PEACE and Harmony flow from the CROWN
The Queen is dead; God Save The King
We grieve as we witness the inevitable onward march of history.
Dearest Children
You are witnessing a moment of history, as the official announcement is uttered :
”The Queen is dead. God Save The King.”
I was six years old when Elizabeth II acceded to the throne on the premature death of her father George VI. Like everyone else I know, Elizabeth’s coronation was the first time I ever saw a TV: our elderly next-door neighbours Mr and Mrs Pierce (when we lived in Clover Cottage, New Haw in Surrey after the War) bought a tiny B&W TV for the occasion, and I sat on the floor with my sister Alana and watched. I was also given a miniature of the Gold Coronation Coach, drawn by six matched horses, which I long treasured. What happened to it?
So what you are witnessing is the passing of the longest-serving monarch, and the passage of power and prestige to two new generations: Charles becomes King, and William becomes Prince of Wales (a title created for his son by the ruthless Edward I Plantagenet in 1301, after he had crushed the Welsh).
This is HISTORY and you are its WITNESSES.
Edward II was a mediocre Prince of Wales and a terrible king when he took over in 1307: he was weak and under the influence of his French lover Piers Gaveston. As the Encyclopedia Britannica puts it: Although Edward II was a man of limited capability, he waged a long, hopeless campaign to assert his authority over powerful barons. The barons later threw Gaveston out of a window (a method of assassination known as “defenestration”) and killed the king so that his son Edward III could take over. Edward III was certainly the son of Queen Isabella of France, but was he the son of Edward II? I wonder …… We know that Edward IV (born in 1442) was rumoured to have been fathered by an archer called Blaybourne, therefore the lover of Cecily, Duchess of York, which might therefore be one of the reasons that Richard III seized the throne and (maybe) killed his nephews, the princes, in the Tower. So Edward III might have been fathered by a lover of Isabelle, who was disgusted by her husband and is behavior with Gaveston.
But I digress. I always was fascinated by medieval history.
The passing of Queen Elizabeth is historical, but it is also personal for many, many British citizens and for many others across the world. Hawa Tall (known as “Cocotte”) was so enthusiastic when the Pope visited Mali that she insisted on coming to the Pope’s open air Mass in the stadium. “I know I am Muslim, but he is our Pope too,” she told us. And Queen Elizabeth was so long-lived, so famous and so universally popular that Cocotte would probably say: “She was our Queen too.”
As France’s president Emmanuel Macron put it: “Elle est votre reine, mais pour nous elle est La Reine.”
Guardian Journalist John Crace put it very well: “… when we are grieving for the Queen we are allowing ourselves to grieve for ourselves. For the mothers and grandmothers we have lost. Or never even had. …. That no matter how we may try to fill the gap of someone’s death, part of us will remain inconsolable. Which is how it should be. As that is how we perpetuate the love we do not want to let go of.”
Grand March at a Ball in Balmoral: the Queen Mother is holding the left arm of Prince Philip.
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (A Scottish aristocrat, born Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in Glamis Castle, very close to Balmoral) was very much like my own grandmother Doris Chamier, known as Mumsmum (which tells you where she comes in my family tree). Both the Queen Mum and Mumsmum were small and plump, with big smiles and powerful personalities imposing very strict standards of social behavior in keeping with their Victorian heritage.
A woman complained, “You do not have to hold the door open for me because I am a lady…” To which the man replied: “I am not holding the door for you, Madam, because you are a lady, but because I am a Gentleman.”
I was taught in Britain that a man always rises to his feet when a lady enters the room. And I learned in Africa that a younger person always rises to offer their chair to an older person entering the room. I do not have to bother now that I am in my seventies; but in Africa as a younger man I was rigorous in applying that rule, and was always the first person to rise to offer my seat. This made me popular and respected among Africans.
I knew both my grandmothers (Doris Chamier and Frida Maclean) but neither of my grandfathers. You children are lucky to have your four grandparents. They /we will leave you in due course, and this week of national mourning for The Queen may be a way for you to prepare for the inevitable grieving.
The Queen warned Prince William: “Grief is the price we pay for love.”
So you are witnessing a passage of history. With our very British penchant for pageant and historical tradition, the process of accession, acclamation and coronation (in due course) of King Charles III provides us with unparalleled spectacle. As indeed will the Queen’s State Funeral. You are witnessing history. Watch, listen, learn and enjoy!
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Lying in State in Westminster Hall 15th Sept 2022, guarded by Yeoman of the Guard and by Officers of the Household Cavalry.
The Crown stands for British and Commonwealth unity
It has been said by others before me, that “The Queen represents all that unites us; the prime minister represents all that divides us.”
That is why The Crown is such a precious national asset.
When I visited Canada in 1997 to present the 1996 Mali Peace Process and the Flame of Peace at a meeting of the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Science (Geography Section), I visited Ottawa and met with a number of government officials and departments to discuss my peace research and the work of UNIDIR Geneva of which I was a Senior Research Fellow. A Canadian Mountie told me: “We are so lucky to have The Crown as our representation of The State. Never mind who wears it: the Crown never changes, and we do not have to bow down to elderly (and often failed) politicians as Head of State.”
It is said that: “Every political career inevitably ends in failure.” We saw Liz Truss kiss hands with HM The Queen two days before her death as Her Majesty’s 15th prime minister; but we were also seeing the arrival of the fourth Tory PM in six years: the others all left in failure.
Your parents can discuss this with you, if you ask them:
“Every political career inevitably ends in failure….” cela ferait un bon thème pour l’épreuve en philosophie au Baccalauréat.
Her Majesty The Queen has shown us how much more powerful a unifying factor The Crown can be, as compared to politics. The Crown needs to remain above and outside the political debates, as an arbiter of last resort in ever the need for this should come about.
All ministers and civil servants serve The Crown. All officers in the armed forces receive their commission from The Monarch, to whom they owe allegiance and obedience. From there, “unity” springs.