Queen Elizabeth II will move to Windsor Castle, cancels events into May due to coronavirus
Buckingham Palace announced Tuesday that Queen Elizabeth II will move to Windsor Castle ahead of schedule and stay there beyond Easter, and will cancel major public events on her schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“As a sensible precaution and for practical reasons in the current circumstances, a number of changes are being made to the diary,” the palace said in a statement.
Audiences (face-to-face meetings between the 93-year-old queen and dignitaries) scheduled to take place this week will go on as planned but future audiences will be reviewed in line with “appropriate advice.”
The queen will move to Windsor Castle for the Easter period on Thursday, a week earlier than planned, and “it is likely” she will stay there beyond Easter, the statement said.
The queen typically spends most weekends at the castle about 25 miles west of London, and weekdays in Buckingham Palace in central London. She returned to the palace Monday from Windsor, judging from her standard seen flying over the palace.
“The Royal Standard is flying which means The Queen is back to work at Buckingham Palace and it’s business as usual. While the Queen is following all medical and government advice, she is continuing with Audiences, her red boxes and other business of state,” tweeted Dickie Arbiter, a former press secretary to the monarch.
The palace statement said that, after consulting with medical advisers and the government, upcoming public events with large numbers of people expected will be cancelled or postponed.
These canceled events include the annual Maundy Thursday service at St George’s Chapel in Windsor on April 9, and three garden parties scheduled at Buckingham Palace in May. Guests already invited to these parties will be asked to attend in 2021.
Two additional garden parties for the Not Forgotten Association and the National Trust also will not take place, the statement said.
Every summer, the queen invites more than 30,000 people from all walks of life to garden parties at Buckingham Palace and at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland, to recognize and reward people for public service.
Scheduled upcoming investitures, when the monarch awards individuals with knighthoods or medals, will be rearranged to later dates, the statement said.
The annual Trooping the Colour parade in June, the 75th anniversary of VE Day and the scheduled state visit by the Emperor and Empress of Japan may also be affected but decisions about those events will be made later in consultation with the government, the palace statement said.Â
The queen, who turns 94 next month, had already canceled a visit to Cheshire in northwest England this week due to coronavirus, and Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla canceled their mid-March spring tour to Jordan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Cyprus.
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