On May 6, 2023, Queen Consort Camilla will be crowned as Queen.

With that in mind, my weekday posts until then will be a retrospective of Queen Elizabeth II.

Family history

It is useful and interesting to look back on how the British had a succession of German monarchs dating back to George I.

On June 24, 2015, The Telegraph featured an article, ‘How German is the Queen?’

Excerpts follow, emphases mine.

Many Britons say we have a German monarchy, but our ties with that part of Europe and others date back to the Dark Ages:

It is, in fact, worth remembering that the word “English” is derived from the Angles, of Anglo-Saxon fame. When the Romans cleared out of Britain in AD 410, a range of German, Danish, and Dutch tribes that we sloppily call the Anglo-Saxons moved in from across the Whale Road. That’s not forgetting the Vikings either, who brought Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish blood to swathes of Britain. So, to be honest, if we scrutinise the Royal Family’s connections with the Fatherland, we should take a long look at our own, too, and acknowledge that this country has had the most profound and close genetic and cultural ties with the people of Germany and Scandinavia for over 1,500 years.

In 1701:

The Protestant King William III has no direct heirs, and his crown could soon pass to a Catholic. To prevent this, Parliament passes the Act of Settlement, locking them out of the succession.

In 1714:

William’s sister-in-law Queen Anne dies without children. The crown skips over 56 of her close Catholic relations to rest on George Ludwig, ruler of the German state of Hanover. He speaks very little English and relies on his ministers to run Britain for him.

In 1761:

George III takes the throne. He is still a Hanoverian, but unlike his father and grandfather he was born in London and speaks English as a first language.

In 1819:

A succession crisis prompts George III’s fourth son Edward to marry the princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Their daughter, Victoria, will end up Queen – and marry her German cousin Albert.

In 1917:

Victoria’s line continues as the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. But the First World War – and the Russian revolution – call for a royal rebrand. George V renames it the House of Windsor.

Here’s how it happened:

When World War One bred increasing anti-German sentiment in Britain, astute observers noted that Kaiser Bill was Queen Victoria’s grandson and our King George V’s first cousin. In recognition of the delicacy of the position, George V changed the name of his royal house from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor, after the castle. At the same time, he also took the modern step of adopting Windsor as a surname for his family.

Thirty years later, in 1947, the future Queen married Prince Philip:

Philip is a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg. But, with the Second World War fresh in Britain’s memory, he abandons these titles before his marriage.

When she acceded the throne in 1952:

Queen Elizabeth II chose to keep the name Windsor, and in 1960 the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh announced that they wanted their descendants who do not have an HRH title to be Mountbatten-Windsor. (Mountbatten is the Duke of Edinburgh’s adopted name. His German-Danish-Greek royal lines are Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glūcksburg on his father’s side, and Battenberg on his mother’s.)

The Royal Family still follow German customs at Christmas:

The Royal Family still opens its presents on Christmas Eve, following the German tradition, which Prince Albert was particularly keen on following.

However, it is also important to point out that the Queen was also a direct descendant of Britain’s royal houses:

… there’s no point overstating it. The Queen is also directly descended from over a thousand years worth of Britain’s royal houses, including the Stuarts, Tudors, Plantagenets, Angevins, Normans, and Wessex. 

That means King Charles is, too.

Politics

The Queen was acquainted with 15 Prime Ministers during her reign. Liz Truss was the last.

A 2019 Tatler retrospective shows her pictured with several of them, beginning with Sir Winston Churchill. You won’t want to miss the photographs, which end with Boris Johnson. How time changed through the decades.

