wedding dress and it could very well have been illegal at the time.
According to Us Weekly, the monarch paid for her silk and pearl wedding gown using World War II ration coupons. Having gotten married two years after World War II ended, the only way to pay for the dress was via ration coupons.
Nuptials So Close to the End of WWII
The Queen, who died in September 2022, married Prince Phillip in 1947, Express UK reports and had to pay for her dress using wartime ration coupons, though this was a very unusual and unexpected method for doing it.
Queen Elizabeth married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten over 75 years ago in a service at Westminster Abbey. Royal fans will remember that the famous wedding was recorded by BBC radio and broadcast to more than 200 million people across the globe.
Since the nuptials went down so close to the end of the war, there were still several rationing restrictions in play, and the Royal Family was not exempt. One such rule threatened to restrict one of the key elements of the wedding with strict control on the amount of fabric that was allowed to be used.
Adoring Royal Family Fans Step Up
Despite the restrictions, many females across Britain chipped in for the then-princess and even broke laws to do so. As Britain was still recovering and the ration system was still in place, there were extensive limits on what could be obtained.
Many steadfast fans of the Royal Family were worried that the young future Queen would be unable to afford that perfect wedding gown. The wartime rationing system allocated each type of clothing item point values based on the labor that went into its creation.
This meant that 11 coupons were needed for a dress. Adults were given 66 points to last a year and that number shrank to just 24 coupons by 1946. As a result, hundreds of concerned brits worried for the princess and sent in their own assigned coupons. However, they ultimately had to be returned. If the future Queen had actually used the coupons, it would have violated British law.
Ultimately, the Queen paid for her dress with her own rationing coupons but was surely grateful for the effort made by adoring fans. Be sure and stay up to speed on this and other royally related stories. Return here often for more Royal Family news and updates.