God Save the Queen!

The words and tune are anonymous, and may date back to the seventeenth century. In September 1745 the 'Young Pretender' to the British Throne, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, defeated the army of King George II at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh. In a fit of patriotic fervour after news of Prestonpans had reached London, the leader of the band at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, arranged 'God Save The King' for performance after a play. It was a tremendous success and was repeated nightly. There is no authorised version of the National Anthem as the words are a matter of tradition. Additional verses have been added down the years, but these are rarely used. This practice soon spread to other theatres, and the custom of greeting monarchs with the song as he or she entered a place of public entertainment was thus established. Bonnie Prince Charlie King George ll

People waited in the rain for the start of the river pageant to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee in London on Sunday.

New York California Celebrating around the World Australia Canada Sri Lanka

Queen's Diamond Jubilee: Retail Impact of £ million Spending on alcohol is expected to be £79.74 million, including £25.00 million on champagne. Celebration spending on food and non- alcoholic drinks will be £ million. £25.30 million is expected to result from retail spending by those attending the major Jubilee events. Souvenir spending, including 12 million coins and medallions, are expected to generate £ million in retail sales.

The cost to the taxpayer of supporting the Queen rose by nearly £1m during her Diamond Jubilee year, according to Buckingham Palace accounts. Official expenditure for the monarch in rose by £900,000 from £32.4m to £33.3m, the annual royal public finances report stated.

One recent poll showed 80 percent of British adults favoring the continuation of a monarchy, compared with 13 percent who preferred becoming a republic.

Class discussion

What do you think about the British Monarchy? What other monarchies do you know in the world today? Would you like to have a royal family in Colombia?

Different magazines around the world celebrated the jubilee with their readers.

Task

KING Imagine that you are writing the court circular for an absolute monarch in Hello magazine. What do they do in a day? What sort of things do you think the people would be interested to read? Choose one of the monarchs from the list on your worksheet and make a magazine spread showing a day or week in their life.