“The embodiment of an era.” “The Definition of Service”. The death of Queen Elizabeth II and the end of the second Elizabethan era caused the UK, the kingdom and the Commonwealth countries to stop, pause and reflect on the life and legacy of the longest-serving monarch in British history. who will be greatly missed. Her 70-year reign, from 1952 to 2022, has seen the advent of the digital age, world wars, a royal divorce, an annus horribilis, 15 British prime ministers, 12 Canadians, a pandemic and much more in between. The death of her husband Prince Philip last year saw the Queen without her “power and presence” for the first time and, some might say, marked the beginning of her decline until her death on Thursday, September 8. Now, questions turn to what will happen to the monarchy now that the last great monarch, in some people’s eyes, is gone. There is no doubt that the UK is entering a period of transition. We are at the start of 10 days of mourning ahead of the Queen’s state funeral, and although Charles is already King, to be officially known as King Charles III, we have a coronation in the coming months. But what will happen next is a longer transitional period, cementing the future of the new monarchy. The key for this new monarch and the Royal Family is to remember that the family exists because of the consent of the people – not by itself – and if it does not adapt, it will simply fail to exist. The Queen, in her lifetime, realized that the royal family needed to be modernized, stripped down and slimmed down. The extravagant spending was to stop – no more £92,000 spent on light bulbs as the then Prince Charles is rumored to have done. But the monarchy must also look carefully at its past and its rule of the British Empire, colonialism and slavery and the dark cloud it has left. This is a cloud hanging over Queen Elizabeth II’s legacy and means that some sections of society, particularly the BIPOC community, have mixed feelings about her passing. Social media opened up the conversation with people discussing what their ancestors endured during her rule and how it still affects communities today. It is up to the new monarch King Charles III and his successor Prince William, the new Prince of Wales, to try to reconcile with these communities in order to take the royal family into the next generation. With calls already for the return of the Crown Jewels in India and South Africa, and republicans in Australia, St Lucia and Jamaica considering plans to remove the King as head of state, the monarchy is at a crossroads . Either they face the past, adapt and listen to the dominant themes, or fall victim to the decline in popularity. The second Elizabethan reign was unique, the longest in history, which lasted 70 years and many different challenges. As we enter the era of King Charles III, the challenge now is how to be a steadfast, stable and confident monarch, like his mother, while accepting that a modern royal family is one that faces its troubled past to build a better one. future for the kingdom of nations and the Commonwealth.
