Jubilee: Balcony Moment Tells UK Monarchy’s Story over Years

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, surrounded by members of the family, stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the fly past after the Trooping The Color parade, in central London, Saturday, June 14, 2014. (AP)
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, surrounded by members of the family, stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the fly past after the Trooping The Color parade, in central London, Saturday, June 14, 2014. (AP)
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Jubilee: Balcony Moment Tells UK Monarchy’s Story over Years

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, surrounded by members of the family, stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the fly past after the Trooping The Color parade, in central London, Saturday, June 14, 2014. (AP)
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, surrounded by members of the family, stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the fly past after the Trooping The Color parade, in central London, Saturday, June 14, 2014. (AP)

As a 9-year-old girl, Princess Elizabeth appeared with her family on Buckingham Palace’s balcony to mark her grandfather George V’s Silver Jubilee, an excited grin on her face as she gazed at the crowds below.

The better part of a century later, the former princess — now 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II — is expected to take to the same balcony this week to smile and wave at millions celebrating her 70 years on the throne.

The balcony appearance is the centerpiece of almost all royal celebrations in Britain, a chance for the public to catch a glimpse of the family assembled for a grand photo to mark weddings, coronations and jubilees. Every June, the extended royal family put on their finest uniforms, hats and frocks and gather to mark the queen’s birthday, celebrated with an extravagant military parade known as Trooping the Color and concluding with the balcony moment after the Royal Air Force flies past.

Balcony images through the decades chronicle the changing faces of the monarchy, and offer snapshots of many milestones in Elizabeth’s life. As a young woman, the princess donned her military uniform and stood alongside Winston Churchill to celebrate the end of World War II in 1945.

Eight years later, she wore the Imperial State Crown and regal robes to greet a sea of ecstatic subjects after her own coronation.

This Thursday, the family’s Platinum Jubilee balcony appearance will be notable for those who will be absent. Palace officials announced earlier this month that “after careful consideration,” the queen decided that only working members of the royal family and their children will gather on the balcony.

That means that Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, who stepped away from frontline royal duties and moved to California in 2020, and their young children will be excluded. So will Prince Andrew, who has been disgraced by a sex scandal and his links to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“I think the decision to only have current working members of the royal family on the balcony was a very sensible one because it avoids any awkward situations,” said Emily Nash, royal editor at HELLO! magazine.

“People are watching the family dynamic to see if there are tensions, and there would be a huge outcry, I think, if we see Prince Andrew on the balcony. So it resolves all those issues in one fell swoop,” Nash added. “But the palace had made it clear throughout that Harry and Meghan remain very much loved members of the family and they will be here.”

Harry and Meghan, known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have said they will fly to the UK with their two young children and that they look forward to joining the long weekend of festivities. The trip will be the family’s first visit to Harry’s home country, and any appearance they make at Jubilee events — including a service at St. Paul’s Cathedral and a possible second balcony gathering on Sunday — will be closely watched.

Andrew, meanwhile, will be kept out of the public spotlight after he recently reached a multi-million-pound settlement with a woman who filed a US lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault when she was 17 years old. The queen’s second son was stripped of his honorary military titles in January amid the scandal.

Some royal watchers say the limited balcony lineup this Thursday is also consistent with a longstanding desire by Prince Charles to slim down the monarchy.

The decision means the queen will be flanked Thursday on the balcony by her 73-year-old heir, Charles, and his wife Camilla; Prince William, the second in line to the throne, with his wife Kate and their three children; and Charles’ siblings, Princess Anne and Prince Edward, along with their spouses.

Several other less recognizable working royals will join the group, including the queen’s cousin, the Duke of Gloucester and his wife, as well as the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra.

While some past balcony gatherings have included a large contingent of royals — including the queen’s distant cousins — the Diamond Jubilee celebration in 2012 saw the queen accompanied by just five close family members: Charles, Camilla, William, Kate and Harry.

“It was making a point, it’s saying -- this is the future, folks,” said Robert Hardman, the monarch’s biographer and author of “Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II.”

For this week, “it’s not a case of Andrew or Harry or Meghan being barred from the balcony,” Hardman added. “They have withdrawn from royal duties, so they’re not part of the operational unit. That’s what it’s all about.”

The tradition of a balcony appearance began with Queen Victoria, who transformed Buckingham Palace into the monarch’s official residence and a royal family home in the 19th century. Victoria made the first royal balcony appearance during celebrations marking the opening of the 1851 Great Exhibition.

It’s a symbolic moment of the crown and people coming together, said Ed Owens, a royal historian and author of “The Family Firm: Monarchy, Mass Media and the British Public 1932-1953.”

“It was popularized as this moment where the nation came to look up to the royals,” Owens said.

