Why Meghan Markle Wore One Poppy During the Remembrance Day Service
On Sunday, Meghan Markle attended the 2018 annual Remembrance Day memorial service alongside Queen Elizabeth II, Kate Middleton, and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, to honor the fallen soldiers of World War I.
Like her fellow royals, the Duchess of Sussex paid respect to those who died by adorning her outfit with a bright red poppy.
But in true Internet fashion, some people just had to say something negative about Meghan's choice. "Can't believe Meghan had the AUDACITY to only wear one poppy when Kate wore FOUR," one user wrote. "Is the Queen using poppies as visual rhetoric to communicate female pecking order? Her Maj - 5 poppies; Kate - 3; Meghan - 1," another said.
Some people did come to her defense and called out that Meghan's poppy was larger than everyone else's, and therefore more special.
But there's really no reason at all for anyone to be upset about the number of poppies or the size, according to Joe Little, royal expert and managing editor of Majesty magazine. How many poppies a royal decides to wear is "a matter of personal choice." "There is no particular significance about the number of poppies the royal women wear, nor is it anything to do with ranking," Little tells GoodHousekeeping.com.
Marlene Koenig of the Royal Musings blog agreed that royals are not required to wear poppies at all. But she points out that perhaps the Queen had a deeper meaning for why she chose to wear five.
"The Queen has worn five poppies for some years now," Koenig says. "Although the Palace has never said why, it is possible that the Queen honors all those who have died in the five branches of the British military." The five branches are the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy.
The poppy's symbolism comes from a poem written by Canadian John McCrae called "In Flander's Fields." McCrae reportedly wrote the poem for the burial service of a fallen lieutenant.
"The poppy represents life anew, as the poppies bloomed in Europe, on lands devastated by war and in the military cemeteries," Koenig says.
And let's not forget, the whole royal crew wore a single poppy Sunday night during a service at Westminster Abbey. So there.
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