Britain kicks off jubilee to honor Queen Elizabeth II
Monarch, 96, to sit out Friday’s service due to ‘discomfort’
LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II stepped gingerly onto the Buckingham Palace balcony Thursday, drawing wild cheers from tens of thousands who came to join her at the start of four days of celebrations of her 70 years on the throne.
Her fans sported Union Jack flags, party hats or plastic tiaras. Some had camped overnight in hopes of glimpsing of 96-year-old queen, whose appearances are becoming rare, and a chance to watch Trooping the Color — a military parade that has marked each sovereign’s official birthday since 1760.
It was an explosion of joy in the massive crowd, one of the first big gatherings in the U.K. since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“Everybody has got the same mission,” said Hillary Mathews, 70, of Hertfordshire, near London. “All the horrors that’s been going on in the world and in England at the moment are put behind us for a day, and we can just enjoy really celebrating the queen.”
Elizabeth, who became queen at 25, is Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and the first to reach seven decades on the throne.
Yet after a lifetime of good health, age has begun to catch up with her. Buckingham Palace announced late Thursday that the queen would not attend a thanksgiving service Friday at St. Paul’s Cathedral after experiencing “some discomfort” Thursday.
Elizabeth took part Thursday night in lighting a chain of ceremonial beacons at Windsor Castle as planned.
The palace says “the queen greatly enjoyed” Thursday’s events — and it showed.
She basked in her moment. Smiling, she chatted with her great-grandson Prince Louis, 4, who occasionally covered his ears as 70 military aircraft old and new swooped low over the palace to salute the queen. The six-minute display included a formation of Typhoon fighter jets flying in the shape of the number 70.
The queen, wearing a dusky dove blue dress, was joined on the balcony by more than a dozen royals — though not Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, who gave up frontline royal duties two years ago. The couple traveled to London from California with their two young children to take a low-key part in the celebrations, and watched Thursday’s Trooping of the Color with other members of the family.
They did not appear on the palace balcony, because the monarch decided that only working members of the royal family should have that honor. The decision also excluded Prince Andrew, who stepped away from public duties amid controversy over his links with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The jubilee is being commemorated with a four-day holiday extravaganza and events including a concert at Buckingham Palace on Saturday and a pageant staged by thousands of performers from schools and community groups around the country on Sunday. Thousands of street parties are planned nationwide, repeating a tradition that began with the queen’s coronation in June 1953.
In a written jubilee message, the queen thanked people in Britain and across the Commonwealth involved in organizing the
celebrations.
“I know that many happy memories will be created at these festive occasions,” Elizabeth said. “I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70 years, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm.”
Congratulations arrived from world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Pope Francis. French President Emmanuel
Macron called Elizabeth “the golden thread that binds our two countries” and former U.S. President Barack Obama recalled the queen’s “grace and generosity” during his first visit to the palace.
Cheers and the clop of hooves rang out Thursday as horse-drawn carriages carried members of the royal family, including Prince William’s wife, Kate, and their children Prince George, 8, Princess Charlotte, 7, and Prince Louis, from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade, a
ceremonial parade ground about a half-mile away, for the ceremony.
Prince Charles, the 73-year-old heir to the throne, played a key role Thursday as he stood in for his mother — as he has more and more of late.
Clad in his ceremonial military uniform, Charles rode onto the parade ground on horseback and took the salute of the passing troops in their scarlet tunics and bearskin hats. He was flanked by his sister, Princess Anne, and oldest son, Prince William.