For most of my life I paid little attention to Queen Elizabeth. My information about the British royal family came from the same sources as my information about Hollywood stars—magazines in doctors’ waiting rooms detailing the extravagance of their lives and behavior. But in 1992, the annus horribilis marked by Charles and Diana’s separation, Fergie’s affair with her financial advisor, and Princess Anne’s divorce, I thought about how hard it must be for the mother and mother-in-law of these misbehaving grown-up kids to cope. She was sixty-six at the time, which seemed old to me, and I wondered what all the brouhaha must be doing to her. The poor woman should be retired, I thought, talking long walks with her dogs, reading novels, and knitting booties for her grandchildren—not representing a nation and dealing with the media and her descendants’ scandals.
But it didn’t stop there. Charles and Diana divorced in 1996, as did Andrew and Fergie, and Diana died the following year. How did the by then seventy-one-year-old queen cope with the worldwide frenzy of mourning for one who, to Elizabeth’s mind, had done perhaps irreparable damage to the monarchy?
When Elizabeth turned ninety-three, things got even worse. Prince Andrew (known for years as Randy Andy) withdrew from all public royal duties after being accused of having had sex with an underage girl under the auspices of the abominable Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
In 2020 her grandson Harry and his wife Meghan resigned as “major” royals, moved to California, and gave an interview that focused mostly on the less-than-optimal state of the family’s wokeness. “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth is an ungrateful [grand] child” must have run many times through Elizabeth’s mind. She was ninety-four. Then, in 2022, just a few months ago, she lost her husband.
All through the years of her travails I found it amazing that she continued to function, to show up, to do her job. True, she had lots of help. But I didn’t envy her the butlers or the ladies in waiting or the palaces so large that sometimes she would get lost in them and have to be rescued. I envied her her horses and her dogs, but I didn’t envy her those matching hat-and-coat outfits, or her hairdresser, and certainly not her children and grandchildren.
Most of all, I didn’t envy her her job. I, who in my years as faculty member used to sneak a book under my regalia to avoid having to listen to graduation speeches, and who am wont to make discreet exits from meetings, rituals, and ceremonies that drag on too long, would not have lasted five minutes in the queen’s shoes (which were always scrupulously matched to her coat and hat).
So in times of slings and arrows, when I feel as if the universe is using me for target practice, I think of Elizabeth—not as queen, not as symbol and love object of Britain and its dominions, but as a little old lady with a terrible job and fairly lamentable descendants, who nevertheless every morning, after the latest embarrassing revelation or catastrophe, would rise from her canopied bed, remove the curlers from her hair, get dressed, pat her corgis, loop her purse strap over her forearm and, standing as straight as she could manage, get on with the day’s batch of deadly duties.
She was old, is the thing, and we aging humans need older models than us to light the road ahead, just as the young do. So when sad, scary, or simply annoying stuff comes my way, I peer inside myself for a hint of the fortitude of the late queen, whose claim to glory, in my eyes, derives not from monarchical folderol, but from having been a person of courage. As the years go by, I hope to come to resemble, in however small a way and minus the perms and the matching outfits, the woman who, buffeted by every imaginable wind, held herself together for ninety-six long years.
12 Responses
Charles didn’t ask for the divorce – but he certainly caused it.
Diana’s death was a tragedy because she was perceived by the public as wronged, and graceful about it. The royal family badly misread that one – and one assumes it came from the top, although no one knows for certain. Elizabeth had made one final gesture by the time she died, removing her objections to Camilla as Queen Consort – not likely to affect the succession as Camilla and Charles have not procreated.
I wish Elizabeth had welcomed Meghan – it would have done so much for the perception of the royal family as there for EVERY Briton, instead of just the pasty white ones, with very few repercussions, as it is unlikely that Harry’s children will inherit the throne, Wills having produced three in the succession already. It would have been a lovely gesture to accept the beautiful wife of her grandson with warmth.
Given that her direct ancestor was Henry VIII, as little less orthodoxy might have been generous.
Other than that, WOW! An amazing woman. And as one report after her death stated, we never knew what her thoughts about the Obamas and the Trumps were – which is precisely the point. She was as good a queen as possible. And then failed quickly – glad she didn’t suffer.
Yes, a quick, merciful death. I wonder if her corgis miss her.
Best thing I’ve read about the queen yet. Thanks.
I love brave little old ladies.
yes. carry on.
As we all must!
Wonderfully written and I especially love the image of the Queen “loop(ing) her purse strap over her forearm,” now that I seem to do the same with my purse strap. But seriously, she gave her life to service and even met with the new Prime Minister. Amazing woman.
I loop my (long) purse strap over my shoulder, which is probably not the best for my back, or for my royal demeanor….
I love what you have written here. Get up and do her duty every day is the queen no matter what was going on. Yes we all look in our lives on the days we have more than a few stumbling blocks challenging our joy. And we get to say no I am not going to see anybody today. No I will reschedule this. She didn’t get to do that
What a great point you’re bringing out. Thank you lali
We do get to say no, and we’re lucky.
Yes, indeed, she had courage, real courage, dignity, enduring grace. One sees examples here among Wake Robin residents.
One does indeed!