(LONDON) A parade with a golden carriage and dog puppets in London, picnics across the UK and a surprise appearance by the Queen conclude Sunday’s celebrations of 70 years of her historic reign.
Posted at 9:25 a.m.
Updated at 12:29 p.m.
After two brief appearances on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on Thursday, the 96-year-old monarch, who struggles to walk, stayed away from major celebrations of her Platinum Jubilee. She did not attend the religious service on Friday, nor her beloved horse races on Saturday, nor the giant concert in front of her palace, and did not speak in public. However, on Sunday, she made a surprise appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to greet the crowd, on the last day of the festivities of her 70-year reign.
She left her heirs, Charles, 73, William, soon to be 40, and George, eight, at the forefront of the majority of the festivities, confirming her gradual withdrawal in recent months and the impression many attendees of the celebrations of the end of an era, after an unprecedented reign that began on February 6, 1952 in a United Kingdom that was still a colonial Empire and subject to post-war rationing.
corgis puppets
The 260-year-old golden state carriage used for royal weddings and coronations opened the parade under gray skies. There were projected images of the queen, young. Hundreds of soldiers in British ceremonial dress or from the former colonies of the Commonwealth followed.
Are expected in the afternoon a giant dragon, seven double-decker buses. Corgi dog puppets, the Queen’s favourites, will also be part of the party, followed by a musical finale with star Ed Sheeran in particular.
Despite sometimes rainy weather, millions of people were expected to take part in lunches and picnics among neighbours, joyfully celebrating the historic reign of an extremely popular queen, both close and mysterious, a reassuring symbol of stability in a century of great upheavals.
In Windsor, 488 tables were set on the driveway to the castle where the Queen resides, while Prince Charles and his wife Camilla joined for lunch at a cricket pitch.
Despite her absence from the concert organized in her honor on Saturday evening, Elizabeth II, known for her sense of duty, but also her humor, had reserved a nice surprise for her subjects.
She had shot a short video where she has tea with Paddington Bear, a clumsy icon of British children’s literature. She then beat time with a silver spoon on her porcelain cup, synchronized with the opening of the concert. Audience for the event reached a peak of 13.4 million viewers on the BBC, a sign of the continued strength of the monarchy in a country that has been very divided in recent years due to Brexit.
“Scent of Farewell”
PHOTO PROVIDED BY BUCKINGHAM PALACE, VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The Queen having tea with the famous Paddington Bear
The event will put an end to the four public holidays celebrations, a parenthesis for the British in a time of runaway inflation and political scandals, with a no-confidence vote looking increasingly imminent against Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Many of the participants in the festivities were aware of the historical dimension of the moment. Never has a British monarch reigned so long and it is unlikely that this 70-year record will be broken in the future given the age of his heirs.
“Inevitably, these celebrations had a flavor of farewell,” said columnist Tony Parsons in the tabloid. The Sun. “There has been genuine joy abroad and in this country over the past few days. But there is also the keen awareness that we will never see a monarch like that again. »
The Observera left-leaning newspaper, felt that this jubilee was part of “a long goodbye which began with her solitary presence at the funeral of (her husband) Prince Philip last year”.
Transition is underway, and while the Queen has no intention of stepping down, true to her 1947 promise to serve her subjects all her life, she is preparing them for what comes next. Her heir, Charles, represents her more and more often.
The succession promises to be delicate: Charles is much less popular than his mother, with 50% favorable opinions against 75%. Only 32% of Britons think he will make a good king (YouGov, April 2022). And the monarchy has been challenged during recent trips by members of the royal family, on the slave past of the British Empire.