What Queen Elizabeth Meant To Many
To many Americans like me, she was a strong leader to be greatly admired. To many in Great Britain, she was part of their identity.
Queen Elizabeth II passed away today at the age of 96 in Scotland at her beloved Balmoral. In an address delivered on her 21st birthday, she said:
"I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service."
We are lucky that her life was long, and should deeply admire that she kept her promise, living out a lifetime of service to her country and her Commonwealth.
Those who are fortunate enough to know the story of Queen Elizabeth II know of her toughness, her lack of pretension, her commitment to duty. She served as a mechanic during World War II, made media history by broadcasting her coronation around the world, and presided over the transition of governments from the time of Winston Churchill up until just two days ago, when Tory leader Liz Truss assumed the mantle of Prime Minister. Through the final days of her life, she was still fulfilling her duties.
Like many Americans, much of my exposure to the British monarchy is a bit less heavy. Frankly, quite a bit comes through the vehicles of pop culture and style. The Queen, The Crown, getting up early to watch opulent weddings, delighting when the monarch arrives at The Olympics with James Bond, reading Angela Kelly's The Other Side of the Coin about what it takes to put together the royal wardrobe.
So that's why I found, of all things, an Instagram post by Matthew Lewis - most famously the actor who played Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films - to be unexpectedly moving in his description of what Queen Elizabeth meant to him.
Here's an excerpt of what he had to say:
Truth be told, anyone who knows me, knows me to be a contradiction. Everything about me screams republican...I think monarchy is mad, in this or any century. Even writing this all seems, frankly, a bit silly. And yet… and yet. For better or worse, so much of my identity is wrapped up in it, has always been...HM was a constant, part of an intangible sense (illusion?) of stability.
I can’t think of much else to say, nor why I even felt compelled to say anything at all but I guess, after a lifetime of service to her country, I hope that she may now rest in peace. GSTK.
As my friend Mike Shields - an American who grew up in England - tweeted, the Queen was more than just a royal, she was a symbol of great importance to many in Britain.
When you are a monarch, there's an extent to which public opinion does not matter like it does for democratically-elected leaders. And yet in our modern era in particular, having the affection of the public does matter, particularly as monarchies in other nations have scaled back and become largely ceremonial roles.
Queen Elizabeth II understood this. And in her final years, as she was celebrated by her nation during her Platinum Jubilee, she had maintained that affection. British polling firm YouGov UK found that a whopping 82 percent of Britons felt the Queen was doing a "good job". Only one-in-four felt she should have stepped away from the role before her passing.
When I think of the nature of powerful female leadership - no offense, gentlemen - I often think of the myth of how the city of Athens got its name. The story goes that there was a competition between two gods, Poseidon and Athena, for who would be the patron of the city. Each was to give a gift to prove that they deserved to be the one for which the city was named.
Poseidon went first, striking the ground with his trident. From it came a gush of sea water. It was showy, loud, impressive.
Athena went second, simply kneeling to the ground and planting an olive tree. Not showy, not loud. But it was a service to the people, providing useful things like fuel and wood.
Monarchies are often about pageantry. We will no doubt see a great deal of that through solemn ceremony in the coming days and weeks from across the Atlantic, as the Queen is mourned, as the new King Charles III is formally crowned, and so on.
But I suspect the thing that made Queen Elizabeth II so important to so many in Britain is not the flash and the pomp and circumstance. I suspect it was the quiet dignity and clear sense of purpose with which she carried out her duties during her reign.
(Cover Photo: taken by me, in 2018, at Government House in New Zealand.)