Spanish royals snub the Queen's Jubilee fustigate claiming their attendance is inappropriate in row over Gibraltar

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The Queen was dealt an extraordinary and calculated snub terminal night that threatens to tarnish her Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Simply two days before Her Majesty was due to welcome the crowned heads of Europe's imperial houses to an elaborate Windsor Castle tiffin, Espana's Queen Sofia dramatically pulled out of the result.

A spokesman for the Spanish royals snootily declared that Sofia's presence would be 'inappropriate in the electric current circumstances.'

Snub: Queen Sofia will not attend a royal jubilee event

Dismayed: The Queen will be disappointed by her cousin's absence

Snub: Royal insiders say the Queen will be dismayed by Queen Sofia's (left) absence

The 11th-60 minutes cancellation, engineered past the Spanish authorities, came just a week later information technology made a formal protestation to U.k. over Prince Edward's visit to Gibraltar.

The Prince and the Countess of Wessex are due to make a 3-twenty-four hours visit to the fiercely British rock on June 13 equally function of a Democracy-wide effort to mark the Jubilee with purple events.

Last night the decision was still being digested, but royal insiders say the Queen will be dismayed that what should have been a blithesome celebration for her regal kinsmen and women has been hijacked by political machinations.

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It is not the first fourth dimension Spain has jolted the royals — in 1981 King Juan Carlos stayed away from Prince Charles's wedding to Lady Diana Spencer considering on their honeymoon the Purple Yacht Britannia was to end at Gibraltar.

Simply this time information technology seems somehow more personal.

Like the Queen, Queen Sofia is a direct descendant of Queen Victoria — she is a great-great-great-granddaughter - and the ii are cousins.

Her brother is the exiled Male monarch Constantine of Greece, who lives in London and is close to Prince Philip and the Prince of Wales.

The decision is going to strain family unit relations.

Queen Sofia was due to attend tomorrow'south lunch alone considering her husband Juan Carlos is recovering from a autumn following a controversial safari.

The dejeuner for sovereign monarchs - plus the Emperor of Japan - is the biggest royal issue since the funeral of the Queen Mother in 2002 and the Queen's Aureate Jubilee celebrations.

  • The Queen's old orthopaedic surgeon, Sir Roger Vickers, was yesterday an enthusiastic attendee at the preview of the National Portrait Gallery art and image exhibition, where more than 50 paintings, photographs and sculptures of the monarch were on display every bit role of the Diamond Jubilee. Sir Roger, who operated on both the Queen and her mother - he famously lost the Queen Female parent's medical records when his briefcase was stolen from his motorcar in Mayfair - retired in 2010. Says my man at the NPG: 'Sir Roger borrowed a guide and took a forensic interest in the images. I suppose he is more familiar with the Queen'southward physiology than most.'

Queen Sofia of Spain snubs Diamond Jubilee bash over Gibraltar row