The Streets of London are currently full of glitz and glamour owing to the elating reactions, expectations, and massive turnout of people in celebration of her Queen.
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926) is Queen of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms.
The Platinum Jubilee celebrates something that has never happened before. No British monarch has ever reigned for 70 years – it’s a remarkable length of time on the throne.
To put it in perspective, the Queen’s reign is already longer than the reigns of her four predecessors put together. Her time as monarch has stretched over multiple eras, across 14 different UK prime ministers and 14 US presidents.
Older readers might be scratching their heads finding it hard to believe it’s 45 years since the Silver Jubilee.
The nearest comparison in the length of reign is Queen Victoria’s 63 years, and in international terms, the Queen isn’t far behind the 72 years of the Sun King of France, Louis XIV.
Reaching the age of 96 is also unprecedented for a British monarch. The Queen is one of about 138,000 people in the UK over the age of 95, the great majority of them women.
Apart from Elizabeth II, only two other monarchs lived into their eighties – Victoria and George III. No previous British monarch has reigned in their nineties.
Happy and glorious they are. Hundreds of thousands of Britons are already lining the streets of London to kickstart four days of partying fit for a Queen.
The Platinum Jubilee celebration for the 96-year-old monarch begins at 10 am on Thursday (7 pm AEST) with the traditional Trooping of Colour, which has marked the official birthday of the British Sovereign for more than 260 years.
While it is a celebration of the institution, the people came for a glimpse of their beloved Queen, who has endured a torrid for 18 months. She lost her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, last year while later battling with COVID-19 and combating physical frailty which has on some days rendered her immobile.
Approximately 1500 soldiers, 240 horses, and 400 musicians are parading from Buckingham Palace and down The Mall to Horse Guard’s Parade, alongside members of the royals on horseback and in carriages.
The Queen – who used to attend on horseback herself, but recently has traveled by carriage – will be obliged to watch from the palace balcony as Prince Charles, Colonel of the Welsh Guards, takes the customary salute at Horse Guards Parade.
He will inspect the troops in their scarlet red tunics – designed by the Duke of Wellington to create an optical illusion of their numbers and fool the enemy – from his position on the parade ground where the Queen’s dais would have traditionally been placed.
Wearing his Irish Guards tunic and bearskin, Prince William will ride alongside him on a horse called George, the same name as his eldest son. Anne, Princess Royal, joins them.
Thursday marks not only the start of the Jubilee but also the 69th anniversary of the coronation of Elizabeth, who became queen on the death of her father George VI in February 1952.
Earlier, the Queen thanked all those involved in her Platinum Jubilee celebrations ahead of the long holiday weekend of pomp, parties, parades and public holidays to herald her record-breaking 70 years on the British throne.
“Thank you to everyone who has been involved in convening communities, families, neighbours, and friends to mark my Platinum Jubilee, in the United Kingdom and across the Commonwealth,” Elizabeth said in a statement.
“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.”
Having flown in from the United States, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan made their public return to Britain, but they will be watching from a window as non-working members of the family. It is the first time the pair had seen their wider family since they left for a new life in California in 2020.
The Sussexes and their two children will view the parade alongside the monarch’s other grandchildren and great-grandchildren from the Major General’s Office overlooking Horse Guards Parade.
Prince Andrew, 62, who settled a US lawsuit in February in which he was accused of sexually abusing a woman when she was underage, is not expected to attend the day’s festivities.
The Queen will take a salute from the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the first time in her 70 years of the event, in a compromise that spared her a long shift on a dais for the long ceremony and ensured her participation in the occasion.
The military parade, which officially opened the Jubilee celebrations, will conclude with the Queen, alongside the next three kings – Charles, William and his son George – and their families, watching the fly-past of aircraft by the Royal Air Force from the balcony. A 41-gun salute will be fired in nearby Green Park to mark the occasion, followed by a thundering 142-gun salute from the Tower of London, while noon-time cannon will be fired in her honour across Britain and from Royal Navy ships at sea.
In the evening (Friday morning AEST), beacons will be lit across the country and the Commonwealth, with the queen leading the lighting of the Principal Platinum Jubilee Beacon at her Windsor Castle home.
Across Australia, royal purple illumination will this weekend light up landmark buildings, including Parliament House in Canberra, the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
On Friday, Harry and Meghan will join the other royals – but not the Queen – at a thanksgiving service at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, while on Saturday royal family members will attend the Epsom Derby horse race.
Later, there will be a concert outside Buckingham Palace, featuring the likes of Queen, Alicia Keys, and Diana Ross.
On Sunday, officials estimate more than 16,000 street parties will take place in Britain, and the British government says some 600 “Big Jubilee Lunches” will be held in 80 countries from Greenland to New Zealand.
Celebrations will conclude with a pageant through the British capital.
“The queen is what is great in Great Britain,” said Mary-Jane Willows, 69, from Cornwall, southwest England, who was camping out on the Mall boulevard, leading to Buckingham Palace, where lamp posts are bedecked in Union flags.
“Without the queen, Britain would be Britain, but she makes it great. She stands for everything that I am proud of.”
