Of all the adjectives I’ve heard or read Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom described with, the one that best resonates with me appears to be “impeccable”-she was the closest to perfection, at least in her public conduct that any human being could be expected to be! Queen Elizabeth was already Queen of England when I was born. The year of my birth, 1965 was the year Great Britain buried another phenomenal leader, the great Sir Winston Churchill, the last time the country witnessed a full state funeral until this September when the whole world witnessed and celebrated the spectacle of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral ceremonies.
I loved the Queen, the British royal family and indeed the British as a people and civilization. I think they have the culture of the most civilized public conduct in politics, governance and culture in the world. My love for Britain is surely not naïve; I am a student of history, and I am fully conversant with the damage British colonial policies and actions caused to many of their colonies, particularly Nigeria. I studied “Colonial Legacies in British Commonwealth Countries” in my Master of Laws (LLM) Class in Comparative Constitutional Law and my judgment was that British colonial gerrymandering dealt Nigeria (and Sierra Leone, the two commonwealth countries in my study) a bad hand at independence.
Indeed, I still believe that Britain owes Nigeria a duty, an obligation to help us find better governance because British deliberate choices defined the legacy of hegemony and incompetent leadership that Nigeria has struggled with since independence. Nevertheless, I also believe that we are long overdue to take responsibility for our country’s fortunes and we can no longer blame colonialism or weak colonial foundations for our suboptimized nationhood.
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born on April 21, 1926 to her eminent parents, King George VI and then Queen Mother after whom she was named Elizabeth. Remarkably Elizabeth the child who was soon to become Queen was delivered by caesarian section at home; educated at home under the supervision of her mother with her “home schooling” focused on history, language, literature and music”. This would be apart from studies in theology and the Bible which she would have been immersed in by virtue of the royal faith. She had only one sister, Margaret (my late mother’s namesake) and was clearly from early on in her life, destined for greatness. Her and Margaret’s Governess, one Marion Crawford wrote a book about the two princesses in 1950 in which she noted Elizabeth’s love of horses and dogs, orderliness and attitude of responsibility. Sir Winston Churchill observed about the two-year old future queen, “a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant”
It was by a twist of history and certainly destiny and fate that saw Elizabeth become the English monarch. It was her uncle King Edward VIII who became king in 1936, shockingly abdicating shortly thereafter because of his desire to marry a divorced socialite Wallis Simpson. Elizabeth’s father George VI only became king due to Edward’s abdication making Elizabeth next in line to the throne. If her parents had birthed a male child, Elizabeth would have been shunted back in the line of succession, but that was not to happen because it was already written in the stars that Elizabeth would be Queen!
Elizabeth married the love of her life, Phillip a prince of Greece and Denmark. She and Phillip were reportedly second and third cousins through King Christian IX of Denmark and Queen Victoria respectively. To consummate the union with the future queen, Phillip renounced his Greek and Danish titles and officially converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism and adopted the “style” Prince Phillip Mountbatten the surname of his mother’s British family. Most Africans would be shocked at these non-patriarchal actions of Phillip, but history has indeed vindicated his actions. It was interesting for me to find as I researched this article that Elizabeth’s family and indeed elements of English society expressed initial reservations about her marriage to Phillip who was not wealthy and was regarded as a Prince without a kingdom; but their glorious marriage of seventy-three years was certainly blessed by God. Prince Phillip passed on in 2021 clearly weakening Elizabeth’s longevity and not surprisingly she passed on the following year on September 8, 2022 but not before she celebrated her Platinum Jubilee earlier this year.
Elizabeth became Queen in Kenya while visiting Australia and New Zealand via Kenya on February 6, 1952 and returned home to Britain to her coronation as Queen. According to one report, she left home for Kenya as Princess and returned home as Queen as her late father succumbed to his illness. Over the course of her long, 70 year, 214 days reign, the longest of any British monarch, she witnessed many epochs-the end of British Imperial power and de-colonialism, the troubles in Northern Ireland, devolution of power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Falklands War, the remarkable regime of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher another formidable female British leader, the UK’s European entry, the strengthening of European Union and eventual BREXIT and increasing multi-culturalism in Great Britain, Europe and the West amongst others.
It was not all rosy for Elizabeth’s during her 96 years on earth, 73 years of marriage and 70 years on the throne. I mentioned the troubles in Northern Ireland which seriously challenged the image of Britain as a cultured, civilized, peaceful and orderly society; in 1981 six (blank it happily turned out!) shots were fired at her while horse-riding by one Marcus Serjeant, an episode I recall boosted the world’s admiration as she responded to the scare with skill and composure in controlling her panicked horse; in 1982, she awoke one day in Buckingham Palace to see an intruder one Michael Fagan in her bedroom in a grave but ultimately uneventful breach of security; the Queen famously declared 1992 “annus horibilis” as the royal family was plagued with scandals and divorces; in 1997 the royal family was sorely tested by emotions that accompanied the death of Princess Diana who had become divorced from the Prince of Wales, now King Charles III; Diana (and perhaps the unfolding drama of Harry) and Edwards before her opted to follow their emotions forsaking what is without doubt, a great destiny and responsibility. Elizabeth understood her historical duty and stayed faithful to it to the very end.
Through all these challenges, the British monarchy has been skillful in navigating crisis, carefully discerning and responding to the public mood and ensuring that the monarchy and particularly the Queen retained massive popularity and support in spite of some sentiments towards devolution or even independence within the United Kingdom, republicanism in Great Britain and within the Commonwealth and the so-called realms. Nigeria for instance ended its status as a Commonwealth realm in 1963 dispensing with the Queen as Head of State but most of us retain our love for the Commonwealth, Britain and the royal family.
I guess my admiration for British culture and society rose remarkably during my law undergraduate studies in constitutional law-only the British could run a parliamentary, largely unwritten, constitutional system mostly based on constitutional conventions. The way their political system has evolved from an absolute to a constitutional and largely apolitical and symbolic monarchy is a study in pragmatism and modernism for those in Nigeria and all over the world who reject any attempt to modernize our constitution and political system and make it more sensible and efficient.
Another lesson from the Queen’s passage is the planning and careful orchestration that went into “Operation London Bridge” reportedly created as early as the 1960s and revised many times during Elizabeth’s remarkable reign. The British monarchy have managed to retain wide legitimacy in the hearts of their people proving that irrespective of political systems-presidential, parliamentary, democratic, monarchy or variants thereof, a responsible and sensitive political leadership can retain the love and adoration of their people if their actions and conduct is based on the best interest of their people. It was heart-warming watching hundreds of thousands of British citizens and even foreigners troop out to honour the departed Queen and welcome King Charles III who finally assumes his own destiny and reign.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was an epitome of responsibility, duty, dignity, loyalty to faith, family and nation, strength of character and maturity. May her dignified and dear soul rest in the bosom of the Lord and may God save the new King.
