prince harry nazi costume - Stung by royal break-ups, relentless sniping over her tax-free status and a fire at Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth II famously dubbed 1992 her annus horribilis, or horrible year. Two decades later, the world’s highest profile monarch finds herself basking in the glow of something wholly different: an annus mirabilis.
One. Marvelous. Year. Commemorating her 60th year on the throne, the queen’s “diamond jubilee” is drawing an estimated one million people to London for a four-day fete starting Saturday that, in terms of sheer pageantry, will dwarf last year’s nuptials of her grandson Prince William and his now-famous bride, Catherine.
Aboard a royal barge, the monarch will lead a 1,000-vessel flotilla down the Thames in a majestic scene inspired by a Canaletto painting. A network of 2,012 beacons will be lit in her honor from the Scottish Highlands to the Channel Islands. Paul McCartney and Elton John will serenade her at a glittering concert outside Buckingham Palace.
Yet the queen is observing more than a milestone that puts her just three years shy of becoming Britain’s longest reigning monarch.
At a time when the missteps of King Juan Carlos has Spain seriously rethinking the wisdom of monarchy, she is also symbolically marking the revival of a British royal house that has defied the odds by bringing a nation — and a world — back under its spell.
One. Marvelous. Year. Commemorating her 60th year on the throne, the queen’s “diamond jubilee” is drawing an estimated one million people to London for a four-day fete starting Saturday that, in terms of sheer pageantry, will dwarf last year’s nuptials of her grandson Prince William and his now-famous bride, Catherine.
Aboard a royal barge, the monarch will lead a 1,000-vessel flotilla down the Thames in a majestic scene inspired by a Canaletto painting. A network of 2,012 beacons will be lit in her honor from the Scottish Highlands to the Channel Islands. Paul McCartney and Elton John will serenade her at a glittering concert outside Buckingham Palace.
Yet the queen is observing more than a milestone that puts her just three years shy of becoming Britain’s longest reigning monarch.
At a time when the missteps of King Juan Carlos has Spain seriously rethinking the wisdom of monarchy, she is also symbolically marking the revival of a British royal house that has defied the odds by bringing a nation — and a world — back under its spell.