P.plows, parties, ceremonies. From 6 February England celebrates the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Portrait of a stainless sovereign. That she is not alone as she appears … ‘she is a private, secret queen. Authentic and full of surprises. Behind the “Pomp and Pageantry”, the official ceremonial that marks the time at the Windsor court, and she will be the heart of the celebrations of the “Platinum Jubilee”, the Platinum Jubilee that the sovereign cuts on February 6th. Never before her in London had reached the milestone of 70 years on the throne.
Queen Elizabeth kicks off the Platinum Jubilee
Not even Queen Victoria, which Elizabeth overtook as early as 2015. And in fact, speaking of a private queen, Elizabeth II, 95, loves to keep Christmas decorations in the palace until the day in February when her father George VI died in 1952. Until that February 6 when the king passed away, while Princess Elizabeth, married to Filippo after the wedding in November 1947, was with him in Kenya. She cried, but upon returning to London, Churchill – her first “prime minister” – welcomed a young sovereign of only 25 years old, but already immersed in the “gravitas” of her new role.
An ironic and witty queen
From an early age, Churchill had caught in the small “Lilibet” a sense of authority. And he found it, strengthened, in the moment of trial: the succession on the throne of St. James. Authoritativeness that in private, however, is paired with a flash of irony. “The queen is also incredibly witty and ironic,” says the eighth Countess of Carnarvon, Lady Fiona, who married the son of Elizabeth II, Lord Porchester. Her Majesty she is godmother of the current count, the father was director of the stables of the queen and with few other people outside the Windsor circuit the sovereign has never been in such confidence.
AFP PHOTO / POOL / EDDIE MULHOLLAND (Photo by EDDIE MULHOLLAND / POOL / AFP) (Photo by EDDIE MULHOLLAND / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
I asked to Lady Fiona – in her Highclere Castle, in Newbury, in the English countryside, it’s easy to come across family photos with the Queen and Prince Charles – how Elizabeth never stopped. Not even after the death of Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. “She is a very Christian woman, with a deep faith and thereforeeven if I know well that not a single day goes by that she misses Filippo immensely, she goes on ».
Queen Elizabeth always with her “rock”, Prince Philip
When he celebrated the Diamond Jubilee in 2012 referred to Philip as “my constant strength and guide”, my constant guide and my strength. As for “reigning”, for her it is a life-long job. Irony, an impertinent flicker of the queen’s true character, surfaced years makes at a London exhibition of the artist Lucian Freud. When asked by the gallery owner: “Ma’am (this is how we should address the queen, ed), you too were painted by Freud, right?”, The queen replied with a glint in her eyes: “Yes, but not like that”, alluding to the naked poses of many models in the artist’s work. A queen who drives the car Always punctual, sharp. Also in the management of the institution.
It will be a Platinum Jubilee without Philip
For the super partes role of head of state, which he plays is impeccable. But, second Gyles Brandreth, who has long been close to the royal family, knows how to be “not politically correct”. Or rather, direct. Without hypocrisy. As in the end it was Filippo, who never had scruple even of lashing jokes. In the midst of the 2007-08 credit crunch in London, when the City, like Wall Street, was engulfed by the financial bubble, the Queen went to London School of Economics. To the lone economists he asked without too many words: «Is it possible that no one has noticedn time of what was happening (in the world of finance)? “.
June 3, 1977: Queen Elizabeth during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. (Photo by Graham Wiltshire / Getty Images)
Elizabeth II, a practical woman in everyday life
Words that refer to that “They speak but do not act” straight and burning like a whip that the queen gave of recent on the eve of Cop26 in Glasgow. Because like her husband Filippo, who passed away a year ago in April 2021 in full pandemic, Elisabetta is a practical woman in everyday life. He drives the car, and is still capable of even putting his hand to the engine in case of need, like a mechanic. It is a legacy of the war years, when he served in his army auxiliary uniform. The same uniform in which he appeared on the Buckingham balcony Palace on 8 May 1945 to celebrate with George VI, the queen mother and her sister Margaret, the end of the war.
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The daily ritual of Queen Elizabeth
And if you get in your car – like a few months ago for a ride in Windsor park, behind the wheel of his Jaguar, a scarf tied under his chin and sunglasses to protect his eyes – forgo the seat belt. She never took it. How she can’t stand the protective helmet when riding, now more and more rarely. But despite her age, no one has so far managed to convince her of the wisdom of a helmet instead of her elegant scarf. Her everyday life is so much simpler and more routine, how much fabulous and sparkling are the solemn rituals of the great royal celebrations on the Thames.
The awakening tray
Every morning at 8, he arrives at his room the “wake-up tray” with a steaming cup of Earl Gray tea, his favorite. The hot bath, breakfast with cereals stored in airtight containers like those used in all homes, toast, butter and jam. AND the routine of the famous “red boxes”, institutional correspondence. He loves to open the personal one by himself, which is marked by a number in the corner of the letter. And every morning he reviews, in addition to the many work papers, some of the thousands of letters he receives: over 60 thousand a yeareven 120 thousand in 2012 for the Diamond Jubilee, his sixty years of reign. Who knows how many will arrive at the palace for that of Platinum.
BACKGRID
Passion for sandwiches
At lunchtime she is essential, although she loves lamb, salmon and sole which remind her of the tête-à-tête of Philip’s courtship years when he took her to the Savoy in the Strand. When traveling, or at official dinners, red fruits are banned. The sovereign is greedy for them but they can ruin her smile with seeds, which are difficult to get rid of. And by the way, there’s never caviar on Elizabeth’s table – Philip loved it instead – because the queen doesn’t love it at all. While she likes to toast to champagne and English bubbles. In the afternoon, tea is a ritual. With a penchant for egg and watercress or cucumber sandwiches. And a slice of cake or a “scone”, a biscuit with clotted cream (clotted cream) and strawberry jam.
Queen Elizabeth during a garden party at Buckingham Palace. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow / PA Wire
A pastime of the queen with which he loves to entertain in the family are the imitations. Not so much about people, but about dialects. From that of Londoners born in the heart older than the capital, the Cockneys, to that of the various lands of his kingdom. Of course, today she is no longer the young woman cast in the role that was the subject of Lord Altrincham’s criticism in 1957.
The Lord caused a sensation by knocking the “Little girl’s voice” and following a cold ceremonial. “Only when you meet her in person do you understand what her secret is: she is capable of talking to anyone, I mean say from any social background, she is an extraordinary communicator “ points out Neville Tucker who started doing the Queen’s hair with Charles Martyn.
The day of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth (Kika)
The celebrations for the Platinum Jubilee from 6 February
And she is not a woman of encyclopedic culture, but scrupulous in carrying out her role for 70 years. So, if in private life she is simple with a flicker of irony, when she raises the curtain to perpetuate the sense of tradition, she is obsessive in attention to detail. An example? For the appearances on the balcony of Buckingham Palace she wants the “box of chocolates” effect: all the windows closed for a perfect choreography as a whole to the balcony dressed in red for the view of the royal family. While at Balmoral for the family picnics she always thought of her dishes: in rubber gloves, like any housewife.
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