CIVITAS

 A Gracious Monarch has just bestowed upon my own ancestral city of Colchester the Title, Style, and Dignity of a City.

But ... oops ... is this not just a trifle ... er ... a tadge, perhaps ... er ... husteron proteron?

Before Her august ancestors sailed from Herrenhausen to England, this ancient city was ... already ancient.

Indeed, it is massively older than any 'United Kingdom'.

Come to think of it, Colchester was already groaning under the weight of the centuries when somebody invented the very notion of a 'Kingdom of England'.

And, penetrating yet further into the mists of Antiquity, we find that Colchester was more than half a millennium old when Archbishop Augustine brought Romanitas back to this island and re-established it in Canterbury. It is older than the Kingdom of Essex and the other realms of that parvenu agglomeration, 'the Heptarchy'.

Civitas ... Colonia Claudia Victricensis ...

So what should have been done?

Colchester should have elected duumviri; and the two of them, preceded by their Lictors and the Fasces, et potestate duumvirili necnon et togis suis induti, they should have marched into the presence of the Monarch, and formally conferred upon Her the Title, Style, and Dignity of Regina Magna in Britannia (confer Cogidubnum inter Regnenses 'Regem' dictum 'Magnum').

It is so much more blessed to Give than to Receive.