British Parliament’s clock tower renamed in honour of Queen Elizabeth II

In a ceremony at its foot yesterday, the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster, which is home to the British Houses of Parliament, was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in honour of Queen Elizabeth II. The decision to rename the tower, popularly but incorrectly known as “Big Ben” (which is actually the name only of the main bell), was taken earlier this year in connection with the celebrations of Queen Elizabeth’s diamond jubilee. Thus the two main towers of the Palace of Westminster are now named, respectively, the Elizabeth Tower and the Victoria Tower, commemorating the two British monarchs who have reigned for more than sixty years.

Monarchs of the world gather in Britain

As part of her diamond jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain hosted a lunch at Windsor Castle which saw a very impressive line-up of her fellow monarchs - indeed no fewer than eighteen of the world’s thirty monarchs were present. In addition, several lesser ranking royals represented some of those monarchs who were not present for the lunch and the British Queen had also invited some long-deposed monarchs, who were, rather bizzarely, included, and even given pride of place, in the official photo of the assembled monarchs.
The existing European monarchies were represented by the Queen and Prince Consort of Denmark, the King and Queen of Sweden, the Queen of the Netherlands, the Sovereign Prince of Liechtenstein, the King and Queen of Norway, the King and Queen of the Belgians, the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, and the Sovereign Prince and Princess of Monaco. The King of Spain was absent due to his recovery following his recent hunting accident, while the Queen of Spain, who had been due to attend, stayed away because of disagreements over Gibraltar. The monarchs of the Principality of Andorra and the Vatican were not present.
From the Middle East came the King of Bahrain and his wife Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, whose presence has been the cause of much controversy, the King and Queen of Jordan, Sheikh Nasser Mohamed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait, the Emir of Qatar and his wife Sheikha Mozah, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Prince Mohammed Bin Nawaf Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia.
All three African monarchies were represented; Morocco by Princess Meryem, Lesotho by King Letsie III and Queen Masenate, and Swaziland by King Mswati III and the third of his thirteen wives, Inkhosikati LaMbikiza. From Asia came the Emperor and Empress of Japan, the Sultan of Brunei and his senior wife Queen Saleha, the King and Queen of Malaysia and the Crown Prince and Princess Srirasm of Thailand. Tonga, the only monarchy of Oceania which does not have Elizabeth II as its monarch, was represented by its new King, Tupou VI, and Queen Nanasipauʻu.
The ex-kings of Bulgaria, Greece and Romania were also in attendance, the former two accompanied by their wives, the latter by his daughter Margarita. The ex-Crown Prince of Yugoslavia/Serbia and his wife were also present.
Apart from Queen Elizabeth herself, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Henry, the Duke of York, Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, Prince and Princess Michael, and Princess Alexandra were the British royals present, which gives a total of 62 royals attending.
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, as well as the Princess Royal, were absent due to other commitments, but the Prince of Wales and his wife will tonight host a dinner at Buckingham Palace, at which Queen Elizabeth herself will not be present. Tomorrow Lady Elizabeth Anson, a great-niece of the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother of Britain and stepdaughter of the late Prince Georg of Denmark, will host another lunch, where the monarchs and their representatives will be joined by several junior royals and relatives not present today.

British royals start Scandinavian tour in Oslo

Today the Prince of Wales (Prince Charles of Britain) and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, arrived in Oslo on the first leg of their tour of the three northern kingdoms on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee.
The British royals were received at Oslo Airport Gardermoen by their Norwegian counterparts, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, but will be hosted at the Royal Palace by the King and Queen.
The first stop in Oslo was Akershus Fortress, where the King and the Prince of Wales inspected a company of His Majesty the King’s Guard and Prince Charles laid a wreath at the National Monument. With an eye for detail the Prince of Wales wore a lapel pin which indicates that he has been awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of St Olav (by King Olav in 1978).
The heir to the British throne subsequently had a meeting with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at the Prime Minister’s residence before the King and Queen accompanied their guests to the Nobel Peace Centre, where they met representatives of youth organisations and survivors of the terrorist attack directed at the Labour Party’s youth movement last summer.
Tonight the King and Queen are hosting a banquet at the Royal Palace in honour of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, where the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, Princess Märtha Louise and Princess Astrid will also be present.
Tomorrow the royals will carry out engagements in Bergen, Norway’s second largest city, but on Thursday they will be back in Oslo, where their final stop will be the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design and the exhibition of treasures from the Royal Collection which opened a month ago and has been an immense success which has already attracted more than 15,000 visitors.
On Thursday afternoon the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will depart for Stockholm before rounding off their Scandinavian tour in Denmark during the weekend.
Back in London today Queen Elizabeth herself addressed a joint session of both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall as part of the diamond jubilee celebrations.

On this date: Diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain

In the early hours of today, sixty years had passed since King George VI of Britain died in his sleep at Sandringham House in Norfolk, leaving the thrones of Britain and a number of other countries to his then 25-year-old daughter. Thus Queen Elizabeth II today marks her sixty years as monarch, although the main celebrations will take place in early June.
However, to mark accession day Buckingham Palace today released the following message from Queen Elizabeth:

Today, as I mark 60 years as your Queen, I am writing to thank you for the wonderful support and encouragement that you have given to me and Prince Philip over these years and to tell you how deeply moved we have been to receive so many kind messages about the Diamond Jubilee.

In this special year, as I dedicate myself anew to your service, I hope we will all be reminded of the power of togetherness and the convening strength of family, friendship and good neighbourliness, examples of which I have been fortunate to see throughout my reign and which my family and I look forward to seeing in many forms as we travel throughout the United Kingdom and the wider Commonwealth.

