Platinum Jubilee highlights Queen experiences ‘discomfort,’ will miss Friday’s service at St. Paul’s

Nobody pumps out the pomp quite like the British. And so Buckingham Palace and the nation’s armed forces put on an extraordinary pageant Thursday for their deeply admired monarch, in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, her 70th year on the throne.

Kicking off four days of festivities, the spectacle began with the Queen’s Birthday Parade, the 260-year-old tradition known as Trooping the Color, with 1,400 soldiers in scarlet tunics and bearskin caps — alongside an Irish wolfhound named Seamus — marching in precision drills, while bands mounted on horses pounded on kettle drums and blew trumpets.

Queen Elizabeth II will not attend Friday’s jubilee service at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London after experiencing “some discomfort,” the palace said in a statement on Thursday night.

Just hours after the queen made an appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony, waving to a throng of well-wishers, palace officials said she was pulling out of a scheduled jubilee event on Friday morning.

In a statement, the palace said that the queen, 96, “greatly enjoyed” the military parade and flyby but did experience “some discomfort.”

See more photos from the day of celebration.

To celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, marking her 70 years on the throne, her subjects are going to light the British Isles on fire — in a good way.

On Thursday night, just after dark, more than 3,200 beacons will be ignited, reimagining and repurposing the torchlight relays once deployed in England to warn of possible invasion, from marauding Vikings in 793 to the Spanish Armada in 1588 or Napoleon in 1803.

Stuart Brookes, a lecturer in medieval archaeology at University College London, said beacons were deployed for centuries in England.

A standout performer at the Queen’s Birthday Parade — the Trooping — was the wolfhound nicknamed Seamus, the official regimental mascot of the Irish Guards.

The dog, whose full name is Turlough Mor, marched — well, sauntered — alongside his handler, the drummer Adam Walsh.

Seamus was chill — seemed to enjoy the show. No big.

In an earlier interview with the British Press Association, Walsh said, “A lot of the lads have bigger parts to play than me and Seamus, but me and him still need to get it all correct.”

Not everyone is joining in the jubilee fanfare. Members of the Scottish Greens walked out of a tribute in Scotland’s parliament Wednesday, sparking a backlash.

Members of the Scottish parliament at Holyrood moved to congratulate the nonagenarian monarch on Wednesday, when all the lawmakers present from the Green Party left the chamber, according to the Scottish Daily Express.

“The Scottish Green Party believes that a head of state should be elected by, and accountable to, the people,” the party said in a statement. “We respect others hold different beliefs and have no wish to deprive them of their celebration. Our MSPs decided to absent themselves from today’s short debate and vote on the Royal celebration and instead spend their time serving their constituents.”

A jubilee is an anniversary celebration with Judeo-Christian origins that was adapted to mark milestones of a British monarch.

The biblical book of Leviticus commands that people “shall sanctify the fiftieth year … for it is the year of jubilee.”

Records from the 14th century show that King Edward III celebrated 50 years on the throne, his Golden Jubilee, with a week-long joust and a procession from the Tower of London.

Many of today’s jubilee traditions can be traced to the reign of George III — the king known for losing the American colonies and his struggle with mental health. The beginning of his 50th year on the throne was marked with church services, feasts, fireworks and souvenirs.

For over nine decades, Queen Elizabeth II has been making appearances on the Buckingham Palace balcony. The photos serve as a kind of royal family album, marking celebratory moments: birthdays, weddings, coronations and other major state occasions. They are also a meaningful markers of royal deaths, divorce and disgrace.

A new page was added to that album on Thursday, when family members gathered to celebrate the queen’s Platinum Jubilee, an unprecedented 70 years on the throne. Senior working royals and their children were present. Prince Andrew, stripped of his titles, did not attend. Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, who quit their royal responsibilities and moved to California, were not on the balcony either.