Tuesday, May 15, 2012

International Royalty to Gather for Jubilee

As Queen Elizabeth II prepares to host many of Europe and the world's leading royalty (as she did ten years ago as shown in the above picture) at Windsor to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee this Friday, Harry Mount reflects on "the world's most exclusive club." It's not a bad article, but I don't understand why even pro-monarchy commentators feel the need to include back-handed compliments like this: "Looked at objectively, monarchy is a ludicrous anachronism." No, no, no, a thousand times no! I do not concede this! While there's nothing necessarily wrong with "anachronism," there are plenty of rational and contemporary justifications for constitutional monarchy.  It is not all about glittering royal events, though this promises to be a splendid one, with guests including the Emperor of Japan.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm trying to identify the distinguished guests in the above picture. Many of them are obvious, but there's one or two I'm not sure about. Here's what I've got, from left to right:

Unknown, Queen Sonja of Norway, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (duh), King Harald V of Norway, Unknown, Unknown (Back turned, possibly Prince Charles, Prince of Wales?), Queen Sofia of Spain, Henri I, Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

Would you happen to know who those "Unknowns" might be?

Theodore Harvey said...

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark are on either side of Queen Elizabeth II. Not sure who the man with his back turned is but don't think it's the Prince of Wales. Possibly Margrethe II's husband Prince Henrik.