Although Queen Sofia had already sent back her RSVP card to the Diamond Jubilee luncheon at Windsor Castle, she has now been told by the Spanish government that she cannot go to London. The change in plans has been blamed on the forthcoming visit by the Earl and Countess of Wessex to Gibraltar, which is British territory.
This is not the first time that the Rock has stood between a Spanish Royal visit and a British Royal event. In 1981, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia had to decline an invitation to the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer as the newlyweds were scheduled to visit Gibraltar on board the Britannia during their honeymoon.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/9270896/Queen-Sofia-to-snub-Diamond-Jubilee-lunch-over-Gibraltar-row.html
3 comments:
Oh good grief...Gibraltar some be the last thing the Prime Minister should be worrying about....how about focusing on your extremely high unemployment.... most people in Spain probably don't give a hoot about the Queen going to London.
Poor Sofia... first the King's philandering is made public, and now she can't attend the Jubilee. This will be hard on her.
Queen Sophia not attending is strange. Her husbands family the French Bourbons ceded Gibraltar over to Britain "in perpetuity" under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. I would have thought that they would not renege on a treaty. The Spanish of course maintain their African colonies - two cities Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco and Canary Islands 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. Remarkably Spain also occupies part of French territory the town of Llívia .
The anniversary of the treaty is next year and that combined with her husbands ‘current circumstances’ and Spain’s own circumstances almost ensure that Gibraltar will be high on an Dinner Menu at the El Escorial Palace.
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