Annus horribilis

Annus horribilis (pl. anni horribiles) is a Latin phrase, meaning "horrible year". It is complementary to annus mirabilis, which means "wonderful year".

Origin of phrase

The phrase "annus horribilis" was used in 1891 in an Anglican publication to describe 1870, the year in which the dogma of papal infallibility was defined in the Catholic Church.^[1]

Elizabeth II

1992

The expression was brought to prominence by Queen Elizabeth II. In a speech at Guildhall on 24 November 1992, marking her Ruby Jubilee on the throne, she said:^[2]

1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an annus horribilis.

The "sympathetic correspondent" was later revealed to be her former assistant private secretary, Sir Edward Ford.^[3] The unpleasant events which happened to the royal family in this year include:^[4]

• Publication of photographs pertaining to an affair between Sarah, Duchess of York, and Texan oil millionaire Steve Wyatt (18 January)
• Separation of the Queen's second son Prince Andrew, Duke of York, from his wife Sarah (19 March)
• Divorce of the Queen's daughter, Anne, Princess Royal, from Captain Mark Phillips (23 April)
• Publication of Diana, Princess of Wales' tell-all book Diana: Her True Story, revealing the problems in her marriage to the Queen's eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales particularly his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles (The Sunday Times, 7 June)
• Publication of photographs of Sarah, Duchess of York, sunbathing topless with her friend John Bryan (20 August)
• Publication of intimate conversations between Diana and James Gilbey from a tape recording of their phone calls (24 August)
• Fire in Windsor Castle, one of the Queen's official residences (20 November)

After her speech had been recorded, one more notable event transpired: the separation of Charles and Diana (9 December).

2019

2019 was described by some commentators as a second annus horribilis for the British royal family. It was the year the 97-year-old Prince Philip crashed his car into another carrying two women and a baby. Later on, Prince Andrew took part in a universally-criticised BBC Newsnight interview about his relationship with convicted child-sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.^[5] The Queen was also involved in a constitutional crisis regarding the prime minister Boris Johnson requesting that parliament be prorogued (this advice was later ruled to be unlawful), and there was increased tabloid scrutiny regarding rifts between the Cambridge and Sussex households.^[5]

Other uses

Boris Yeltsin

Time magazine described 1998 in Russian politics as an annus horribilis because of Boris Yeltsin's isolationist and militarist policies, the East Asian financial crisis, and Western countries cutting off the reform money that they gave to the Russian government in prior years.^[6]

Ben Affleck

Hollywood actor and filmmaker Ben Affleck once described that the year 2003 was his annus horribilis.^[7] Affleck starred in the films Daredevil and Gigli, both of which received negative reviews from critics. Gigli bombed in the box office and drew particular ire from Hollywood critics and moviegoers, which culminated in six wins at the 24th Golden Raspberry Awards. In addition, Affleck and his fiancée and later second wife, Jennifer Lopez, were mocked and criticised by the public for their seemingly accommodating attitudes to and henceforth over-exposure in the tabloid media.^{[citation needed]}

Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary-General, used the phrase in his year-end press conference on 21 December 2004. He reflected: "There's no doubt that this has been a particularly difficult year, and I am relieved that this annus horribilis is coming to an end."^[8] His remarks were widely interpreted as having alluded to persistent allegations of corruption in the UN's Iraq Oil-for-Food Program.^[9] He also spoke of upheaval and violence in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Palestine, and Sudan; the ongoing process of UN internal reform; and "persistent...criticism against the UN" and himself personally.^[8][9] Annan's remarks came five days before the deadliest event of the year (and one of the deadliest natural disasters in history), the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December, when 227,898 people died.

Juan Carlos I

In 2007, the Spanish royal family, in particular King Juan Carlos I, faced a difficult year. Family tragedy and a series of controversies led Spanish newspapers to refer to the year as the king's annus horribilis.^[10]

• In February, Érika Ortiz Rocasolano, the youngest sister of Letizia, then the Princess of Asturias, died of a sedative overdose in her apartment.^[11]
• In July, a humour magazine, El Jueves, published a drawing that ran on the cover, depicting Felipe VI (then the Prince of Asturias), and the aforementioned Princess Letizia having sex, with a caption reading: "Just imagine if you end up pregnant. This will be the closest thing to work I've ever done in my life." It satirized a proposal by the government to give 2,500 euros to the parents of newborn children. The magazine was banned and removed from distribution, which led to a censorship controversy.
• In September, Catalan separatists were tried for having burned photographs of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía at an anti-monarchy and Catalan separatist rally in Girona while the royal couple toured the city.
• In early November at the XVII Ibero-American Summit, after a verbal altercation between Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela, and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Prime Minister of Spain, the king asked Chávez, "¿Por qué no te callas?" ("Why don't you shut up?").
• Shortly after the summit, the royal house announced the separation of the king's daughter, the Duchess of Lugo, and her husband, Jaime de Marichalar. The couple has two children, Felipe and Victoria.

COVID-19 pandemic

The year 2020 was widely remarked as being an annus horribilis for the entire world in general, most notably due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in late 2019 and rapidly spread worldwide throughout 2020.^[12][13][14] 2020 was also awarded a "Special Governors' Award for The Worst Calendar Year EVER!" at the 41st Golden Raspberry Awards. At the end of the year, Netflix released Death to 2020, a mockumentary discussing the events of the year.

See also

• List of Latin phrases
• Rampjaar, the Dutch "disaster year" of 1672
• The Islamic year 311 AH (923/924 CE) was known as the "year of destruction" (sanat al-damār) due to the Qarmatians' sack of Basra and the attack on the Hajj caravan.^[15]

References

External links

Look up annus horribilis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Royal.gov.uk – Transcript of The Queen's speech at Guildhall 24 November 1992
• Annus Horribilis: 365 Tales of Comic Misfortune (registration required): book by Sam Jordison

This page was last edited on 26 March 2024, at 21:06