Image by Getty Images via @daylife

This has been a banner year for Her Majesty. After two royal weddings and several successful tours, she now looks forward to her Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

Throughout the year, many events kept Her Majesty busy. We take a look back at 2011 in review:

January

• 10^th: Singer Charlotte Church apologizes for referring to the Queen as ‘an old woman [who] has no idea what’s going on’. The Queen, who at almost 85 is one of the most experienced leaders in the world, wasn’t bothered in the slightest. People begin asking, “Charlotte who? Casiraghi?”

February

• 24th: Official visit to Wales by Prince William to introduce his fiancée and future Queen consort, Catherine Middleton.

March

• 17^th -18th: Prince William undertakes an official visit to New Zealand, representing The Queen.
• 19^th -21^st: Prince William continues on an official visit to Australia.

April

• 21^st: The Queen turns 85.
• 23^rd: The christening of Savannah Phillips, Elizabeth’s first great-grandchild.

• 29th: Her grandson and eventual heir, Prince William, marries Catherine. They become the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

May

• 3^rd – 5th: The Prince of Wales represents Her Majesty on a visit to the United States.
• 17th – 20th: State Visit to Ireland by The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh.
• 24th – 26th: State Visit from the President of the United States and Mrs. Obama. The President and First Lady also meet with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
  

June

• 2^nd: The 58^th anniversary of Her Majesty’s coronation.
• 10^th: Prince Philip celebrates his 90^th birthday.
• 11^th: Her Majesty’s official birthday and Trooping the Color.
• 30^th: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge begin their extensive tour of Canada, representing the Queen.

July

• 1st – 8th: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge continue their Canadian tour, with a brief stop in Los Angeles, California in the USA.
• 11th: The year was darkened by the loss of a lovely man. The Queen’s first cousin, Lord Harewood, dies at age 88.
• 30th: The Queen’s eldest granddaughter, Zara Phillips, marries rugby captain Mike Tindall in Scotland.
  

August

• 15^th: Iranian media was caught publishing fake stories about an anti-monarchy uprising in the UK. The Guardian reports that the press for the Islamic regime used photos of the miners’ strike of 1984, a bloodied man who was involved in a football skirmish in 2010, among others, to pretend that there were anti-monarchy riots across Britain.
  

September

• 12^th: The BBC presents The Queen’s Palaces, a three-part landmark television series hosted by Fiona Bruce.

October

• 19th – 29th: The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh tour Australia. A protocol controversy brews upon being met at the airport by Prime Minister Julia Gellard, who bowed instead of curtseying. The rest of the tour is a smashing success.

November

• 2nd: Working visit to Copenhagen by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. They meet with Crown Prince Frederik and his wife, Crown Princess Mary.
• 20th: The Queen and Prince Philip celebrate their 64th wedding anniversary.

• 22nd – 24th: The President of the Republic of Turkey and Mrs. Gül paid a State Visit to the UK as the guests of Queen Elizabeth II.

December

• The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh host one of the largest royal gatherings at Sandringham in years. A brief scare ensues when Prince Philip suffers chest pains and is taken to a nearby hospital. The Duke turns out to be fine, but requires a stent to open a blocked coronary artery.

A minute of silence was held across the Scandinavian countries today in honor of the victims of the terror attacks in Norway last Friday.

Several people, mostly teenagers, were gunned down at a Norwegian Labour party youth camp on the island of Utoeya. Simultaneously, a bomb was detonated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo just outside the Prime Minister’s office.

People across the world have offered their support and condolences.

“It was an attack against the very values that our countries are built upon. It was an attack against all of us,” Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said in a statement.

Queen Elizabeth II has sent her condolences to King Harald and his people. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden has also publicly stated her distress and sympathy over the deaths on Swedish television, and has attended a memorial service in honor of the deceased. The Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix, along with her Prime Minister Mark Rutte, expressed shock at the attacks. President Obama of the United States telephoned Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg with his sympathies.

I am hoping to see statements from other Royal Families, especially since Princess Mette-Marit’s own family member was killed trying to protect others.

