More than 1.25 million spectators braved the rain and freezing cold to line the banks of the Thames for the Diamond Jubilee River Pageant, which featured more than 1,000 boats. A slimmed-down monarchy appeared on the palace balcony with the Queen for a flypast – only those at the very top of the succession list and their wives: Charles, Camilla, William, new recruit Kate and Harry. Zara Tindall became the first member of the British royal family to win a medal at the Olympic Games, earning a silver in the team eventing at London 2012. The monarch paid tribute to her eldest son at a glittering private black-tie party at Buckingham Palace, calling him a “duchy original” and an heir to the throne comparable with any in history. He carried out his final official solo engagement – his 22,219th since 1952 – as he met fundraising Royal Marines on the Buckingham Palace forecourt in August 2017. Charles – a king in waiting – opened the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka in 2013, representing his mother in the role for the first time. Writer Catherine Mayer, who was given rare access to the prince, said he was “joylessly” increasing his royal workload and believed becoming king would be akin to “prison”, which Clarence House denied. In the royal household, the Queen’s well-respected private secretary Sir Christopher Geidt, who sought to unify the often-competing courts of Buckingham Palace and Clarence House, departed in 2017 amid reported tensions over transition. His role as future head of the Commonwealth was secured in April 2018 when the Queen publicly lobbied in favour of her son at the CHOGM in London, and world leaders backed the decision. William first worked as a helicopter pilot for East Anglian Air Ambulance, and also started carrying out investitures on behalf of the Queen, before focusing on royal duties. She sat next to the Queen in her Diamond Jubilee carriage procession in 2012 and attended her first State Opening of Parliament in 2013 – moves that would have been unthinkable a decade earlier. She was made a Privy Counsellor on the Queen’s official 90th birthday, meaning she will be permitted to be at Charles’s side during the Accession Council which takes place following the death of a sovereign.
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