The Queen has cancelled her public engagements due to a national crisis for the first time in her 68-year-reign.
Royal watchers said it was unprecedented for the Queen to call off her two public engagements later this month and to review future diary commitments. The move came as the government formally moved from the “contain” to the “delay” stage of the coronavirus “battle plan”.
A royal spokesman said: “As a sensible precaution and for practical reasons in the current circumstances, changes are being made to the Queen’s diary commitments in the coming weeks. In consultation with the medical household and government, Her Majesty’s forthcoming visits to Cheshire and Camden will be rescheduled.”
He insisted that private audiences would continue as usual, but other events would be reviewed in line with medical advice.
Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty Magazine, said: “This is uncharted waters – the royal rule book has had to be set aside. The Queen has always been duty first, over and above family, when that’s been necessary. She would have been very reluctant to postpone these events. But she’ll have seen it’s a sensible thing to do.
“It is a radical departure, but these are challenging times,” he said.
Little said the move cast doubt on the 75th-anniversary celebrations for VE Day, which the Queen was due to attend in May. And even Trooping the Colour in June could be cancelled. Little said: “It’s only been cancelled once during her reign, because of a train strike in the 1950s, but it must be something they are looking at. I think we will be seeing things happening in the next weeks and months that we haven’t seen before.”
He added: “The Queen must abide by the advice of medical experts, but this is new to us and new to Buckingham Palace.”
