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AsQueen Elizabethwas mourning the death of her father, she was also stepping into her role as monarch.
King George VI died on February 6, 1952,making his 25-year-old daughter the new Queen. Less than two months later,Queen Elizabethappeared for her first public engagement of her reign: a Maundy Service at Westminster Abbey in London.
The Queen also held Nosegays, a bouquet made up of daffodils, primroses, stocks, purple statice, freesias, ivy, hebe and the herbs rosemary and thyme. The flowers were originally used to disguise odors as the monarch washed the feet of recipients.
The Queen, now 95, continues to take part in the annual tradition — andin 2019, her granddaughterPrincess Eugenieassisted her in the distribution at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
Each recipient of Maundy money – one male and one female for every year the Queen has been alive – was given two small leather purses, one red and one white. The first contains a small amount of coinage which symbolizes the monarch’s gift for food and clothing – this year in the form of newly two minted cousins: a £5 piece, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria and a 50p coin portraying Sherlock Holmes. The white purse contains Maundy coins up to the value of the Queen’s age. Recipients at the 2019 service were given 93p in silver Maundy coins.
Queen Elizabeth.PA Images via Getty
Early in her reign, the Queen decided Maundy money should not just be distributed to the people of London, and so she now travels to various cathedrals or abbeys to give gifts to local people. The recipients were chosen in recognition of their service to the community.
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As of 2017, the Queen has now visited every Anglican Cathedral in England for the Maundy Service.
Known as Accession Day, the Queen normally spends it in quiet, somber reflection at Sandringham House, as it marks the death of her beloved father as much as the day that her public life changed forever.
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“By the sudden death of my dear father I am called to assume the duties and responsibilities of sovereignty,” she said in her speech to the accession council.
“My heart is too full for me to say more to you today than I shall always work as my father did throughout his reign, to advance the happiness and prosperity of my peoples, spread as they are all the world over.”
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In June 1953, several months after her father’s death, Elizabeth was crowned at Westminster Abbey.
The next milestone? Celebrations for her milestone Jubilee year in June.
source: people.com
