A Brief recap of Queen Elizabeth II's spectacular monarchy

Eagle's Flight Came to an End

Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away on Thursday at 96 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, had become Queen on February 6, 1952; she famously remained oblivious of her metamorphosis for several hours. While his eldest daughter Elizabeth was on safari in Kenya, more than 4,000 miles away, King George VI passed away peacefully in his sleep at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk. In his journal, Harold Nicolson, a diplomat, and politician claimed that Elizabeth II became queen "when perched in a branch in Africa, watching the rhinoceros come down to the pool to drink." Later, a member of the royal party recalled a fortunate event: an eagle had flown over Queen Elizabeth's head about the time the King died.

A contemporary monarchy, an oxymoron if there ever was one, does not rely on preserving such miraculous events to maintain its power. The point is, they do assist. Hereditary monarchy is an illogical and inefficient system that is kept alive today via a calculated mix of showmanship and secrecy. Elizabeth's coronation, held 16 months after the King's death, was broadcast live to millions worldwide owing to cameras installed in Westminster Abbey. The Queen was anointed with holy oil from a twelfth-century gold and silver spoon to her hands, forehead, and chest while she sat beneath a canopy of golden cloth held aloft by four enrobed Knights of the Garter. The privileges and duties of her majesty were given to her in a hidden ceremony behind a golden robe, just as the spirit of royalty had entered her upon her father's death.

Sacrifice and Privilege 

The monarchy's stability may be largely attributed to Elizabeth's ability to strike a balance between public visibility and private life. There has never been a time of equilibrium. Whenever possible, Elizabeth would choose secrecy over openness. Typical of her conservative nature, she initially opposed having her coronation televised, a stance that was supported by Downing Street, which warned in a memo that "any mistakes, unintentional incidents, or undignified behavior by spectators would be seen by millions of people" if a live broadcast went ahead.

Only public pressure reversed the decision, which ultimately worked out well for the Queen and the monarchy. Seeing the young monarch start her seven decades of service with dignity and poise earned her the respect and devotion of the people she was supposed to lead. After Elizabeth reached the decades of her great seniority, even the most hardened republicans in Britain refrained from publicly dissing Her Majesty. For his part, declared anti-monarchist and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn only hinted that the monarchy required "reform" during his unsuccessful 2019 quest for the prime ministership. Boris Johnson, his opponent, stated that the Queen was "above reproach," which was generally accepted by the public. Elizabeth's life was full of privilege and sacrifice; even her detractors had to admit that.

Shrinking Stature Yet Kicking
Like other older people, the Queen shrank with age; by the time she stepped on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the Platinum Jubilee festivities in June 2022, she was a full head shorter than her heir, Charles, even while wearing her hat and court shoes. As visiting officials at Windsor Castle in February 2022 saw her stumbling around with a cane in her hand, she said, "As you can see, I can't move." Despite her physical limitations, she was up for the regular round of socializing required by her position. Generally speaking, the Queen did a lot of small talking.

Her actual stature shrank, but her reputation grew much larger. The Queen's instincts, constitution, and upbringing all told her that the sacrifices she would have to make would be nearly superhuman in scale. She was the nation's hereditary decoration, as fanciful and useless as the Crown Jewels are worn during her coronation. Also, her MO was based not on bravado but on secrecy. It was frequently prudent for her safety and the safety of the institution she personified and presided over to retreat behind a golden curtain.

Talented, Creativity, and Strong Sense of Duty

She had no business becoming Queen. She was born on April 21, 1926, at 17 Bruton Street, the London residence of her maternal grandparents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore. Prince Edward, her uncle, took precedence. King Edward VIII abdicated in December 1936 after provoking a constitutional crisis with his intention to stay monarch while marrying Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite, following the death of her paternal grandfather, George V, in January 1936. Instead of Edward's coronation on May 12, 1937, as scheduled, George V's second son Bertie, now legally known as George VI, traveled to Westminster Abbey to be crowned and anointed. Elizabeth, then eleven years old, carefully completed a six-page narrative of the day's events in pencil and entitled it "To Mummy and Papa in Memory of Their Coronation from Lilibet by Herself" after her father's coronation. She described her parents as "gorgeous" in their ceremonial robes and how excited she was to be awakened at 5 a.m. by a band of Royal Marines playing outside her window at Buckingham Palace. She wrote, "I found it all very, very magnificent, and I believe the Abbey did, too," revealing a winning creative talent for which there would be little use later in her royal form.

Queen Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Her other Realms and Territories, Defender of the Faith, was given a lofty official title that suggested duty would be her guiding principle. Either by luck or intent, she received an education that made her exceptionally qualified for a leadership position. While she had private constitutional law and history tutoring and was reportedly very fluent in French, she never took a standardized test of any kind. While she was at the pinnacle of society, her influence was limited. As a young woman, she socialized with the heirs and aristocrats of several noble families. She attended a costume party at the American Embassy in her early twenties. She dressed as an Edwardian parlor maid to show that she was familiar with at least one other social class than the nobility. 

