Eighty years later, also from Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth II was now the most experienced TV presenter in history. He spoke to a world affected by Covid-19. “Better days will return,” he said, “we will be with friends again.” Echoing the wartime song, he promised: “We’ll meet again.” He was the only person in the world with the authority to say these things, in this way. “Everything will be all right in the end.” He was the most down to earth and unemotional person, yet he dared to make this bold claim to a hurting world. Her long, long reign proved her right. From the age of ten in 1936, when her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated without producing an heir, the princess knew her likely fate. There is no proof that he wanted it, but there is a lifetime of proof that he accepted it. From the first, he intuitively understood that the throne was something to neither desire nor abhor. You sit in it by accident of birth, not by personal merit. Your task is to subjugate yourself to the role so carefully that the two become almost indistinguishable. You are the most prominent, the most cared for, the most flattered person in the kingdom, and yet you have to give up almost all individual rights and liberties, forever. To this complex task, Elizabeth II brought simplicity of heart and lack of vanity. In her preparation, she relied on two examples in which her faith never wavered, her father the King and her Father in heaven. The Queen’s destiny was fulfilled in 1936 when her uncle, then King Edward VIII, abdicated without an heir. Elizabeth II began to cultivate her devotion to crown and country when she was just 10 years old, prompted by her careful observation of the reign of her Father, George VI. Credit: Popperfoto George VI was not an intelligent or outgoing man. His stuttering was the outward expression of inward discontent. He never expected or desired the throne. His eldest daughter, who was always by his side, felt with him as he took on the unwelcome responsibilities, soon to be added the need to lead his country to war. He saw how this heavy burden (and his constant smoking) shortened his life. But he gained confidence from the trust he had in her. Alathea remarked in the early 1940s how ‘Lilibet’ didn’t really need the company of friends as she was ‘always happy in her family’. By the time she became Queen, at 26, she had already absorbed her father’s example and was determined to reign in his light. George VI, also known as Prince Albert, famously doted on his two daughters. He is said to have called Elizabeth, whom those closest to her called ‘Lilibet’, his ‘pride’ and Margaret his ‘joy’ Credit: PA/PA Wire Because of her constitutional role, the young Elizabeth had no executive power, so she demonstrated this determination through public moments and ceremonies, particularly public promises. In 1947, for her 21st birthday, she traveled with her parents and sister Margaret to South Africa and then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), part of the British Empire. From Cape Town, she took her oath to the “great imperial family to which we all belong”, citing the “chivalric devotion” of her ancestors who came of age when they said “I serve”. As a woman, she explained, “I can’t do exactly what they did,” but, through the show, she could do what they couldn’t. She could make her dedication to the hearing of millions: “I declare before you that my whole life, whether long or short, will be devoted to your service.” Although life was the longest a monarchy had ever known, the oath was kept. As he considered plans for Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953, her first prime minister, Winston Churchill, took another look at the official photograph of the Queen on his desk. “Nice, inspiring,” he told his doctor, “All the movie people in the world, if they had scoured the world, couldn’t have found someone so suitable for the part.” And then the old man began to sing the hymn “Forever with the Lord,” to set “my moving tent one day nearer home.” He meant that he felt safe to die now that this young woman was on the throne. Queen Elizabeth II and Winston Churchill were known to have a very close relationship. When she retired in 1945, she wrote him a moving handwritten letter in which she said she was “deeply grateful” for his “wise guidance during the early years [her] reign”. Credit: PAL The Queen’s coronation was the first powerful public event in the history of British television. His lengthy ceremonies – part biblical, part medieval, part Victorian – must have been difficult for viewers to watch, especially on the grainy black-and-white screen of those days, yet audiences were enthralled. The innate drama of a young woman promising something so solemn continued their interest and inspired their awe-inspiring respect. The crown was literally heavy on her head, yet she carried it with such dignity. In her oath she said: “The things I have promised here before, I will perform and keep. So help me God.” If we can judge from her performance in the following decades, the Almighty gave the help she asked for. More than 60 years later, “film people” began to take a keen interest in the Queen, whose skills, Churchill believed, surpassed theirs. Through the medium of The Crown, Netflix glamorized this non-showy, non-thespian woman for a global audience of millions. It was melodramatic, often inaccurate, sometimes rude, but it was also complimentary. He recognized that the queen had become an archetype. She had turned her original “disadvantage” of being a woman into a royal line that put men first. She had become the great universal matriarch, the unchanging mother/grandmother/great-grandmother you couldn’t fully know but could always trust. Three of the Queen’s four children were divorced. Charles, the eldest, remarried Camilla Parker-Bowles Credit: Corbis via Getty Images Because she gained this status, the Queen was able to overcome even the most tumultuous moments in the life of the royal family. Three of her four children were divorced, and perhaps their mother’s commitment to public duties throughout their childhoods had made their lives more difficult. In the case of the Prince of Wales, the issue threatened to have constitutional implications because the estranged and then divorced Diana wanted Charles handed over in favor of her eldest son William. He told me privately, and many others, that Charles did not even want to be King, which was not the case. Deceived by Martin Bashir and his bosses at the BBC about the true facts, she gave her inflammatory TV interview in 1995 about how badly she had been treated. After Diana died in that tragic car crash in Paris less than two years later, the queen made one of the few serious miscalculations of her reign. It did not arise, as some have claimed, from anesthesia, but from her natural reserve and good feeling. She was worried about Princes William and Harry, aged 14 and 11. She wanted them to spend quiet and peaceful days with their father, her and Prince Philip at Balmoral. The family’s refusal to appear publicly during the mourning period led to calls to “Show us you care” and sparked the story of a beautiful young mother treated harshly by a cold institution. It was a bad time. One of the Queen’s most important speeches was on the eve of Princess Diana’s funeral on September 5, 1997. After the unexpected and tragic death of the Princess of Wales, the Queen, dressed in black, addressed the nation, speaking “from the heart as both queens and a grandmother.” Credit: Corbis via Getty Images However, it only lasted days. Diana had died on a Sunday. The funeral took place the following Saturday. Seeing the difficulty, the Queen returned to London from Balmoral earlier than planned. On Friday, he broadcast live from Buckingham Palace. Speaking “as your queen and as your grandmother”, she paid tribute to Diana, who “made many, many people happy”. He asked everyone to “show the world the British nation united in grief and respect”. At the funeral the next day, thanks to her words, it happened. A deeper sadness and respect, and a spontaneous unity, is what the nation, indeed the world, is showing for Elizabeth II today. I mention the world because no head of state has ever known so many places so well for so long or reached such a global audience. If you go to Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam, you will see the photo of Princess Elisabeth, three years her senior, which she pinned to her bedroom wall. Anne put it there in 1944, the symbol of hope for her persecuted generation. Sixty-seven years later, in Dublin, the same woman moved the people of Ireland by coming to signal reconciliation. The Queen and President Ronald Reagan were known to share a close friendship as well as a love of horseback riding. The President accompanied the Queen on a tour of Windsor Castle as part of his European tour in 1982. Credit: Corbis via Getty Images Between those two dates there were countless examples of the Queen making a difference for good. If I said that President Reagan sided with Britain to…
