It is therefore her platinum jubilee that Queen Elizabeth celebrates on Sunday, something she did in complete privacy at the royal estate of Sandringham, in the east of England, as every year on this date.
February 6 is a bittersweet date for the 95-year-old sovereign, as her accession to the throne coincides with the day her father King George VI died. When she died, Princess Elizabeth was then in Kenya, on an official trip with her husband.
Even if she is still in good shape
and intends to continue until the end
In the words of British monarchy analyst Estelle Bouthillier, Elizabeth II has largely withdrawn from public life since ailing health in October. She seems more frail than before and now walks with a cane.
All the same, on Saturday, she received at a reception in Sandringham members of the local community and associations, as well as a woman who helped create the classic British recipe Coronation Chicken
created for his coronation.
This took place at Westminster Abbey nearly a year and a half after his accession to the throne on June 2, 1953.
The Queen received on Saturday, at a reception in Sandringham, members of the local community and associations.
Photo: Getty Images/Joe Giddens/WPA Pool
On Monday, a 42-gun salute will be fired in central London to mark the sovereign’s jubilee. But it is in June, from the 2nd to the 5th, that the official festivities will take place, which will begin with Trooping the Color
the parade that officially celebrates its anniversary each year.
A large concert is planned during these festivities, as well as a historical reconstruction of the 70 years of the Queen’s reign, in addition to large neighborhood parties where meals and drinks will be shared and during which a cake created especially for the occasion.
A competition has also been launched across the country to find the amateur pastry chef who will be able to invent a dessert worthy of the queen while being simple enough to be recreated by the British.
10 years ago the Queen’s children and grandchildren toured the world for her Diamond Jubilee, but there are no signs so far that royal visits are planned, perhaps due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is limiting international travel.
A changing world
Photo released November 18, 2007 shows Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, walking in Broadlands, Hampshire.
Photo: Getty Images / FIONA HANSON
The last few years have been trying for the Queen. She lost her husband, Prince Philip, less than a year ago, in April 2021, after sharing her life with him for more than 73 years. She also had to deal with accusations of sexual assault against her son Andrew and the installation in the United States of her grandson Harry with his wife Meghan, who both renounced their title of royal highness.
Never mind, the Queen still renewed her commitment to her subjects in a letter published on Saturday. As we mark this anniversary, I am pleased to renew the pledge I made in 1947 that my life would be entirely devoted to your service.
wrote the sovereign, who signed your servant Elizabeth R
.
In this statement, Elisabeth also referred to the world, which has undergone constant social, technological and cultural change since her accession to the throne, and assured her of her hope and optimism
in the future.
Queen Elizabeth II on an official visit to Nigeria in February 1956.
Photo: Getty Images/Fox Photos
In her letter, the Queen also expresses her sincere wish
that Camilla, second wife of Crown Prince Charles and long reviled for her supposed role in the breakdown of Charles’s marriage to Lady Di, be known as the queen consort
when he becomes king when he dies, and not just as a princess consort, as some said he wanted after he married the prince in 2005.
She called on the British to support the couple in their future role, as they did to her.
What hasn’t changed is that she is a model constitutional monarch, and she set the model
thinks Carolyn Harris, author and historian of the royal family. What has changed is the world around him. The changes she has seen are extraordinary. There’s not the same deference for anything
.
After the Queen signed the constitutional proclamation on April 17, 1982, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau put his stamp of approval on the document.
Photo: The Canadian Press/TJC
Elizabeth II has visited Canada 22 times as Queen, the very first time five years into her reign, for a four-day visit to Ottawa.
She returned two years later, in 1959, this time for a 45-day trip during which she visited all the Canadian provinces. On June 26 of this year, she officially inaugurated the St. Lawrence Seaway in the company of Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and American President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The Queen also came to Montreal for Expo 67 and for the Olympics in 1976, when her daughter, Princess Anne, was there as an athlete on the British Equestrian Team.
The Sovereign was also present during the patriation of the Canadian Constitution in 1982, and had signed Elizabeth R
on the new Constitution, thereby confirming that Canada now had a founding document specific to the country and no longer had to ask permission from the British to modify it.
