Queen Elizabeth II was never expected to become the queen. And she would have never become one, if not for fortuitous circumstances, that turned her into a queen overnight. On the night of 11th December 1936, When her handsome uncle Edward, King George VIII, addressed the nation, in a now famous BBC broadcast, of his decision to abdicate the throne because his personal interests clashed with the decorum and demeanor required as king, Elizabeth’s father, Albert, the younger brother of Edward, a timid, shy young man with a congenital stutter was forced to pick up the mantle and assumed the title of King George VI. Prince Albert was least ready for this important role, especially, at a time, when there were distant rumblings in the air of a Second World War. With Albert’s ascension, Elizabeth came into the spotlight. She was the next in line to inherit the Royal crown as the queen.
Elizabeth was born in 1926, and for the first ten years of her life, she was a sweet, playful girl, often seen lingering behind her mother’s skirts and an integral part of a larger royal family, and nothing else. But with her father now the king by an awkward tryst of destiny, Elizabeth suddenly found herself in line to become the next Queen ( being the elder of the two daughters of Albert), in the event anything happened to her father. Her childhood was cut short and new responsibilities were thrust upon her. She was the princess. King George VI, her father, ruled well as the constitutional monarch of England through the difficult times of the Second World War, valiantly overcoming his speech impediment with the help of a mercurial Australian speech coach ( beautifully captured in the movie, “The Kings speech”), and regularly inspired the nation with his carefully crafted and laboriously rehearsed speeches. The English loved King George VI, perhaps, because they found him humane and more engaged than his predecessors, and he, in turn, settled down in the role and turned his accidental kingship into a reign that endeared the royalty to its people. He was an inveterate smoker, and the life-long habit eventually took its toll. He developed lung cancer and it was only a matter of time before his body gave up.
Towards the end of January 1952, the King sent Elizabeth and Philip on a routine diplomatic trip to the African side of the empire. He couldn’t make the visit because his health was in precarious condition. The royal prince and princess arrived in Kenya on the 5th of February, On the evening of the 6th, When Elizabeth climbed up to her Kenyan home( the tree-tops hotel in Kenya, literally set among tree-tops) to rest she was still only a Princess; but when she came down in the morning, she was the queen. King George VI had passed away in the early hours of the morning. Since the Royal chair shouldn’t be left vacant, a dispatch was sent to her proclaiming her the queen. Elizabeth’s destiny changed overnight, though her coronation happened months later with all the pomp and pageantry a royal investiture entailed. From 6th February 1952, till her passing away on 8th September 2022, Queen Elizabeth was the still-center of a nation that was past its imperial days of glory, she was a steady anchor in the ever-shifting world order, an immovable rock of poise, grace, and dignity amidst the social, cultural and moral waves that lashed at its base. Of all the queens that ruled England, Queen Elizabeth II had the unenviable task to maintain the dignity and relevance of an institution that had become superfluous in the last hundred years. Monarchy is not a word, a system, that people like to hear about or live under, yet, this magnificent queen not only lived a royal life, but managed to make royalty relevant, meaningful, and – strangely – reverential to people all over the world, even when there was no power or authority left in the role. She encapsulated in her little frame tremendous restraint, resilience, and hope. Even during the pandemic times, a picture of the queen splashed on the digital screens, or a message from her to the people calmed the nerves, relaxed and assuaged the tempers of a nation. England has always looked upon the monarchy in times of crisis, and this queen has never let them down.
In her seventy years as Queen, Elizabeth has welcomed fifteen prime ministers beginning with Winston Churchill and ending with Liz Truss (who was elected just a few days before her death), met with fourteen US presidents, and seven popes; she has made over three hundred international trips, not as vacations, but on diplomatic missions – all this without a passport; after all the queen of England, by law, doesn’t need a passport or a driver’s license, because both these documents are issued in her name; in her hey days she ruled over fifty-two countries and oversaw the welfare of nearly one-third of the human population; She met the man she instantly fell in love with when she was eighteen, resolutely stuck to her decision of marrying him despite his lower rank and status, and remained married to him without a whiff of a scandal for seventy six years; She was first female monarch in a thousand years of British history to have actively served in the army; she loved horses, and was an accomplished rider herself till her late eighties; She loved dogs, and raised nearly fifteen generations of corgis ( a breed of dogs), starting from the first dog named Susan she received as a gift when she was eighteen, she was first seen on the Times cover page when she was three years old under her pet name of “Princess Lilybet” and since then has been the most reproduced female in history with her face or portrait on every bill, stamp, hundreds of commissioned paintings and literally thousands of photographs that captured her in every mood and nuance; the Queen has been portrayed in over hundred films and TV shows, and some of the actors who played the role of the queen have rechristened themselves as dames and duchesses; she unfailingly held her weekly meetings with the prime minsters each Wednesday till the last years of her life, and that is the time she listened to the current state of affairs; she was a workaholic, and never faltered n responding to mails containing matters of national importance that were brought to her attention in the daily Redbox , and at the same time, she was skillful in balancing her work with the life of mother, wife and grandmother; no one will forget her dramatic entry into Wembley stadium to open the 2012 London Olympic Games with Daniel Craig as James Bond – she loved the fun, and excitement of playing along with the script; she never gave a formal interview during her lifetime because she wished to maintain the privacy and dignity of the Royal office, and all that the public knows about her comes from a few documentaries and personal recollections of those who have met her. There is only one authorized documentary “The royal family” shot in 1969, which showed Prince Philip cooking a barbecue and many other personal details. Nearly twenty-nine million brits watched the documentary. But Queen Elizabeth decided that letting so much light into the life of the Royal family will dissolve the magic and mystery, and withdrew the documentary from public circulation. She knew how to play her royal cards well. This list of the late Queen’s characteristics, idiosyncrasies, and gifts can go on, but let’s stop here, and now look at some of the challenges she faced during her reign.
