The Queen is dead. And for some reason, I feel bad about it.
I’m not a sentimental person. Nostalgia annoys me. I’m instinctually averse to ancestor worship. And tradition which confers arbitrary privilege is positively abhorrent to me.
Further, my contempt for celebrity gossip leaves me hopelessly biased against Palace intrigue. Finally, and most poignantly, I, like countless others around the world old enough to remember, harbor a deep-seated disdain for the lack of respect paid to Princess Diana upon her death.
It would be strange, not to mention uncouth, to include, in an obituary, all of the reasons to be indifferent. But this isn’t an obituary. These are the sorts of events I’m compelled to cover despite having no hope of delivering anything like a passable assessment relative to those for whom the subject is a career. Some news is simply too momentous to omit on a site (this one) which purports to be a regular diary of notable world events.
Technically, the world “makes history” every, single day, as I’m fond of putting it. But September 8, 2022, is “history” in the grand, formal sense of the term. Perhaps that explains my faint sense of regret.
I’ve never known another Queen. Estimates of the global population breakdown by age suggest the vast majority of humanity hasn’t either. Elizabeth II was just “The Queen.” Distinctions weren’t necessary.
Thursday marked the death of a monarch who shepherded, if only symbolically, one of history’s greatest empires over seven of the most transformative decades the world has ever witnessed. For the next 24 hours (at least), every major news outlet on the planet will feature photo albums documenting her life. They double as history books. She was, in many ways, history personified.
She died peacefully, according to the family. She was 96. Just two days ago, she received Liz Truss at Balmoral. Truss, speaking to, and also for, the nation, described the UK as “devastated.” The Queen, she said, was “the rock on which modern Britain was built.”
Prince Charles will become King immediately. The UK will mourn for 10 days. The 10th day is a national holiday.
The Queen’s death comes at a time of reckoning not just for the UK, but for humanity more generally, which makes the event seem all the more momentous. Or all the more ominous.
Regardless of what one thinks of monarchies, Queen Elizabeth II receiving and endorsing the handover of the British Government from Prome Minister Boris Johnston to the in-coming Prime Minister Truss, while clearly assessed by her medical team as unwell, was one last and fitting example of the Queen putting Duty before Self. At age 96, QE II was the most amazing example of, and perhaps the personification of, fulfilling a lifetime of Public Service.
Thank you for this lovely tribute. Elizabeth II may have been the only queen the vast majority of humanity has ever know, but for too much of humanity history is terra incognita. Say what you will about monarchy and inherited privilege, but for the most part fulfilled the role she was born to with grace, equanimity, and a deep respect and appreciation for the importance of tradition in well-ordered societies.
The Royal Firm, which is the Monarchy’s real estate empire, is worth approximately $30B. This includes the Crown Estate ($20B) and Buckingham Palace ($5B).
The British government also provides an annual Sovereign Grant of 85-100M GBP to the Royal Fam.
The Royal Family is a big business in disguise.
As it has been since the 12th century.
That’s really not the point today, though. I don’t think anybody is arguing that the monarchy is a logical institution in the year 2022, and it’s never been a bastion of fairness and frugality. In fact, I’m told, a rowdy bunch of colonies once rebelled against it with designs on starting their own nation! They had some crazy slogan about “all men being created equal.” It worked out for a while, but eventually, it fell apart due to internal division, as these things go.
Thank you for your thoughtful farewell. I lived in the UK for five years, and found myself becoming a “Queen fan,” almost in spite of myself. I share your feelings about celebrity gossip-and these feelings have not been lessened by Megan and Harry.
Her loss has been described as the loss of an anchor in rough seas, and I can’t help feeling the same.
I agree with your contempt for celebrity gossip and such but I am glad you gave her a tribute. She did oversee the desolation of control of many of her colonies. I also disagree with how she treated Diana’s death. But she definitely had a public presence that the other monarchs don’t have. I suspect that most people could identify that a Queen exists and it would be Queen Elizabeth. I doubt most people know there are many other monarchs and could name them.
King Zog of Albania will never be forgotten.
H-Man, nice farewell to a Grande Dame.
Her passing marks the end of an era, an era of innocence, as cast-outs from the Garden of Eden we can no-longer feign ignorance that We are the enemy as our Earth burns around us.
She did better than most at hiding all the human faults of “royalty” and I suspect the next generations will debase the brand, hopefully such that humanity doesn’t get suckered again into the “divine right to rule”.
Queen Elizabeth carried out her duties with grace and dignity. For most of a century, and longer than almost all of us have lived, she was a symbol of stability, reassurance, identity, and standards to be lived by, throughout the trubulent decades of her reign. In the more turbulent times to come, she will be missed.
King Charles comes to his duties after a lifetime dedicated to causes once eccentric, now recognized as vital. Not the least climate change, on which he began speaking out fully thirty years ago. It will be interesting to see if the British monarchy’s latent political influence begins to stir.
Not a subject of the late Queen, but her passing sobers me all the same.
She understood the way in which she was needed, understood that despite not having any real power she could be the soul of her country. She gave Britons a sense of identity through some rough transitions. She was an example, a role model of grace, strength, civility and duty.
The amount of self-discipline, strength and sacrifice necessary to live up to her own ideals as Queen, starting from a youthful age and keeping it going for over 75 years, is really Remarkable.
Her passing is indeed ominous. Her life seems to be bookending humanity’s age of innocence.
There are pictures extant of the queen as a young lady, toiling in the home guard motor pool, changing the tires and the oil on jeeps, etc. She made sure all her children and grand children and grand children served the country. However, for me the most stunning memory was of the coronation in 1952. It was televised in its entirety, live, in the US and was the first international television program in history. It lasted all day. Only the moon landing, with Cronkite moved to tears, had more impact on me. Sadly, the new king is a pompous ass who cheated on his wife, dislikes his children and so desperately wants to be king it is embarrassing. Unfortunately for England, Charles has no help to offer in his nation’s upcoming struggles and will hate what the press is about to do to him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is not the last of his kind.