by Enrica Roddolo
Only in 2020 had it not arrived at Ascot due to the pandemic. The Platinum Jubilee Awards presented by the Duke of Kent. The historian Vickers to Corriere: “He is the first cousin he trusts”
For the first time in her long record reign – 70 years – Queen Elizabeth did not attend Royal Ascot. The big social event of the season – the season of events across the Channel – with horse racing, with the Dukes of Cambridge, William and Kate, Princesses Royal Anna and Zara and nearly all the Windsors marching through the five days of competition. Carlo and Camilla had given the go-ahead. Reluctantly – we can bet on it – the Queen has therefore once again given up attending one of the moments that have shaped her annual agenda across the kingdom.
It confirms that the mobility issues that are causing concern for the sovereign’s health persist. “Mentally she’s fine, nothing escapes her, but as she ages there are physical issues, knee issues, hip issues… it’s normal as we get older,” confirmed Lord Carnarvon, who has always been a friend of the Queen’s family, to Corriere della sera. . Ascot, on the other hand, is a date dear to the Sovereign’s heart – she had only missed the 2020 races because of a pandemic behind closed doors. Elisabetta has been a great lover of racing and horses since she was given her first pony by her grandfather King George V when she was young.
It must be said that even in the UK there have been days of very high temperatures which may have discouraged the fatigue of the already frail sovereign who was last photographed in official attire with the aid of a cane alongside Carlo and Camilla on the Order of the Garter Ceremony a week ago in Windsor.
A decline, that of Ascot, following that at the Epsom Derby races, which he should have attended halfway through the Platinum Jubilee long weekend in June. And after the waiver – speaking of anniversary celebrations – also at the fair in St. Paul, which after two years brought all the Windsors (including Harry and Meghan) together. Right from the pulpit of St. Paul’s, the homily had made explicit reference to the Queen’s passion for the world of horses: “We are happy and we thank the Queen for always being in the saddle,” said Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, “And We Know How Much You Love Horse Racing ». The Queen then watched Mass at St. Paul as she does Ascot today on television.
At the end of Royal Ascot, to cast and lead the royal Landò in place of His Majesty, then to lead the royal carriage procession, once again the most trusted Duke of Kent. Flanked by Princess Beatrice of York and her husband Edoardo Mapelli, Mozzi married in full pandemic two years ago in the summer (the last royal wedding “blessed” by Prince Philip before his death in April 2021). Once again it was the turn of Kent’s most trusted Duke, who had already appeared alongside Elizabeth on the balcony of Buckingham Palace at the Trooping the Color which opened the Platinum Jubilee weekend on June 2nd.
Why the Duke of Kent? “He is the Queen’s first cousin, one of Her Majesty’s closest confidants,” replies British historian Hugo Vickers, who has always been very close to the royal family, to Corriere. The Queen relies heavily on him, who has worked for the family for 70 years: at the age of twenty he had to enter the “service” of the royal family because there were not many members of the royal family to fulfill the obligations at the time. When the king died, he attended the funeral, then the coronation, and has worked in the system ever since, without competing with the queen. How it should be”.
So was it the Duke of Kent’s turn to lead the procession of the royal carriage today, Mr Vickers? “That’s right, and he presented the Queen with the awards for the Platinum Jubilee race – replies Vickers, who knows the Duke of Kent well, to whom he dedicated the biographers of A Royal Life -. The Duke was studying at Rosay in Switzerland when he was called back to London and since then he has devoted his life to the service of the Queen ». And the queen, how is she really? “He remembers everything, and to say that he is 96 years old. But nothing escapes her, she has an amazing memory. And she is a generous, kind woman. Then there are better days like the opening of the Elizabeth Line and bad days for health ».
June 18, 2022 (change June 18, 2022 | 22:29)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED