Beauty and the beasts: Kate mingles with dictators and despots at Queen's jubilee lunch

LAUGHING and quaffing expensive drinks, the Queen and Duchess of Cambridge rubbed shoulders today with dictators accused of hideous human rights abuses.

Angry protests erupted outside Buckingham Palace as the Queen lavished hospitality on foreign royals.

Critics said she had made a “catastrophic error of judgment” by entertaining leaders such as the King of Bahrain at her Diamond Jubilee party at taxpayers’ expense.

But officials said the Foreign Office had approved the controversial guest list.

The Queen – along with Wills, Kate and Harry – was joined at Windsor Castle by Bahrain’s King Hamad Al Khalifa who has been condemned as a despot for violently suppressing pro-democracy protests.

But the Queen smiled and took his hand as he arrived shortly after noon for the lunch. They laughed and shared a joke.

Later the king and his wife, Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, chatted to princesses Beatrice and Eugenie as guests sipped wine at a pre-lunch reception.

King Mswati III of Swaziland, who lives in luxury while many of his people starve, was also greeted with a warm smile.

Other guests included the former Prime Minister of Kuwait, Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Sabah, who stepped down over a corruption row.

They mingled with Kate, who looked serene in a £1,200 pink Emilia Wickstead dress, William, and the Earl and Countess of Wessex.

The lunch for 98 guests in the castle’s grand St George’s Hall was supposed to be a glorious meeting of 21 monarchs and six senior royals to celebrate the Queen’s 60 years on the throne, complete with a souvenir photo of the heads of state.

But it was overshadowed by fierce criticism.

Denis MacShane, a former Foreign Office minister, said the department had put the Queen in the uncomfortable position of having to dine with dictators.

He added: “Given the amount of blood on the hands of the royal regime in Bahrain it’s a shame [King Hamad] will stain the white linen of Windsor Castle at this event.

"It’s the responsibility of the Foreign Office to decide who comes. It’s nothing to do with Her Majesty.”

But Graham Smith, chief executive of anti-monarchy group Republic, said the Queen couldn’t “hide behind protocol”.

He added: “This is a crisis of her own making. The British people strongly support the struggle for democracy around the world.

"This is a catastrophic error of judgment that has already prompted a fierce backlash.

“The Queen owes a personal apology to all those fighting for freedom in those countries, and to the families of those who have died doing so.

“Thanks to the Queen’s misjudgment, her jubilee will for ever be associated with some of the most repressive regimes in the world.”

Protesters focused their attention on Buckingham Palace tonight when guests – though not the King of Bahrain – attended a dinner hosted by Charles and Camilla.

But there was one lone protester at Windsor Castle, waving a placard that read: “Oppressive tyrants, your days of plenty are numbered.”

The 22-year-old called Joe said: “I don’t see how these lavish lunches can be justified when there’s decent people struggling to earn a crust.

“I was booing the King of Bahrain, then the Empress of Japan came past and wound down the window and waved but when she saw my placard she wound it up again.”

Police on horseback and a few tourists mingled at the entrance to the castle in Berkshire as well as a 50-strong press pack from Japan which travelled with the Emperor.

The event was boycotted by Spain’s Queen Sofia because of a dispute with Britain over fishing rights off Gibraltar.

A member of the royal household joked: “We won’t be having Spanish cava.”

Guests sat at tables for up to 12 people, each with at least one sovereign, their spouse and a member of our royal family.

Wills and Kate chatted amiably with the guests though they still found time to pose for a photograph while he placed his arm romantically around her waist.

The feast included Windsor lamb, English asparagus and Kent strawberries.

Deposed, despised and downright odd: Who's who at the dinner

(Front row, L-R)

1.Emperor of Japan - Emperor Akihito succeeded his father, Hirohito, in 1989. Under the 1947 constitution the country is run by a parliamentary government and Japan’s emperors have a purely ceremonial role.

2. Queen of the Netherlands - Queen Beatrix took the throne in 1980 when her mother abdicated. She has little political say in domestic matters.

3. Queen of Denmark - Head of Europe’s oldest continuous monarchy Queen Margrethe II has made it clear that she has no intention of stepping down to allow her son, Crown Prince Frederik, to succeed her. The queen is known affectionately as Daisy.

4.King of the Hellenes - King Constantine II of Greece, was crowned in 1964 but was overthrown 1967 by a military junta. He attempted a failed counter coup and then fled into exile. Later the Greeks chose not to restore the monarchy and he was stripped of his Greek citizenship in 1994.