Her Thriving Almost 71-Year Reign

She lacked the blustering confidence fostered at Britain's élite educational institutions, a quality she may have gauged from her fifteen encounters with the Prime Minister. On September 6, the Queen's penultimate public appearance, she officially installed Liz Truss as the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Several of these politicians had trouble understanding the mysterious rituals associated with the position, such as the "kissing hands" ceremony in which the Queen officially invests power in a new Prime Minister. (Tony Blair, in his biography, recalled being told by a palace official that he was not meant to kiss the monarch's hand but instead had to brush it with his lips lightly: "I confess that stunned me. I don't even know what he means. Do you rub them gently, like a pair of shoes, or do you use a brush? The Queen was not brought up to seek attention for herself, making her uniquely suited to always placing the needs of her kingdom ahead of her own. In her first Christmas address to the country in December 1952, she declared her commitment to serving her people and requested them to pray for God to give her wisdom and strength "so I may truly serve Him, and you, all the days of my life." 

Some of the Queen's more nuanced biographers, like Ben Pimlott, have noted that "the force of such clichéd statements stemmed from the disquieting sensation that she meant them." 
Throughout the long second Elizabethan era, the Queen's realms underwent a dramatic change, with former imperial territories becoming independent countries and the Commonwealth expanding as a voluntary association of affiliated nations, with some retaining the British monarch as sovereign and many others declining to do so. With unprecedented royal clarity, Prince Charles acknowledged "the darkest days of our past, and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which forever stains our history" when Barbados, which gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966, recently declared itself a republic and removed the Queen as its head of state.

Republican ideas that one King in particular, or monarchs in general, are guilty of an abuse of privilege have historically formed the basis of arguments against the institution of monarchy. (Charles I was convicted for treason and killed in 1649 after being overthrown by Parliamentarians who opposed his dictatorial rule, especially the imposition of what was perceived to be atrocious taxes and the conducting of foreign wars.) With an estimated net worth of $600,000,000 and a collection of six residences around the United Kingdom (including a palace, a castle, and a country estate), one could argue that the Queen lived an extravagant lifestyle. Balmoral Castle, which is owned by the Royal Family and not the Crown, was her favorite place to get away from it all. A bagpiper may perform beneath the Queen's bedroom window on a Sunday morning. After a day of shooting, visitors might dine on a picnic meal prepared in a mobile kitchen that the Queen would personally set up and clean up after. Until public pressure increased in the early 1990s, the Queen did not voluntarily agree to pay income and capital gains taxes like her people. The Royal Family discovered a new source of income in 1993 when they began selling admission to the state rooms at Buckingham Palace. A royal invitation was no longer required to walk on the royal carpets.

The Queen famously told George W. Bush, then a successful businessman, that every family had a black sheep when it looked like he may succeed his father as President. The Queen's middle son, Andrew, is a prime example of the disagreeable benefits of privileged birth that plague many in the royal family. Because of his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he was relieved of his official obligations on behalf of the Crown in 2019. The most compelling argument in recent years against the monarchy, notwithstanding Andrew's egregious example, may not be based on the unjust pecuniary benefits that being royal bestows. However, the monarchy's continued existence may be a violation of its members' human rights, who aren't consulted before being placed in their positions and are now exposed to unprecedented levels of scrutiny.

Royals in the modern day are expected to fulfill the roles of interesting, consumable celebrities and distant moral avatars simultaneously, which is an impossible balancing act given the monarchy's historical dependency on another, less revered institution, the press. At least, this is the message sent by Prince Harry's (the Queen's grandson) actions in 2020, when he essentially resigned from his position and sparked a question bigger than the rumors of how a broken Windsor scion would rebuild himself in the Golden State. What kind of culture expects someone born into it to serve as both an untouchable emblem and a vulnerable, fallible human being? That one person who can carry such a burden is unusual. To keep asking that of them seems impossible. 

The highlight of the 1953 coronation was when the Queen put the enormous weight of St. Edward's Crown on her head, just as her father, George VI, had done before her and as her son, presumably, will do after her. It is approximately five neck-bending pounds of pure gold, studded with diamonds and upholstered in purple velvet and ermine. It is named for Edward the Confessor, an Anglo-Saxon king from the eleventh century. It was made in 1661 for King Charles II's coronation when the monarchy was reinstated in Britain following a brief period of republican rule. 

When the Queen outlived all the people who were supposed to preside over her coronation, she became a fixture in British culture. Even those who don't think they have any use for the Queen will lament her passing since she has always been present, her greatness celebrated in the national song, and her image thumbed on every penny in every British purse.

All the Secrets Are Laid to Rest with Her
She seemed instantly recognizable yet held a wealth of secrets. Her speech pattern will go on forever, and her quaint old-world accent will perish with her. Despite her not-insignificant public profile, she left behind an unusually small body of quotable quotes since she was so cautious to avoid making impromptu comments and rarely spoke in public. She addressed the nation in her own words; Gulf War (1991), Princess Diana's Death (1997), her mother's death (2002), and the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee (2012), to name a few. Due to her infrequency of speech, even her least interesting subjects paid attention to her words.

In 2020, when the coronavirus lockdown began, she addressed the public once more. She reassured us, "We should take heart in the fact that while we may have much still to bear, better days will return." Her comments were reassuring apart from the fact that they were said with an authority that came not from the mystique of royalty but from experience. By that time, she had become more than just a Queen; she was also very old who had lived a long time and seen a great deal, who commanded respect by the random chance of fortune, but to whom respect was also granted because, having borne the weight of the Crown for all those years, she had earned it. 

Written by Hamza Ansari