Queen Elizabeth II attended the baptism of her last two great-grandsons on Sunday, a week after having to cancel her attendance at an official ceremony. A weekend full of emotions as she also celebrated her wedding anniversary, the very first without her late husband Prince Philip. The 95-year-old sovereign was seen in a pale green jacket and hat aboard a Range Rover at the end of the day in published images (see our slideshow).
August Brooksbank and Lucas Tindall were baptized in a private ceremony at the All Saints Chapel, in the Royal Estate of Windsor, about 50 miles west of London. The first – born February 9, 2021 – is the son of Eugenie of York, daughter of Prince Andrew, second son of the Queen and her husband Prince Philip, and Jack Brooksbank. The second – born March 21, 2021 – is the son of Zara Tindall, daughter of Princess Anne, daughter of Elizabeth II, and Mike Tindall. August’s baptism should have taken place last summer but it had been postponed until the last moment. One of the guests had declared a case-contact. The two baptized children, born at the beginning of the year, are respectively 13th and 24th in the order of succession to the throne.
Among the few guests invited to this private family event, Cressida Bonas, the ex-companion of Prince Harry. Although separated from the Duke of Sussex since 2014 (whom she had met through Princess Eugenie in 2012), the 32-year-old Briton has remained very close to the royal family, including Eugenie of York, the one of her best friends. Cressida Bonas married in July 2020 to Harry Wentworth-Stanley.
The state of health of the sovereign, who reigns for nearly seventy years, worries since she was put to rest by her doctors on October 20 and spent a night in the hospital for “preliminary” examinations. whose nature has never been specified.
Earlier in the week, the Queen gave her first publicized face-to-face interview in a month, receiving Britain’s Chief of Staff Nick Carter at Windsor Castle on Wednesday. She had until then had to cancel several public appearances, but had nevertheless held hearings by videoconference.
The queen was due to make her public return last Sunday watching a ceremony honoring the victims of wars from a balcony, but her participation was canceled at the last minute, the palace explaining that she was suffering from back pain. Elizabeth II also canceled at the end of October her trip to Glasgow (Scotland) for the United Nations climate conference (COP26) where Princes Charles, the heir to the throne, and William, her eldest son, represented the royal family.