Prince Charles will be 69 in November, the Duchess of Cornwall 70 in July and Prince William will be 35, also in July.
On the 6th of February, Her Majesty will celebrate 65 years as our sovereign head of state and on the 21st of April she will celebrate her 91st birthday and on the 20th November she and the Duke of Edinburgh will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary.
Remarkable anniversaries for a remarkable lady indeed.
In the 6th century, after the rule of Rome had ended there lived a philosopher called Boethius. He wrote a number of books, some drawing on the philosophy of Plato and Socrates. One of his books was called ‘The Consolation of Philosophy’. King Alfred the Great was so taken with this work that he had it translated into English which was a huge task for those days. He wrote an introduction to his translation:
“What I set out to do was to virtuously and justly administer the authority given me. I desired the exercise of power so that my talents and my power might not be forgotten. But every natural gift and every capacity in us soon grows old and is forgotten if wisdom is not in it. Without wisdom no faculty can be fully brought out, for anything done unwisely cannot be accounted as skill. To be brief, I may say that it has always been my wish to live honourably, and after my death to leave to those who came after me my memory in good works.”
These are words which could well have influenced the long reign of Alfred’s direct descendant, our own Queen Elizabeth.
May God bless Her Majesty.
Yours sincerely,
Philip Benwell
National Chair