Two important events on the royal calendar will be missing senior family members later this month.
Buckingham Palace confirmed today that Queen Elizabeth has asked Prince Charles to take her place at Monday’s Commonwealth Day service in London.
Royal sources tell BAZAAR.com that the monarch’s decision comes with “regrets,” but follows private discussions surrounding her comfort to travel over an hour from Windsor Castle to Westminster Abbey for the service. It is not, they say, related to any illness.
The March 29 Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Prince Philip will also be one royal down. A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirms to BAZAAR that Prince Harry will not be visiting London this month, but hopes to see his grandmother “as soon as possible.”
Harry’s absence from the United Kingdom may be related to the fact that a judge has yet to rule in the duke’s legal challenge against the British Home Office regarding his security arrangements.
Last month, his legal representative, Shaheed Fatima QC, told the High Court that Harry does not feel safe in Britain without access to adequate police protection, which he has denied the option of privately funding. “This claim is about the fact that the claimant does not feel safe when he is in the U.K. given the security arrangements that were applied to him in June 2021 and will continue to be applied to him if he decides to come back,” Fatima said.
Despite the two absences, other royals will be in attendance at both engagements. On March 14, Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; Prince William and Duchess Kate; and Princess Alexandra, the queen’s cousin, will be at the Commonwealth Service, which will focus on the role that service plays in the lives of people and communities across the 54-country realm.
An even wider gathering of family members will be present at the service for Prince Philip, who died in April of last year. The Westminster Abbey service will pay tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh’s 99-year life and is one of a number of major occasions the queen has in her Platinum Jubilee schedule.
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