Queen too ill to attend church service
Print Edition
BRITAIN’S Queen Elizabeth missed a New Year’s Day church service due to a heavy cold, Buckingham Palace said, a week after the 90-year-old missed a Christmas Day service for the first time in decades.
The world’s longest-reigning monarch, who became unwell before Christmas, stayed indoors at her Sandringham country estate in Norfolk, while other members of the royal family attended the service at a local church.
“The queen does not yet feel ready to attend church as she is still recuperating from a heavy cold,” the palace said in a statement.
Both the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, 95, were suffering from heavy colds in the week leading up to Christmas and delayed their journey from London to Sandringham by a day, traveling there by helicopter on December 22.
Prince Philip attended both the Christmas and New Year services. Yesterday, he arrived by car before walking into the parish church of St Mary Magdalene, but the queen, symbolic head of the Church of England, was absent.
A few dozen parishioners and a crowd of photographers had gathered outside the church in the rain and cold as other members of the royal family arrived.
Princess Anne and Prince Edward were among those who attended.
Until yesterday, the queen had attended the Christmas service at the church every year since the royal family started celebrating Christmas at Sandringham in 1988.
After more than six decades on the throne, she has cut back on international tours but still regularly performs official duties around Britain. The palace announced on December 20 that she would step down as patron of several charities and other organizations to reduce her workload.
While her father, King George VI, died at the relatively young age of 56, her mother, known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, lived until 101 and was still appearing in public almost up until her death in 2002.
Queen Elizabeth II became queen on February 6, 1952, aged just 25.
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