While the party has just started, there it is already spoiled. This Thursday, June 2, was the first day of Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee festivities, marking 70 years of her reign on the throne of England. An event which she made the effort to attend until the end. While her presence on the balcony of Buckingham Palace had not been confirmed during the Trooping the Color parade, Prince Philip’s widow showed up twice: the first alongside her uncle, the Duke of Kent, the second with all active members of the Windsor clan. What arouse cries of joy in the innumerable crowd gathered in front of the gates of the palace. But it may well be that this surprise is the only one that Elizabeth II can grant them.
Buckingham Palace has just revealed in a press release that the queen, whose attendance at mass this Friday, June 3, was confirmed, will ultimately not be present. “The Queen enjoyed the parade for her birthday today and the flypast very much but felt some discomfort” we read. The nature of the discomfort has not been specified but it is indeed without the Sovereign that the traditional mass will take place.
The British thought the queen was out of business but age and the last health problems encountered by Elizabeth II have greatly weakened her. Beyond the death of the one she considered her pillar and the only man she knew in her life, Elizabeth II contracted Covid-19. Tired and tried by illness, the queen is struggling to recover. And it’s not the family stories that come to fix things.
Prince Andrew, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were denied the balcony of Buckingham Palace as a result of their retirement from the working life of the Crown. Having left to live in California, the Sussex couple have not ceased to criticize the royal family since their departure, accusing them of serious facts, in particular of racism towards little Archie in particular. A bad blow added to the involvement of Prince Andrew in the Jeffrey Epstein affair…