The unprecedented image of Elizabeth II with her great-grandchildren for what would have been her 97th birthday

The official account of the Princes of Wales has published this Friday, the day Elizabeth II would have turned 97, an image taken by Kate Middleton in which the late monarch appears surrounded by most of her great-grandchildren and two of her youngest grandchildren .

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
21 April 2023 Friday 06:45
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The unprecedented image of Elizabeth II with her great-grandchildren for what would have been her 97th birthday

The official account of the Princes of Wales has published this Friday, the day Elizabeth II would have turned 97, an image taken by Kate Middleton in which the late monarch appears surrounded by most of her great-grandchildren and two of her youngest grandchildren . The photograph was taken at Balmoral Castle last August, just weeks before the former head of state of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth passed away.

Queen Elizabeth had eight grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren at the time of her death. Pictured are Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor; James, Earl of Wessex; Lena Tindall; Prince George; Princess Charlotte; Phillips Island; Prince Louis; Mia Tindall; Lucas Tindall and Savannah Phillips. In it are absent the children of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Archie and Lilibet, in addition to August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, the first son of Princess Eugenie of York; and Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi, daughter of Princess Beatrice of York.

Among her great-grandchildren it was customary in the British royal family to address the queen as 'Gan-Gan' (perhaps from great-granmother, great-grandmother in English). It was revealed by Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William, in 2016 on the occasion of the monarch's 90th birthday when describing Elizabeth II's relationship with her great-grandson, her heir. But it was not Prince George who invented this cute alias, because it was how King Carlos III already referred to his great-grandmother, and also how Guillermo and Enrique referred to theirs, his queen mother.

Among Queen Elizabeth II's lesser-known grandchildren are Prince Edward's children, Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor and James, the new Earl of Wessex following their father's appointment as Duke of Edinburgh. They are grandchildren of Isabel II and therefore are part of the generation of princes Guillemro, Enrique, Beatriz and Eugenia, but due to the wishes of their parents, they were not granted the princely title, just as Princess Ana preferred, whose children , Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips, have never been princes.

In the image published this Friday, Archie and Lilibet, the children of Meghan Markle, who already lived in Los Angeles when the photograph was taken, are absent. Lilibet, who bears this name in honor of Elizabeth II, as she was known by that nickname in her family environment, was the first great-granddaughter of the late queen to be born outside of British territory. After the death of Prince Philip of Edinburgh, another similar image was published with the couple together with their great-grandchildren, it did not appear Archie and Lilibet either, because it was taken in 2018, shortly before they were born.