LONDON (CU)_Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II resumed royal duties on Tuesday (27 April) following a mourning period for her late husband, Prince Philip, who passed away on 9 April at Windsor Castle.
Participating in her first royal engagement, the 95-year-old monarch conducted virtual audiences with the ambassadors of Latvia and Ivory Coast. During the Audience, Ivita Burmistre, the ambassador from Latvia, as well as Sara Affoue Amani, the Ivory Coast ambassador, presented Her Majesty with their Letters of Credence and Letters of Recall from their predecessors.
As two weeks of royal court mourning ended on Friday, photographs from the palace showed the Queen dressed in a pale blue floral dress for the audiences, in stark contrast to the compulsory black attire she wore over the past couple of weeks.
While in mourning, Her Majesty proceeded to carry out her duties, including a retirement ceremony for Lord Chamberlain Earl Peel, who relinquished his role as the royal household’s most senior official, four days after Prince Philip’s death. However, her latest virtual audience marked the formal resumption of her duties since the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral service on 17 April, at St George’s Chapel in Windsor.
On 21 April, marking her 95th birthday, Her Majesty issued a message thanking well-wishers for their tribute to her late husband saying that she and her family were “deeply touched” by the support and kindness they’ve shown during a “period of great sadness”. “We have been deeply touched and continue to be reminded that Philip had such an extraordinary impact on countless people throughout his life,” she said, on behalf of the royal family.
The Duke of Edinburgh was laid to rest during a ceremony which was attended by a small congregation of 30 close family and friends in light of the pandemic. A private procession will be held ahead of the service, although the Queen did not take part, but instead watched the parade outside the chapel’s Galilee Porch, along with the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duchess of Cambridge.
