Last Updated on: 24th July 2023, 12:52 pm
Queen Elizabeth could miss the opening of Parliament for the third time
The British government said Thursday the traditional official opening of Parliament will take place in May, raising questions about whether Queen Elizabeth II will attend.
The monarch, who will turn 96 next month, outlines her government’s legislative agenda in a speech delivered from a gilded throne in the House of Lords in a ceremony of pageantry and pomp.
As head of state, she opened Parliament almost twice during her record-breaking 70-year reign, missing the event in 1959 and 1963 when she was pregnant with Princes Andrew and Edward.
But his health has been ailing since spending an unscheduled night in hospital last October and canceling his doctor’s prescribing obligations, including recently when he had a Covid attack.
Buckingham Palace said only that its “attendance will be confirmed in due course” after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office announced the Queen’s speech would take place on May 10.
The Queen has largely restricted her duties to meetings with foreign diplomats and stepped down from duty on Commonwealth Day earlier this month, marking her return to a major public event.
All eyes are now on whether she will attend the funeral service for her husband Prince Philip, who died in April last year at the age of 99, at Westminster Abbey next Tuesday.
Royal officials announced on Thursday that the royals will be joined by more than 30 foreign royals, as well as family and friends of the Duke of Edinburgh, and 500 representatives from charities he represents.
The Queen, who was married to Philip for 73 years, would love to attend as his funeral was held amid coronavirus restrictions with just 30 mourners.
But again there was no confirmation that she will be present at the service, where around 1,800 guests will pay tribute to her life.
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The official State Opening of Parliament, watched by unelected Members of the House of Lords in ermine robes and their elected peers in the House of Commons, includes a procession and royal regalia, including the Imperial State Crown.
The Queen, who in previous years was accompanied by Prince Philip or more recently by her eldest son and heir Prince Charles, is taken to Parliament in a horse-drawn carriage.
Charles, 73, is likely to fill in if his mother is unable to attend the event.
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