Her Majesty has kept the monarchy relevant
TFor the Queen, monarchy has always been about duty and vocation, not celebrity and wealth
he bunting is up, the flags are flying and the picnics are ready and waiting: only the weather (and an army of council killjoys) can now blight four days of jubilee celebrations to mark the Queen’s 70 years on the throne. It is a remarkable milestone in our national story, a rare opportunity to come together to recognise the stability and longevity of the country’s institutions vested in the Crown. As head of state, the monarch is the focus of unity through symbol, image and ritual.
Since we have no national day in the United Kingdom, the four significant jubilees of the Queen’s reign have each served to reassert a patriotism that is always present but only occasionally allowed to flourish.
People need events such as these to feel a sense of belonging beyond our immediate family, neighbourhood or region. To manifest itself through the Queen, rather than a nebulous concept of nationhood, makes it more personal – a relationship that is never possible between citizens and an elected politician.
While a proportion of her subjects will recall the reign of her father, or even her uncle and maybe her grandfather, for the vast majority of the population the Queen is the only head of state we have known – a constant companion through our entire lives, the still point in an often turbulent world.
In a statement in February to mark her accession, the Queen signed off as “Your Servant”, which is how she has always seen herself. As the heir-presumptive in 1947, still not expecting to take the throne for many years, she gave a radio broadcast to declare: “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.”
Mercifully, it has turned out to be a long life and Her Majesty has more than lived up to the pledge she gave then. Since this was a role she was never expected to fulfil, until the abdication of her uncle, Edward VIII, her dedication has been even more striking.
For the Queen, monarchy has always been about duty and vocation, not celebrity and wealth. The institution is what matters, and she has been its stalwart custodian.
Her reign has seen so many changes in society, especially the decline of deference towards authority and scorn for the emblems of power. Yet this has not diminished the country’s belief in the merits of monarchy. Quite the contrary: it has remained, thanks largely to Her Majesty’s efforts, the indisputable focus of our national community despite the efforts of separatists in Scotland and Northern Ireland to break it up.
In a world where the very idea of inherited authority is considered archaic, republican inclinations have never taken a grip in this country. The British have retained a love for monarchy even when they have not particularly loved their monarch.
That cannot be said of the Queen, however. The affection in which she is held is an important bulwark for the institution itself. Throughout much of her reign she was accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, a consort she once called “quite simply, my strength and stay” and whose absence from the Platinum Jubilee will be keenly felt.
Despite being the most photographed person in history, she has resisted pressure to turn herself into a celebrity, remaining a private, even reticent individual, offering an occasional glimpse into her life, as with the magnificent BBC documentary, The Unseen Queen, to which she provided the voiceover.
It has been her great accomplishment to have kept the institution of monarchy relevant at a time when it could have been overwhelmed by the forces of modernity.
As she said in The Unseen Queen, with age and experience has come greater wisdom. She has seen off 14 prime ministers and met 13 of the past 14 US presidents and has been able to impart increasingly sound advice to them all.
The second Elizabethan Age has seen more tumultuous social and technological change than any that has gone before, but the institution’s strength is to appear unchanging while adapting to our era’s more demotic sensibilities.
We are privileged to be involved in such a unique occasion. No British monarch has ever lived or reigned for such a long time.
Queen Victoria managed a Diamond Jubilee in 1897 at the zenith of empire, an event that was a mammoth exhibition of power. This weekend’s ceremonials, beginning today with Trooping the Colour, will be considerably less grand, but they will be spectacular nonetheless, culminating in a jubilee pageant in London on Sunday. At least we still do pomp and circumstance well.
Moreover, the Queen is never anything other than forward-looking and optimistic, reminding us that we have a great deal to be grateful for despite the difficulties of recent years.
She wants this Jubilee to bring together families and friends, neighbours and communities “to enjoy the celebrations and to reflect on the positive developments in our day-to-day lives that have so happily coincided with my reign.”
We owe it to Her Majesty to fulfil her wishes.