Through selfless duty, the Queen keeps the monarchy at the heart of the nation
One fact that most of us knew about Queen Victoria was that she was the longest reigning British monarch. That is true no longer. Today, Queen Elizabeth II surpasses her illustrious predecessor’s 63 years and seven months on the throne, a timespan that defined an era. Although she had initially intended to spend the day quietly at Balmoral, Her Majesty has acknowledged the clamour for her to be seen on such a momentous occasion.
But she has eschewed any celebration and has opted to perform another of those duties that many of her age might find onerous by opening a new railway line in the Scottish Borders. It is characteristic of the Queen that she should mark this achievement by emphasising her commitment to public service. She has been the most dutiful of monarchs, and even ardent republicans cannot fault her selfless dedication to the country and its people.
During her reign she has probably met and been seen by more people than any other figure in history. Queen Victoria might have been the empress of almost half the world, but she lived much of her later life in self-imposed isolation after the untimely death of Prince Albert.
Queen Elizabeth has been blessed by the good health and loyalty of her consort, Prince Philip, who will be at her side today as he has been these past 63 years. Without him her task would have been so much harder, as the Queen herself acknowledged on their golden wedding anniversary. “He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.” Theirs has been a singular partnership.
In this democratic age, it is easy to be cynical about hereditary rule. Is it not anachronistic and irrelevant in the 21st century? And yet, as Charles Moore pointed out on these pages on Saturday, those countries whose heads of state are constitutional monarchies are among the most stable, secure and democratic in the world.
Being above politics, a monarch is free from the taint that can attach to presidents, since even those who are ceremonial figureheads will invariably have had a political career. With no such baggage, the Queen has scrupulously observed her constitutional role while dispensing wisdom and advice in private to 12 prime ministers. By dint of her longevity, most people alive today were born during the Queen’s reign.
As with Victoria, she may also come to be associated with an historical era, the New Elizabethan Age, one marked by an unparalleled period of economic growth, technological advance and political stability. Arguably, this may all have happened without the Queen; but for most of this time the nation has felt more at ease with itself knowing she was there, a fixed point in an always uncertain world.
Whatever else may have happened with other members of the Royal Family, the Queen has always attracted and deserved the affections and respect of her people. More than that, the example she has set has helped to protect the monarchy from the chill winds of republicanism, not just here but in Australia, Canada and New Zealand and a dozen others where she is still head of state. In any case, who wants a president when the spirit of the age is so anti-politician?
Given the pressures to genuflect to the forces of modernity and dispense with privilege, the very existence of the monarchy could have been in jeopardy over the past 63 years had it not been in the hands of someone so patently fitted to the task. It remains, thanks to her efforts, the incontrovertible focus of our nation. Moreover, in a celebrityobsessed world, the Queen is a contradiction – both the most recognisable person in the land and yet one whose private life people know least about. She does not give magazine interviews, or appear on chat shows or even speak much in public, although a few words are promised today. One historian snidely observed recently that she has said or done nothing of note in 63 years. Yet her circumspection is her strength, since to be otherwise is to risk everything she stands for.
Throughout her reign, the Queen’s loyalty to her people has been matched by theirs to her. The love and admiration she inspires were apparent during the Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and will be felt again today even if the celebrations are far more restrained. When Victoria passed George III’s record on Sept 23, 1896, she was at Balmoral entertaining the last Tsar of Russia. She recorded the moment in her journal “as the day on which I have reigned longer, by a day, than any English sovereign”. Opening a railway captures the same sense of understatement, but we should not doubt that today is a great moment in our national story.