The Year We Said Goodbye to Queen Elizabeth Reminded Us That Life Must Go On
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When Queen Elizabeth appeared on our screens just 12 months ago to give her 2021 Christmas broadcast, she possibly knew it would be her last. Looking frail and noticeably thinner after weeks of mobility struggles, her words were nevertheless delivered with clarity and conviction. She spoke of the death of her “beloved” Prince Philip, the joy of Christmas and, with hindsight most poignantly, the passing of the baton from “one generation to the next.”
Fast forward one year and that most symbolic of baton transfers has now taken place—from one sovereign to another. The reign of King Charles III began at exactly the same time as his mother’s ended, at 3:10 p.m. on September 8 2022. And this year it was the new King who shared his first Christmas message.
There can be no doubt that 2022 will be prominent in the history books for the moment Britain’s longest reign ended after an astonishing 70 years and 214 days. Yet, many may have also since reflected on the speed with which life returned to normal after this momentous historical event. That people could not imagine a world without Queen Elizabeth became an instantly redundant theory. Those who spoke of only ever knowing one monarch suddenly found that they knew another.
Of course, this continuity is exactly what supporters of constitutional monarchy boast it provides. And the simultaneous act of mourning the old while honoring the new was deliberately apparent during the 11 days from the Queen’s death to her funeral. A very visible new King traveled across the United Kingdom, addressed the nation and was officially proclaimed, all before his mother’s final send-off. Hers, he concluded, was “a life well lived.”
Britain had not seen a State Funeral of a sovereign since the death of King George VI in 1952. More than 250,000 people queued for hours to see the Queen’s coffin, adorned with Crown Jewels, lying in state. World leaders from more than 150 countries descended on Westminster Abbey, 6,000 members of the military put on the greatest display of pomp and pageantry, and a fractured family put on a much-needed show of unity. The public lined the streets for miles and miles, in mercifully uneventful weather, for the woman who everyone agreed was the most deserving of the greatest of goodbyes.
It was truly fitting that the Queen passed away at her beloved Balmoral Castle having sworn in her last Prime Minister just two days earlier. But her final wave to the public was from the Buckingham Palace balcony in June during her Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Health battles forced her to pull out of many of the planned events, but she managed two appearances on the balcony and released a message that she was “humbled and deeply touched” by well-wishes. She also reminded us she was 96 years young by surprising everyone with a televised sketch alongside Paddington Bear.
The actual moment that Queen Elizabeth reached her record-breaking 70 years on the throne however, on February 6, 2022, saw her deal with the more serious business of securing the future for her son. In a message that made headlines for days, she outlined her “sincere wish” that his wife Camilla eventually be known as Queen Consort, instead of the previously-touted lesser title Princess Consort. There was virtually no backlash to this move that would have been unthinkable 20 years earlier. Another reminder, if ever one was needed, that times change and people can and do move on.
The Queen’s astute capacity for the right kind of leadership was tested right to the end, as the last year of her reign was not without difficulties. Her second son Prince Andrew’s public disgrace was completed in February 2022 when he settled a sexual assault lawsuit with his accuser Virgina Giuffre. And she died knowing that the dispute between her grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry remained raw and unresolved.
But heavy is the head that wears the crown, and any challenges now lie at Charles’s feet as he embarks on his first year as sovereign. As Britain gets used to changes to stamps, money, the judiciary and the national anthem, the King has got to work. A decision was made for him not to make Cop27 his first overseas visit as sovereign despite his decades of environmental campaigning. Instead, he was pictured with his red boxes, hosted his first State Banquet and showed us that big family Christmases at Sandringham will continue. So, far the intention seems to be to emphasize continuity and not to do anything that diverges too far from the model of the last 70 years. The Queen’s death was truly the end of an era. Yet we are made to feel that great change does not have to mean, after all, great change.
In her 2020 Christmas broadcast, the Queen attracted much attention with her words in reference to the COVID pandemic that “we need life to go on.” In her last Christmas message, she observed, "life, of course, consists of final partings as well as first meetings.” After a year in which we said goodbye to one sovereign and hello to another, these words from Queen Elizabeth can serve to reminds us that she was a monarch who so often got it right.
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