In royal ceremonies, someone always steals the show To the queen. This jubilee was expected to be Meghan Markle, who returned to London, more than a year after pulling the rags out of the sun on the royals on her show with Oprah Winfrey. However, it was not her who earned all eyes.
It was little Louis, William and Kate’s four-year-old son. As he reviewed a chronicle of Vogue about the moment, “Prince Louis saluted. He laughed. He chatted with his great-grandmother. At one point he seemed very tired until suddenly he perked up. And, as the crowd grew louder and RAF planes As they passed, he covered his ears from the noise, while his mother, Kate Middleton, comforted him.
The Daily Mail describes him as “the true star of the show”. For the English, accustomed to the perfection of the family of William and Kate, the child was a sensation. Next to his siblings, Charlotte and George, who were perfectly well placed, his faces were the most fascinating of the royal event. The little boy, moreover, never stopped distracting his grandmother by commenting with emotion on everything that was happening. Louis also euphorically greeted the planes celebrating the queen’s life, but when he lost interest he made terrible faces of tedium.
As expected, the networks exploded with joy. Thousands of messages about the boy’s faces began to appear. And the internet does not stop, in memes and praise.
Louis Arthur Charles is the last baby of the Dukes of Cambridge. His name, which was released three days after he came into the world, could refer to Louis, Earl of Mountbatten. He was the uncle of Queen Elizabeth’s husband, and became the last viceroy of India.
“The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to share this photograph of Prince Louis. The Duchess took this photograph on April 26. Prince Louis was born on April 23 in the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s Hospital in London”, was the message with which he was presented to the world.
Baby Louis is fifth in line for the British throne, after his grandfather Charles, his father Wiliam and his two older brothers.
The jubilee of his great-grandmother
On Thursday, dressed in a blue coat and hat, the queen appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace smiling and standing next to her cousin, the Duke of Kent, colonel of the Scots Guards, while 1,500 soldiers, with musical bands and hundreds of horses, marched in the traditional Banner Parade.
Despite the announcement of her absence from the mass, Isabel also participated on Thursday night in the remote lighting of a huge sculpture, in front of Buckingham, which represents a 21-meter-high tree.
At the same time, more than 3,000 light signals were lit across the UK, including Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, 40km from London, where the monarch lives.
The Banner Parade, organized annually for 250 years to commemorate the official birthday of the British monarch -but canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic- coincided this year with the start of the four days of celebrations for the seven decades on the throne of Elizabeth II, crowned at only 25 years old.
Hundreds of thousands of people crowded the outskirts of Buckingham, cordoned off with metal barriers and guarded by policemen with their characteristic domed helmets. British flags were ubiquitous, offered by street vendors or stamped on pennants, balloons, jackets or caps worn by the crowd, in contrast to the morning suits and top hat worn by the guests at the official ceremony.
“This queen is either hated or loved, but in the end she is a symbol that unites society,” Mexican Ana Ruiz, a 27-year-old medical graduate who lives in London, told AFP. Her 70-year reign also deserved international congratulations. Pope Francis sent a message wishing the queen, her family and her people “unity, prosperity and peace.”
Until recently, Isabel II greeted the troops on horseback. But this year, due to her mobility problems, she was replaced by her heir, Prince Charles, who at 73 is taking office in a progressive transition that raises doubts due to his lesser popularity at a time when the monarchy is criticized, mainly in the former colonies, due to the slave-owning past of the British Empire.
On the central esplanade of Horse Guards Parade, near Downing Street, Charles inspected the troops on behalf of the queen, accompanied by his son William, 39, and his sister Anne, 71. They were dressed in full dress uniform and Both men wore the traditional tall black bear-hair cap of the royal guard.
Other members of the royal family, including Charles and Harry’s wives, Camilla and Kate, aged 74 and 40 respectively, arrived in carriages to witness the pompous parade, which wound down The Mall to Buckingham Palace. The event ended with some 70 air force planes, including the Red Arrows aerobatic patrol, flying over the palace and a second appearance by the queen to greet the crowd. She was flanked by leading members of the royal family, including William and Catherine’s three young children, the youngest of whom, four-year-old Louis, delighted the audience with his funny faces.
Cannon volleys resounded in London and throughout the United Kingdom. But nothing had more echo than the friendly faces of his little great-grandson.
*With information from AFP.