- Commoners don't have to bow or curtsy to members of the royal family, but royals have to amongst themselves.
- There's an Order of Precedence that dictates who must bow or curtsy to whom.
- Meghan Markle would curtsy to Kate Middleton because she's married to the future king, as well as to "blood princesses" like Beatrice and Eugenie.
- If Prince Harry is with Markle, though, the blood princesses curtsy to her.
It's not just commoners who have to know the correct way to greet a member of the royal family— royals follow a certain protocol as well.
According to the royal family's official website, "There are no obligatory codes of behaviour when meeting The Queen or a member of the Royal Family, but many people wish to observe the traditional forms."
They may be optional for peasants like us, but these traditional forms — namely, bows and curtsies — are obligatory for members of the royal family.
As a soon-to-be royal, Meghan Markle will have to learn this protocol and curtsy to some of her future relatives.
For example, members of the royal family bow or curtsy to the queen if they're seeing her for the first time that day.
Markle curtsies to the queen, of course, as well as Prince Phillip, Prince Charles, and his wife Camilla. Her future brother and sister-in-law, Prince William and Kate Middleton, also warrant a curtsy because of William's position as a future king.
When Kate Middleton married Prince William, the queen updated the Order of Precedence and dictated that Middleton should curtsy to "blood princesses"— Princesses Anne, Alexandra, Beatrice, and Eugenie, according to The Telegraph. Because they were born into the royal family and Middleton married into it, they outrank her.
There's one exception: If Prince William is present, that elevates Middleton's ranking and reverses the order, requiring the "blood princesses" to curtsy to her.
These rules will likely apply to Markle, as well.
Markle married into the royal family, so she curtsies to princesses born into it unless she is with Prince Harry, in which case they curtsy to her.
Then again, Markle has already shown that she's paving her own way when it comes to stodgy royal protocol. We'll see if she keeps to the "traditional forms" or makes them her own.
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