5. King of Romania - He is the last King of Romania as he reigned for 10 years before he was forced out by the Communist Party and Stalin when the Soviet army occupied the country in 1947. He is a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria and a third cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.

6. Queen Elizabeth II.

7. King of Bulgarians - Tsar Simeon II is an important political and royal figure in Bulgaria. In 1946 he went into exile but in 2001 came back as Prime Minister making him one of the few monarchs in history to have become the head of government through democratic elections.

8. Sultan of Brunei - The 63-year-old is one of the world’s richest men with a £12billion fortune. Under their constitution the Sultan is the head of state with total power including the positions of PM, Minister of Defence and Finance.

9. King of Sweden - King Carl Gustaf was seen as the perfect modern monarch. loved by his people as an ordinary family man. But two years ago he was rocked by a claims of attending wild sex parties involving strippers, organised by Mafia bosses and then covered up by the Swedish secret service Sapo.

10. King of Swaziland -King Mswati III is regarded as one of the world’s worst dictators known for living in luxury while his people starve. He rules by decree with a fortune of about £64m over a country where political parties are banned and activists are regularly imprisoned and tortured.

11. Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein -He is the head of state while his son Crown Prince Alois was given day-to-day running of the principality in 2004. The royals won sweeping new powers in a constitutional referendum in 2003 giving them power to veto parliamentary decisions and sack the government.

(Middle row, L-R)

12. Prince Albert of Monaco - He became head of state in April 2005 after the death of his father, Prince Rainier, Europe’s longest-reigning monarch. He staunchly defended Monaco’s banking and taxation systems in the face of criticism from France.

13. Grand Duke of Luxembourg - As head of a constitutional monarchy Grand Duke Henri’s duties are mainly representative.

14. King of Lesotho -Letsie III - Most of King Letsie’s duties as monarch are ceremonial. He was educated in the UK at the universities of Bristol, Cambridge and London.

15. King of the Belgians- King Albert II was sworn in in 1993 as the sixth King of the Belgians. His role includes ratifying laws and appointing judges.

16. King of Norway - King Harald V is a constitutional monarch and is the formal head of the Church of Norway and the Norwegian Armed Forces.

17. Emir of Qatar - Emir Hamad bin Khalifa enjoys total power after he seized power from his father in 1995, Sheikh Hamad has stayed on as head of the armed forces and defence minister and has overseen Qatar’s military development.

18. King of Jordan - King Abdullah II has extensive powers to appoint governments, approve legislation and is able to dissolve parliament. He is facing growing demands for political reform, and following the popular uprising in Tunisia in 2011,

19. King of Bahrain - King Hamad Al Khalifa’s regime led to calls for the recent F1 Grad Prix race to be boycotted. It is accused of a catalogue of human rights abuses and orchestrating the violent suppression of pro-democracy protesters last year.

20. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia - a largely ceremonial role and the position of king is rotated every five years between nine hereditary state rulers.

(Back row, L-R)

21. Nasser Mohamed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait - Sheikh Sabah became prime minister in 2003 and pursued a policy of cautious reform. Kuwait’s parliament has the most powers of any elected body in the Gulf but the Sabahs retain full control over key government and executive posts.

22. Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi - General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan became Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi in November 2004 and now oversees the country’s vast financial investment in projects around the world - including buying the new Premier League Champions Manchester City.

23. Crown Prince of Yugoslavia - Alexander II Karadjordjevic was the last crown prince of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia before it was abolished by the Soviets. He is now lobbying for the re-creation of a constitutional monarchy in Serbia.

24. King of Tonga - George Tupou VI is building on the work started by his brother to usher in parliamentary democracy, ending centuries of feudal dominance of government.

25.Crown Prince of Thailand - King Bhumibol Adulyadej assumed the throne in June 1946 and is the world’s longest-reigning monarch. The king’s role is largely symbolic but the royal family is revered by many Thais and laws mean insulting them can lead to arrest.

26.Princess Lalla Meryem of Morocco- is first daughter and eldest child of the late King Hassan II of Morocco. Most of her work centres around helping women and children and she has been nominated as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

27.Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia - The kingdom has been ruled by the Al Saud dynasty for decades. Human rights groups have criticised it for its barbaric punishment which includes the amputations of hands and feet for robbery, and flogging for lesser crimes such as “sexual deviance” and drunkenness. Public executions by beheading can be imposed for drug use, adultery and witchcraft.