Queen Eldest Grandchild Peter Phillips Gets Married

Princess Anne’s son, Peter Phillips has married his Canadian fiancée Autumn Kelly at the Berkshire castle’s St George’s Chapel today.

The couple met at the Montreal Grand Prix in 2003 while Peter Phillips was working with the Williams Formula 1 team. Peter did not tell Autumn that he was the Queen’s eldest grandson and 11th in line to the throne. She learnt the truth only after she spotted him in a television programme about Prince William.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip attended the ceremony which is the first wedding of one of their grandchildren.

[Read more]

Queen Elizabeth II Becomes the Oldest Britian Monarch

Photo: © Corbis
Queen Elizabeth II was set Thursday to become Britain’s oldest monarch, overtaking her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria amid signs the royal family is preparing for life after 81-year-old “Lillibet”.Victoria died in 1901 aged 81 years and 243 days, and Elizabeth will mark passing the milestone with neither pomp nor ceremony, spending the day as usual with her husband of 60 years, Prince Philip.

According to Buckingham Palace, Elizabeth was to pass Victoria’s record at around 5:00 pm (1700 GMT) Thursday — taking into account times of birth and death. Other observers, counting only in whole days, put the mark as Saturday.

She is the world’s second-longest living monarch, after Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej; has outlasted 11 prime ministers — the first was Sir Winston Churchill — and is the first to have a premier, Tony Blair, born in her reign.

Victoria will retain the record for longest-serving monarch ever for some time, though — she ruled Britain and its empire for nearly 64 years which Elizabeth will surpass if she is still on the throne on September 9, 2015.

Despite her age, the queen shows little sign of slowing down — last month, she and Prince Philip visited Uganda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting and she carried out 425 official engagements last year.