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The late Duchess was the first member of the royal family to convert to Catholicism, which she did in 1994, since the deathbed conversion of Charles II in 1685 and the first royal by marriage to do so since Anne Hyde, Duchess of York in 1669.

A BBC article made the egregious comment that Queen Elizabeth II decided that the Duchess' conversion would not affect her husband's place in the succession which is, of course, nonsense as the Act of Settlement (then still in force) stipulated that this would only occur if a member of the royal family married a Catholic which was obviously not the case as the Duchess was then a member of the Church of England.