As if pried from a cockney accented newsboy in the heart of London, “Hear ye Hear ye, the Queen is dead, long live the King.”
After seventy years Britain’s Queen Elizabeth the second, passed at her summer estate in Balmoral in the Scottish highlands.
It’s hard for me to grasp how Britons feel right now at the loss of someone like her. I definitely felt more sadness at the sudden passing of John Lennon and Princess Diana, than I have of her. Many admire her for her strength and perseverance, though she was not the truly authoritative monarch many of history’s past rulers were. Their power had waned significantly in the past two centuries and her role was more as a figurehead than as an absolute ruler.
Now Charles the third will inherit the throne, though as I mentioned before it isn’t as it was before. His only concern now is keeping the family peace. That is something I truly don’t envy after my own family issues this past month or so.
More and more it appears as though the role of the British monarchy has diminished so much as to make it obsolete, though I am certain many Britons would disagree. After all I’m just a Yank who was brought up in a representative democracy and we pledge allegiance to our flag and defend our constitution. They pledge sovereign allegiance to the crown. I have to ask though, how much longer before that too changes?
Jerry Schellhammer 