Series maps Queen's tie to 'family of nations'

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, whose wedding veil had the wild flowers of all 53 Commonwealth nations embroidered in it. Photo / AP

On the day of Harry and Meghan's wedding, the royal press corps only got details of the bride's dress moments before she arrived.

The Duchess of Sussex's veil was embroidered with the wild flowers of all 53 Commonwealth nations.

"Their inclusion was very classy on her part," says Robert Hardman, for a quarter of a century a leading member of what he refers to as the "royal anoraks". "It was a surprise for Harry, and for the Queen. Though Her Majesty may not have spotted them immediately, she is probably the only person in the world who could name all 53 Commonwealth wild flowers."

In the first of Hardman's two-part series, Queen of the World, aired on ITV in the UK, he charts Elizabeth II's bond with the Commonwealth.

On the death of her father, George VI, in 1952, the post-colonial "family of nations" was in its infancy. The Queen's coronation robe the following year contained emblems of its then just eight members.

The documentaries include the excitement about Harry and Meghan's first official overseas visit this month, to the Commonwealth nations of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga. That visit will mark a new beginning in a special relationship that, at 92, Britain's longest-reigning monarch continues to hand-nurture.

The Queen no longer travels the Commonwealth. Taking her place these past eight years has been Prince Charles, who was this year agreed as the next head of the Commonwealth by its leaders.

But those flowers on Meghan's wedding dress, and the recent appointment of Prince Harry as Commonwealth Youth Ambassador, give another glimpse of the future.