RESTORING THE WINDSORS

By JAMES COLLINS

She may not have sounded quite like the Princess of Wales, but when Queen Elizabeth toasted her husband on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary last week, she did strike a surprising note of intimacy. Talking at one point about the need to be sensitive to the public's will, she said, "I have done my best, with Prince Philip's constant love and help, to interpret it correctly..." There it was--the word love. Yes, she had tucked it away in a parenthetical phrase, but no one could remember the Queen's ever using it in a personal context. Will it now replace "duty" in her lexicon?

Probably not, but during two days of anniversary celebrations, the Queen and Prince Philip displayed exceptional openness and humanity. They spoke of each other and their children with far more feeling than they have in the past. Again and again, the Queen stopped to shake hands with people in the crowds, and at one banquet she sat at a table with a jockey, an autoworker and a policewoman. Surely the happiness of the occasion created an expansive mood, but the royal couple's behavior was not entirely spontaneous. The anniversary was an opportunity to present themselves and their children sympathetically to the public, and to rebut charges made in the days immediately following the Princess's death that they remained too remote and unresponsive. They made the most of it. The impetus for the effort came from Tony Blair, who has involved himself with the royal family more actively than any other Prime Minister in decades.

The festivities began on Wednesday, the eve of the anniversary, with a luncheon for 800 at which Prince Philip toasted his wife. "I think the main lesson we have learnt," he said, "is that tolerance is the one essential ingredient in any happy marriage...You can take it from me, the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance." The next day, Nov. 20, the couple attended a service in Westminster Abbey, where they had been married. The abbey was also the site of Diana's funeral three months ago, and as Prince Charles and his sons William and Harry walked down the aisle, they brought back poignant memories of that occasion.

The Queen then sat with commoners at a luncheon of which Blair was host. But at Windsor Castle that evening, she returned to the forms of the ancien regime, giving a ball for foreign royals: seven Kings, 10 Queens, a grand duke, 26 princes and 27 princesses. The castle itself provided an apt symbol of royal rejuvenation. The Queen famously called 1992--a year of separations, divorce and scandal--her annus horribilis. The emotional low point may have come on Nov. 20, her 45th wedding anniversary, when Windsor Castle caught fire. Now, just in time for the 50th anniversary, the restoration of the castle has been completed. To regild the plaster, 500,000 sheets of gold leaf were used. Replacing the ceiling of St. George's Hall required 350 mature oaks. The ceiling that the fire destroyed dated from the 1820s, and Prince Charles, believing it was "awful," called for a new design. In a personal touch, Prince Philip made a sketch with a fireman working to save the building, and that became the basis for a new stained-glass window.

Did the tone of the anniversary celebrations signal a dramatic change in strategy for the royal family? No. It has been evolving in the direction of more openness for years. Indeed, the Queen invented the "walkabout" early in her reign, and she sees more ordinary people on a regular basis than do most Cabinet ministers and newspaper editors. In 1992 she began paying taxes and reduced the number of royals who receive state funds (and the annus horribilis speech itself was a notable instance of candor). Nevertheless, the election of Blair and the death of Diana have intensified the process of bringing the royals closer to the people, and last week's events offered a striking case in point.

Blair has made the monarchy an integral part of his plan to modernize Britain, and he is now perhaps the most interesting actor in the royal drama. He has an approval rating of 72%, whereas only 45% of the public view the royal family favorably. Because of his popularity, his good counsel and his eagerness to work with them, the royals listen to Blair, and he has handled them ingeniously. As their ally, he shares in the affection and awe that the Queen and the monarchy as an institution still inspire in the public; by urging reform, he distances himself from the aspects of the royal family the public dislikes. If they want to be better politicians, they clearly have the right tutor.

--Reported by Helen Gibson and Barry Hillenbrand/London

With reporting by HELEN GIBSON AND BARRY HILLENBRAND/LONDON