I hope also that this Jubilee year will be a time to give thanks for the great advances that have been made since 1952 and to look forward to the future with clear head and warm heart as we join together in our celebrations.

I send my sincere good wishes to you all.

ELIZABETH R

To mark the occasion the British court has also released the two official photos seen above, taken at Buckingham Palace in December by John Swannell. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh do not perhaps look exactly thrilled to be there, but the choice of background for the photo of Queen Elizabeth is interesting as one sees the monument to her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, the only other British monarch to reach her diamond jubilee on the throne.
On the occasion of the jubilee an official diamond jubilee website was also launched today: http://www.thediamondjubilee.org/ (external link).

New books: The iconography of Elizabeth II

The diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain is approaching and to mark the occasion the National Portrait Gallery is, as previously mentioned, holding a travelling exhibition titled “The Queen: Art & Image”. Having already been shown in Edinburgh, it is now in Belfast and will go to Cardiff before ending up in London from 17 May to 21 October.
David Moorhouse, the NPG’s curator of twentieth century portraits, has put together the catalogue of the same name, which begins with an essay of historical reflections on the reign of Elizabeth II by the renowned historian Sir David Cannadine. The story of Britain and the British monarchy in the days of Elizabeth II is in many ways the story of recessional, Professor Cannadine argues.
It is also a story of great change, and he points out that Britain and its “imperial-ornamental” monarchy as they were at the outset of Elizabeth II’s reign might have been fairly easily recognisable to the old Queen Victoria. The “most pronounced themes” of Elizabeth II’s sixty years are “the de-Victorianisation and the downsizing of Britain and its empire, and also of the British monarchy”.
Cannadine also touches upon how the image of Queen Elizabeth, “probably the most visually depicted and represented individual ever to have existed across the entire span of human history”, has evolved and how the way the constitutional monarchy has developed makes it “in many ways a feminised monarchy”, which again “makes it easier for a regnant queen to be sympathetically portrayed than a mere dignified king”.
But the image and perception of the Queen is mostly dealt with by Paul Moorhouse in the book’s second essay. Moorhouse argues that the sixty years of Elizabeth II’s reign has seen “a revolution in the way the Queen is represented and perceived”. He divides these sixty years into three eras:
The period from 1952 to the mid-1960s “reflects a concern with the young Queen’s appearance”; the era from the late 1960s to the early 1980s “demonstrates a new concern with reinventing the sovereign’s public image”; while era consisting of the last thirty years “manifests and ongoing engagement with the questions of what the Queen represents”.
The first era saw a certain interest in the new monarch’s youth, beauty and glamour, but as public interest faded and the early “sense of glamour” was “replaced by something more dependable” one had to find new ways. That way was not to project “an image of special status”, but to make the Queen seem more down-to-earth. Moorhouse pins this down to 1968-1969, when “[s]tiff formality was replaced with a renewed emphasis on the Queen’s qualities as a human being”. This led to the groundbreaking 1969 television documentary on the royal family, which has subsequently been criticised for making the royals appear too ordinary and breaking down the barriers between public and private life.
One of the most interesting aspects of the catalogue is that it does not focus on painted portraits alone, but on a diverse range of media. Another new book on Queen Elizabeth states that she has sat for more than 140 portraits, but obviously press photographs have been more influential in shaping the public conception of Elizabeth II than have painted portraits. And then there are other media, such as formal photographs, video/television and the portraits which she has not sat for. The only art form missing from the catalogue is sculpture, with no explanation given for this.
With such a wide range of images to choose from the curator has probably had to make some tough choices. But the final selection is interesting and represents a cross-section of images of Elizabeth II through sixty years. Viewing them together furthermore makes apparent the connections across art form and time, for instance how Pietro Annigoni’s painting from 1954-1955 is obviously related to a formal Cecil Beaton photograph from 1968 and how Annigoni’s portrait and a second one done in 1969 “meet” in Annie Leibovitz’s 2007 photo.
Having read the catalogue with interest I look forward to seeing the exhibition.

British diamond jubilee to be celebrated on 2-5 June 2012

Today, on the anniversary of her coronation, Buckingham Palace has announced the plans for the celebrations of the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Although she succeeded to the British throne on 6 February 1952, the celebrations will - as usual for such events - take place in early summer, i.e. from 2 to 5 June 2012.
Among the highlights of the celebrations will be a “Diamond Jubilee Pageant” on the Thames on Sunday 3 June, in which Queen Elizabeth will travel down the Thames in the Royal Barge at the head of a flotilla. The following day there will be a BBC concert at Buckingham Palace and on Tuesday 5 June there will be a carriage procession to St Paul’s Cathedral, where a service of thanksgiving will take place.

NPG to mark diamond jubilee with exhibition

With Queen Elizabeth II of Britain due to mark the 59th anniversary of her accession to the throne in a few weeks, plans for the diamond jubilee next year are beginning to take shape. Among the more interesting events will be the exhibition “The Queen: Art and Image” (external link), featuring sixty different portraits of the monarch.
The exhibition will be shown at the National Gallery Complex in Edinburgh from 25 June to 18 September this year, at the Ulster Museum in Belfast from 14 October 2011 to 15 January 2012, at the National Museum in Cardiff from 4 February to 29 April 2012 and at the National Portrait Gallery in London from 17 May to 21 October 2012.

Plans for British Diamond Jubilee in 2012

Today's Times has a short article about plans being made for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, which will be celebrated in the summer of 2012:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6078532.ece