UK Queen goes low key for reign record
Print Edition
Queen Elizabeth II is planning to keep things at a low key tomorrow when she will overtake Queen Victoria as Britain鈥檚 longest-serving monarch, despite public interest in the historic date.
The queen will ride on a steam train in Scotland to inaugurate a new railway line and will host a dinner at Balmoral Castle with her grandson Prince William and his wife Kate in attendance.
According to calculations by royal officials, at around 16:30 GMT Elizabeth will beat her great-great grandmother Victoria鈥檚 time on the throne: a total of 63 years, seven months and two days which she served between 1837 and 1901.
The exact hour has been difficult to determine because the exact start of her reign 鈥 the moment when her father George VI passed away 鈥 is difficult to work out as the king died at night in his sleep.
The 89-year-old Elizabeth, also the world鈥檚 oldest monarch, had originally not planned anything special for the day itself but reportedly agreed to a public appearance due to public pressure.
鈥淵ou need to remember for the queen this is a date whose calculation rests on the death of her father and great-great grandmother. That naturally colors the way she sees it,鈥 a royal source said.
鈥淲hile she acknowledges it as an historic moment, it鈥檚 also for her not a moment she would personally celebrate, which is why she has been keen to convey business as usual, and no fuss,鈥 the source added.
Buckingham Palace will mark the day with a photo display of her reign and the Royal Mint has designed a new silver 20-pound coin (US$30) with the five official portraits since she became queen in 1952.
Historian David Starkey said the queen鈥檚 style, inherited from her father and grandfather King George V, had helped 鈥渆stablished a record of unimpeachable integrity.鈥
He said her refusal to comment on controversial issues had deprived 鈥渞epublicanism of the necessary oxygen of controversy.鈥
However, it also meant she had 鈥渄one and said nothing that anybody will remember鈥 and she would therefore 鈥渘ot give her name to her age鈥 as Victoria did, the historian wrote in the Radio Times.
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