Queen's dog joins in jubilee celebrations. Video / The Royal Family Channel
OPINION:
It ought to have been one of the proudest moments of Her Majesty's reign, as she marked her 70 years on the throne at Windsor Castle earlier this month, sitting in her apartment surrounded by memorabilia.
Wearing an Art Deco brooch given to her by her father, King George VI, on her 18th birthday, she viewed cards from well-wishers and items from her Golden Jubilee, in 2002.
It had all the ingredients of a heart-warming celebration. Yet it turned out to be possibly the worst-staged royal video appearance ever seen. Sitting in a velvet armchair, a desk before her and a reassuring smile on her face in the wake of her recent hospital visit, the Queen seemed strangely marooned in the middle of the room.
Unlike the perfectly thought-out settings for her Christmas broadcasts, this one seemed hastily thrown together. At one point, the camera even zoomed in and out to reveal Her Majesty's legs and feet placed awkwardly under the table.
As if this wasn't enough, this week she was also caught on camera at Windsor Castle admitting to feeling frail for the first time. During a visit on Wednesday, she had to audibly request that her visitors come closer, telling Rear Admiral James Macleod and Major General Eldon Millar: "As you can see, I can't move."
Moreover, the lighting seemed rather poor and the camerawork appeared ham-handed.
How on earth did this happen? Around the world, the staging of British royal appearances is normally held up as a model for projecting the grace and stature expected for a head of state, with production values that could rival any Hollywood film set.
It left we royal-watchers with a worrying feeling that the Queen had somehow been left without the care and attention to every detail that has been, until now, a hallmark of her reign. Such lapses were unimaginable before they actually happened.
The Queen marked her 70 years on the throne at Windsor Castle earlier this month, sitting in her apartment surrounded by memorabilia. Photo / Getty Images
What this reveals is the acute absence of two things that were essential to the context in which the Queen's public confidence and command of her role were established: the aura provided by Buckingham Palace as the location for her appearances, and the presence in her life of Prince Philip.
It did not have to be like this. As a home, rather than an artefact of the royal pageant, Buckingham Palace was never as liked by the Queen as her apartments at Windsor Castle.
Buckingham Palace has the atmosphere of one of the better funded municipal art galleries with banqueting rooms attached. Windsor, by contrast, has a powerful resonance of centuries of royal history – and simply, more of a family feel.
In fact, the exigencies of the pandemic, which initially led to the move from London to Windsor, presented an opportunity to show the Queen happily adjusting to a less opulent and more natural setting, where the sense of a family together was more present.
But, just to talk of a family together, highlights the absence of it at this time. The Queen seems to be home alone.
Obviously, nobody can fill the space left by her husband. But "The Firm" appears distracted by the fallout from the Prince Andrew debacle, the ongoing challenges of "Megxit" and, now, the police inquiry into allegations that The Prince's Foundation offered a Saudi billionaire the chance of a knighthood in exchange for a donation.
With all these external pressures swirling, could it be that the level of support the Queen so clearly needs is being overlooked?
Television news coverage repeatedly plays images of Andrew and Charles in full dress uniform during a time when the family stood united on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to celebrate Harry and Meghan's marriage in May 2018. The same balcony that had so often served as the place where the monarchy and the people were brought together in the jubilance of great national occasions.
That was a little less than four years ago – and yet it already seems like another age.
The symbolism is inescapable. An iconic tableau of Windsor family harmony has been abruptly and successively depleted. First the Sussexes made their exit, and then Andrew was engulfed by a scandal that eventually led to his banishment from all public duties and the removal of his patronages. The Duke of Edinburgh's death, last April, provided another tragic departure.
In December last year, she also lost two of her long-serving ladies-in-waiting. Lady Farnham, who had served as her Lady of the Bedchamber since 1987 and rode alongside the Queen on the way to the Diamond Jubilee service in 2012 after the Duke of Edinburgh was hospitalised, died on December 29. And the Duchess of Grafton, the Queen's devoted Mistress of the Robes, who had been by her side from 1967 until her death on December 3 at the age of 101.
"It has not been a good year for the Queen – losing her husband and then the Duchess of Grafton and now Lady Farnham," a royal source told the Telegraph. "They were dear friends who supported the Queen on official duties. Unfortunately, a sad consequence of living a long life is that you have to say goodbye to a lot of people you care about."
The Platinum Jubilee, then, should be a moment to recalibrate; to pull together and rally round this remarkable woman in the twilight of her reign. She has worked tirelessly to ensure as much family harmony as possible can be maintained, recently granting Prince Charles his dearest wish that Camilla be his Queen.
The fact that appearances at Windsor Castle are not being as expertly managed as they usually are, seems to indicate that there is an imbalance of some sort.
The internal dynamics of the family are complicated. Of all the Queen's children, Princess Anne is the one most like her father in temperament and in her understanding of her mother's unbending sense of duty.
But such is the ingrained hierarchical nature of the relationships that she cannot be seen to be superseding Charles in authority.
The Queen is not infirm, but she has the normal frailties of her age. Too much has been made of the fact that she needs to walk with a stick. Many people 20 years her junior require such support and falls are the greatest peril of age.
With the right staff and family support behind the Queen, there is no reason that she shouldn't be able to handle her reduced workload.
As the celebrations to mark the year of her Platinum Jubilee continue – the first British monarch ever to reach such a historic milestone – we can only hope that things return to normal at Windsor Castle, as the world looks on.
