by Tonio Galea
Among all the chaos in the world, for these last 70 years there has been one constant, one beacon of stability…Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth, who was born April 21, 1926, but whose birthday is marked nationally on the second Saturday of June, broke the former record reign for a British monarch — set by her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria — in 2015.
She was crowned in the aftermath of World War II, outlived nine prime ministers, and saw the Iron Curtain rise and fall before witnessing Britain’s exit from the European Union. Only three other monarchs have reigned longer than 70 years: Liechtenstein’s Johann II, France’s Louis XIV and Thailand’s Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016.
She is the united in the kingdom.
A queen of Britain and the Commonwealth but also a source of respect for others who weren’t. Even North Korea’s Kim Jong Un felt the need to congratulate her on her 70 years on the throne. Free from criticism though she was not. Though in most cases this was more often than not directed at those around her then directly to her. These last years were bumpy… Brexit, the controversy around Prince Harry and Meghan and the scandal surrounding her son Prince Andrew.
Queen Elizabeth has been on “light duties” since an overnight hospital stay in October 2021 followed by a minor back injury. This continued when the British monarch tested positive for COVID-19 in early 2022. The Queen has just celebrated her Platinum Jubilee, but she was just seen at the start as she had to rest due to her mobility issues sending Prince Charles in her place.
A celebration that some interpreted as a farewell too
Many Britons are already bracing for her exit from the royal stage especially after her husband, Prince Philip, died in 2021. She has become increasingly frail. After falling ill with COVID-19 this year, she said it had left her “very exhausted and tired.”
Once the inevitable happens, what comes next is known. Prince Charles. Unlike the Queen, Charles has known from birth that he will be the monarch. Prince Charles will be crowned king in a much different world from when his mother acceded to the throne in 1952. Also at 73, he is nearly three times older than his mother was when she became queen at 25. A monarch who some argue doesn’t accept that his authority has nothing to do with his ability and everything to do with birth. He will inherit somewhat similar problems she did…she had the end of colonial rule around the world and he will be confronted with the survival of the monarchy abroad where Republicanism is growing in some places. Besides the United Kingdom — England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland — the British monarch also reigns over Canada, Australia and a dozen other nations that were former colonies, mostly in the Caribbean and the South Pacific. But this royal family or the Firm as it is known has the capacity for survival.
One of Queen Elizabeth’s main strengths is her modesty. She does her job and stays out of politics. Charles on the other hand has been known to routinely meddle in political issues and write sometimes in extreme terms to ministers, MPs and others in positions of political power. When dominant leaders retire their successors struggle to repeat their success. How much harder will it be to follow 70 years of a reign that even republicans concede has been an accomplished performance? In the meantime, nearly no one envisages the Queen abdicating and she has made it very clear that is not in her plans. Though all these years have passed, still fresh in people’s memories is the oath she made on her 21st birthday, in 1947: “I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”
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