Lying in State

(A personal view)

It has been an extraordinary week for the late Queen's family and Britain. H.M. Queen Elizabeth II has set records for being the oldest and longest serving Monarch in British - indeed World - history, respectively ninety-six and seventy years.  But more important than the quantity, it has been the quality of her reign that has made its mark, truly justifying what Boris Johnson coined, in perhaps his most impressive speech to Parliament, as 'Elizabeth the Great'.  In the future annals of history, the label will probably stick and sets an formidable bar for the unfortunate King Charles III to meet, in what must inevitably be a relatively short reign.

A week has now passed since the news of her death was announced at Balmoral in the Scottish Highlands on Thursday 8th September, 2022.  At lunchtime the concern of her doctors was made public and she passed away, we must assume, shortly after. The public pronouncement by the BBC was held back until six-thirty pm. The rationale for this has not been given, nor details of who was physically in attendance at the time but it is fair to assume that both Charles and his sister Anne were. It is unlikely the other siblings and grandchildren reached the bed chamber to witness her passing, although able to pay their respects immediately following it. A cause of death has not been given but it may be assumed that it resulted from a combination of advanced years and an underlying medical condition that had pre-dated the event by many months.

There is no doubt, despite her stoicism and amazing constitution, the decline and death of her husband of over seventy years on the 9th April 2021, hit her hard. Who can forget the image of that lonely masked figure in St Georges Chapel, abandoned by, and separated from, the world? Both had received a Covid 'vaccination' on the 9th January, 2021and two subsequent ones. She later (10.4.2021) reported that the infection 'had left her very tired and exhausted.' Following the first vaccination, Prince Philip was admitted to hospital on the 23rd February, 2021 'with an infection' which was not specified, although stated to be unrelated to the vaccine. He was to survive for only another forty-five days. 

Later that year on the 14th November, 2021, the Queen herself was admitted to hospital 'for tests' and received treatment for some unspecified condition, which was reported publicly as a 'mobility problem'.  It is unlikely to have been that simple.  In any event, from that time onwards, there was a progressive and marked decline in Her Majesty's physical, though not mental, state. What is beyond doubt, both the Queen and Prince Philip suffered from symptoms of Coronavirus after inoculation with the experimental vaccines and both suffered a marked decline in heath leading to their deaths following it. It is a moot point whether the vaccines or the illness hastened their demise, as it has done to many thousands of others.

Despite her underlying illness, she continued performing her duties right up to the very end. Only three days before her death she said goodbye to Boris Johnson and hello to the new incoming Prime Minister, Liz Truss. At those meetings, as Mr Johnson subsequently confirmed, it was clear her health was failing. In the days that followed it was reported that Prince Charles visited frequently and at her side, which did not bode well, until the sad news finally broke to the world. To a select inner circle the serious nature of the circumstance was known as indicated by the discrete in the number of personnel planning the funeral. The Earl Marshall, the 18th Duke of Norfolk, stated as early as April the number had increased from twenty to two hundred and eighty.

Elizabeth II has filled the role of Monarch for so long, indeed for most of the lives of those now living, that it it hard to adjust to the fact that she will no longer be there.  No one now alive will have witnessed another British Coronation or State Funeral other than hers, although many will remember similar ones afforded Sir Winston Churchill, Lady Diana Spencer, Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.  She stated she was herself a great believer in continuity and the importance of history and she made sure all the necessary arrangements were put in place for King Charles with Camilla at his side as Queen Consort. Both were given her public blessing before she died, he having previously taken on the role of Head of the Commonwealth at her recommendation.

In the long history of England, dating right back to the Roman Conquest and before, the population has subscribed to Kingship, from small tribes and geographical areas, to larger ones. It was a continuously developing story of peoples and their leaders, through Anglo Saxon to Norman times, up to the present day. Essentially it was in Thomas Hobbes terms a trade off between State and individual citizen - an unstated contract for security and protection from enemies without and within. That essentially remains the case, and all the military pageantry now on display is a reminder of that relationship, with Monarch still at the apex of it all. We should remember that all armed services vow allegiance to the Crown not the Government, as do government Ministers themselves. 

