Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

 

The passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II marks the end of a reign unparalleled in British history. Having overseen change, trials and tribulations over 70 years, her passing will have an enormous impact on the British people and nation.  It is easy for those outside of the UK to struggle to understand why this is the case – surely, she was just a ceremonial figurehead, with little point or purpose? Yet to the British public, as well as those of her wider realms, she represented something deeper.

The role of the Monarch these days is predominantly ceremonial, but the odd traditions and titles, and strange parts played by individuals fulfilling roles that sound like something out of a Victorian novel are meaningful. They represent a very physical link to the history of the nation, and the Accession Council which will be held on Fri 09 September is the link to the far past, over 1000 years ago, when the nobility of England met to agree their King. This process, honed over many centuries remains a link to the past in meaningful form. It is a link to a deeper, older time, reminding us of our history and past in a way that few other processes can.

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright 2023.

For many Britons, the passing of the Queen will feel like a death in the family, for in one sense she is very much part of the national family. For over 70 years she has been a constant figure in people’s lives. They have looked on her portraits, followed her activities, sung her name in the National Anthem and her words have formed the backdrop of so many families Christmas’s. Her presence and passing matters to so many because it is a part of their life that has ended, never to return. When one makes the transition from figurehead to national treasure, one becomes part of the national DNA. That is why so many British people mourn, for they have in a very meaningful way, lost one of their family.

The Armed Forces will mourn her passing deeply. The bond between the Sovereign and her military ran deep and with good reason. A veteran of WW2 herself, and a naval wife, the Queen understood what it was to serve, and to be part of a Service family in a way no Prime Minister could. She rose above politics, enabling those who wished to serve their nation pledge their loyalty to Her, and not to the Government of the day. In times when politically contentious operations abound, it is far easier to serve where directed by the Monarch, than to take sides and risk your life for a politician.

The loyalty and adoration shown was genuine – for decades the Queen took a keen and active interest in the armed forces, not just of the UK but of all the Dominion, Imperial, Realms and Commonwealth nations that she served. When she became Monarch in 1952 much of the world was still under British rule. Her Empire stretched across every continent and ocean, and hundreds of millions of people were her subjects. The armed forces of these colonies have long changed, and the names of famous regiments have passed into history as independence came and nations took charge of their own destiny. But her links to the military remained strong to the very end.

Queen Elizabeth onboard Queen Elizabeth, Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright 2023.

To outsiders who find the whole thing a bit baffling, the idea that the men and women of the armed forces cared so deeply about their commitment and oath of loyalty to an elderly woman must seem bizarre. But it has meaning and purpose to many, for she represented values that those who serve hold dear – leadership, integrity, duty above self and always putting others first. Her values, morals and behaviour were those that the armed forces hold dear, helping them find common cause with her.  It is perhaps difficult to explain eloquently why this matters so to those who have not served. Suffice to say that when you are being asked to put your own life on the line, knowing that you are doing it in the name of someone whose moral compass is identically aligned to your own, and whose values you seek to uphold matters.

Her passing marks the end of so many things that have become taken for granted – the comforting words of the Naval Prayer, where thanks were given to our Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth, uttered for decades among countless services around the world will not be heard again. There will be debate around whether buttons should be replaced with the Kings cipher or remain as they are. Perhaps most challenging for the Royal Navy, all of the ships have undergone an immediate gender transition, going from Her Majesty’s Ship to His Majesty’s ship in an instant. After the best part of a century of using the feminine form, it will take many years to get used to this new way of referring to vessels of war.  

There will not be another Queen in our lifetimes, baring a very unfortunate series of circumstances. The next three monarchs of the UK will be Kings, and it is unlikely that God Save The Queen will be formally sung again until the 22^nd Century. This is in some ways both sad, but also reassuring, for it is the certainty that the Monarchy brings in an era of turbulence and challenge that is so powerful. To look back at the life of a Monarch born into a world where Royalty was seen as remote and near divine, and to look at a world now where she has helped it effortlessly transition into being an incredibly middle class institution in many ways is an insight into her ability to lead and manage change through an impossibly long period of time.

There are challenges ahead, and her passing will almost certainly lead to constitutional changes and discussion both in the UK and abroad. It is likely that the end of her reign marks the changing of many of the links that nations have with the UK. But it is also incredibly telling that when the Accession Council meets, no less than 14 nations will come together as one, with their High Commissioners present, to agree as a Commonwealth family that King Charles III is our rightful king, That nearly a century after she was born, so many of the nations that her family ruled over as a direct monarch continue to enjoy constitutional links to the Monarchy is in its own way a testament to her legacy.

In the weeks to come people will consider her legacy, and what it means for the future of the UK under the new King. Much will be said and written about her reign. One that began with a Prime Minister who participated in a cavalry charge in 1898 and ended with her final act being to appoint her 15^th Prime Minister. She did her duty to the very end. Her legacy and reign will be spoken of for decades to come in terms of accolades reserved only for the greatest of Monarchs. Already being referred to by some as ‘Elizabeth The Great’, a title last used some 1300 years ago for King Alfred, she will more likely be remembered to the armed forces simply as ‘The Boss’.

It is not fashionable to be particularly religious in the UK these days, but many hold to deeper links to their history and past. This old fashioned and at times deeply spiritual relationship between the people and the Monarch is incomprehensible to outsiders, but in a way does matter to many who grieve for the loss of their leader, the only monarch that they have ever known, and who in a raw and near primeval way mean it without irony or satire when they say and genuinely mean it with those words now that have not been used for nearly three quarters of a century and for whom they now place their hopes and trust for the future.

 “God Save The King”.