What Was the Most Controversial Part of Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee?

This past weekend, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years a monarch. It was a unique four-day event marked by street parties, parades, concerts, church services, pageants, and thousands of local gatherings all over the United Kingdom. As Elizabeth II is her nation's longest-serving monarch, the Platinum Jubilee was a historic event that may never be repeated.

However, the Jubilee was not entirely without its controversy. Aside from the usual debates about whether the UK should still have a monarch in the 21st century, one Jubilee event in particular raised more than a few eyebrows. English Heritage, the charity that manages thousands of historic sites around the UK, made the decision to project eight images of the Queen (one from each decade of her reign) onto the Stonehenge megaliths.

Although English Heritage described the display as a "spellbinding homage," others found it distasteful, or at least tacky, to project the Queen, who is the titular head of the Church of England, onto a UNESCO World Heritage Site with apparent spiritual significance to the ancient pre-Christian inhabitants of Britain.

It wasn't the first time the iconic Neolithic and Bronze Age monument has been illuminated in this way – as recently as 2020, individuals who contributed to the maintenance of cultural sites during the coronavirus pandemic were recognized with their images projected onto the standing stones.

Royally ridiculous?