Breaking news: Queen Elizabeth II, the seemingly eternal monarch who became a bright but inscrutable beacon of continuity in the U.K. during more than seven decades of rule, died Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle, her estate in the Scottish Highlands. She was 96.
Queen Elizabeth II, the seemingly eternal monarch who became a bright but inscrutable beacon of continuity in the United Kingdom during more than seven decades of rule, died Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle, her estate in the Scottish Highlands. She was 96.
In a monarchy dating back to at least the 10th century with King Athelstan, Elizabeth’s reign was the longest. In 2015, she broke a record once thought unassailable, surpassing the 63-year rule of her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.
By the time of her platinum jubilee in 2022 marking her 70 years as queen, the national celebration had added another dimension, a shared recognition that the reign was almost over and was of a type that would not be seen again in terms of its length, pomp and place in a changed British society. Into her 90s, she maintained a rigorous calendar of events and appearances. They numbered more than 400 in her diamond jubilee year. Her public life was defined by these duties, some seemingly trivial, such as handing out symbolic alms, others mantled with pomp and pageantry — the opening of Parliament or the hosting of a state dinner.
The paradox — and possibly the greatest feat — of her reign was her ability to be so visibly dutiful for so long without revealing her inner self. “Of all the world’s public figures, she is the most private,” veteran British journalist Bill Deedes wrote on her 80th birthday. And yet for most of her reign, the queen was so deft at subordinating herself to her role that her subjects “actually know much less about the queen than they imagine,” said biographer Robert Lacey in a 2015 interview with The Washington Post. “But it seems to me that’s less important than that people feel they know her very well.”
Edward abdicated — a shocking decision that H.L. Mencken called “the greatest story since the Crucifixion” — and Edward’s brother became King George VI. By then, she had found her life’s companion, Prince Philip, also a great-great-grandchild of Queen Victoria and the son of an exiled Greek prince. Philip was making his mark as a young officer in the British navy under the patronage of his uncle Louis Mountbatten.
Her coronation took place in Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953 — the day that word reached London that mountaineerof New Zealand had placed a Union Jack atop Mount Everest in a British-led expedition. In general, Elizabeth was known to have clicked more with some prime ministers than others. In the early 1970s, Edward Heath “treated her as a piece of necessary business,” wrote an Elizabeth biographer, Ben Pimlott. Worse, the pro-European Heath was openly antagonistic to Commonwealth interests and once blocked her from attending a conference of leaders in Singapore.
“Wilson was most enthused about his royal audiences as he came to feel besieged by ministers from left- and right-wing factions,” wrote Marr, the journalist and historian.There were times when Prince Philip’s will clashed with the wishes of the prevailing political leaders. Given Philip’s take-charge persona, those episodes led to some of the queen’s most trying times, according to biographers.
As if to compensate for her official preeminence, Elizabeth deferred to Philip in the upbringing of their children, a strategy that wrought its own effects, especially with the heir. Although the queen was said to have adored her younger sister, Margaret, it is hard to imagine two more different siblings, or the state of the monarchy had Margaret been born first. Well before her marriage ended in divorce, Margaret was known as a princess who liked the high life, and who disdained official duty but insisted on royal treatment.
“In the strange symbiosis between ruler and ruled, the people were insisting that the Queen acknowledge that she ruled by their consent, and bend to their insistence,” Tony Blair, prime minister at the time, wrote in his memoir. “Public anger was turning towards the royal family.” While Edward put his personal interests ahead of the monarchy, his niece Elizabeth dedicated her life to putting the monarchy first.
The next year brought an even more chilling threat. In July 1982, a stalker named Michael Fagan found his way into the queen’s bedroom. Her efforts to summon help failed, at least initially. Elizabeth later recalled, according to Lacey, that “I got out of bed, put on my dressing gown and slippers, drew myself up to my full regal height, pointed to the door and said, ‘Get out’ — and he didn’t.”She was a creature of habit and seemed inherently fastidious.
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