Queen: History will remember your actions in virus crisis

Britain needed a message of hope Sunday. The queen delivered it.

Queen Elizabeth II offered support to a country locked down in the coronavirus pandemic, promising the nation that it would rise to the challenge and overcome the outbreak.

In a rare address to the nation, the 93year-old monarch acknowledged the suffering that many families have experienced because of the COVID-19 crisis, which has infected more than 47,806 people in the U.K. and killed at least 4,934 of them. She drew upon wisdom from her decades as Britain’s head of state to urge resolve in a time of crisis.

“While we have faced challenges before, this one is different,” she said. “This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal.

“We will succeed — and that success will belong to every one of us.”

The queen gives yearly Christmas messages but has given an address like this on only three previous occasions. She delivered speeches after the Queen Mother’s death in 2002, before the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, and at the time of the first Gulf War in 1991.

But times are unprecedented. She lauded Britain’s beloved National Health Service in a broadcast that featured pictures of medical teams suiting up to go battle the virus. She praised other essential services, as images of soldiers loading medical equipment on trucks rolled on the screen. She also praised everyday citizens who are adhering to the terms of the lockdown and staying at home and helping to prevent the spread of the virus.

“I am sure the nation will join me in assuring you that what you do is appreciated and every hour of your hard work brings us closer to a return to more normal times,” the queen said. “I also want to thank those of you who are staying at home, thereby helping to protect the vulnerable and sparing many families the pain already felt by those who have lost loved ones.

“Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it.”

The leader who spends much of her time cutting ribbons and visiting charitable organizations, also made the point of mentioning the general public, such as the 750,000 people who volunteered to help the vulnerable.

“I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge,“she said. “Those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any.”

“That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humored resolve, and of fellow feeling still characterize this country.”

The crisis has hit close to home for the queen. Her son and the heir to the throne, 71-year-old Prince Charles, had a mild case of the disease.

She herself left London, the epicenter of Britain’s outbreak, and took up residence at her home in Windsor with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Chris Jackson / Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II addresses the nation in a special broadcast to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in relation to the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday in London.