With 3rd direct heir due, Elizabeth faces calls to step aside
LONDON — Aging monarchs in the Netherlands and Belgium stepped down this year to make room for the next generation of Europe’s crowned heads. But here in Britain, the birth in the coming days of a royal baby will have heirs stacking up like so many planes at this city’s Heathrow International Airport.
The nation is awaiting the arrival of her first great grandchild, whose birth will mark the first time a reigning British monarch has had the security of three direct heirs on standby. Prince William and wife Kate Middleton are expecting their first child any day now.
So with Queen Elizabeth II now 87 after 61 years on the throne, perhaps it is no surprise that the “A-word” is floating around these isles. Abdication. There is no sign that One is heading for the gilded doors, and those close to her argue she will never go the way of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Yet, as the queen and her 92-year husband, Prince Philip, both confront health issues and with another direct heir on the way, chatter about a royal retirement has rarely been louder.
“Will the Queen abdicate?” Britain’s Guardian newspaper asked with casual bluntness after Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands called it a day following 33 years on the throne.
The paper went on to wonder whether, after “years of smiling and waving and keeping shtoom while gaffes abound around her,” is it time for Queen Elizabeth II to finally “relax with the corgis?”
Even Lord John Prescott, a former member of the Privy Council that advises the monarch, penned an opinion piece in the Sunday Mirror, ostensibly about a “friend” who felt the queen was “overburdening herself” and deserved “to break convention and consider enjoying a long and fulfilling retirement.”
By at least one measure, international travel, the queen is slowing down. Eyebrows arched across Britain back in May when Buckingham Palace announced she would, for the first time in 40 years, skip her biennial trip abroad to address leaders of her far-flung realms including Australia and Canada. It would please Her Royal Highness to instead send her son, Prince Charles, the longest waiting monarch-to-be in British history.
There is no denying, observers say, that a changing of the guard of sorts is already taking place.
Charles and his wife Camilla accompanied the queen to the state opening of Parliament this year, an event of high pomp where the spotlight is typically reserved for the reigning monarch.