UPDATE: Condolences from heads of state

Related articles

• Norway’s royal family to lead moment of silence for terror victims – Telegraph.co.uk (news.google.com)
• Norway terror suspect arrives in court (vanguardngr.com)
• Norway Gunman Kills 80 People After Oslo Bomb; Suspect Arrested (businessweek.com)
• Attorney: Norway suspect surprised he succeeded in alleged attacks (news.blogs.cnn.com)

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The Queen’s first cousin, Lord Harewood, has died aged 88.

George Lascelles, the 7th Earl of Harewood, had devoted much of his life to opera and served as the editor of the Opera magazine.

A family statement said he had died peacefully at his home, Harewood House in Leeds.

Lord Harewood was born in London on February 7, 1923. He was the first child of Henry Lascelles, Viscount Lascelles and his wife Princess Mary, the daughter of King George V. He was the king’s first grandchild.

Lord Harewood was educated at Ludgrove School, Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge. After his education he was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards where he rose to the rank of captain.

During World War II, Lord Harewood fought in Italy, but the Germans captured and held him as a prisoner of war from 1944 to the end of the war in May 1945. Later that year, Lord Harewood departed for Canada where he served as aide-de-camp to his great uncle, Lord Athlone, who was then Governor General of Canada.

As of May 24, 1947 George became known as the Earl of Harewood upon the death of his father, Henry.

Lord Harewood married Marion Stein in 1949. Their marriage produced David, Viscount Lascelles (b.1950), The Honourable James Lascelles (b. 1953) and The Honourable Jeremy Lascelles (b. 1955).

The marriage ended in divorce in 1967, which at that time was considered scandalous. Harewood wanted to marry his mistress, Patricia Tuckwell, who had given birth to their son Mark in 1964. The Queen, however, gave her consent to Harewood’s second marriage. The wedding took place in New Canaan, Connecticut, in the United States.

Harewood’s marriage to Patricia lasted until his death. His brother, Gerald Lascelles, predeceased him in 1998. For more information, please visit the official Harewood website: http://www.harewood.org/whats-on/news/1/762

Funeral of Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon Parma. Video courtesy of RoyalblogNL.

Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon Parma, a branch of the Spanish House of Bourbon, died August 18th in Barcelona. Carlos Hugo was a Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne.

Carlism is a legitimist political movement in Spain which seeks to place the descendants of Infante Carlos, Count of Molina (1788 – 1855) on the Spanish throne. They only recognize the semi-Salic succession law that gave Infante Carlos precedence over King Ferdinand VII’s daughter, Isabella II.

Infante Carlos had been the heir until his brother Ferdinand created his unborn child the next in line to the throne. The baby would be the new heir, regardless of sex, and when it was revealed to be a girl, Carlos and various cadet Bourbon family branches declared her father’s claim invalid and illegal. This dispute over the laws of succession, coupled with disappointment in the loss of Spanish colonies in the Caribbean, fueled the movement.

Prince Carlos Hugo’s father publicly laid claim to the Spanish throne as Javier I in 1952. He was ignored by Spain’s leader at the time, dictator Francisco Franco, who later chose Infante Juan Carlos to be his successor and restore the monarchy. King Juan Carlos rules today, and his son, Crown Prince Felipe, is the next in line to the throne.

Carlist – Wikipedia

Even if you aren’t a history buff, the thought of the end of a generation is mind blowing.

I realized with breathtaking finality what it meant when I saw the Queen attending the service at Westminster Abbey to “mark the passing of the World War I generation”. The words alone are astounding.

This year, the three remaining veterans of WWI passed away: William Stone in January, and both Harry Patch and Henry Allingham in July. Allingham was the oldest Royal Navy Veteran, the last survivor of the battle of Jutland, and a founding member of the Royal Air Force.

The families of many of these WWI heroes attended the service. The Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, laid a wreath on The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to commemorate the event.

http://www.royal.gov.uk/LatestNewsandDiary

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, known to the world as The Queen Mother, was born today in 1900.

