Without the weary Queen, but with Harry and Meghan: The British royal family gathered for a service on Friday to celebrate 70 years of Elizabeth II’s historic reign, on the second day of her platinum anniversary.
• Also read: Elizabeth II absent from Friday’s Jubilee celebrations
Two years after their painful departure for California, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made a public return to a royal event after being barred from Buckingham Palace’s balcony outing, which began in London on Thursday of the 96-year-old sovereign.
However, the UK’s very unpopular Duke of Sussex, with military medals on his jacket, and the Duchess in a cream dress, were applauded by the crowd as they arrived at Saint Paul’s Cathedral. Heirs to the throne Charles, 73, and his son William, who will be 40 on June 21, followed later with their wives.
Buckingham Palace on Thursday night announced the “reluctant” absence of the monarch, who is nonetheless the head of the Anglican Church and very religious, due to a certain “discomfort”. As is often the case, the disabled Queen was represented by her heir Charles.
She was cheered by tens of thousands of people on the palace balcony on Thursday and attended a brief lighting ceremony at Windsor Castle in the evening.
“Unique Opportunity”
The crowd gathered outside Saint-Paul early in the morning. Guardsmen in traditional uniforms lined the forecourt and steps and bells rang incessantly during arrival, following a strict order of protocol, with former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron, then the incumbent Boris Johnson, being booed .
Rae Williams, 37, had brought a life-size cardboard picture of the Queen “because she couldn’t come herself”. She says she attends all the events and likes Harry. “Meghan, I’m honestly not sure,” she adds.
“It’s family, isn’t it?” Julie Blewitt, 56, from northern England said: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it will never happen again,” she told AFP. “It won’t be the same without the Queen.”
The service, attended by around 2,000 people, is one of the highlights of four days of celebrations in honor of the immensely popular Queen Elizabeth, who ascended to the throne on February 6, 1952 at the age of 25.
“Your Majesty, we are sorry that you are not here this morning, but you are still in the saddle,” emphasized the Bishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, in his homily, addressing the Queen, who televised the ceremony pursued his passion for horse racing. “And we’re looking forward to continuing.”
Lunch in Windsor
The return of Harry and Meghan, who had traveled from the United States with their two young children for the celebrations, has drawn much hostile ink since their departure and their sensational confessions on American television.
Relationships between Harry, 37, and William, 39, second in line to the throne, are almost nonexistent. They aren’t much better off with their father, Prince Charles.
However, according to the Harry-Meghan couple’s biographer Omid Scobie, they had lunch with family members in Windsor on Thursday, giving the Queen a chance to meet their daughter Lilibet for the first time, who celebrates her first birthday on Saturday.
The Queen’s second son Andrew, 62, was absent on Friday after suffering from COVID-19, according to Buckingham Palace. He has not held an official position since being charged with sexual assault in connection with the Epstein case in the United States, which he ended with a multimillion-dollar payment.
The celebrations continue with a big evening concert outside Buckingham Palace on Saturday, before thousands of luncheons and popular parties between neighbors on Sunday, and a huge parade through the streets of London in the evening with almost 10,000 in attendance.
Capitalizing on that patriotic atmosphere, and in contrast to a 96-year-old monarch preparing for the future, the Conservative government on Friday launched a consultation to restore use of the imperial measurement system post-Brexit, allowing for the return of pounds rather than kilos to the Shops and the certification of the size of pints with a logo representing a crown instead of the European CE.