Here is a video of the Queen and other members of the Royal Family at a G7 drinks reception in 1991. At that time, John Major was Prime Minister and George H W Bush was president. However, other former Prime Ministers also attended:

The video is known for a quip that the Queen made to Sir Edward ‘Ted’ Heath (1970-1974), who is not held in the highest esteem among Britons who were around in the 1970s:

Guido Fawkes gives us the quote (emphasis his):

One of the highlights of the clip is the Queen saying what we all knew directly to Ted Heath’s face; when the former PM mentioned he’d been to Baghdad the Queen jokingly responds, “I know you did, you’re expendable”. The Queen of diplomacy…

The Queen was also astute in other political matters, such as economic crises. The monarch goes through a red box every day with updates on national and world affairs.

On April 13, 2020, The Express told us about her consternation at the 2008 banking crisis:

… unearthed reports shed light on how Queen Elizabeth II reacted to the turmoil on the international markets twelve years ago.

According to a 2008 report by the Telegraph, during a briefing by academics at the London School of Economics (LSE), Her Majesty asked: “Why did nobody notice it?”

Professor Luis Garicano, director of research at the LSE’s management department, had explained the origins and effects of the credit crisis when she opened the £71 million New Academic Building.

The Queen then described the turbulence on the markets as “awful”.

Prof Garicano said: “She was asking me if these things were so large how come everyone missed it.”

He told the Queen: “At every stage, someone was relying on somebody else and everyone thought they were doing the right thing” …

The Queen’s investments, largely in British blue chip companies, broadly tracked the market, resulting in a 25 percent fall in her portfolio’s value.

Philip Beresford, compiler of The Rich List, told the publication: “I would think she will have taken an enormous hit.

“Though maybe not as much as people who did racy investments in shares.”

On April 21, 2019, the Queen celebrated her 93rd birthday and became the longest reigning British monarch and longest-serving current head of state in the world at the time:

At the beginning of the month, the Conservative government was having an exceedingly difficult time getting Brexit legislation through Parliament.

Lord James of Blackheath CBE wanted the Queen to step in and resolve the issue (emphases in the original):

The way forward from this is to:-

1. Make an immediate appeal to the United Nations making reference to a potential breach of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaty Making 1969 under Article 46.1, with a view to seeking an adjudication that the EU is attempting to force us to agree a treaty based upon fundamentally unconstitutional arrangements unacceptable to the British Crown …

2. If the application could be supported by Her Majesty, it would add significant force. This application to the UN could surely be assembled by a Government legal team within a single working day and be ready to be presented by the UK’s Ambassador to the UN on behalf of Her Majesty within 48 hours …

4 The dire constitutional consequences of remaining will very likely force an abdication by the Monarch. She would either have to accept a state of perjury or maintain the Crown’s honour by abdication. Her oaths of office will have become entirely corrupted such that no successor could undertake them, thus the total demise of the Crown is a very real and inherent risk in remaining.

Failure to terminate the membership of the European Union will continue to lead us all deeper into a treasonous liability arising from placing our governance subject to a foreign Potentate. That Potentate is unelected by the UK’s electorate, is unaccountable to them and irremovable by them.

This is an absolute affront to the Dignity and Majesty of the Crown. It could foreshadow the total demise of the Monarchy.

When Brexit is finally done, Parliament must be shown to have discharged its absolute responsibility not to have reduced its own omnipotence.

However, a spokesman for Her Majesty said that she would not become involved in the Brexit rows:

One year later, on the evening of Sunday, April 5, 2020, the Queen made the rare move of addressing the nation outside of her Christmas speech. She spoke to us about the pandemic:

The nation was in its first-ever lockdown and Her Majesty gave us a short televised message about keeping our chins up, telling us that we would meet again, echoing Dame Vera’s Second World War hit song:

The ratings were massive:

Her address even made the main French news channel BFMTV:

That evening, just after the Queen’s broadcast ended, Boris Johnson entered St Thomas’ Hospital with coronavirus:

Admiration for the Queen went up by 30%. The Government’s ratings went up by 29%:

The Queen also entertained American presidents.

She welcomed the Obamas twice, once in 2011 and again in 2016.

