After nearly a year of ill health, Her Majesty has traveled to Edinburgh, but there is much more to this journey than tradition.
What do the Queen, pneumatic Katie Price and disgraced former British Prime Minister Matt Hancock have in common today? (Not a trick question, really.)
They have all been caught undetected by photographers and are all on the front page of The sun.
While Price was in the headlines after being reported to the police just a week after avoiding jail for violating a restraining order and Hancock was filmed dancing with students in Oxford (shudder), what did Her Majesty do? was that newsworthy?
She walked.
Or, more accurately, she was filmed in secret as she made her way on her own, and with a pretty impressive clip too, without a single hovering footman or assistant to help her out.
In particular, the 96-year-old monarch did her front page worthy walk en route to the Royal Train which then headed north to Edinburgh to take part in Scottish Royal Week.
On Tuesday morning, Australians woke up to new images of Her Majesty looking so excited as if her favorite gelding had just won the Gold Cup while taking part in the official Ceremony of the Keys.
Normally around this time of year, the Queen heads to her official Scottish residence, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, to indulge in some Scottish charm – how normal and the Royal Family have long since parted ways.
While Buckingam Palace made noises last week saying she hoped to make the trip as courtiers have spent most of the past year apologizing for the last minute when the Queen bows to an event, a no-show on her Your Majesty’s part this year wouldn’t have raised a single eyebrow.
And yet, a la Mark Twain, reports of the sovereign’s demise have been greatly exaggerated, at least today.
So how to explain the Lazarean-esque return of the Sovereign to the limelight so soon after Her Majesty managed to thoroughly celebrate all four days of platinum anniversary celebrations in public for just 27 minutes in total?
The answer may have everything to do with a woman who knows her way around a sensible orthopedic pump – Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Sturgeon has campaigned fervently for Scotland’s independence and will announce plans for a second referendum on Tuesday, UK time, possibly in October.
And guess who will be required to have an audience with the Queen while she is in residence at Holyroodhouse? Step forward Prime Minister Sturgeon.
Coincidences really aren’t one of those things the palace is all about, like gluten-free scones or public apologies.
While the official royal line has been that there is no opinion on whether Scots should split from the rest of Britain, Her Majesty clearly has a dog (or should that be a corgi?) in this fight.
The official union of England and Scotland dates back to 1603 and James I and presiding over the disintegration of this political marriage would put quite a damper on the end of Elizabeth II’s reign.
But before everyone starts to gently sniff their tissues and mournfully hum God Save the Queen, the woman in question (at least as of today) just reminded us how cunningly she uses her gentle power.
While the Queen is obligated to remain apolitical, that doesn’t mean she’s never indulged in delicate moments.
For example, during the Scottish independence referendum of 2014, Her Majesty happened to say to a waiting member of the crowd outside her local Balmoral church on the subject of the upcoming vote: “Well, I hope people will think very carefully about the future.”
Last year the former Financial times Editor Lionel Barber’s diaries were published in which he claimed that three days before Her Majesty rolled out that rule, Prince Andrew revealed over lunch at Buckingham Palace that his mother intended to look into the Scottish situation.
“They had clearly planned it. It was very artfully done,” Barber wrote.
Then there was the case in 2019 when the Queen addressed that the most famous of political bodies, the Sandringham Women’s Institute, urged the British “to seek common ground” and “never [lose] view of the bigger picture” in what was widely read as an allusion to the tense Brexit negotiations.
One of the most extraordinary examples of the Queen’s talent for using her soft power came in Ghana in 1961. maybe become captivated by Russia and President Nikita Kruschev.
In November of that year, Her Majesty and Robin van Her Batman, Prince Philip, would visit Ghana for an official trip, just as the sectarian violence began. Days before she was due to arrive, two bombs exploded in Accra, the capital.
Understanding what was at stake, the Queen bravely went ahead with the visit, saying, “I’m not a movie star. I’m the head of the Commonwealth – and I’m paid to face all the risks involved.”
What’s interesting here is that she understood what was at stake: not only the threat of Ghana’s potential slide into communism, but that this visit would be the benchmark for the relationship between Britain and the mob of former colonies that at the time sought independence.
Photos of her doing the foxtrot with Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah reverberated around the world, sending an incredibly powerful message of equality. (It would be another four years before the Voting Rights Act in the United States went into effect giving black men and women equal access to the vote.)
In short: Ghana resisted the Soviets and remained in the Commonwealth.
What is often overlooked when it comes to Her Majesty is that she is much more than a ceremonial figure who knows her way around a scepter.
In her seven decades, she has attended approximately 3,640 audiences with 14 British Prime Ministers, hosted more than 100 world leaders and visited more than 100 countries.
Another good example was the 1991 meeting of Commonwealth heads of government in Harare, where apartheid and sanctions against South Africa were one of the main topics under discussion.
The then 65-year-old queen did her usual dinner, when, who would show up, but Nelson Mandela who was not on the guest list because he was not a head of state.
Astute as ever, Her Majesty understood the seriousness and symbolism of her response.
“The Queen saw this immediately and said ‘put an extra seat, I mean let’s not mess with this’ and Mandela took part in the dinner,” Lord Robin Janvrin, the Queen’s then private secretary, recalled earlier this year during a BBC interview.
Or there is the events of 2011 when she and Philip traveled to the Republic of Ireland for the first state visit in a century. (The massive security operation required cost $46 million.)
When the Queen stepped down from the tour by starting her speech in Gaelic, there was a “gasp” from the crowd gathered in Dublin Castle, Prime Minister David Cameron later revealed.
“It was a brilliant moment,” he said.
And that’s the thing about Her Majesty: Not only is she good at the charm offensive part of governing, but she’s also a very smart switchboard operator who has learned how to win friends over in the international community and influence people.
That is to say, on a trip to Scotland this week, this is not Her Majesty’s first diplomatically delicate rodeo, nor her first intervention.
What’s so joyful to see is that even at her very advanced age, despite suffering from “episodic mobility issues” and having no shortage of headache-inducing, scandal-prone relatives to suck up her time and energy, she’s still becoming a dab is hand in statesmanship.
(Scottish nationalists may disagree on that last point…)
How much Scots can see of their Queen this week is still a great unknown, but the fact that the Royal Standard is flying over Holyroodhouse at the moment proves, when it comes to politics, not to be against Betty.
Daniela Elser is a royal expert and writer with over 15 years experience working with some of the leading Australian media titles