by The Laird o’ Thistle
September 9, 2015
The day has finally come, the day when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II – aka Her Grace Elizabeth (first of that name) Queen of Scots – surpasses Queen Victoria as the longest reigning monarch in the history of the British Isles. Queen Victoria is now second, and poor old George III gets bumped to third place… though he is still the longest reigning “King” in British history.
I do not remember when I first realized that this day might come, and then that it would probably come, and then that it was almost certain to come… but, I have been watching and anticipating the day for a long time.
My thoughts today are somewhat personal. Some years ago Dame Helen Mirren, in the BBC documentary Diamond Queen, noted that “except for my sister, the Queen is the only person who has been a constant presence for my whole life.” That is true for many of us. My own first reliable memory of the Queen is of her at Winston Churchill’s funeral… as hushed commentators spoke of the breaking of protocol so that HM entered St. Paul’s before the Churchill family and left after them. (That, at least, is my memory… 50 years on… of what they said.) I was nine years old at the time. And then, within a few years, I was “hooked” on being a royal watcher, from afar.
While I do admire other royals… Prince Charles for his charity and environmental work, Princess Anne for her charitable efforts and world travel for Save the Children, and so on… it is the Queen who has always most fascinated me. I am fascinated by the utterly serious and dutiful way in which she has done her “job” over the years, in some ways against her more private and down-to-earth countrywoman’s nature. With all due respect to Queen Margrethe and Princess Beatrix, virtually no one on earth fails to understand who you mean if you say simply “THE Queen.”
Today she does not simply set a record. Today she leaves her predecessors in the dust. At the end of his reign, George III was blind, deaf, and insane. The old Victoria was feeble and withdrawn if not quite the grieving recluse of her middle years. Queen Elizabeth, though increasingly moving more carefully and slowly, and needing a hand at times on the steps, continues to be out and about, doing her ceremonial and public duties, going to church, doing her “boxes” of paperwork, and keeping abreast of national and international affairs in the U.K., her other realms, the Commonwealth, and throughout the world. She has worked with and been friends with, Indira Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. In 2011, just a few words at Dublin Castle were said to have changed history and set a new course of Anglo-Irish relations. Last year, an absolutely innocuous but carefully timed word after church in Scotland may have swayed a crucial referendum. (Both being items, I might add, that David Starkey seems to have forgotten in his recent comments.) She has traveled further and been personally seen by more people, than any other monarch in the history of the world.
Across the years she has moved through her life surrounded by royal relatives spanning three centuries, thus far. She remembers three of Queen Victoria’s children (Louise, Arthur of Connaught, and Beatrice), as well as many of Victoria’s grandchildren. Throughout the years she has been a devoted granddaughter to her beloved “Grandpapa England” and Queen Mary, a devoted daughter to her revered father – King George VI – and her long-lived “Mummy”, and a loving and patient sister to Princess Margaret. She has only ever had eyes for one man, Prince Philip, and the two keep soldiering on side-by-side, at ages 89 and 94 respectively. The Queen faced the challenges, early on, of being a constantly working mother, and reportedly regrets not having been able to be more present to and with her children. Since Princess Margaret’s death, she continues to include the Snowdon children and grandchildren in the close family circle. She is a loving granny, with a particular bond to her heir’s heir, Prince William, with whom she used to share Sunday tea when he was a student at Eton. The arrival of her great-grandchildren seems to please her greatly, as evidenced by those wonderful pictures of her interacting with little Prince George at Princess Charlotte’s christening earlier this summer. Those children may easily live and perhaps reign, on into the 22nd century.
Meanwhile… today is a day, a milestone, but not yet an ending. Next spring she turns 90. In 2017 the Windsor dynasty turns 100, with her having led it through nearly two-thirds of that time. Later that year, God-willing, she and the Duke of Edinburgh will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary. More grandchildren will probably marry, and more great-grandchildren will probably appear. The U.K. will continue to reconfigure itself… or, “its-selves”… and so will Europe and the world. She will soon be seeing her 13th U.S. President enter the White House. She’s now on her 7th Pope. And, so it goes….
Thank you, Ma’am, for a lifetime of service as Princess and as Queen. Thank you, for all that has been done, and all that will yet be done. God bless you, now and always!
Yours Aye,
Ken Cuthbertson