The eighties and nineties were personally a tumultuous period for the Queen. Things weren’t going right between Prince Charles, her son and the heir to the throne, and Diana – the darling of the public. The Charles- Diana marriage, a grand spectacle, took place in 1981 and was watched on television by nearly seven hundred million people. I was one of them. I remember how our school teacher herded us into a hall to watch the three-hour wedding ceremony. I was bored, but I vividly remember Diana walking into the church in her white wedding dress that flowed in cascades behind and was held by a team of children. It is a dream wedding, but unfortunately, it didn’t last long. Within five years and after sons from the union, the marriage began showing signs of distress and dissolution. Charles gravitated toward his old love, and Diana pursued her own interests. The marriage soon ended in a divorce. Princess Diana, in an unorthodox and exclusive interview, ripped apart the royal family for its double standards. She proclaimed she was unhappy – an iconoclastic pronouncement for a princess to make. This was news to the world. No one ever thought there could be unhappiness in the Royal household of Windsor. This was the first time a member of the royal family, had dared to speak to the media about the daily lives of the Monarchy. And by doing that, Diana had inadvertently opened up the floodgates of controversy that has ever since plagued and affected the family, even touching the lives of the current generation in ways that the Queen wouldn’t have imagined. When Diana died tragically of a car crash in 1997, the sympathy for Diana and her story of an unfortunate and wronged princess gained more favor, and the Queen’s abnormal silence for seven days after the death of Diana only added fuel to the fire. The Diana affair changed a lot of things in the public’s perception of Royalty. Though Elizabeth personally kept herself above water throughout the controversy and the subsequent tragedy, the royal family did lose some of its aura and dignity in the process.
But all said and done, the Queen has done the job that she promised to do when she was twenty-five. She served her country and her subjects with diligence, commitment, grace, and extraordinary passion, as a monarch should. In her first speech as queen, she made a commitment that she will serve the country and her imperial subjects well, and in her very last public broadcast during the pandemic, she ended with these soothing, prophetic words “ We will be with our friends again, we will be with our families again, and we will meet again ”. Such was the consistency of her message across decades and the optimism of the ninety-six-year-old queen during her final years. The former prime minister, Boris Johnson in a very touching speech in parliament today spoke on how her mind was as sharp as ever even just a few days ago when she met her to bid goodbye, and usher in Liz Truss as England’s new prime minister.
The Queen will now be succeeded by her son, King Charles, who has been in the line for decades and training himself for this role. The citizens of Britain will now hail “God save the king”, but I don’t think this refrain will come easy. For seventy years, the English people have lived and breathed the queen’s presence, near, yet distant, but always there to comfort and inspire. She is part of their psyche. But King Charles’ is an intellectual, he understands the world and the role of the monarchy in modern times, and more importantly, he has watched at close quarters his mother do the job thoroughly well. She has done the most difficult work for him, of grafting the institution of the British monarchy from its ancient soil soaked in traditional values and protocols to a modern soil with fresh interpretations of royalty means and its purpose. She has given it a digital image and allowed the younger generation to choose for themselves who they want to become.
We will miss the queen, her smile that disarmed everyone who came in contact with her, that royal wave gracefully executed and so heart-warming to bear witness to, that immaculate dress sense with hardly an accessory out of place, that custom-crafted handbag that nobody has seen her open, that stoic calm under the utmost distress, that maternal instinct that protected, nurtured and inspired millions at times of need, and above all, the extraordinary elegance, courage, and purpose of the lady who upheld an institution that many believed will die away soon. She not only maintained the unbroken tradition but transformed and strengthened it for the twenty-first century. What more can she do?
The Queen was surrounded by her family in Balmoral castle, Scotland where she breathed her last. She loved that home, and it is fitting she was away from the din and roar of Buckingham palace from where she conducted her professional life for seventy years. Just as did throughout her reign as queen, she carefully choose the place and the time to give up her life. Rest in eternity, dear Queen!