Remembering Elizabeth II, The Modern Queen

Queen Elizabeth’s greatest achievement had been keeping the British monarchy relevant during a tumultuous change that swept the world since she ascended the throne in 1952. Several venerable institutions of the old world have crumbled. But through the 70 years of her reign, the Queen could redefine the monarchy and keep it on track with the new egalitarian and democratic age.  The outpouring of grief at her death  death in Balmoral on Thursday underscores the success of her effort to keep the House of Windsor afloat and redefine the role of a modern queen. The journey has often been difficult especially with scandals that tarnished the family name. But she rode into the sunset confident of the love and loyalty of her subjects. Whether her son King Charles can do the same is open to question.   

Compared to her namesake in the 16^th century which saw the pinnacle of British glory and  Queen Victoria who presided over an empire where the sun never set,  Queen Elizabeth witnessed the shrinking of British power and the end of British imperialism. Wars have been fought in her name. The Mau Mau massacre in Kenya in which 11,000  Kenyans were killed for wanting independence, happened under her watch.  Her love for the Commonwealth and personal effort in the Caribbeans and several commonwealth nations in Africa as well as Australia and Canada have helped to keep the Commonwealth nations keep its bond with Britain. With her passing there is a question mark on how long the bond remains.

Unlike in the past, the Queen had to make sure that she did not cross the line that could be interpreted as interference on the working of the elected government. The queen kept her mouth sealed so as not to step out of place. How she felt about the Mau Mau massacre or Britain going to war against Saddam Hussain under false premise will be never known.

``She steered the monarchy from the world of aristocracy and deference in which she was born, through the social liberation of the swinging 1960s and the bitter divisions of the ’80s and onward into a new millennium; past a Scottish-independence referendum that would have broken apart 300 years of the union; past Brexit, which sundered her kingdom from the European Union; to her final days in a world of smartphones and Instagram,’’ Helen Lewis wrote in The Atlantic, this week.

It had not always been easy for the Queen to remain popular, mainly because of the scandals that rocked her family. One of the lowest points in her reign has been the death of Diana, the estranged wife of Charles. The events leading up to the separation and divorce of Charles and Diana was a difficult period for the queen. When Diana died in a car crash in August 31, 1997, in Paris, her popularity got a battering. She and the royal family were exposed to a barrage of criticism from ordinary Britons.  

The beautiful Diana Spencer was loved by the people. Her connection with the public was spontaneous. She was beautiful, charming and warm, her instant connection with the people stood in sharp contrast to the stodgy tight-lipped ways of the Queen and the rest of the royals. Charles’s infidelity and Diana’s assertion that  Camilla Parker Bowles was the third party in the marriage, led to massive sympathy for Diana. It was former prime minister Tony Blair who had dubbed her the 'people's princess’ and that described the relationship with the ordinary citizen not just in Britain but across the world. People found the Queen’s response to Diana’s tragic death unemotional and heartless.

As people in their thousands thronged to Kensington Palace, Diana’s home, and stood patiently for hours to place flowers and notes to the princess, the royal family were nowhere in sight. The queen, prince Philip, Charles, Willian and Harry were in Balmoral palace in Scotland. The idea was to keep the children away from the scene of mourning and mourn their mother privately away from the public eye. The Queen wanted to protect her grandchildren from public scrutiny. The fact that the Queen refused to fly a flag at half-staff over Buckingham palace irked the British public. The flag is up only when the monarch is in residence as the Queen was in Scotland. A stickler for protocol the queen did not wish to make an exception.

People were also annoyed because the queen did not make a statement on Diana’s death till the funeral. This was interpreted as the queen did not care, prompting The Express to run a front-page headline: "Show us you Care."  Antagonism against the queen and the royal family was overflowing.

The Queen finally arrived a day ahead of Diana’s funeral and gauging the public mood quickly did a course correction. She did a couple of walkabouts in the palace grounds where people had thronged with flowers and messages. She read the messages, spoke to people and shared their grief. The public mood softened a bit. She did not stop there and in the days ahead praised publicly noted the work done by the people’s princess. She drew important lessons from the experience.  The family tried to move away from the formality and stuffiness of accepted royal ways and as a result over the years connected much better with ordinary folks. The fact that today three-quarters of the British public believe that the country would be "worse off without’’ the royal family, is an indication that the queen was able to win back the love of her subjects.

The marriage of Harry, Diana’s younger son to American actress Megan Markle in   2018 was another watershed for the house of Windsor.. The fact that Markle a person of color was accepted as a royal bride helped to further enhance the image of the royals. They were in tune with the reality of modern times. But soon afterward when Megan and Harry broke away from the family and accusations of racism surfaced. However this time around, the backlash was not as much. The public was divided over Megan Markle and everyone did not blame the family.   

Her son Prince Andrew gave her further grief with reports of his close association with Jeffrey Epstein a convicted sex offender known to lure underage girls to his liar. Epstein committed suicide. Andrew was accused of rape by Virginia Giuffre in a civil lawsuit in New York, his plea to dismiss the case was overturned. Following the allegations, Andrew was stripped of all royal duties. This was a serious blot on the royal family and tarnished the reputation of the royals. Yet despite all of this, loyalty and admiration for the Queen have remained intact.