A very hearty and joyous congratulations to Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth on their platinum anniversary, a milestone very few reach. To live to three score and ten is certainly possible with modern medicine, diet and a tad of exercise, but to be married for seventy years, at least to the same person, well, one has to marry quite young and live to a venerable age, which fits this royal couple.
It is an irony that Elizabeth is head of a church that had its beginning in the attempted destruction of the marital bond, and eventually marriage itself, under Henry Tudor, who had his valid marriage to Catherine of Aragon invalidly annulled by Thomas Cramner, an illicit bishop illictly placed in the See of Canterbury. Henry then went on to attempt marriage with his pregnant mistress, Anne Boleyn, with whom he was infatuated, but of whom he soon tired, as is the way of all passion.
But today is not the day to rehearse all that sad history at length. The Anglican church has come full circle, with what is left gradually coming back to the fold of Rome, the rest eking out what existence they may, following Cardinal Newman’s prediction of Protestant entropy, a gradual slide towards secularity.
No, today we can rejoice that Philip and Elizabeth have witnessed to a long, fruitful, faithful and, overall, happy marriage, and may many more follow the example of such fidelity.