Licence to thrill drive for newly wed royal couple

William drove the blue car with a “JUST WED” number plate out of the gates of Queen Elizabeth’s central London home to loud cheers from the crowd. His wife Kate Middleton, in the passenger seat, waved to the thousands of well-wishers.

The car — whose marque was made famous by the fictional British spy James Bond — also had an “L” or learner plate fixed to its front in a nod to the couple’s newly wed status and was festooned with balloons.

William was driving his bride to nearby St James Palace so that Middleton could change for the evening festivities.

A royal official said the car, an Aston Martin Volante, belonged to William’s father Prince Charles and was converted to run on E85 bioethanol, made from English wine wastage.
“He’s had it for 30 odd years and he thought it was a lovely idea to offer it to him to drive back,” the official said.

1,000-year-old history
The Westminster Abbey, where Prince William married Kate Middleton Friday, has a 1,000-year-old history and has seen 15 weddings till date.

It is also the final resting place of 17 monarchs. Benedictine monks first arrived at the site in the 10th century and started a tradition of daily worship that continues to this day, according to westminster-abbey.org. The abbey was established by King Edward the Confessor, whose death in 1066 led to the Norman conquest.

Friday’s event was the 15th royal wedding to be celebrated in the abbey. The first was when King Henry I married a Scottish princess in 1100.

The abbey was designed to house coronations by Henry III as he wanted it to be bigger than the French coronation church at Reims. That is why the roof is 102 feet high, making it the highest in Britain.

William and Kate signed the registers here that formally recorded and legally affirmed that the marriage took place.