On November 24, 1992 the regina Elisabetta, giving a speech in honor of his fortieth anniversary to the throne of England, described what was about to end as a “horrible year”. That year the Crown was overwhelmed by a horribilis avalanche that began on March 19 with the announcement of the separation of Prince Andrew by Sarah Ferguson, continued on April 23 with the divorce of Princess Anne by Mark Phillips, and culminating in June with previews of the book Diana. Its true story by Andrew Morton, a detailed catalog of matrimonial recriminations in which the Princess of Wales defined herself “A sacrificial lamb brought to slaughter on his wedding day.”
Twenty-eight years later, we can imagine that His Majesty, having to pass judgment on this 2020 to which we are about to say goodbye, would pronounce the exact same words: it is not «a year that I will remember with pleasure. Indeed, it was just an annus horribilis “. And not only for the coronavirus emergency that is scourging the world and will also force the ninety-four-year-old sovereign to the loneliest Christmas ever: no grandchildren, no children, no Sandringhan. This year, for the first time in thirty-three years, the sovereign will have to spend the holidays a Windsor col principe Filippo.
But Queen Elizabeth’s 2020 got off to a bad start in January, with thefarewell of Harry and Meghan to the royal family. Followed in the following months by an avalanche of gossip and bomb biographies (such as Finding freedom O Battle of Brothers) on the dukes of Sussex, on the reasons for their American “flight”, on their conflicts with the Windsors (in particular he made rivers of ink rift between Harry and his brother William). His Majesty, who has always tried to keep frictions within the royal family private, she must have gone on a rampage. As if that were not enough, in November the royal dirty laundry also ended up on TV. The fourth season of the Netflix series The Crown, painting Elizabeth II as a frosty queen and impenetrable and tackling without too many frills Lady Diana’s eating disorders and Carlo’s relationship with Camilla, left his Majesty very discontented (according to gossip even horrified).
That in the meantime he had had to swallow another bitter mouthful. That is the news that she will no longer be the queen of Barbados. Barbados, an English colony until 1966, is part of the Commonwealth, that is, those countries that had been part of the British Empire and that – although independent today – have maintained more or less formal ties with the English crown. But last September the prime minister of the island, Mia Mottley, announced that from November 2021 the country will be a republic: “It’s time to leave the colonial past behind“. In short, in 2021, His Majesty will lose one of his Caribbean jewels. According to the BBC, Mia Mottley’s announcement for Buckingham Palace “it was not a shock”, because the farewell to the British crown “had been publicly discussed for years”. For the 94 year old queen it will not have been, in any case, welcome news.
But the third son Andrea of York especially thought about Elisabetta’s 2020. The coconut, (formerly coconut?) of the sovereign, overwhelmed by the Epstein scandal and for this “Fired”, in 2019, from real duties, Now risks sinking permanently. An investigation of the Daily Mail, just in recent days, has collapsed the alibis with which the prince tried to defend himself from the accusation of having had sex, in 2001, with the then minor Virginia Roberts. For mother Elizabeth II a horrible Christmas is expected. Worthy ending of this horribilis 2020.
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