Tuesday, November 7, 2023

State Opening in Parliament

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This was King Charles III's first State Opening of Parliament as Sovereign.  In 2022, he represented the late Queen at the State Opening.   The last time a King's Speech was in 1951, although George VI was too ill to attend.  Princess Elizabeth could not step in as she was in Canada, so the Lord Chamberlain gave the King's Speech.

Queen Camilla wore her Coronation gown and the Diamond Diadem, created in 1820 for George IV's Coronation.  He wore the diadem under a Spanish hat.  Since then, the diadem has been worn by queen consorts and regnant (Elizabeth II) since 1830, the first being Queen Adelaide, wife of William IV.


The Queen's Companion Ladies were the Marchioness of Landsdowne and Lady Sarah Keswick. Her pages were William Keswick (Lady Sarah's grandson) and Arthur Eliot, who is a grandson of the Queen's sister, Annabel Eliot. The King's pages were Nicholas Barcley, Ralph Tollemache, Charles van Cutsem and Lord Oliver Cholmondley. Nicholas, Ralph and Lord Oliver were three of the four of King's pages at the Coronation. Prince George of Wales was the fourth page. Charles van Cutsem is the son of Hugh van Cutsem. Embed from Getty Images


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 The Duke and Duchess of Wellington. I think the duke will be given the Garter in 2024. The Duchess was born HRH Princess Antonia of Prussia and is a descendant of Queen Victoria. Her father was HRH Prince Friedrich of Prussia, who in 1947 used the Sophia Naturalization Act to be recognized as a British citizen. Her mother was Lady Brigid Guinness, daughter of the 2nd Earl of Iveagh

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 Charles, as Prince of Wales, first attended the State Opening of Parliament in 1967. Embed from Getty Images

4 comments:

Andrea said...

Thank you so much for every News from the Royals.

I like this very much.

Greetings to Harper and Fleur.

Andrea

Malcolm said...

As to the Duke of Wellington getting the Garter,we will see if you are right Marlene.Its certainly time that some more aristocrats were appointed to the order-there have been too many civil servants appointed for my liking.For what it is worth, I would like to see the Duke of Devonshire and the Marquess of Lansdowne appointed to the vacancies as well.The Duke of Norfolk is also likely to receive it in the future, but he is only in his sixties at present which is now a bit young for an appointment, so he may have to wait.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

You will see far less aristocrats and more people of merit receiving the Garter, such as former heads of the Bank of England, Olympic medalists, rather than peers of the realm who no longer have any real roles apart from a few historic peerages.

Malcolm said...

Marlene,
I don't think that some of the recent appointments were people of merit.In particular I don't see why governors of the Bank of England,the Lord Chief Justice,the Director General of MI5 and the Cabinet Secretary should be rewarded with the Garter.They have already been honoured sufficiently.There is also the case in regard to the Lord Chief Justice of whether such an appointment affects the separation of the powers.The appropriate award for Lord Phillips should have been the Order of Merit,not the Garter.