Royal wedding: Princess Eugenie left a front row seat empty for the Queen

Princess Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank in the second royal wedding of the year in front of 800 of the couple’s closest family and friends – with many notable guests in attendance.

During the ceremony in St George’s Chapel, however, viewers noticed an empty chair in the front row – directly across the aisle to where the newlyweds were sitting.

The reason for the vacant chair wasn’t due to a missing guest but rather tradition, according to royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams, who told The Independent: “The seat in front of the Queen is always left empty and she has a favourite seat in St George’s Chapel.”

Instead of sitting in the front row, Queen Elizabeth II, the bride’s grandmother, prefers to sit in the second row of the chapel next to her husband.

In the Queen’s row also sat Prince Charles, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The same seat was left empty during the royal wedding in May between Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, although many assumed it was in tribute to Prince Harry’s late mother.

“During Harry and Meghan’s wedding some erroneously thought the empty seat was intended as a tribute to Diana,” Mr Fitzwilliams added.

Princess Eugenie also made sure to follow other rules of royal protocol during her royal wedding, including curtseying to the Queen as she passed her on her way out of the church with her new husband.

Eugenie, the sixth grandchild of the 92-year-old monarch, managed the feat while dressed in her wedding gown by Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos and a diamond and emerald tiara from her grandmother’s collection.

Following the ceremony and a carriage procession around Windsor, the Queen hosted a lunch at Windsor Castle to celebrate the newlyweds.