Queen Elizabeth II mastered the art of embracing change in a historic reign that bridged generations. “Change is a constant; managing it has become an expanding discipline. The way we embrace it defines our future” - the Queen, 2002
Obituary
The remarks were made just a few weeks into a six-month, 43,618-mile royal progress across the rump of theWhile the words were primarily aimed at, they also offer a profound insight into how Elizabeth II saw her role as sovereign and the spirit in which she reigned for what she could not have known then would be more than seven decades on the throne.
Thrust into the gilded cage of queenhood by the love life of her uncle Edward VIII, and by her father’s early death, Elizabeth II and her reign is the story of a careful – often deft but once or twice perilously close to stumbling – walk along the tightrope laid out for her by Britain’s unwritten constitution: the preservation and perpetuation of hereditary monarchy by dint of a lifetime of unstinting and, as she saw it, God-ordained service.
“The Queen understood from the outset that she must be above the fray and yet not aloof. For her, it was duty, duty and duty with a side serving of duty. That might lead to popularity but it seemed to me she was popular only because people understood and appreciated her dedication.He added: “Above all, she knew that the permanency of the monarchy is a paradox.
Marion Crawford – the governess whose account of life in the York house, published in 1950, saw her frozen out of royal circles for life – described what would happen when the princesses came across other children in Hyde Park.She wrote: “They used to smile shyly at those they liked the look of. They would so have loved to speak to them and make friends, but this was never encouraged. I often thought it a pity.
Although Princess Elizabeth’s tutoring was duly expanded to include constitutional history, anchored in the weighty ponderings of the great Victorian essayist Walter Bagehot, and additional efforts in French, the relative youth of her father meant any preparations for the queenhood were carried out at a sedate pace.
The Queen holding Prince Edward, with the Duke of Edinburgh, right, the Prince of Wales, second right, Princess Anne, back left, and Prince Andrew, front left, at Windsor on the Queen’s 39th birthday During her reign the Queen oversaw 15 prime ministers, starting with Winston Churchill, an initial sceptic on the young Queen’s political talents who rapidly became besotted with her, and ending with Liz Truss, who formally took up the role earlier this week. The Queen’s admiration of Sir Winston’s political nous is a matter of record.
The “sponge” metaphor can perhaps be extended to Elizabeth II’s interactions with the rest her subjects. In an era that preceded the ubiquity of celebrity, it was hard to overstate the public interest in the Duke of Edinburgh flipping sausages on the Balmoral barbecue and the Queen making salad. He wrote to the producers: “You’re killing the monarchy, you know, with this film you’re making. The whole institution depends on mystique and the tribal chief in his hut. If any member of the tribe ever sees inside the hut, then the whole system of the tribal chiefdom is damaged and tribe eventually disintegrates.”The English Constitution
It was not without its moments of regal flair and grit. In 1961, she overrode the advice of courtiers and ministers to insist that a trip to Ghana should go ahead despite assassination threats against her host , Kwame Nkrumah. The unstitching of the marriages of all but one of the Queen’s offspring brought the Royal Family a decade of unwanted headlines, as the philanderings of the next generation of Windsors – led by the unravelling union of Prince Charles and Diana – were laid bare to an avid worldwide audience.
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