On April 22, 2016, The Mail reported:

Barack Obama paid a heartfelt tribute to the Queen today, calling her ‘a real jewel to the world’ and ‘one of my favourite people’ after he and his wife Michelle had an intimate lunch with Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Speaking alongside David Cameron at a Press conference in London, the US President took the opportunity to praise the Queen on the occasion of her 90th birthday – and also joked about the ‘smooth ride’ he and Mrs Obama had when Prince Philip drove them in his Range Rover.

Mr Obama, who is making his last trip to Britain as President, shared a meal with the Queen at Windsor Castle before his summit with the Prime Minister.

He came equipped with a gift – an album of photos showing the Queen meeting various Presidents – which he handed over shortly after the Duke took the role of his chauffeur, driving both couples 400 yards from their helicopter landing site to the door of the castle. 

Three years later, it was Donald Trump’s turn for a State Visit:

The Express reported:

The Buckingham Palace event will be held as Britain and the US mark 75 years since D-Day.

US President Trump and his wife Melania will be guests of the Queen during a three-day visit, beginning on June 3.

Here is a photo of President Trump inspecting the troops at Windsor Castle with the Queen following behind:

Protocol

Although the Queen was a stickler for protocol, there were times when she relented.

Once was when Prince Charles insisted that Princess Diana’s body be flown home on the Royal jet.

In 2021, the story emerged of the Queen’s reason for denying it — they were divorced — then giving in to her son on August 31, 1997. The Express reported:

After Diana’s death in Paris, the Prince of Wales reportedly had an argument with the Queen about how his ex-wife’s body should be brought back to the UK. It has been reported that Prince Charles wanted to travel to Paris on the royal plane to bring Diana’s body home but the Queen initially disagreed. Richard Kay, a friend of Princess Diana, told the Channel 5 documentary, Diana: 7 Days That Shook the Windsors: “This was a surprising and brave move.

“He had no right to be there other than as the father of her sons.

“Charles wanted to take the royal flight to Paris but the Queen wouldn’t allow it.

“Charles fought harder for Diana than he had ever fought for her in her lifetime.”

His request to travel to Paris was initially refused.

However, Prince Charles did not want to back down and eventually, the Queen gave him permission to use the royal plane to bring back Diana.

When Prince Charles arrived in Paris Princess Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, was in the hospital.

Speaking on the Channel 5 documentary he said: “He was devastated.

“This was a woman he had loved in his own way.”

Princess Diana’s coffin was taken to the royal plane, which was waiting at an airport in Paris.

This was just 16 hours after she had died.

The royal plane then landed at RAF Northolt just outside of London.

In 2011, the Queen came up with a plan to entertain the Obamas, who were not invited to Prince William’s wedding. This was another story that did not see the light of day until several years later.

On April 14, 2020, The Express reported:

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge walked down the aisle more than eight years ago. It was April 29, 2011, and Kate Middleton made history when she said “I do” to Prince William at Westminster Abbey. The day was declared a public holiday in the UK, but because the Duke of Cambridge is not the first-in-line to the throne, the wedding was not a full state occasion, which meant many details of the big day were left down to the couple …

The guest list included more than 1,900 people and had its fair share of celebrities – including the Beckhams, Sir Elton John, the late Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and David Cameron.

However, there were two people missing from the guest list, who had been widely expected to attend.

The Queen personally invited 40 heads of state, who received gold-embossed invitations.

Former US President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, however, were not among them.

According to a 2011 report by the Daily Mail, the Government organised a state visit the following month – the first for a US President since 2002 – in return for Mr Obama not coming to the wedding.

The couple did not receive the invitation, the report claims, because of the added security costs involved with protecting the former President.

French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni also missed out and Prince Andrew’s former wife, Sarah Ferguson – the Duchess of York – was also snubbed.

The Queen had a wonderful way of working quietly with the utmost discretion. In her reign, no one dared leak anything from her office.

One hopes that will continue to be true with King Charles.