Elizabeth II celebrates her 95th birthday on Wednesday April 21, four days after having buried her husband Prince Philip who faithfully supported her for 73 years. It will be her first birthday without the one she defined as her “strength” and “support”, since their marriage in November 1947 and her coronation in June 1953. This event comes in the midst of mourning for the royal family, which risks d ” cancel any public event related to this occasion such as the publication of an official portrait.
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, died “peacefully” on April 9 at Windsor Castle at the age of 99. Elizabeth II, with whom he had four children (Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward) bid him farewell on Saturday at a funeral organized in a small group due to the coronavirus pandemic. Vivid image of the ceremony, the queen was sitting alone on a bench in the chapel, her face covered with a black mask to protect herself from the virus.
The mourning period will end on Friday and the Queen will resume her official engagements. “She will be personally devastated by (this death), but I don’t think the death of the Duke of Edinburgh will have an impact on her work,” noted Joe Little, editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine. “There is the public queen and there is the private queen, and she is good at compartmentalizing,” he said.
No parade this year
Elizabeth II is now alone to face the crises that agitate the royal family, such as the recent accusations of racism launched by her grandson Harry and his Métis wife Meghan, from the United States where they live. His grandfather’s funeral was an opportunity for Prince Harry to return to the UK for the first time since his retirement from the royal family.
If the Queen’s birthday falls on April 21, it is traditionally celebrated in June with a large military parade in central London, called the “Salute to the Colors” and bringing together hundreds of soldiers and thousands of spectators. This ceremony has its origins in the preparations for war, with all the flags being shown to the soldiers so that they will recognize them in the confusion of the fighting. But due to the pandemic, the ceremony is canceled for the second year in a row, Buckingham Palace announced last month. Last year, the ceremony was replaced by a smaller event at Windsor Castle, where Elizabeth II has retreated since March 2020, during the first confinement.
Since then, more than 127,000 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, making the UK the most bereaved country in Europe.
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