Queen Elizabeth’s people keep insisting that she had a bad cold over the holidays, but I really do think she had the flu. She was reportedly really ill for a solid two weeks or so, and she felt so rough that she didn’t even go to church on Christmas day or on New Year’s Day. Her doctors are obviously keeping a close eye on her and they’re the ones recommending that she not go outside or do much besides… stay hydrated and stay in bed with the corgis, one would assume. Still, that hasn’t stopped some from speculating that the Queen is at death’s door, and many legit media outlets are running primers on the royal line of succession. Meanwhile, People Magazine wants you to know that we might not actually see the Queen until February. Yikes.
Recuperating from a heavy cold, Queen Elizabeth has not been seen in public since the annual diplomatic reception at Buckingham Palace on Dec. 8. She then hosted the royal family at a special pre-Christmas parties at the palace, and her helicopter was spotted leaving for Sandringham on Dec. 22, one day after canceling her annual train trip to her winter retreat. But with her missing the New Year’s Day church service with the rest of the royal family, when can we expect to see her again? She usually stays at Sandringham until a few days after Accession Day on February 6 – the day that marks the death of her father George VI and when she became Queen. This year will see her celebrate 65 years on the throne.
There are currently no official future engagements listed for the Queen yet. But she may be seen heading to church on Sunday if she is well enough. As of Wednesday, there is no news on whether she is expected this weekend. And she will likely visit her friends at a Women’s Institute meeting and tea party close to her home later in the month. A date for that event has not been confirmed.
But on Tuesday, she carried out an important duty behind closed doors at Sandringham House in Norfolk – rewarding a favorite servant. Raymond Wheaton was “received by the Queen,” according to the court circular — the daily diary of royal engagements. Wheaton, who is page of the chambers, was awarded the Insignia of Lieutenant of the order — one of the awards that’s personally chosen by the Monarch, as opposed to by a committee and politicians. Established by Queen Victoria, it rewards personal service to the Monarch of the day.
Wheaton has worked at the palace for about 30 years and is described by royals writer Robert Hardman in Our Queen as a “quick-witted, one-man reconnaissance patrol.” He heads up the preparation of the state rooms, the hospitality at the palace and managing ceremonial audiences and investitures, where people receive honors from senior members of the family.
People Magazine also notes that the Queen sent a “message of condolence” to the Turkish president following the terrorist attack in Istanbul, and not to get too nitpicky but… it’s not like the Queen had to get up and put on pants to write a statement. A statement was written and issued in her name. But the Queen probably did have to put on clothes to honor Raymond Wheaton, although how great would it be if she could pass out honors in her flannel PJs? In my mind, the PJs are printed with cartoon corgis. What else? Royal staffers told People Mag that the Queen is “up and about and working on her red boxes and government papers behind closed doors.” So, she’s getting on with it. I guess people were panicking over her health prematurely. Still, I hope this health scare did serve as a wake-up call to the rest of the royal family about how quickly things could change. Because honestly, all hell is going to break loose when the Queen passes.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Pacific Coast News.
Honestly she could take off January and February completely and still carry out way more events for the year than Will and Kate.
Just glad to hear she’s on the mend. I really don’t want her to be 2017s first victim :/
Seriously, I was freaking out even though she’s not my Queen. All hell will break loose! The world is not ready for King Charles yet…
….and it never will be…Don’t get me wrong, Charles works hard in his own little way but he keeps breaking his own rules especially in terms of the environment and adhering to budgets. My dislike for him has little to do with the Diana years however those years certainly didn’t help.
Citresse, I agree with you. Not only is he breaking his own rules via the environment/ budgets etc.but the fact that he has little to no influence over his errant son and DIL makes me wonder about him. Sure, he’s waited his whole life to be King but his relationship with Willnot is so dysfunctional and Charles seems not to be dealing with it, makes me hope HM sticks around until the Cambridge debacle is dealt with either way. His history with how he dealt with Diana is also not helping, as you said.
In another throwback example, William’s relationship with Charles is par of the course for Hanoverian/Saxe-Coburg/Windsor Kings.
Since George 1 became king, the only harmonious, functioning and loving relationship of parent and heir is the Queen and her father. All other parent/heir relationships have been pretty bad.
Much of what we think we know about any of them is a direct result of publicly dissing each other.
@LAK, do you think it has anything to do with her father dying young, and/or the possibility that a daughter/father relationship is less competitive than a son/father relationship? Which doesn’t explain the difficulties in her own relationship with her son, of course. Another possibility being her father was only the spare for quite a time, and she and her father didn’t initially begin as the future monarch and his daughter.
I think your last point is very important. We all know spares are raised more humbly than heirs which means he wasn’t self-important like his older brother. And thus less likely to see his heir as a threat.
