Five Fun Facts about the Queen |
If these fascinating facts are anything to go by, the Diamond Jubilee is going to be a spectacular occasion!
1. The Queen now only has four years left to go to become Britain's longest serving monarch - Queen Victoria reigned for an amazing 63 years. Although she's still a long way from beating King Sobhuza II of Swaziland's record whose 82 years and 9 months on the throne have gone down in history as the longest recorded monarchial reign. There have only been four other monarchs in British history who have reigned for over 50 years: George III (59 years), Henry III (56 years), Edward III (50 years), James VI of Scotland (James I of England) (58 years), so the Queen knocked Edward III out of his top five slot many years ago!
2. Although you wouldn't normally associate The Queen with the music industry, Her Majesty is a recipient of a gold disc award due to the success of the CD of the Party at the Palace concert held in 2002. 100,000 copies of the CD (produced by EMI) were sold within the first week of its release! Party at the Palace was held to celebrate The Queen's golden jubilee and was one of the most watched concerts in history with around 200 million viewers tuning in all over the world.
3. The Golden Jubilee marked a new moment in history for The Queen's bodyguards, as for the first time ever they all went on parade together. Taking part in the 300-strong collective were units from the Gentlemen at Arms (created by King Henry VIII in 1509), the Yeoman of the Guard (created by King Henry VII in 1485) and the Yeoman Warders (one of the oldest corps in the world dating back probably to the eleventh century and based at the Tower of London).
4. It's a good job there wasn't a power cut in London over the Golden Jubilee weekend as the events taking place required around 10 Mega Watts of power which is about twice the amount needed to supply Canary Wharf! Five hundred miles of cabling were laid so the events could be broadcast to countries all around the globe, there were also over 50 studios and edit booths set up. 3521 media from over 60 countries were accredited to cover the Golden Jubilee Central Weekend.
5. The internet played a huge part in The Queen's Golden Jubilee communications. Her Majesty sent two emails, one which was circulated to all the schools in Norwich and another which was sent to schools all around the world, The Queen also received over 30,000 congratulatory emails from her well-wishers. To further demonstrate just how a modern monarch keeps in touch with their citizens, Her Majesty made a downloadable video which was uploaded to the British Monarchy website and contained a Jubilee message, she also talked to school children in the Australian outback through video link. The Golden Jubilee website received 28 million hits over a six month period so it's a good job that The Queen is so web savvy!
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