The event was a success, and its timing was fortunate \u2013 a year later the king, grief-stricken over the death of his youngest daughter, suffered a relapse of his mental illness.<\/p>\n
In June 1887, Queen Victoria<\/a> had to be persuaded to mark her golden jubilee; she had not celebrated her silver jubilee in 1862, which fell just after Prince Albert\u2019s death<\/a>. After 50 years, the golden jubilee would be \u201cjust hustle and bustle\u201d, she said, and the government was reluctant to spend money on it.\u00a0Ten years later, the celebrations were more lavish; it became an imperial celebration, with troops from all over the empire on parade. The procession to St Paul\u2019s was one of the first events to be filmed.<\/p>\n Huge crowds cheered the queen, who by then was too frail to leave her carriage to attend the cathedral service, so it was held on the steps where she could see it. \u201cNo one ever, I believe, has met with such an ovation,\u201d she wrote wonderingly in her journal that night, adding: \u201cThe cheering was quite deafening.\u201d<\/p>\n George V<\/a>\u2019s silver jubilee in May 1935, eight months before he died, was suggested by the government partly as a patriotic display of British unity, a warning to Europe\u2019s dictators, and partly with an eye to the forth coming general election. To his surprise, the gruff old king was greeted by cheering crowds on his way to the thanksgiving service at St Paul\u2019s. \u201cI am beginning to think they must really like me for myself,\u201d he murmured, and that evening broad cast on the BBC his thanks to the nation.<\/p>\n In 2022, Queen Elizabeth II<\/a> celebrates her record-extending platinum jubilee \u2013 no other British monarch has ever reigned for 70 years. While not all her previous jubilees were as hotly anticipated as this one, they have all been a display of the monarchy\u2019s enduring popularity\u2026<\/p>\n The success of the celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II\u2019s 25 years on the throne was by no means a foregone conclusion. The country was in an economic crisis, having been bailed out by the International Monetary Fund only the previous year.<\/p>\n There was a mood of political instability and discontent. Irreverent punk rock was the sound of the late seventies: the Sex Pistols launched their version of God Save the Queen<\/em> to coincide with the jubilee. The affair between Princess Margaret <\/a>and Roddy Llewellyn<\/a>, a landscape gardener (and baronet) who was 18 years her junior, had prompted ribald headlines, and there was a general sense of fraying tawdriness about the country.<\/p>\n James Callaghan\u2019s minority Labour government was reluctant to spend money on a celebration, but was talked into it by Sir Martin Charteris, the Queen\u2019s private secretary, despite warnings in the press that it was unlikely to be a success because no one would want to celebrate the monarchy. The predictions were all proved wrong.<\/p>\n Although the weather was grey over jubilee weekend in June, there were thousands of street parties \u2013 4,000 in London alone \u2013 and the crowds along the Queen\u2019s processional route from Buckingham Palace<\/a> to St Paul\u2019s stood six deep. There was a roaring trade in silver jubilee mugs, commemorative medals, tea towels and even Union Flag underpants. Five hundred million people around the world were said to have watched the celebrations on television.<\/p>\n The Queen was as surprised by the response as her grandfather had been 42 years earlier. She was greeted by enthusiastic crowds, both during her visits all around the nation (including Northern Ireland, then at the height of the Troubles) and on her trips to Commonwealth countries as far afield as Fiji and Canada. \u201cI am simply amazed: I had no idea,\u201d the Queen was overheard saying repeatedly.<\/p>\n One innovation was the walkabout, previously seen only in her 1970 New Zealand tour. The informal greeting of people lining the streets was now tried in the City of London following the cathedral service, and proved to be such a success that it has been a feature of royal visits ever since.<\/p>\n The only misstep came in the Queen\u2019s speech to the combined Houses of Parliament<\/a>, when she upset Scottish Nationalists by insisting: \u201cI cannot forget that I was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Perhaps the jubilee is a time to remind ourselves of the benefits which union has conferred.\u201d This was the nearest the Queen has ever come to expressing a politically contentious opinion.<\/p>\n The poet laureate Sir John Betjeman\u2019s celebratory hymn was also possibly a mistake: \u201cFrom that look of dedication \/ In those eyes profoundly blue \/ We know her coronation \/ As a sacrament and true.\u201d The sceptics were confounded, and the silver jubilee set a template for subsequent royal celebrations: a combination of formal official ceremonies and widespread visits, with informal local rejoicing.<\/p>\n Charteris told the royal biographer Ben Pimlott later: \u201cShe had a love affair with the country.\u201d Or, as one banner along the processional route had it, \u201cLiz Rules OK\u201d.<\/p>\n The 50th anniversary of the Queen\u2019s accession followed a decade of shocks to the monarchy: the divorces of three of her children, including the highly public and acrimonious split between Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales<\/a> and the subsequent death of Diana<\/a> in an accident in Paris; and the fire at Windsor Castle, after which it was announced that the Queen wished to pay income tax for the first time.<\/p>\n These were events that led to questioning of both the monarchy\u2019s popularity and its long-term viability. As before the silver jubilee, there were predictions that the celebrations would be a flop. The emphasis of organisers at the palace, as one official told the journalist Robert Hardman, was informality: \u201cA lot of effort went into making it look unplanned.\u201d<\/p>\n1977: The silver jubilee<\/h3>\n
James Callaghan\u2019s minority Labour government was reluctant to spend money on a celebration, but was talked into it <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
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