A family affair for the Queen’s platinum party
In their record-breaking lifetime of service, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh will no doubt have lost count of the toasts raised to their achievements, health and happiness.
Surely none, though, will mean more than seeing their children, grandchildren and closest friends raise a glass to them on Monday evening, in celebration of 70 years of marriage.
It is a milestone no other monarch has achieved, and another landmark for the Queen, who is already our longest-reigning monarch at 65 years, and the longest-lived at 91. The Duke became the longest-serving consort in 2009.
They are already comfortably the longest-wed royal couple, surpassing George III and Queen Charlotte by 13 years, and they will join 1,260 other couples in celebrating a platinum anniversary this year – the rest will receive a congratulatory card from Buckingham Palace. The Queen is understood to have been keen to eschew a lavish public spectacle. Although the bells of Westminster Abbey will ring in celebration, she and the Duke will hold a private dinner party at Windsor Castle, with messages of congratulation passed in person rather than in front of the crowds. The state apartments will be closed for the day.
The guest list will include the Prince of Wales, who returns from a visit to the Caribbean on Monday morning, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. Each of the Queen and Duke’s other children and their spouses are expected to attend, along with grandchildren and great-grandchildren old enough to stay up.
The evening will mark 20 years since the Queen’s most famous public tribute to her husband, in a speech for their golden wedding in which she called him “quite simply... my strength and stay all these years”.