Not horrible, but insensitive, even petty.
Here's the grievance: on April 8, 2005, the funeral of John Paul II, Pope of the Catholic Church, took place. On this occasion, virtually every head of state in the world was present, including presidents, reigning kings and queens, high-ranking dignitaries from all religions, and heads of government—in short, the gathering of dignitaries from various countries exceeded 200. All countries except one. Well, not quite. Queen Elizabeth II was notably absent. It was her son, Prince Charles, who represented the British Crown.
Why was she absent? At that time, she was still young and could have traveled much further for less. Did she have a migraine? A boil on her backside? An episode of a must-see TV series? No. The real reason for her absence was that she didn't want to bend the knee to the Catholic Church, she who is the head of the Church of England, a title that is one of her attributes as monarch. Now, the Church of England has "divorced" itself from the Catholic Church (it's a break, not a schism) since 1534 and has since held a rather unique status, being both "Catholic and Reformed." Everyone understood her undignified gesture at the time, an absence that meant that Elizabeth, by coming, would be seen as an act of allegiance to this Catholic Church that the British, on the whole, reject, even despise.
Some television news commentators also disliked his absence and did not hesitate to say a few words about it, while in the audience of heads of state, President George W. Bush was seen on screen shaking hands with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, two antagonistic enemies who happened to be seated not far from each other…
Here's what I say: protocol or not, what the queen wants, the queen gets. The codified protocol shouldn't be used as a smokescreen to simply hide the fact that the queen didn't want to go, that's all.
So this is the "nasty" thing that Elizabeth II did…
Eric O.
Funeral of John Paul II. At the top of the photo, some of the heads of state, kings and queens, and heads of government present…
All nationalities and all religions were represented…
Even the atheist Fidel Castro was there…
But not her…
(Photo of Elizabeth II in 2005, the year of John Paul II's funeral)