Her Majesty the Queen has decided against attending today’s National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, after experiencing “some discomfort” during Thursday’s birthday parade and flypast.
More than a momentary blip in Her Majesty’s schedule, says royal expert Daniela Elser, missing this significant Platinum Jubilee event is a turning point that marks the beginning of the end of her public life.
Video footage from Windsor Castle of the moment when Her Majesty lit the first of the 3,500 Platinum Jubilee beacons shows that she was none too steady on her feet.
It seems to have been that unsteadiness that prompted yesterday's announcement from the Palace.
An official statement read: “Taking into account the journey and activity required to participate in tomorrow’s National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, Her Majesty with great reluctance has concluded that she will not attend.”
Ms Elser, writing in News,com.au, says the service is “is not something she would willingly skip or a choice she would have made lightly.
“Whether we see the Queen again during the Jubilee remains to be seen," she adds, “but clearly this celebration is the beginning of the end of her public life”.
Her Majesty has skipped more than one “unmissable” public occasion since she unexpectedly pulled out of last year’s Remembrance Sunday service after suffering a back injury.
In what has been described as a “slow motion abdication” the Queen didn’t attend this years’s state opening of parliament – arguably her most important ceremonial performance in the calendar year. Instead her duties were undertaken by Prince Charles.
This is likely to set the trend for the remainder of her reign. “Her spirit is clearly as strong as ever; her flesh, not so,” says Ms Elser.
The Queen admitted that her bout of Covid-19 in February left her “tired and exhausted” and the Prince of Wales finds himself moving closer and closer to the status of regent.
Dr Ed Owens, an historian of modern monarchy and the mass media, told The Guardian that “we can expect to see more and more of Prince Charles and less and less of the Queen, as one reign steadily draws to a close and a new reign begins.”
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