Elizabeth II was cold as an iceberg when she acceded to the throne on February 6, 1952 but has died a great-grandmother who radiated warmth in the eyes of the British, who adored her. The monarchy, often trembling despite the fact that there is no republican alternative in sight (not even the Scottish independence supporters deny it), has always found Elizabeth II to be its best supporter. With the well-known exception of the turbulent days of Diana’s death in 1997, when the queen persisted in staying at Balmoral in the care of her grandchildren William and Harry (she did well, few defend her) instead of traveling to London, lower the Buckingham Palace flag to half-staff as a sign of mourning and show greater respect for the death of the one who, although she was no longer the wife of the heir, Charles, was the mother of the next in line of succession, Prince William.
The longest-serving queen of England in history came to the throne in the days of Churchill and Stalin, when Brazil had not won a World Cup, the European Union did not exist, and we did not dream of reaching the Moon, with mobile phones or with the metaverse. Isabel will not go down in history for her sympathy, but she has rarely screwed up, and she has always stood out for her discretion and her ability to work. In other words, her “professionalism”. It has been said of her that she gets along better with dogs and horses than with men and, above all, women. But that has not prevented that, especially in the last years of her reign, when old age has softened her rigidity, the British ended up idolizing her.
Despite the pageantry and wealth, his life has not been easy. Perhaps because she never wanted to be queen (and probably wouldn’t have been if her uncle Edward VIII hadn’t abdicated in 1936, putting her brother on the throne as George VI and her first in the line of succession) . Or perhaps because, although madly in love with her husband, Prince Philip of Edinburgh, since she met him when she was still a teenager, the family was always a source of trouble: chain divorces (from her sister Margaret to three of her four children ); the tragic marriage of Carlos and Diana; the sexual accusations of these years against her favorite son, Andrés; her disagreements with her little grandson, Prince Henry…
His great passion, apart from dogs and horses, has been the Commonwealth, the community of nations created as a permanent shadow of the old Empire. But now that she is no longer on the throne, even that she feels in danger. Perhaps because, despite her last-minute charisma, Elizabeth II has barely been able to modernize the British monarchy. Or perhaps because a modern, frivolous British monarchy would still make less sense than it does today. After all, what would Westminster be without the paraphernalia of the queen’s speech? Well, from the king…
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