It’s a formal occasion, though mischievous royal children often steal the scene. Harry, at 3 and still in his mother Diana’s arms, made an impression when he stuck his tongue out at photographers.

Royal watchers are hopeful that the queen, who has trouble getting around now and recently missed out on several major public engagements, will be present for Thursday’s balcony moment and at least one or two of the events planned for the four-day Platinum Jubilee weekend. But there are no promises.

“We can’t take anything for given at this point — at the age of 96, you have good days and bad days,” said Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine. “The palace is very much taking it one day at a time.”



White Truffles, Italy's Gold, Menaced by Climate Change

A truffle farmer sells his production during the truffle market in Sorges, southwestern France. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau.
A truffle farmer sells his production during the truffle market in Sorges, southwestern France. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau.
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White Truffles, Italy's Gold, Menaced by Climate Change

A truffle farmer sells his production during the truffle market in Sorges, southwestern France. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau.
A truffle farmer sells his production during the truffle market in Sorges, southwestern France. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau.

Deep in a thick forest in Italy's northwestern Piedmont region, the hunt is on for the white Alba truffle, with excited dogs zigzagging and digging into the wet earth.
But the culinary treasure is becoming increasingly rare, undermined by climate change.
"Go find it! Where is it?" Carlo Marenda, a part-time truffle hunter, calls out to Gigi and Buk, seven month- and 13-year-old crosses between the Spinone Italiano and Lagotto Romagnolo breeds, prized for their keen sense of smell, AFP reported.
Autumn leaves crunch under the weight of boots sinking into muddy soil. Below a picturesque hillside vineyard not far from Alba, trails wind along the Rio della Fava, crossing damp ground ideal for growing truffles.
Sought after by gourmets and starred chefs around the globe, the white truffle of Alba, the most prestigious in the world, is an underground fungus growing in symbiosis with certain hardwood trees by attaching itself to their roots.
Its intense and refined scent, a mixture of hay, garlic and honey, allows hunting dogs to detect it, even if the truffle is sometimes buried up to a meter deep.
Introduced to truffle hunting at the age of five by a family friend, Carlo Marenda, 42, founded the "Save the Truffle" association in 2015, alongside Edmondo Bonelli, a researcher in natural sciences.
It was an octogenarian "trifulau" loner, Giuseppe Giamesio, known as "Notu" and the last descendant of a family with a century-old truffle tradition, who revealed his secrets to him and bequeathed his dogs just before his death in 2014.
The master's message was a testament: "If we want to prevent the disappearance of the truffle, we must protect the forests, stop polluting the waterways and plant new 'truffle' trees".
Ten years later, thanks to donations and the support of some winegrowers, the association has planted more than 700 such trees in the hilly Langhe area, including poplars, oaks and lindens.
Notu's legacy
"Notu passed on to me his passion for truffle hunting and tree preservation," said Marenda, emerging from his metallic grey Fiat Panda 4X4, the preferred car of truffle hunters.
In the last three decades, the areas dedicated to white truffles in Italy have dropped by 30 percent, gradually giving way to more profitable vineyards, but also hazelnut groves.
The Langhe hills provide a large quantity of hazelnuts to the chocolate giant Ferrero, which was founded in 1946 in Alba, a small prosperous town of 30,000 inhabitants.
But the main threat to the white truffle, whose harvest was classified as an intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 2021, is climate change.
Global warming, drought, deforestation and sudden temperature changes are all factors weakening the natural habitat of this fungus.
To survive, the truffle needs cold and humidity. At the beginning of November, however, the temperature was at 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit).
"With the prolongation of summer weather, production is definitely falling", he lamented.
Soaring prices
The harvest, running from October to the end of January, is getting shorter. And with the delayed cold and snow to arrive, "the aroma of the truffles is not yet 100 percent and they don't keep as long", Marenda said.
Abundant rain, as seen in recent weeks, can also be harmful, he said.
"If there is too little water, the truffle does not grow. If there is too much, it rots."
Alerted by Buk, Marenda crouched down to the ground to delicately scratch the earth with a narrow spade, extracting a truffle, albeit rather modest in size.
On whether the white truffle is on the brink of extinction, experts say it isn't too late.

"Not yet. But if we don't act, it could become so," said Mario Aprile, president of the Piedmont truffle hunters' association.
"The white truffle cannot be cultivated, unlike the black one. Without trees, there are no truffles. We plant them to rebuild biodiversity," Aprile said.
Faced with limited supply and booming demand, the white truffle is trading at a high price, reaching 4,500 euros per kilo this year at the International Alba White Truffle Fair which ends December 8.
Two "twin" white truffles, bound to the same root and dug up by Aprile, were the stars of the annual world charity auction for white truffles in Alba Sunday.
Weighing a total of 905 grams (2 lbs), the fungi were sold for 140,000 euros ($150,000) to a Hong Kong finance tycoon.