Today at St-Paul's

It was somehow strange and sad to see Her Majesty today walking alone behind the Lord Mayor carrying the Pearly Sword as she entered St-Paul Cathedral. It was her choice to walk by herself as she made her way to her place in the Cathedral for the Service of Thanksgiving. In the past she has always been accompanied by Prince Philip and given that he is in hospital it was a different image, one never seen in 60 years. The Duke of Edinburgh will be 92 years old this coming Sunday. At the end of the service the Queen appeared pensive, maybe reflecting on how one important person was missing.

After the service a luncheon was given at Westminster Hall, she was accompanied by the Lord Great Chamberlain of England, Lord Cholmondeley who sat next to her at the table. Her children and grand children and spouses were sitting at other tables, in all 700 guests representing the Guilds of London were present.

Lord Cholmondeley, KCVO

We can only hope that the Prince will get better soon and be by her side.

Canaletto London

This 30 meter painting of London and the river Thames was done by the Italian painter Canaletto for Prince Lobkowitz in 1747. It is part of the private collection of Prince William Lobkowitz in his family home in Prague. It is on loan for the celebration of the Diamond Jubilee in London as it shows the great pageant on the Thames river. On Sunday thousands of boats will escort the Royal barge down the Thames from Chelsea to the Tower.

St-Paul dominates the city in this painting of 1747.

Our Gracious Sovereign

Saturday 2 June marks the coronation of Elizabeth II has Queen of Canada and all her other Realms on this year of the Diamond Jubilee.  Only one other Monarch in the history of Canada ruled to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee and that was Queen Victoria. Though she was in poor health at the time of her diamond jubilee, the Lords and Members of Parliament had to come to Buckingham Palace to present their best wishes and the Service at St-Paul's Cathedral was held on the steps of the Church because Victoria was to ill to leave her carriage.

Queen Elizabeth is older than Victoria was at the time and in much better health for her own Jubilee. She travelled down Pall Mall to Westminster Abbey to receive in the great hall the messages of both Houses of Parliament. The ceremonial and traditions and the symbolism all around is interesting to observed. It is very similar to Canada.

The Coronation ceremony, you can see it on YouTube with clips from 1953, is a religious ceremony, the Sovereign is anointed by God and the Monarch like a Priest takes vows before God. This is why when the popular press starts talking about abdication it makes no sense whatsoever. One cannot break a contract made with God, its permanent and final. Even if the Queen became ill like King George III or King George V, a Regent or a Council of Regency is named to rule in the name of the Sovereign. But the Monarch cannot resign or abdicate. Just watch the Coronation of 1953 on YouTube and you will understand how this ceremony is more than a President simply swearing an Oath.



The wonderful stain glass window presented to her by both Houses of the British Parliament with her coat of Arms will be mounted in the North window of the Great Hall built almost one thousand years ago by King William II Rufus.

The Parliament in Canada also gave a stain glass window to Her Majesty which will be installed at a later date.

The Canadian window shows profiles of both Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth with their Coats of Arms and below the centre block of Parliament as it was at the time of Victoria and the building as it is today.  Seen with the Queen is the Speaker of the Canadian Senate and Prince Philip.

To me this Jubilee is important since the Queen is the only Sovereign I have known in my life and because of my Oath of Office the person I promised to serve and represent. During my career I received 3 commissions from her has Consul in Egypt, Mexico and Chicago.

This photo by the celebrated Canadian photographer Yusuf Karsh was taken in 1951, it became for many years the official portrait of the Queen in Canada and appeared on coins, on stamps, in Post Offices and in other public buildings.

A memorable date June 2.

The Queen at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, 2012.

The words that come to my mind when I think of our Sovereign are; Commitment, Dedication, Duty, Service. God Save the Queen!

Tricentenaire de Frederic II de Prusse, 1712-2012

I read a few years ago a very good biography of Frédéric II of Prussia by Giles MacDonough, I use here the spelling of his name in the French manner, the way he liked it. He was a great Francophile, he exchanged correspondence with Voltaire for 50 years and Voltaire did live in Potsdam for a while, but it was a stormy relationship, Voltaire found him to militaristic and questioned Frederic's acceptance of the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, after all he was an absolute monarch. Frederic liked coffee made with champagne instead of water, hated beer and anything German, he is despite that fact a popular figure in Germany, maybe because he was such a character. He spoke French fluently and bad German all around. Loved his Italian Hounds, he is buried at SansSouci with them in the garden as per his wishes, he was a great reformer of government, instituted public schooling for all, abolished the death penalty and instituted religious tolerance in his Kingdom, many French Huguenots came to live in Prussia and several French aristocrats found position in his government. He introduced the potato to Prussia and this is why it is featured prominently in German cuisine to this day. The story goes that he cultivated potato plants in his garden, made sure the population knew about it and he had the patch where the potatoes were guarded by day by his feared Grenadiers, the soldiers went away by night so the people would come and steal some potatoes to try this exotic vegetable reserved for the table of the King.  He was also a musician composing 100 pieces of music for the flute, he was a friend of the Bach family, he appointed  Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach as Court composer and he is remembered mainly as a brilliant military strategist, his army was feared though it was not the largest in Europe. His favourite colours where white and gold or green and gold and black and gold, dominant colours in his palaces.

When he recognized the USA as a new country in 1786, he inserted into the treaty establishing diplomatic relations, that prisoners of war between the USA and Prussia would be treated with care and kindness, this was a first for his era an unheard of idea for the time. He was also involved in supporting Britain during the Seven Year War (1757-1763) which had a profound impact on Canada, troops from Hesse were sent to Canada to fight alongside the British troops against the French. It was a Swiss-German Commander in the town of Sorel near Montreal who with his wife introduced the tradition of the Christmas tree to Canada.

                                      Born in Berlin 24 January 1712, died at Postdam 17 August 1786

If you visit Potsdam this year you will see some wonderful restorations of buildings from his era. Many have been rebuilt or are under reconstruction, such as the City Palace and the Garrison Church.
This web site in German only gives a good idea of what is being worked on in Potsdam,
http://garnisonkirche-potsdam.org

His family Hohenzollern is also closely related with our own Royals in Canada, they are first cousins. Queen Victoria was the grandmother of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Official Diamond Jubilee portrait 2012.

Diamond Jubilee

In 2012 there will be the Olympic Games in London, it seems that the Olympic Games in Beijing were just last year, how time flies four years already. Coinciding with this event is our Sovereign's 60th anniversary of accession to the throne in 1952, she is the Constitutional Monarch of Canada.

Canada Celebrated in 1977 the Silver Jubilee, I remember it well because I was invited to a Gala concert at the National Art Centre in Ottawa in honour of the Queen and she spoke to me in French, just brief polite conversation, but I was surprised by the encounter. Pierre E. Trudeau was Prime Minister then.

Then we had the Golden Jubilee in 2002, Jean Chrétien was Prime Minister. Now we are preparing for the Diamond Jubilee, the only other Monarch who achieved this hallmark was Queen Victoria. The Canadian Government has already unveiled the commemorative medals and other insignia it will use during 2012. I doubt the Queen will tour Canada for the occasion, she was born in April 1926 and is now 85 and Prince Philip born in June 1921 is 90, so probably Prince Charles will come in her stead.