Elizabeth was born to the aristocratic Strathmore family in Scotland. Her father was Lord Glamis, later 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.

She lived an idyllic life in Glamis Castle and the Strathmores’ country house, St Paul’s Walden Bury. Elizabeth’s closest companion was her younger brother, David. They were the youngest children in the family – ninth and tenth respectively.

Elizabeth blossomed into a lovely, well-bred lady who caught the eye of King George V’s second son, the Duke of York. Albert, or Bertie, proposed to her several times before she accepted him. Little did Elizabeth know that with this marriage she would be making history.

Bertie was not meant to be king. That duty was supposed to be passed from his father to his elder brother, Edward. The Prince of Wales did not want the crown, however. He was madly in love with American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Edward declared that she would be crowned with him, or he’d abdicate. He chose the latter, and many said that the decision saved Britain and the Royal Family.

Bertie and Elizabeth, once the Duke and Duchess of York with a simple life and two sweet little girls, now became King and Queen of Great Britain. Their daughters were now very much divided according to education and training – little Elizabeth would eventually be queen, so she was given maximum exposure to state documents and ceremonial minutiae. Margaret was allowed free reign and she received no education except for the study of social graces.

The King grew more and more ill as time went on. The stress of World War II and his constant smoking and drinking eventually took their toll, and he passed away in early 1952. Young Elizabeth was now Queen Elizabeth II and her mother was the Dowager Queen.

The elder Elizabeth viewed appearances as one of life’s top priorities. Instead of being a dowager queen, which sounded sad and dowdy to her ears, she re-styled herself as “Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother”. Those close to the family noted how she deftly inserted the title of Queen twice!

The Queen Mother lived until the age of 101. She was an active, lively lady who held considerable influence within the Royal Family up until the end.

She died in her sleep in March 2002 at the Royal Lodge, Windsor, with Queen Elizabeth II at her bedside. Princess Margaret had died just a few months before in February.

Seven years after her death, the Queen Mother was remembered by the public and the Royal Family at the unveiling of her statue. Placed next to the statue of King George VI, the Queen was sculpted wearing her Garter Robes, her age approximately 50. She now looks down the Mall at the Palace, keeping a watchful eye over all.

Lady Diana Frances Spencer, Princess of Wales, was born this day in 1961.

The precocious Diana was the daughter of Johnny Spencer and Frances Roche.

At the time of her birth, Diana’s father was titled Viscount Althorp. On his father’s death in June 1975, Johnny became Earl Spencer. Now the daughter of an Earl, Diana became known as ‘Lady Diana’.

The Spencer family consisted of two daughters, Sarah and Jane, when Diana was born. She had an elder brother named John, but sadly he died at birth. Shortly after Diana’s debut in the world, she was followed by a younger brother, Charles Edward.

Lady Diana married Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales at St. Paul’s Cathedral on July 29th, 1981. As neighbors on the royal Sandringham estate, their families had known each other for many years, and Lady Diana and The Prince had met again when he was invited to a weekend at Althorp in November 1977.

During her marriage, Diana undertook a wide range of royal duties as the Princess of Wales. She especially focused on charities and projects set up to help those in need.

Charles and Diana had two sons, Princes William and Harry, within two years of one another. Both Princes are extremely active today in charities that Diana was particularly fond of during her life.

Though Diana and Prince Charles divorced in 1996, she was still considered a part of the royal family and was styled ‘Diana, Princess of Wales’.

On August 31st of the following year, Diana died in a tragic car accident in a Paris tunnel. Though still alive when pulled from the wreckage, her two companions – driver Henri Paul and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed – were dead at the scene. Diana died later at the hospital.

The Queen gave an extremely rare live address to the nation on September 5th from Buckingham Palace. In her speech, Her Majesty stated:

No-one who knew Diana will ever forget her. Millions of others who never met her, but felt they knew her, will remember her. I for one believe there are lessons to be drawn from her life and from the extraordinary and moving reaction to her death. I share in your determination to cherish her memory.

See the official Royal website’s tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales.