The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

When Buckingham Palace announced the events scheduled to celebrate the Queen�s 80th birthday on April 21st, I thought that the plans looked rather modest � just a children�s garden party, a lunch, a dinner hosted by the Prince of Wales, and a service of thanksgiving. (There�s also a private cruise in Scotland.) Then I realized that such modesty must have been deliberate, and for a very good reason. If the Queen goes all out celebrating her 80th, it will be difficult for her to do something even more special for her 90th and 100th birthdays. Frankly, I think I could be writing a column thirty years from now about how the Queen wants something very low-key for her one hundred and tenth birthday.

Meanwhile, the Queen has another set of celebrations to think about, those celebrating the length of her reign. The big one, the Golden Jubilee, is over, but its success encouraged the palace to plan future jubilees. As with wedding anniversaries, after fifty years, you can have a party every decade. The Diamond Jubilee will be in 2012, and you can bet that there are already plans ready in Buckingham Palace. And speaking of wedding anniversaries, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary in 2007. No doubt people will give her some more diamonds, though she really has quite enough already.

And that wedding almost sixty years ago led to the birth of a baby almost sixty years ago. Yes, the Prince of Wales will be sixty in 2008. His wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, will be sixty in July 2007, which will probably rate only a press release. (If Diana were still alive, she would turn forty-five the same month, and no doubt be cheered up by the thought that Camilla was turning sixty.) Apparently there will be public celebrations to mark the Prince�s 60th birthday. There were events when he turned forty and fifty, and each decade the media shows more pity for him as the length of his eventual reign shrinks.

So here�s the schedule for the next few years:

2006 - Queen�s 80th birthday and Duke of Edinburgh�s 85th birthday

2007 - Queen and Duke of Edinburgh�s 60th wedding anniversary

2008 - Prince of Wales� 60th birthday

2009 - hmm...maybe Prince William will get married

2010 - Princess Anne�s 60th birthday and Prince Andrew�s 50th birthday

2011 - Duke of Edinburgh�s 90th birthday and Queen�s 85th birthday

2012 - Queen�s Diamond Jubilee and Prince William�s 30th birthday

The Duke of Edinburgh will be eighty-five on June 10th, but he has always celebrated his birthday modestly, and probably will continue to do so into his nineties. His longevity has gotten far less attention than that of the Queen Mother, whose early widowhood and matronly appearance allowed her to play the part of the nation�s grandmother for fifty years.

I wonder if the tradition of the �birthdays ball� will go on after the deaths of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. The last one, in 2000, celebrated the Queen Mother�s 100th birthday, Princess Margaret�s 70th, Princess Anne�s 50th, and Prince Andrew�s 40th. It was held on Prince William�s 18th birthday, but he did not attend, as he had an A-level exam the next day. I doubt that there will be a huge party for Princess Anne and Prince Andrew in 2010.

All of these events focus on the older generations of the royal family. Undoubtedly there will also be times when the younger generation is brought forward, especially for their weddings. I think that Prince William�s military service will be fairly short and that he will probably marry Kate Middleton, most likely in the summer, some time between 2008 and 2011. I�m still wondering how active the York princesses will be in royal life � probably they are too. During the next decade or so, it seems likely that the Queen�s cousins, the Kents and Gloucesters, will unofficially retire from royal life in favor of the Queen�s grandchildren.

These birthdays and anniversaries will emphasize the many years of service given by the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, and Prince of Wales. It makes a nice contrast to the eighties and nineties, when the �young royals� were the media�s constant focus. On the other hand, marking yet another decade of the Queen�s life, reign, and marriage is not very exciting, and we will all be counting on Prince Harry to bring us a little light relief.