THE King Charles 3rd released this Tuesday (21) a personal video message remembering the public service trajectory of her “beloved mother”, the late Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022), on what would have been his 100th birthday.
In the recording, made at Balmoral Castle earlier this month, the king said his mother would probably have disapproved of the current state of the world.
“Much of what we are experiencing today, I suspect, would have disturbed her deeply,” the king said, without revealing specific concerns, domestic or international.
Also this Tuesday, the date that marks the centenary of the longest-serving monarch in British history, the final design for a bronze statue of the queen was presented to King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
The statue, which will be sculpted by Martin Jennings, depicts Queen Elizabeth II in her younger years, dressed in the ceremonial robes of the Order of the Garter, the oldest and most important order of chivalry in the world. United Kingdom.
The image, which will be 3 meters high on a 3.4 meter pedestal, is inspired by the portrait of the queen painted in 1955 by Pietro Annigoni.
It will be placed in St James’s Park, located in central London, close to Buckingham Palace.
The work will be inaugurated one hundred years after her birth, on April 21, 1926, when the then Princess Elizabeth was born in a house on Bruton Street, in the Mayfair neighborhood of London.
Lord Janvrin, chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee, stated that the image depicts her public role; according to Janvrin, if the statue showed her on horseback, as was considered to be the case, it would emphasize a more personal aspect.
The committee had to decide how to represent the queen to future generations, and, according to Janvrin, the intention was to highlight her “strong sense of duty” and commitment to public service.
In his video message, King Charles III said the Queen had lived through a period of “remarkable change and yet, with each decade, with each transformation, she remained constant, steadfast and utterly dedicated to the people she served.”
The memorial project in St James’s Park, designed by a team led by architect Lord Foster, also includes a bust of the Queen in her later years and a bronze statue of Prince Philip.
A bridge in the park will be rebuilt with a glass parapet reminiscent of a royal tiara.
These memorials are expected to be completed in approximately two years.
In addition to the statues in London, the memorial project will have a digital section, with a website that will invite the public to submit their own memories of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
The domain queenelizabeth.com belonged to the shipping company Cunard, but was donated to Queen Elizabeth II’s memorial.
The site will bring together a historical archive of memories, a social history of the events of the monarchy and will be complemented by a digital version of the “court circular”, which records the official agenda of the royal family.
There will also be a nationwide memorial program, in which a newly created trust, the Queen Elizabeth Trust, will support local community projects with the aim of bringing people together.
King Charles III, who will pay a state visit to the United States to meet US President Donald Trump next week, spoke of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s legacy of optimism and belief that “good will always prevail and that a new dawn is never far on the horizon.”
The king defended a “happier tomorrow”, which is “founded on peace, justice, prosperity and security”.
He also recalled that many may remember the Queen for “a brief personal encounter, a smile, a kind word that lifted one’s spirits… or for that charming twinkle in her eye as she shared a marmalade sandwich with Paddington Bear in the final months of her life.”
This text was originally published here.
