The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s son has been born in the year of the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation.
Sixty years ago, thousands of people lined the route from Buckingham Palace on June 2, 1953, to catch a glimpse of the young Queen Elizabeth II, the baby’s great-grandmother, on her way to Westminster Abbey.
An estimated 27 million people crowded around television sets to watch the sacred, religious ceremony, in which the monarch took the Coronation oath, was anointed and crowned.
The Royals, including William and Kate with her baby bump, gathered at Westminster Abbey in June to mark the milestone.
The new Royal baby was also born in the same month as Andy Murray’s historic victory at Wimbledon, when he became the first British man to lift the coveted trophy for 77 years.
The birth of William and Kate’s son is seen as the high point in a recent revival of interest in the Royal Family
He also arrived in the same month that William’s cousin Zara Phillips and her husband Mike Tindall announced they were expecting their first baby too – another great-grandchild for the Queen.
2013 has been an unsettling year health-wise for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Both of them were hospitalised at different stages, with Philip undergoing surgery on his abdomen.
With the Queen now 87 and the Duke having turned 92, it was announced that the monarch would miss the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka later in the year, sending heir to the throne the Prince of Wales instead.
The birth of William and Kate’s son is seen as the high point in a recent revival for the Royal Family.
Since 2010 and the announcement of William and Kate’s engagement, there has been a renewed interest in the Windsors.
Millions tuned in to watch William and Kate’s Royal wedding in April 2011 and a year later, in June 2012, well-wishers were out in force for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, with the monarch describing the celebrations of the anniversary of her accession as a “humbling experience”.
The arrival of the Cambridges’ son comes 20 years on from turbulent times in the House of Windsor. The year 1993 saw the full public-ation of an intimate late-night telephone conversation between Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, as she was then.
Dubbed “Camillagate”, the infamous tape, made in December 1989 and part-exposed at the end of the Queen’s annus horribilis 1992, damaged Charles’s reputation and further exposed his relationship with Camilla.
Buckingham Palace also opened to the public for the first time in 1993 – at £8 a ticket – to raise money to repair fire-damaged Windsor Castle after widespread opposition to using taxpayers’ money for the restoration. The Queen began paying income tax and capital gains tax voluntarily 20 years ago in 1993 on her personal income.
Twenty-five years ago, Princess Beatrice was born, and 100 years ago the new baby’s great-great-great grandfather King George V was on the throne.