In the first televised Christmas speech since Prince Philip’s death, Queen Elizabeth II, 95, spoke of the loss of her husband in an unusual personal tone for the monarch in a message broadcast to the nation this Saturday (25).
The Queen said that while Christmas is a time of happiness for many, it can also be difficult for those who have lost loved ones and who this year understood why. Philip died in April, aged 99. He and Elizabeth were married in 1947.
“His sense of service to the nation, his intellectual curiosity and his ability to have fun in all situations were irrepressible,” said the Queen, in honor of her husband, in her traditional recorded broadcast. “That look of indignation shone so bright at the end [de sua vida] like when I first saw him.”
Elizabeth, who this year had to cancel some appointments after receiving medical recommendations for bed rest due to health complications, said she knew Philip would want the family to enjoy Christmas and be happy despite the absence of his “family laugh”.
She delivered the speech sitting behind a table on which was a photograph of her and Philip, arm in arm and smiling at each other. The photo was taken in 2007, when the couple celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary.
The monarch wore a sapphire brooch that she also wore on her honeymoon in 1947 and to commemorate the diamond wedding, when they completed 60 years of marriage. Pictures of her and her husband at various stages of their marriage appeared in the video as the queen spoke.
Elizabeth spends Christmas at Windsor Castle, west London, for the second year in a row, a break from the royal tradition of celebrating the festival in Sandringham due to the Covid pandemic. Sources close to the royal family say this represents a preventive approach to the omicron variant of the coronavirus, which is spreading rapidly across the UK, leading to the explosion of new cases daily and the reintroduction of restrictive measures to contain the new outbreak.
Family members such as Prince Charles, Elizabeth’s son and first in line to the throne, and his wife Camilla must visit her in Windsor. The Queen is not expected, however, to make a public appearance.
British police said they had arrested a 19-year-old man after he breached Windsor Castle security on Saturday with a gun. The man did not enter any building and remains in custody.”
Usually, the royal family gathers for Christmas on the Sandringham estate in eastern England. Walking to a nearby church for mass is already part of the royal tradition. Covid’s back-to-back case records, however, changed plans.
Also during the message this Saturday, Elizabeth spoke about the next year’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, when she turns 70 on the British throne. She is the longest-running monarch in the country’s history since, in 2015, she surpassed her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, who occupied the throne from 1837 to 1901.
Elizabeth said she hopes the jubilee will be an opportunity to “give thanks for the enormous social, scientific and cultural changes of the past seven decades, and also look to the future with confidence.”
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