But the fact is that a regency is something that is done on behalf of the monarch, and in this case the monarch has laid down the rules and asked for it to be done, which is an important distinction.” Hardman told The Daily Beast: “The last time that an heir to the throne opened Parliament, he was called the Prince Regent, so it is understandable that is how some people are seeing this. The big difference concerning Monday’s move was that the queen a) put her heir, Charles, in her place rather than using a mere functionary for the task and b) according to royal historian Robert Hardman, author of the new biography Queen of Our Times, she did so by invoking the Regency Act of 1937 and, specifically, Section 6 (1) which states: “In the event of illness… the Sovereign may… delegate, for the period of that illness or absence… such of the royal functions as may be specified.” Queen Victoria regularly skipped this particularly duty, sending the crown on a velvet cushion, just as the queen did today.īut an important if slightly obscure point is that on those occasions the monarchs asked a senior parliamentary official to fill in for her, essentially, an ad hoc basis.
The queen has actually missed the state opening of Parliament twice, while she was pregnant (with Andrew) and 1963 (with Edward). It is not unprecedented for the monarch not to make the ceremony. George IV, the heir, was made regent and took on all his father’s duties. The only time Britain has had a formal regency is under George III, who was periodically declared insane. The official line is that the queen has “mobility problems”-the terminology was updated in a briefing Monday to become “episodic mobility problems”-but this explanation is increasingly thought to be a major understatement, especially in light of the legal mechanism that the queen used to step away from Tuesday’s commitment: the Regency Act. The decision of Elizabeth to pull out of the event at the last minute has served to deepen national anxiety about her health, which has become a source of much comment since the death of her husband, Prince Philip, last year.
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