The historic visit of Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday evening at the age of 96, to the Czech Republic in March 1996 became the first official trip of a British monarch to the territory of Bohemia and Moravia in the thousand-year history of Czech-British relations. She was invited to the Czech Republic by the then president Václav Havel, and during the queen’s visit she also visited Brno. Havel met the British monarch in Buckingham Palace as early as February 1990 as the first post-war Czechoslovak president.
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The Queen and President Václav Havel in 1998 at Buckingham Palace. | Source: Reuters
First visit in 1996
After arriving in Prague on March 27, 1996, the then seventy-year-old Elizabeth II. to his host, President Václav Havel, the Grand Cross of the British Order of the Bath, one of the highest British honors. Havel decorated the Queen with the Order of the White Lion of the First Class with the Chain of the Order, which belongs only to heads of state.
The British monarch and her husband Prince Philip stayed in the Czech Republic from Wednesday 27 to Friday 29 March. The first Prague landmark that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited at the beginning of their visit was the Charles Bridge.
The royal couple greeted the people of Prague and visitors to the capital, who had been waiting for this event for a long time before their arrival. The culmination of the first day of the visit was a dinner at Prague Castle, during which, in a toast, the Queen referred to the Munich Agreement as “the only shadow” that burdens Czech-British relations.
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An interesting fact was that the main course was roast beef tenderloin, which was served on the day the Czech government banned the import of British beef due to the so-called mad cow disease.
The following day, the Queen met with the then Prime Minister Václav Klaus and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Milan Uhde, and also visited Brno, where she was also greeted by crowds of enthusiastic people.
On the last day of the visit, she toured Prague’s Old Town Hall and Prague Castle, the work of the Czech branch of the British Council and met the British community in Prague in Bethlehem Chapel. She also personally greeted the widows of Czech airmen who served in the British Air Force during World War II.
In the uniform of a British Royal Air Force officer, Prince Philip paid his respects to the Czechoslovak airmen’s memorial in Prague-Dejvice.
The Queen was also supposed to speak in the Czech Parliament, which ultimately did not happen. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Uhde, faced criticism for this after it emerged from his interview with journalists that apparently his concern about the indecent representation of MPs in the parliamentary meeting hall during the Queen’s speech led to the fact that Elizabeth II. she did not speak in parliament.
Elizabeth II greeted the citizens of the Czech Republic. his visit to Hovory v Lány, which was broadcast by Czech Radio on March 31. “I have been looking forward to my visit to your country for so long. It has been a great experience to see how many of your countries have achieved in such a short time under your leadership,” said the Queen.
The queen liked the beauties of Prague
“Prague is really beautiful and how could I forget the welcome they gave me in Brno. And you even arranged the weather for us. Our countries are already close to each other. Perhaps this visit will bring them even closer,” said Elizabeth II.
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President Havel commented on Czech Radio saying that the visit of the British monarch, who enjoyed great attention in the Czech Republic, was also a certain lesson in political culture. He thanked the Queen for her kind words and on behalf of all citizens for her visit to the Czech Republic.
Elizabeth II. then in a letter to President Havel, she thanked him for the warm reception. The president’s spokesman Ladislav Špaček informed about the letter on April 2. According to him, the Queen stressed “that she will not forget the crowds of citizens in Brno, and will never feel certain that the visit will have a long-lasting benefit in mutual relations between the two countries”.
During the Queen’s visit, Václav Havel also recalled his first meeting with her in 1990.
“I arrived at Buckingham Palace for lunch at the time as a completely inexperienced Czechoslovak president, and I remembered the time when as a boy I regularly followed news of your life in The London Illustrated News magazine,” he told her.
Havel’s visit to London in 1990 laid the foundation for the development of primarily economic and trade relations.
After that, Havel and Elizabeth II. they saw, for example, the big match between Czech and German football players at the 1996 European Championship. Two years later, Havela received the Queen in Buckingham Palace with all the honors, including a military guard parade and a ceremonial lunch.
She visited Klaus in 2007
In November 2007, the British Queen also received Havel’s successor in the presidency, Václav Klaus (and his wife Livia).
In mid-June 2017, Czech President Miloš Zeman also had a half-hour audience with the British monarch. It was also attended by the president’s wife Ivana and daughter Kateřina, who was studying in Britain at the time. Zeman, among other citizens, left tens of thousands of Czechs who study or live in Britain, and that will be their fate after the British union from the union.
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It was Zeman’s third meeting with Elizabeth II. He also met her in June 2014 at a joint lunch of statesmen on a French beach on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, and also in March 1996 during her visit to the Czech Republic.
The relationship of Czech citizens to the British monarch is also evidenced by the gift that Queen Elizabeth II sent to teacher Jaroslava Londová from the Josef Sousedík Secondary Vocational School in Vsetín. in April 2016 for her ninetieth birthday – a richly decorated multi-tiered gingerbread creation.
The teacher has previously sent gingerbread gifts to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate, on the occasion of their wedding and their children’s christenings.
“Five years ago, when information about the upcoming wedding spread, I was extremely excited. This captured my heart so much that I decided to send it to the christenings that followed. So both offspring received a gingerbread gift from us. The last one prepared for the queen, that was the icing on the cake, even my husband told me that I couldn’t do it without making the gingerbread for her,” said Londová.
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