Although absent on the second day of her Platinum Jubilee celebrations, Queen Elizabeth II, 96, received yet another round of thanks and honors this Friday (3).
Other members of the British royal family joined a group of politicians and leading figures in a thanksgiving service at St Paul’s Cathedral in London to celebrate Elizabeth’s 70th anniversary.
As announced the day before, the Queen did not attend the event. According to Buckingham Palace, she experienced “discomforts of mobility” on Thursday and concluded “with great reluctance” that she would not attend the ceremony.
A devout Christian and institutionally head of the Church of England, the monarch watched the celebration on television from her residence at Windsor Castle.
Elizabeth was represented by her son and heir to the throne, Prince Charles, 73. Last month, he replaced his mother for the first time in the traditional speech to the UK Parliament, and the trend is for him to assume an increasingly significant and important role. leadership in the royal family.
Much of the spotlight, however, was on Charles’ son and Elizabeth’s grandson, Prince Harry, 37, who was accompanied by his wife, actress Meghan Markle, 40. It was the couple’s first public appearance in the UK since who abdicated his royal duties two years ago.
Harry and Meghan now live in the United States and seek to dissociate themselves from the royal family. The American actress, in an interview she gave to the presenter Oprah Winfrey, came to accuse royals of episodes of racism – Elizabeth said that the complaints would be “taken very seriously”.
For this reason, the couple divides opinions among Britons – which was evident in the reaction to theirs this Friday, when the two received boos and applause.
Another important figure met with mixed reactions from the public was Prime Minister Boris Johnson. While giving a reading during the ceremony, the curator was booed by the crowd outside the cathedral. The prime minister is embroiled in a political crisis after attending several parties in Downing Street, the seat of government, during the Covid pandemic, when there were confinement rules in England. Politically worn out, he has lost support from his supporters and has seen his Conservative party suffer defeats in the last regional elections.
At the ceremony in honor of the queen, the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, filled the sermon with metaphors related to the world of horses – Elizabeth loves horses and even got one on the eve of French President Emmanuel Macron.
Cottrell compared the monarch’s reign to the Grand National, famously long horse race with an obstacle course full of obstacles. “But with perseverance in times of change and challenge, joy and sadness, you continue to offer yourself in the service of our country and the Commonwealth. [Comunidade Britânica, que reúne antigas colônias].”
“Your Majesty, we’re sorry you’re not here with us this morning, but we’re so glad you’re still in the saddle,” Cottrell continued using yet another equestrian metaphor. The English expression “in the saddle” can be literally translated as “in the saddle”, but it can also refer to something or someone who is in a position of control and responsibility.
Another absentee from the ceremony was Prince Andrew, 62. He no longer appeared on the first day of the Platinum Jubilee – he has been away from public life since 2019 and involved in a sex scandal in which he was accused of having sex with a minor. Buckingham Palace, however, justified the absence of the queen’s second child with the announcement that he has Covid-19.