In the 17th Century the country engaged in a bloody civil war over the principal of the 'Divine Right of Kings', and where executive power to act and tax actually lay. For a decade or so Britain was a republic to which a sizeable minority would have us return, yet monarchy and most of its trappings has survived with the consent of both Parliament and people. Despite a very different world, both physically and philosophically to that of 1066, the history and religious-based ritual, still endows the occupant with a mysterious, indefinable quality, that evokes affection and respect, as has been amply demonstrated in the case of the late Queen. Few, if any, politician or any other celebrity can lay claim to this remarkable public reaction, combining both respect and affection and we may wonder what the secret ingredient is? Whether Charles will be able to illicit the same degree of loyalty and awe remains to be seen. He certainly has a hard act to follow.

In the case of Queen Elizabeth it was a combination of factors. The double and tragic nature of her accession, first with the abdication of her uncle and then the untimely death of her father. As Princess in line to the throne she was already a notable and romantic figure, having fallen in love at the tender age of thirteen with someone who has been described by his cousin as a 'Greek God'. From images of Prince Philip at eighteen it would be hard to disagree. Married in 1947, with two beautiful children, in 1952 the death of her father from the strain of the war, his natural diffidence, heavy smoking and lung cancer, involved "a very sudden taking on, and doing the best you can," as she said herself. 

She benefitted from the mythic stature of the first Queen Elizabeth, to shape a new Elizabethan Age, full of technological promise after the agonies and deprivations of not one but two World Wars. Her Coronation in 1952 was resplendent in pomp and circumstance, the first to be made generally accessible to the public via the new medium of 'television'. 

But we should not underestimate the personal attributes this young woman brought to the role and her star quality. She bore the responsibility lightly - "she was never grand" as Boris Johnson so neatly put it - yet with grace and commitment, never shirking her duty, as many monarchs had done before her. Throughout her reign, her integrity based on her religious faith, shone through. It was as if she was guided by her father and wished to honour him - surely achieved in full measure.

Can there be anyone in the world, who for seventy plus years has had a life so minutely and precisely dictated by time and engagements? Almost every minute of those seventy years was organised and predicted. She became a creature of her diary, her year marked by regular state and other events. She could almost set her clock and calendar by them.  Visits abroad, the continuous arrival and departure of diplomats, the weekly private conversation with fifteen Prime Ministers from Churchill on.

For this very reason there can be no doubting her last trip to Balmoral was both intentional and fully informed. She knew, as firmly as anyone can, she would die there. Two Prime Ministers visited her there. It was her last political act. She chose Balmoral both for personal and political reasons. Personal because she loved the place with all its happy family memories for her and her husband. Political because she knew it would be her final statement of affinity with Scotland and with the importance of the Union dating from 1707 and of the Crowns since 1603. The Scots demonstrated their loyalty at her death, notwithstanding a strong nationalistic sentiment. The UK's political establishment has patently failed to resonate with the Scots in the same way. Blair's devolution has been a huge failure but that's another story.

I have referred to the timing of her death elsewhere. One wonders if it could have been wholly coincidental? Only the death of a Queen of her standing could push the 25th anniversary of Diana's death off the front page, or the 21st anniversary of the events of 9/11. As we have already noted it was almost exactly five years since her husband officially retired and a year and five months since he passed away. The announcement of her death was made at 6.30 pm. The journey from Balmoral to Holyrood took six hours.  Her cortege set off from Buckingham Palace at precisely 2.22 pm on the 14.9.2022 and arrived at Westminster Hall at 3 pm where it will lies in state for five days. The vigil will last until 6.30 am on Monday 19th.

All the ceremony, religious services - six in all - and ritual serve a purpose of channelling the nation's grief and accommodating the public mind to a new new Monarch - King Charles III pending his own Coronation early in 2023.  To look in on Monarchy is not the same as looking out. ("Uneasy the head that wears the Crown" as Shakespeare put it) To ride in convoy behind the Queen's car (as I once did) is to get just a glimpse of the psychological impact of being surrounded by thousands upon thousands of well-wishers. She and the Duke had experienced that all their long lives, on virtually every continent and in most countries. The Queen once said, "I have to be seen to be believed". Countless millions, even in death, proved that to be true. Monarchy is a weird throwback to a British past that has somehow survived the centuries but the Queen made it international. That it has retained its magic for seventy years is plain to see. Only time will tell if it survives the modern secular, cynical and disputatious world, in the capable hands of her son and heir.