Also, his children were born long before the abdication, so they were all free to view each other as father/daughters first and for many years. I think that extends to Margaret too. She wasn’t raised as a spare because for many years, their father was never going to be King.
I don’t think that changed for them after he became King.
On the other side, the Queen is simultaneously not combative in her personal relationships and tends to go with the flow. She’s the least likely to start a revolution whatever situation she found herself.
George V was quite close to his father. They wrote loving letters to each other their whole lives and Geirge wrote he’d lost his ‘best friend’ when he died. Edward may not have been the most doting dad, though not bad at all by the standards of the day, but he lived his children and they loved him.
I love the Queen and will be completely devestated when she passes. While politicians flap and carry on all over the western world, she is something else above that, with substance. Her faith is very real and you can see in interviews that she works deeply with that in her private life. I think Diana was a major assesment point in her life where she ended up asking herself the tough questions. I am glad she is my monarch and will be sad when we become a repulic and have cricketers and footy players for our head of state because, believe me that is what this country would popularly elect.
In my imagination, she’s running a little test. Who comes to her side!? Who behaves nicely? Who behaves like a snotty lazy entitled pair of dunderheads? She knows she’s in the last stretch of her life, even if she has 15 years to go, and maybe she’s secretly sipping strong tea and binge watching GoT and thinking, bash it, I am going to make some changes, enough’s enough! Phil is on it and does the external recon. Meanwhile, she’s all, “Sophie darling, bring in dear Harry and his Pop — time to share the blueprints of my all-new master plan! One is not leaving all this to a knickers-flasher and a sullen quite useless poop!”
^^^ THIS! ^^^
Hear! hear!
I read that with the Queen’s voice and I’m now helpess at ‘sullen quite useless poop’ 😀
Yes yes yes
Yaaaaassssssssssssssssssssssss! Glad to hear she’s up an about though, I was beginning to worry.
Who can that lazy pair of dunderheads be? Anyone know?
Brilliant, Liberty! 😂
Even if not planned, she got to see the reactions and response of the devoted versus the dunderheads.
Liberty – that was awesome!
Let it flow from your iPad to God’s ear 🙂
LOL! I love your way with words Liberty. I hope you are also right. The Cambridges need to be dealt with sooner rather than later and Charles doesn’t seem to be doing anything as Willnot’s father. While the Queen shouldn’t have to shoulder this burden, she knows that she has the power to put the Doolittles in their place but the problem is, will Charles be able to continue putting on the pressure after she’s gone?
The queen doesn’t seem to put anyone in his place, or Andrew wouldn’t be Andrew. I think Charles is unfortunately following his mother’s example. I’ve always heard it was Philip’s job to keep his family in line, but again, there’s Andrew. I would obey Philip, that’s for sure. One glare from Tywin Lannister’s cold blue eyes and I would submissively wet myself. This doesn’t seem like a family that talks about their feelings.
I keep hearing rumors from a well-placed source i know through my work that Charles is quite close to Harry, Harry weekends with him, they paint (oils) together, their relationship is relaxed and cordial. So I can see Charles doing what he thinks is best, particularly when the view is different from under the Crown someday.
Never forget: those changes in K’s skirts are reputed to be there courtesy of a peeved Queen.
At this point, I tend to believe the dunderheads hope the Queen pulls the plug so they don’t have to do the deed. As long as they have money, faux status, and toys, and are not exiled without Carole and her magical toast wand, I think they would be happy, even if Carole would be incensed. I truly believe W may have a little idea of disbanding the RF the moment he steps in, to spite them; and I believe that Charles knows this from monitoring him.
This is perfect! Yes, exactly, Liberty 😘
🙂
i laughed at the title. i am certainly not in panic, but i do think that it is safer for the brits if she stays alive as long as possible.
There are days when I’m perfectly healthy and don’t put on pants. 😛 Of course, now that I have a really bad head cold it’s even nicer not to.
As for the Queen, I think she’ll be fine. She is 90, after all…it’s normal for a doctor to tell any sick 90 year old to rest and take time to recover. The worst thing to do would be to rush it and then risk getting even more sick because of it.
It is a testament to her work ethic that missing a few days is so uncommon it causes people to think she must be dying. No matter what I think of monarchy in general, I admire this woman. She sets a high bar.
@aang
Me too!!! I’ve always admired her work ethic and her devotion to her job. She’s an inspiring woman.
I believe the monarchy will end once she passes away. She is a remarkable woman and no member of her family could ever replace her. Maybe Harry but I am not sure, certainly no Charles and for the love of god, no William.
She is a true testament of what a monarch really should be.
If I was her I’d be in bed binge watching ‘ The Crown’ to then write down all the inaccuracies and phone the producer and tell them off. 🙂
His personal life has been messy, but Charles has been an outstanding POW. He chose to recreate his title into one of substance. The first in history. The same path Harry if following. That gives a good indication of what sott of King he will be.
