When duty called, the Queen answered
The Queen, a constant in our lives since childhood, is no longer with us. No other figure has been in our public life for so long.
None but the very elderly can remember anyone but Queen Elizabeth on the throne. It feels like part of our landscape has gone. The loss New Zealand feels today is not diminished by the fact she lived far away. She was Queen of many nations like ours and all feel the loss.
She established a rapport with them on royal visits without speaking in public very much and never controversially. She spoke with her presence, always sensitive to the people, places and events she graced.
Here she displayed acute awareness of the importance of the pact made with Māori in the name of Queen Victoria.
Though the Victorian empire has long gone and the reign of Elizabeth II has been an era of decolonisation, Māori have considered the retention of the monarchy to be essential to the Treaty. She was held in such high personal regard by New Zealanders generally that when contemplating replacing the monarchy, many preferred to postpone the decision “until the Queen dies”.
They did not expect anything to change at that point, they were simply thinking of her feelings. In fact, she never expressed personal feelings about any country’s wish for an indigenous head of state. She and those who spoke for her made it clear the institution is there if people want it, as long as they want it. She managed to convey this without implying she was indifferent to the role.
She cared deeply for the Commonwealth of former colonies that came to independence in her reign. Few worked harder to keep them in a meaningful and mutually beneficial association.
Prime ministers often attested to her interest in their country and her knowledge of it. It is easy to overlook the value of tradition and permanence in a world of constant change.
Precious few institutions in the world today have been as permanent as England’s monarchy. Its line of descent goes back 1000 years. For 300 years it has been a constitutional monarchy, subject to the will of elected parliaments, but no less regal.
Nevertheless, a hereditary office has long been at odds with meritocratic values. The monarchy’s survival in the late 20th century owed a great deal to the fine judgement of Queen Elizabeth. It would have been quickly discredited by ill-considered or contentious comments, and she steadfastly avoided that risk. Critics feasted instead upon her family’s failed marriages and tensions real or rumoured. Through these, the public saw a family much like any other for all its palaces and privileges. They saw in the Queen a normal mother, sensible, protective but firm in her duty.
Duty defined her — duty to the demands of her position, to the public, to Britain, the Commonwealth. Duty is the example she has given her heirs and it is the legacy she leaves.