Queen Elizabeth II shared tight royal bond with King Bhumibol
Queen Elizabeth II visited Thailand twice during the reign of His Majesty King Bhumibol the Great, with news footage attesting to a strong bond between the two monarchs.
Queen Elizabeth paid her first trip to Thailand in 1972 as a guest of King Bhumibol. During that visit she attended a banquet at the Grand Palace in Bangkok before touring Bang Pa-In Palace in Ayutthaya and then visiting Chiang Mai province. She was accompanied by her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, and daughter Princess Margaret.
Elizabeth visited again in 1996 with Prince Philip, to celebrate the 50th anniversary (Golden Jubilee) of King Bhumibol over five days from October 28 to November 1. At the welcoming banquet, she toasted the centuries-long relationship between both monarchies, according to AFP. She said that Queen Victoria, her great-great-grandmother, had been pen pals with King Mongkut (Rama IV) and that bond "has been carried forward to our generation".
"Over the last quarter of a century your country has become a sophisticated modern state with an increasingly confident democracy," Queen Elizabeth said.
The close relationship between the two monarchies helped cement ties between Thailand and the United Kingdom which date back four centuries to the arrival of English traders. The English East India Company established trading posts in the Ayutthaya Kingdom during the reign of King Ekathotsarot of Siam in the 17th century.
The UK strongly influenced Siam's modernisation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the two countries remain tight trading partners to the present day.
King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit also paid two earlier visits to the UK, in 1960 and again in 1966. On the first visit, Their Majesties were welcomed by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at Victoria Station in London. The four royals then travelled to nearby Buckingham Palace in iconic horse-drawn carriages, cheered through the streets by hundreds of thousands of people who had gathered to welcome the Thai royals.
Queen Elizabeth II’s reign – the longest of any British monarch – ended with her death at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday afternoon (early hours of Friday Thai time). Aged 96, she had been on the throne for 70 years and 214 days.
The Thai government announced on Friday that flags in Thailand will be flown at half-mast for three days to mark Queen Elizabeth’s passing.
