Opinion: A Queen’s Passing and the Challenges of Change
How We Can Learn from a Life of Royal Privilege and Service
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When Queen Elizabeth II was born in April of 1926, the British empire ruled over almost a quarter of the world’s population and landmass. Life expectancy for a baby girl born in London was only about 59 years; telephones in homes were a luxury; BBC radio broadcasts were in their infancy; television was still a decade away; and Charles Lindbergh had yet to fly solo across the Atlantic.
Our lives in the 21st century, if described to that royal baby born in the stately home of her maternal grandparents in London’s Mayfair district, would have appeared to be the stuff of a fantastical world from a Jules Verne novel.
In a similar way, Elizabeth’s early years in mansions and palaces, surrounded by nannies, governesses, and servants, could not have been more removed from the realities of life for commoners in the U.K. after the Great War.
However, changes came quickly to the young Elizabeth, and her adaptability became a hallmark of her reign. Her capacity to adjust and embrace new realities was especially remarkable because her upbringing called for a slavish and closed-minded respect for tradition. All of us could learn from her.
Changes in Her Role
As a child during the reign of her grandfather, King George V, she was third in line of succession to the British throne and not expected to become queen.
But just as she was turning 10, the ground shifted under her and all of the British empire. Her grandfather died on January 20, 1936, and was succeeded as king by her uncle, Edward VIII, who happened to be in love with a divorced American socialite, Wallis Simpson. His proposed marriage caused a constitutional crisis that led to his abdication less than a year later. Elizabeth’s father, George VI, suddenly became king, and the princess was now destined to become queen.
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip make their way to Westminster Abbey in a gilded coach for the Queen's coronation on June 2, 1953. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)
Changes in the Realm
When Elizabeth was coronated on June 2, 1953, she reigned over a broad swath of the world, extending from the West Indies to Africa, South Asia, and the South Pacific. The biggest geopolitical transition she faced was the shrinking footprint of her realm, as she presided with dignity over the independence ceremonies of nations that were once part of the British Empire.
In fact, Elizabeth was never crowned as an “empress,” but she oversaw the end of any claim that the U.K. continued to be an empire when she handed over control of the colony of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
At her death, she was the head of state of the U.K. and 14 Commonwealth countries, where her power was, at most, symbolic. Even though the U.K., as a nuclear power, remains a force to be reckoned with, it is only the 21st most populous country and has the fifth-largest economy, about 1/7 the size of that of its former colony, the U.S. That’s a far cry from the British Empire that existed at Elizabeth’s birth, or even the influence she had as the head of the Commonwealth of Nations when she became queen.
Changes in Europe
Elizabeth gave the royal assent to the U.K. joining the European Communities (later to become the European Union) in 1973, and was head of state when the U.K. departed the EU with Brexit in 2020.
She also played a small but not insignificant role in ending the Cold War, helping warm relations with the Soviets when she received Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife Raisa at Windsor Castle. Additionally, the queen accepted an invitation from Gorbachev to visit Moscow, which was then described as “hugely symbolic.”
Queen Elizabeth II greets Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the entrance to Windsor Castle on April 7, 1989. Gorbachev and his wife Raisa sat down to lunch with Queen before returning to Moscow. (PA Images/Getty Images)
Political and Social Changes in the UK
From Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, Elizabeth worked with 15 prime ministers, with whom she met weekly.
Her example as head of state may have helped women become heads of the U.K.’s government. Margaret Thatcher, the first female prime minister, was Elizabeth’s longest-serving. Thatcher was later followed later by Theresa May and now Truss.
She was also the supreme governor of the Church of England when in 1994 it ordained the first women priests in its 460-year existence.
Her tenure saw other major changes in British society, from the decriminalization of homosexuality to the abolishment of capital punishment and the relaxing of divorce and abortion laws.
Changes in the Royal Family
The distance that divided the British royals from their subjects when Elizabeth was born is almost unfathomable to us today, especially when we see King Charles III and his sons repeatedly engaging directly with the public mourning the queen.
Also, until her uncle’s decision to marry Wallis Simpson, which indirectly led to her becoming queen, the royals did not wed commoners. Elizabeth married a prince in 1947, but her sister Margaret, in 1960, did not. All of Elizabeth’s children ended up marrying people who had no claim to royalty as well. Three of the four marriages failed, with Charles, Ann, and Andrew all separating from their spouses in 1992, a year the Queen referred to as her “annus horribilis.”
I wasn’t fortunate enough to meet the queen, but I saw her outside Westminster Abbey as she made her way to Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997, at what may have marked the nadir of the monarchy’s popularity.
Elizabeth’s initial remoteness from her subjects after Diana’s death, when she remained secluded at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, was a throwback to the conventions of earlier times. It was not a good thing.
In fact, Gallup polling that month was the worst ever for the monarchy. Only 15% of people in the U.K. wanted the monarchy to stay the same, while 72% wanted it to become more democratic and approachable. Another 11% thought the monarchy should be abolished.
Again, Elizabeth adapted, and did so quickly.
Understanding that her subjects wanted her to join them in mourning in London and were upset with what appeared to be royal indifference to Diana’s death, the queen cut short her stay at Balmoral. Upon returning to London, she delivered a televised address to honor the princess. Broadcast live from the balcony at Buckingham Palace with thousands of mourners gathered outside and visible behind her, it was only her second speech of its kind. It helped turn the tide of public opinion.
Before my conclusion to this column, I’d like to post three pictures from my family that indicate how Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family have become more approachable and connected to their subjects. The pictures were taken by or of my sister, Natalia Mora Eisler, a senior practice nurse at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London, where she cares for retired British veterans. The first, above, shows the queen and Prince William attending a garden party at Buckingham Palace on May 31, 2018 (my sister was invited along with some other hospital personnel). The second picture is of the queen visiting the grounds of the hospital for the Chelsea Flower Show in April, 2022. The final one is of the now King Charles III shaking hands with my sister in 2009.
In Conclusion
Elizabeth was just another human being, albeit born to astounding privilege most of us can’t begin to comprehend. On the flip side, we also can’t possibly understand how she was constrained by duty, tradition, and almost immutable institutions.
We are all subject to our own particular circumstances, but we are not powerless to transcend them. Our identities depend on what we make of the life that is given to us. Individuals, businesses, governments, and monarchs must adapt to survive and thrive.
Throughout her long life, Elizabeth encountered enormous social, political, religious, and familial change. In a century more transformative for humankind than any other, she found a way to become an agent of change herself.
Her son, now King Charles III, put it beautifully in his first address as monarch, describing his mother’s life of service as having an “abiding love of tradition together with [a] fearless embrace of progress.”
Born in one world, Elizabeth died in another, a once pampered princess who transformed herself and her country, admirably navigating the passage from the past to the future. In so doing, she became “the rock on which modern Britain was built.”
Cover photo left: King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England with their daughters Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II (right), and Princess Margaret in their coronation robes on May 12, 1937. (Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Getty Images).
Cover photo right: Queen Elizabeth II waits to meet with new Conservative Party leader and Britain's Prime Minister-elect at Balmoral Castle in Ballater, Scotland, on Sept. 6, 2022, two days before her death. (Jane Barlow/Getty Images)
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