Roughly 2,000 people were invited to attend Queen Elizabeth's funeral on September 19, 2022. Many of those people included leaders from around the world as well as members of royal families from various countries.
On September 13, 2022, the royal family of Denmark announced that Crown Princess Mary was invited to Queen Elizabeth's funeral alongside her husband, Crown Prince Frederik. Three days later, they announced that Mary was no longer invited.
The royal house in Denmark had assumed that Mary would be invited alongside her husband to the funeral and found themselves in the confusing position of having to clarify that only Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and her son would attend.
The Denmark palace's communication department explained in a statement, "There has been a regrettable error in the invitation from the British Foreign Ministry’s protocol. It is thus only the queen and the crown prince who from the Danish side will participate in Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral on Monday."
Royal expert Caroline Vagle explained further, "There are of course many people who want to participate in this funeral, but there is by no means room for everyone who wants to. I have understood it to mean that only one person from each country (head of state) has been invited, as well as an accompanying person."
Britain's Foreign Office issued its own statement addressing the "regrettable error." The office attributed the mistake to sending out several invitations to the funeral simultaneously.
The Foreign Office offered, "The FCDO has passed on their profound apologies to the Danish Royal Household through the Danish Embassy."
It's still unclear why Denmark was limited to two guests when other European nations, such as Spain, had up to three guests each.
