diEnrica Roddolo
On Sunday 8 September the United Kingdom and the Windsors remember the record-breaking sovereign. A statue of her will be unveiled in St James’s Park in 2026
From our correspondent in London
Record-breaking Queen Elizabeth II to Have Monument in St James’s Park. This is how Great Britain will remember her, on the stroke of the missed centenary (in 2026) of the Queen who has spanned two centuries, and of whom Sunday 8th September is the second anniversary of his death.
While the monarchy in London – despite the difficulties of this 2024 that began with the hospitalization of King Charles and Princess Catherine – still rests on a solid consensus. The last one says so survey YouGov’s early September survey which explored the country’s sentiment: The 65% of Britons want to keep the monarchy. In short, more than two thirds would not give up the Windsors. With the prince William to preside over 75% of popular sympathies, his wife Catherine 74% and Charles 63%.
In short, two years after the transition from the big The Elizabethan and Carolingian eras passed without any upheavals. Just as Queen Elizabeth wanted. It will be a national monument (as statues of the Queen have already been unveiled in memory of the sovereign in the United Kingdom), and will not be far from those of her parents King George VI, the Queen Mum, near Carlton Gardens.
Overseeing the committee entrusted since the Queen’s death with the task of imagining the best way to honour her over time, there is Lord Janvrin, perhaps his most trusted secretary in a life that lasted 96 years and 70 years of reign – until the Platinum Jubilee in 2022. A breath before the end, at Balmoral. And Lord Janvrin works closely with the King and Prince William.
The Prince of Wales, who resumed his official duties in London after the summer break, with the beard he had already shown in July for the closing message of the Paris Games. William visited the Saatchi Gallery, the exhibition dedicated to his great project: the recovery of the homeless, with Homewards which is building homes for the homeless.
And if a statue will be erected in St James’s Park to remember the beloved sovereign, a social project will also be launched in the spirit of a monarchy increasingly attentive to the least in the era of King Charles. The austere tomb that now houses the Queen’s remains in the King George VI Memorial in St George’s Chapel, Windsor is a simple slab of black marble.. Above only the name of George VI and Elizabeth (the Queen Mother), below that of Elizabeth II and Philip. With the dates of birth and death. Between the two couples, the star of the Order of the Garter, because St George’s Chapel is also the spiritual heart of the ancient British order of chivalry whose motto is Honi soit qui mal y pense (cursed be he who thinks evil).
When Philip died, in 2021the queen had wanted him to rest for the moment in the crypt of St. George’s Chapel. Waiting to be reunited with him in the last hour, in the Memorial dedicated to her father. And so it was. Almost as if Elizabeth had wanted to give her beloved Philip, the rock, the love, the most sincere and true voice beside her for a lifetime, one last appointment. For eternal sleep, one next to the other under that black slab. Black and simple, that’s what the queen had asked. Nothing sumptuous.
The memorial chapel was built by the Queen in 1962.ten years after the death of her father in 1952, who, dying young, had left the twenty-five year old Elizabeth with all the weight of leading the country. So initially there was no plan for a dedicated burial for the king, and it was up to his daughter to take charge of commissioning the chapel that George Pace completed in ’69 and where the body will be transferred. In 2022, when the Queen Mother dies (at 101 years old), the couple will be buried, next to each other. Upon the death of the Princess Margaret still in that sad 2002 for Elizabeth II who a few months later saw her mother and sister die, the remains of the youngest daughter of King George VI were cremated. Destined to rest forever in the same chapel as the king. So today King George VI, the Queen Mother, Elizabeth II, Philip and Princess Margaret “sleep” the eternal sleep in Windsor, in the Memorial to the king who fought with Churchill in the war against Nazism.
All together, reunited. “us four”, the four of us, repeated George VI proud and very close to her family. Elizabeth wanted that special bond to stand the test of time, in that chapel in the thousand-year-old Windsor Manor. And Great Britain is preparing to celebrate Elizabeth in 2026.
September 7, 2024 (edit September 7, 2024 | 01:17)