William is following the path of previous princelings.
Hear hear. Chuck gets a bad rap re his duties and what kind of King he will be. He’s done a god job of POW and will do a good job of being King.
William is another Edward VIII. Thou Wallis seemed to be a better Duchess than Waity, we never really saw what she could have been. She had style, wit and charm.
@Digital unicorn
Wallis/Edward were Nazi sympathisers. I hope William, at least, is not one.
@Lak
Agree with your analysis.
I concur. If we must have a monarch, Charles will be perfectly adequate and properly dedicated to the role. Bill? I think not, unless they invent personality transplants any time soon.
I do believe that if William is going to make any kind of a move to abdicate succession he will wait until after TQ passes – not out of respect for her feelings (I don’t believe William can muster up any respect for anyone’s feelings but his own) but because he’s terrified of the reaction he would get. And yes he is absolutely Edward mark 2, same selfishness, same petulance, a Hanoverian throwback.
I agree that Charles has been a great POW and that he will be a good king. Hopefully TQ will last a few more years, and Charles has longevity in his genes, so we can be ok for another twenty years or so. Anything to keep Willy and Waity away from the throne.
I agree. As POW, Charles has not been idle. He has tried, he has developed interests like the Duchy product line, etc. He has had to watch his mother pamper a spoilt sort of dolt, he had Phil as a dad and that was reputedly rough. He may be a love scoundrel, but he has toted some semblance of a load for the pay packet.
Glad to hear she’s on the mend and taking a well deserved rest. Wonder if the precious snowflakes got in touch to see how she was. Prob not too busy being normal.
They apparently went to visit her last week.
I just want to say that I’d love to stay in bed with the corgis, but I bet they hog the covers.
Well I’m not sure all hell will break loose after death of HM, however there is a strong faction of “Liz is OK but we’re not having Charlie.” I mean, sure he can stick to his Prince’s Trust work in his spare time and all but we really have nothing and no one else to look forward to once HM is gone. HM mentioned “inspiration” in her most recent Xmas message. HM’s death will leave us uninspired forever.
Thank god!! I’ve been so worried 2016 would claim her. She’s my touchstone for honor, dignity, and duty:GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!
💖 👑👛🐶
The Queen usually isn’t back to her regular schedule in and around London until after February 6th, so not surprising to hear about that. I hope she takes the time go slow down just a little bit and look after herself, but I imagine she’s got a lot of catching up to do already so. Wishing her all the best!
I hope she takes it easy all winter! I can understand her skipping New Years church services at Sandringham, even if she is doing better I would not want to be sniffling and coughing at a church service where everyone is looking at me.
Glad to hear the Queen’s better. However, just read something about a new biography out by Sally Beddell Smith who is apparently revealing that Prince Charles would have had another mistress other than Camilla. Her name is Sue Townsend?! And apparently she didn’t deny it….
Is there any truth in this?
Charles had multiple mistresses, including Camilla and Kanga Tryon. Diana befriended Kanga, knowing she was one of the mistresses, and helped promote Kanga’s clothing line by wearing it publicly.
Sue Townsend, of Adrian Mole and The Queen & I fame?
I think I read about this Sue Townsend on the DM….. she had some kind of a job marketing Charles’s Duchy Original food products?
It astonishes me how completely and successfully Kanga has been written out of the Charles -Camilla story.
The woman was in a love triangle with them and as responsible for ‘picking’ Diana and being the other person in that marriage as Camilla.
Charles met and started a relationship with Kanga within 3mths of meeting Camilla and starting a relationship with her. Both women were considered his top mistresses as he dated other women throughout the 70s and 80s.
Kanga became indiscreet as well as falling mentally and physically unwell and was dropped in the late 80s and that’s why Camilla won, not because Charles realised he loved Camilla above all women.
Kanga was clever in seeking a friendship with Diana which made her seem less predatory. It also demonstrates one of Diana’s publicly believed lies because Diana was just as aware of Kanga and Charles’s relationship as she was of Camilla.
May be Kanga’s fate softened Diana’s judgement whilst maintaining her rage for Camilla.
Kanga’s husband is famously litigious which is the most probable reason why media doesn’t revisit Kanga, but you can find media articles and a recent documentary made by C4 on youtube about Kanga and Charles.
Sue Townsend is a British author, and writer of the satirical novel The Queen & I, in which she imagines what would happen if we moved away from the monarchy (spoiler alert one of the royals ends up in jail accidentally!). She also wrote a series of books about a young man called Adrian Mole – well worth a read to understand what England was like in the 1980s from the perspective of a spotty under-sexed boy from Leicestershire!
Nanny Big Crown (as we like to call her in our house) will be just fine for a good few more years, mostly I imagine because she thinks the other options aren’t too appealing…