On this day, in London, a son was born to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, aka Prince William and Kate Middleton. The baby boy is at once third in line to the throne of England. For me, Anglophile that I am, it's not a little thrilling to see the royal family tree branch out today as it has through nearly 10 centuries. The Queen's two oldest sons are known as the Prince of Wales (Charles) and the Duke of York (Andrew), just as the two young Princes supposedly murdered by Richard III in the late 14th century were known. I've always appreciated tradition, and no people does it better than the British.
Today's blessed event takes me back to June 9th or 10th, 1980. I was in London then, watching the annual Trooping of the Colors ceremony. I was standing in a crowded street, watching the Queen, in her early fifties, galloping by on her horse just 20 feet away from me; she was followed by a horse and carriage which carried the Queen Mother, the widow of George VI, who was then about 80 years old (she lived to see her 100th birthday). Later they and the rest of the royals returned to the palace, and all came out to the balcony of Buckingham Palace to wave at the common folk. I felt very privileged to be there, and thankful that my European trip coincided with this famous event. But the privilege takes on special meaning in retrospect, because at the time I was there, no one could have guessed that the Royal Family as we had known it for decades was coming to the end of its era, and a revolutionary new era was literally weeks away from beginning, The central figure of that new era was a young woman named Diana Spencer, and the day I was there was one of the last days before the world knew she existed. Just a few months later came the announcement of the engagement between her and Charles, and nothing would ever be the same for England again. And if she were alive today, she would be a new grandmother.
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