BiB - Platinum is actually the heaviest of the precious metals. and silver gilt is the lightest. For example, Queen Mary’s crown was made of silver gilt, but had more metal in it than the Queen Mother‘s crown because it has 8 half arches as compared to the 4 half arches of the Queen Mother’s crown, so it’s debatable which crown would be the lightest, but for sure the logic of “lightest because it is made of platinum” is 100% wrong.Camilla was also given the Garter in the New Year honours list. She's definitely being backed by HMQ.
QE is semi-retired anyway. C&C and W&K are doing all the visits, both internally and externally, while she does Zoom and single person engagements that can only be done by the monarch as well as a few events at her own home like yesterday's. She will never step down but she has handed a great deal over to her next two heirs and their opinions are carrying a great deal of weight, as with the recent treatment of Andrew.
On a lighter note, I'm interested in seeing which consort crown gets used! There are four in the English Crown Jewels, Queen Adelaide's which replaced Mary of Modena's which had been used for all previous consorts but which is now only a frame, Queen Alexandra's, Queen Mary's and Queen Elizabeth's. QE's is the lightest being platinum and the most complete with jewels. However, Queen Mary began the custom of the dowager consort attending the coronation of the new monarch and wearing her own crown without the arches at it - as a crowned queen consort there is no other appropriate diadem. Queen Elizabeth did the same with her crown and if Queen Mary had lived another few months she would have done the same at a second coronation. So, there is always the possibility of more than one dowager queen consort plus a current one requiring a crown to wear! I suppose they could take the three extant crowns in rotation...
Queen Mary’s crown
Queen Mother’s crown
