Word: queenly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...well, a ransom fit for a queen. Not that Elizabeth II was exactly ad venturing for booty, but when Britain's monarch returned home last week from a three-week tour of six Persian Gulf states, she brought back an assortment of trinkets worth an estimated $2 million. Quite a haul, even for someone who is reputed to be the world's wealthiest woman...
...largesse was just a trifle embarrassing since the Queen got a little bit better than she gave. Her official gifts to her hosts in Kuwait, Bah rain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman were sterling silver salvers engraved with a picture of the royal yacht Britannia. The Guardian estimated that the salvers probably cost between $4,000 and $6,000 apiece, adding somewhat cattily that Britain's "balance of payments on the transaction looks extremely healthy." Still, as the paper observed, "it's the thought that counts...
According to one British correspondent who accompanied the Queen and Prince Philip on the tour, Elizabeth was "slightly stunned" by the lavishness of the gifts bestowed on her by welcoming sheiks and princes. In Dubai, for example, the Queen gave "a little gasp" when she opened her present from Sheik Rashid: a necklace studded with sapphires surrounded by 300 diamonds, with matching earrings and ring. That was in addition to a solid gold tray, on which stood a pair of solid gold camels beneath two solid gold palm trees. Bahrain gave her a solid gold palm tree, 18 inches high...
What becomes of this embarrassment of riches? A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman, noting that "the gifts are given to the Queen personally, just as she gives gifts personally," said that the jewelry might be worn by Elizabethan a suitable state occasion, such as a return visit by one of her hosts, and that the treasures might be put on display eventually. Some Londoners thought the Queen should auction off the baubles and give the proceeds to charity. After all, the Queen already has one of the world's most awesome collections of personal jewelry...
...year is 1941. Winston Churchill has been executed. The King, rescued from the ruins of Buckingham Palace, is imprisoned in the Tower of London. The Queen and their two daughters are in exile in Australia. Thousands of Britons have been deported to work in German factories. A puppet government is ensconced in Westminster, but the Nazis jackboot the country as roughly as they ran occupied France. In Britain, too, there is a tough Resistance movement, as well as profiteers who will provide any quo for a quid...