Britain celebrated the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II yesterday with tributes to a popular monarch who has steered it through the decline of an empire and a wave of scandals to the Internet age.
The sovereign, who has been on the throne since 1953, emerged from Windsor Castle dressed in a lime green outfit and matching hat to accept presents and flowers from hundreds of well-wishers.
British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed her as “a rock of strength for our nation,” while her son and heir, Prince Charles, marked the occasion by reading Shakespeare in a special broadcast on BBC radio.
Photo: AFP
Later on, the monarch, who last year overtook her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria to become Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, was to host a family dinner to celebrate.
She was also to light a beacon, the first in a chain of 1,000 that was to be lit across the country and around the world, symbolizing the length of her life and her reign.
In an address to the House of Commons to mark the occasion, Cameron said the queen had been “steadfast, a rock of strength for our nation, for our Commonwealth and on many occasions for the whole world.”
He said Britain was “uniquely blessed” to have her and praised the queen’s “unshakeable sense of duty,” while noting she was now “starting to take things a little easier.”
While still an active monarch, the queen has scaled back her duties in recent years as Prince Charles and grandson Prince William and his wife, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate take a more prominent role.
The royals remain popular, but some analysts question what will happen when the queen — who is in good health, enjoying regular rides on her favorite pony and walking her corgis — reaches the end of her life.
In an editorial, the Times newspaper praised her as “a symbol of continuity and the best embodiment we have of a complex national identity.”
However, it warned that the monarchy “will not long retain its popularity” if Charles, who often writes to ministers about issues close to his heart like the environment, is seen to breach constitutional convention by interfering in politics as king.
To mark the queen’s birthday, there were two military gun salutes at London’s Hyde Park and the Tower of London, and parliament was to be lit up in the red, white and blue of the British flag. Buckingham Palace also released new official pictures of the queen taken by US celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.
They were shot at Windsor Castle, where she is to host US President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama today.
In one photograph, the monarch is pictured with four of her beloved dogs outside the mediaeval castle west of London, and in another she is surrounded by some of the youngest members of her family, including a great-granddaughter clutching one of the queen’s trademark handbags.
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