British Royal Wedding

The Queen turns 82 on Monday and is marking her birthday privately at Windsor Castle.

It is believed she will spend the evening enjoying a quiet dinner at the Berkshire royal residence.

This year’s birthday celebration contrasts with events a few years ago when the monarch’s 80th anniversary saw national events staged to mark the milestone.

The Queen was born at 2.40am on April 21 1926 - the first child of the then Duke and Duchess of York - at 17 Bruton Street, the Mayfair home of her mother’s parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore.

She is the great-great-grandchild of Queen Victoria, the last female sovereign.

The year will be a busy time for the octogenarian monarch, who heads to Turkey next month for a three-day state visit.

Despite her increasing age she still fulfils a large number of engagements at home and abroad.

On the Queen’s birthday, union flags are flown above Government buildings from 8am until sunset and royal gun salutes are fired in her honour.

She has two birthdays - her actual one on April 21 and her official one in June, which is celebrated with the Trooping the Colour parade. (via The Press Association)

The Queen has cancelled a lavish party to mark her diamond wedding anniversary because she felt it would be “inappropriate” with the country on the brink of recession.

Guests at the party, which was due to be held at The Ritz on the weekend, would have been served champagne from crystal-studded bottles and dined off tablecloths covered with sparkling jewels.

But with her subjects facing rising bills and falling house prices, and the banking system paralysed by the so-called credit crunch, the Queen has decided the celebration would be regarded as insensitive.

The Queen had been due to mark the 60th anniversary of her marriage to the Duke of Edinburgh in the company of her children and 60 close friends.

Sources close to the royal family expressed their disappointment that the event, which was to have been privately funded by a group of the royal couple’s friends, had been called off. (via Melbourne Herald Sun)

Spring seemed very much on Queen Elizabeth’s mind as she chose her outfit for the traditional Easter service at Windsor Castle this Sunday.

As sleet peppered the area, the Queen arrived at the chapel wearing an extremely spring-like light-pink two-piece with matching hat. Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, the 81-year-old monarch led a host of royals to the service.

By his mother’s side was new dad Prince Edward and his wife, the Countess of Wessex. Wrapped up well against the weather, the Queen’s only daughter, the Princess Royal, was joined by her husband, Timothy Lawrence. Celebrating their last Easter as singletons were Princess Anne’s son, Peter Phillips, and his fiancée, Autumn Kelly. The couple are due to tie the knot on 17 May.
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According to British paper The People, Queen Elizabeth II is the latest member of the Wii fanclub.

The report says that the system was a Christmas gift from Kate Middleton to her boyfriend Prince William, but after watching her grandson play, the monarch “begged to join in.”

“She played a simple ten-pin bowling game and by all accounts was a natural,” the paper states, presumably referring to (pack-in title) Wii Bowling.

While it’s not shocking that the Wii’s ability to captivate every member of the family would extend to the Royals, picturing Queen Elizabeth, the pinnacle of regal grace, flailing about with a Wiimote or cussing out William for getting a strike should almost definitely be the focus of Nintendo’s next ad campaign. (via Wired)

“One of the features of growing old is a heightened awareness of change. To remember what happened 50 years ago means that it is possible to appreciate what has changed in the meantime. It also makes you aware of what has remained constant.

In my experience, the positive value of a happy family is one of the factors of human existence that has not changed. The immediate family of grandparents, parents and children, together with their extended family, is still the core of a thriving community.

When Prince Philip and I celebrated our Diamond Wedding last month, we were much aware of the affection and support of our own family as they gathered round us for the occasion.

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In recognition of the Queen and Prince Philip’s 60th Wedding Anniversary, Channel Four last night aired the documentary “The Queen’s Wedding”. It told the story of how the young couple’s path to the alter was strewn with controversy and difficulties, and how, behind the scenes, there was political machination, public hostility and court intrigue.

The documentary focused on the three main protagonists in the romance: the young Princess Elizabeth, the dashing sailor, Philip, and his uncle, Lord Louie Mountbatten, the matchmaker who ensured their union was secure.

Using a rich array of visual material, including film archive, photographs and diary entries, the documentary showed how Philip’s suitability was called into question: his “Teutonic strain” and his “unlikeliness to remain faithful”. It also described the manoeuverings of the ambitious Lord Mountbatten, who was determined to remove any obstacles placed in the way of the young couple.

The documentary then focused on the public hostility that the young couple faced after announcing their engagement: that the regalia of a royal wedding was frivolous in a time of post-war austerity. However the British public eventually warmed to the idea, and huge crowds turned out for the royal wedding, which Winston Churchill described as a “bright ray of colour on the hard, grey road we have to travel”.

60 years later, it is obvious that their marriage has stood the test of time, and has helped keep the monarchy stable in these modern times.

Click here for another review of “The Queen’s Wedding”, via The Times Online.

A quick ‘heads-up’ for UK readers of BritishRoyalWedding.com..

Channel Four is broadcasting a program tonight at 21:00 titled “The Queen’s Wedding”.

This program tells the story of the then Princess Elizabeth’s young life, from the moment when her love life became a matter of dynastic and political importance.

The Queen and Prince Philip yesterday were given a warm welcome shortly after arriving Malta for a short private visit coinciding with their sixtieth wedding anniversary.

They stayed overnight at San Anton, where they will meet President and Mrs Fenech Adami and fly to Uganda today morning for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.

Hundreds flocked to Glormu Cassar Avenue in Floriana to applaud the royal couple on their way to the Upper Barrakka Gardens where they met Maltese couples who like them were married in 1947. Her Majesty also planted a tree near a plaque reading: “This tree was planted on the occasion of the diamond wedding anniversary of of Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.”

As Princess Elizabeth, the Queen lived in Malta from 1949 to 1951 while her husband was stationed on the island as a serving Royal Navy officer. After their marriage celebrations in 1947, the couple stayed with Prince Philip’s uncle, Earl Mountbatten, at Broadlands House, his home in Hampshire, before heading to Balmoral in Scotland for the rest of their honeymoon.

On Monday, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Right Rev Rowan Williams, said the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s 60 years of marriage reflected “the unqualified commitment” of the monarch’s reign. Williams paid tribute to “the sign offered to us by this marriage, and what it has meant to nation and Commonwealth over the decades.” (via Malta Today)

Love found a voice and spoke two names aloud -
two private names, though breezed through public air -
and joined them in a life where duty spoke
in languages their tenderness could share,

A life remote from ours because it asked
each day, each action to be kept in view,
and yet familiar in the trust it placed
in human hearts, in hearts remaining true.

The years stacked up and as their weight increased
they pressed the stone of time to diamond,
immortal-mortal in its brilliant strength,
a jewel of earth where lightnings correspond.

Now every facet holds a picture-glimpse;
In some, the family faces and the chance
for ordinary talk and what-comes-next;
in others, shows of pomp and circumstance.

And here, today, the diamond proves itself
as something of our own yet not our own -
a blaze of trust, the oneness made of two;
the ornament and lodestar of the crown.