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LONDON – Prince Charles, Britain’s longest-awaited king, received a moment in the spotlight on Tuesday, replacing his mother at parliament’s inauguration.
While presiding over the House of Lords for the first time, it was possible to see what he might be like as a king one day.
But by the time Charles, 73, read the Queen’s speech on behalf of his mother, it was also clear that the day had not yet come.
Dressed in full royal regalia, Charles arrived in a Rolls-Royce and passed through the entrance to the Sovereign. But he did not sit on the exquisitely carved and gilded throne of the sovereign. Instead, he uses the Consort’s Throne, which is similar but one inch shorter.
After Charles delivered the speech – actually written by the government, outlining his priorities for the year – the phrase “my government” had to be changed to “Her Majesty’s government” to be repeated over and over again.
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas noted that the speech briefly touched on the prince’s main issue.
“I wonder how Prince Charles felt when he read #QueensSpeech with a big zero for the environment,” she wrote on Twitter. “It is very disappointing to see that the nature bill has been repealed. Has the government forgotten that there is an emergency situation in the field of biodiversity? It’s a pity he couldn’t improvise a little. “
The presence of Charles and his eldest son, Prince William, in the House of Lords was a striking visual symbol of the ongoing transition to power. The 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II reduced her activities and gradually delegated more responsibilities to Charles and other high-ranking royalty.
But it seems that the queen has no intention of resigning voluntarily. The special powers she gave to allow Charles to open parliament were one-off, not permanent, arrangements.
In fact, the rise of video conferencing has allowed the Queen to stay engaged, even when pandemics and personal health issues interfere with personal commitments.
“Pandemic or no pandemic, this is the way the Queen will act as monarch in the coming years,” said Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty Magazine.
Buckingham Palace cited “mobility problems” as the reason Elizabeth missed the state opening of parliament for the first time in nearly six decades.
The Queen has already missed several major events in the Royal Diary, including services for British Community Day and Remembrance Day. Last week, the palace announced that it would also miss the garden party season. And there are questions about how many of her own platinum anniversary celebrations she will be able to attend next month.
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But the work from a distance seems to suit the queen well.
Like many Londoners, Elizabeth fled to the countryside during the pandemic, moving her home base from Buckingham Palace in London to Windsor Castle, 22 miles west. And she doesn’t seem inclined to return to city life.
From Windsor, she continues to meet virtually with ambassadors, admirals and various other high-ranking officials.
On Monday, she held a video interview with the Governor-General of Australia. On Wednesday, she is scheduled to speak again via video with her secret council advisory group. She will also have her weekly telephone conversation with Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“Compromises will be made and these Zoom calls are part of them,” Little said. “The Queen will not want to disappear from view the way Queen Victoria did in her later years, and this is the Queen’s way of remaining visible.”
A video from the summer of 2020 shows the Queen’s daughter, Princess Anne, talking to her mother through an early call to Zoom.
“Do you see everyone?” You have to have six people on your screen, “said Anne.
“Well, I see four anyway,” Elizabeth replied.
NEW: A first look behind the scenes of these royal video chats 💻 See how Princess Anne tried to teach her elderly mother about @zoom_us. But her elderly mother is, you know, the queen.🎥 Great video from tomorrow’s documentary “Anne: The Royal Princess at 70” on @itv 21:00 👇 pic.twitter.com/duHzozH2x5
– Chris Schip (@chrisshipitv) July 28, 2020
Although Elizabeth attends fewer personal events, Zoom’s unsigned videos released by the palace give the impression that the British still see a lot of her.
Speaking to a former patient with covid-19 during a virtual visit to the hospital, the famous Stoic queen admitted: “It really leaves a person very tired and exhausted, right?”
While video chats may not offer a new picture of the queen’s personality, they may confirm people’s suspicions about her: that she is direct, polite and has a bad sense of humor.
In a virtual event marking British Science Week 2021, Elizabeth was asked by experts to talk about a meeting with Yuri Gagarin, the first man to travel into space in 1961. Asked who he was, the queen said: “Russian” , prompting giggles from others.
“He didn’t speak English,” she continued. “It was fascinating, and I guess I was the first, it was especially fascinating.” She joked that one of the most important things about space travel is “coming back.”
When she presented the poet David Constantine with a gold medal for poetry, she asked him about the medal: “Do you put it in a cupboard?”
Little from Majesty Magazine noted that the Queen has always had such exchanges. It’s just that if you weren’t in the long queue waiting to get your own medal, you wouldn’t hear them.
Given all the technological advances, some wondered why the Queen simply did not record Tuesday’s speech from the comfort of her home in Windsor, avoiding all the pomp that comes with the state opening of Parliament.
But royal experts have said so, the show mattered huge.
“This is part of the mystique of the monarchy,” said Victoria Howard, a royal expert and founder of Crown Chronicles. She told the BBC: “If it weren’t, it would be a belittling of the ceremony, and we are very pompous in the UK.”
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