The ceremony has changed little in the four centuries since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Last week her namesake traveled in an ornate carriage drawn by six gray horses to the Palace of Westminster in London. There, enthroned in the House of Lords and resplendent in a glittering crown containing a sapphire that belonged to Edward the Confessor and a ruby that Henry V wore at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, Queen Elizabeth II opened Parliament. The Lord Chancellor knelt and presented the Queen with her speech, a stilted discourse prepared by the Prime Minister, that outlined the government's...
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