Queen Elizabeth II Releases New Portrait To Celebrate Her 96th Birthday

Apr 21, 2022 by apost team

It's a big year for Queen Elizabeth II, who in February celebrated 70 years as Queen of the United Kingdom and 15 Commonwealth realms. This is not only a milestone for her but for the entire world, as she is the first British ruling monarch to reach the seven-decade mark. In fact, she's already made history and is the fourth longest-serving monarch ever. 

To celebrate the momentous occasion, a full schedule of events is taking place this year, culminating in the first weekend of June, but a few celebrations have already happened. These included the announcement of special commemorative stamps and a 50 pence coin, as well as the unveiling of the official emblem for the Platinum Jubilee.

While the celebrations coincide with the Queen's Birthday holiday in June, Elizabeth's actual birthday is today, April 21. The tradition of the British monarch celebrating two birthdays dates back to King George II in 1748. The reason is actually due to the weather — King George II's birthday was in November, which is a terrible month for weather in Britain. In order to best celebrate outdoors, it was decided that a big outdoor celebration would take place in June to make use of the better summer weather. Ever since, the Trooping the Colour event has taken place in June, regardless of when the ruling monarch's actual birthday is.

So while Elizabeth's "official" birthday is celebrated in June, as per royal tradition, her actual birthday will be celebrated privately today, as she turns an incredible 96 years old. Let's take a closer look.

In 2021, Queen Elizabeth's 95th birthday was a very sad one, as she lost her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, on April 9, less than two weeks before her birthday on April 21. Her big day took place during the official period of mourning for her late husband and the mood was made even more somber by the global pandemic. At the time the UK was in lockdown, which put restrictions on the number of people that could meet.

What's more, although the queen usually spends her actual birthday in April privately with family, typically there are gun salutes across London to mark the occasion publicly. Normally, a 41-gun salute takes place in Hyde Park, a 21-gun salute in Windsor Great Park and the Tower of London does a 62-gun salute. However, because of the pandemic, the gun salutes did not take place in 2021 due to the lockdown, while the royal family was also in mourning at the time. In fact, even the Trooping the Colour parade was canceled last year, which marked only the third time in the queen's reign that the parade didn't take place.

Instead, for Elizabeth's 95th birthday — her first without Prince Philip in over seven decades — the royal family drew up a rota between themselves to keep her company. This included spacing out phone calls over the course of the day so that the monarch wouldn't have to spend her special day alone. According to The Mirror, on the days around her birthday, the queen was also visited by some members of the royal family such as Princess Anne and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, as well as Prince Andrew and Princess Eugenie and her son August.

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Last year, the queen also didn't release a new portrait to the public to mark her birthday, which is a tradition for members of the royal family. She did, however, release a statement and thanked the public for their tributes and messages following the death of Prince Philip. It read:

"I have, on the occasion of my 95th birthday today, received many messages of good wishes, which I very much appreciate."

She added:

"While as a family we are in a period of great sadness, it has been a comfort to us all to see and to hear the tributes paid to my husband, from those within the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and around the world.

"My family and I would like to thank you for all the support and kindness shown to us in recent days. We have been deeply touched, and continue to be reminded that Philip had such an extraordinary impact on countless people throughout his life."

This year, however, the queen released a beautiful portrait to celebrate her 96th birthday. The photo featured two of her fell ponies, named Bybeck Katie and Bybeck Nightingale, and a very happy Elizabeth between them.

The photo was captioned,

"Ahead of The Queen’s 96th Birthday tomorrow, @windsorhorse have released a new photograph of Her Majesty. Taken last month in the grounds of Windsor Castle, The Queen is pictured with two of her fell ponies, Bybeck Katie and Bybeck Nightingale.

Happy Birthday Your Majesty!"

It's unclear how she intends to celebrate her birthday this year and since pandemic restrictions have eased in the UK, it's possible she will spend the day with some of her family members. We wish Elizabeth a very happy 96th birthday!

Happy birthday to Queen Elizabeth! Are you impressed that at 96 years old she's still working as head of the British monarchy? Let us know, then pass this on to those you know.