10 moments from the life of Queen Elizabeth II

From the new book 'Elizabeth the Queen,' 10 new insights into the modern monarch.

9. Elizabeth went off-script during Princess Diana's funeral

During the funeral procession for Princess Diana in which more than a million people stood along the route, the gun carriage carrying Princess Diana's coffin passed the queen and Elizabeth bowed to it – an action that, in a day in which every gesture had been planned, was spontaneous. "It was completely unexpected," said a woman named Mary Francis, who was in the crowd near the queen. "I don't think there had been any discussion of it, certainly not with her advisers beforehand. But instinctively she had done it, and it was the right thing to do."

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