The Queen began her reign, more than 70 years ago, in a very different age to today’s world, but she always changed with it and at the same time remained a constant for millions of people.
Political editor @BethRigby
Tuesday 20 September 2022 06:40, UK
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It was a farewell fitting of Queen Elizabeth II’s life, influence, and legacy. The largest gathering of world leaders in living memory, the streets lined with tens of thousands of her subjects, while hundreds of millions of people watched her funeral around the world.
All of it is testimony to a monarch who commanded both enormous soft power and affection, not just at the highest level of nation states but among their citizens too.
The moment all the more profound because it marks not just the passing of a monarch but the end of the new Elizabethan age. That Queen Elizabeth II is one of the few monarchs, alongside Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, that gives her name to an era – underlining the longevity, uniqueness, and impact of her reign.
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For it was a reign that spanned seven decades and bridged the ages from the steam train to streaming, from the end of Empire to the evolution of the Commonwealth, from food-rationing to mass consumerism.
It was a time of profound social and cultural change, the post-war immigration boom changing Great Britain into a multi-racial society.
And not only did who we are change but how we lived changed too – be it from the high rises millions of us live in, to the emergence of the welfare state that underpins our society. The nation Queen Elizabeth II leaves behind is so radically different to the one she inherited.
“She encompassed so many ages during her long reign, and society changed and Britain’s place in the world changed,” said Tristram Hunt, historian and director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
“The transformation of society through technological change – beginning with the atomic age of the 1950s, to the era of mass consumer culture, ending in the digital age and transformation of society through digital technologies.”
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End of the Empire and beginning of the Commonwealth
Another huge force for change was the end of the Empire and the emergence of the Commonwealth, which changed Britain’s might on the world stage. The Queen had to manage the move from being one of the greatest powers on earth to one of secondary importance.
“It’s a period of adaptation,” explained historian Sir Anthony Seldon. “There was no way Great Britain could continue to be a great power up there with the Soviet Union and the US, and now China and India.
“The population, the economic base, simply would never have permitted that. But it was a period of adaptation from Empire to Commonwealth, from great power to important power; enormous emphasis on its soft power, cultural power, in the language, the arts, the history, and the pageantry.”
It was a change that radically reshaped modern society too, as the post-war immigration boom from former colonies turned Britain into a culturally richer, more diverse, multi-racial nation.
“The monarchy was much bigger than just the United Kingdom because it was an empire,” explained Mr Hunt.
“And with that came a sense of affiliation, but also a sense of political rights. So, we had this tension in the UK between individuals who regard themselves as subjects of Her Majesty, who want to come to the UK to exercise those rights.
“While in the UK fears of mass migration, elements of racism, leads to these tensions. And Queen Elizabeth II as a monarch had to manage the transition away from empire to manage the transition to multicultural society.”
The democratisation of society
It was not just who we are that changed under Queen Elizabeth II, but how we live. It was under her reign that the welfare state emerged, as the notion of support through charity and philanthropy gave way to your rights as a citizen to be supported as part of the welfare system.
All of this is intimately tied up with Queen Elizabeth II – the monarchy and the National Health Service two unifying institutions.
The other big epochal shift in how we live has been technological change, made all the more startling by the length of the age juxtaposed by the speed of change. Hers was an era that began in the atomic age in the 1950s, through to mass consumer culture and the digital age.
From the vacuum cleaner to the automatic washing machine, it was a story too of female liberation, as women were freed from the drudgery of manual housework and entered the labour market in far bigger numbers.
All of it helped bring about a democratisation of society, as well as the growth of individualism and the retreat of some traditional structures and organisations of British society – be it the Church, the institution of marriage or social hierarchies.
“One of the huge transformations in society, is that there was such an age of deference when she was crowned,” observed Harriet Harman, the former deputy Labour leader who was a toddler when the Queen was crowned.
“It was not just that women were supposed to defer to men. People who were more well off thought that they were better off, better than people who were working class. White people thought they were better than people who weren’t white. There was absolutely an age of hierarchy and now things are very different.”
The end as it began
Amid all this change, in some ways, anxieties that defined the beginning of the second Elizabethan age – austerity, worries over fuel bills and living standards, a Britain having to redefine its place in the world – also define its end.
“She saw this great period of the sharing of wealth, the democratisation of wealth, the importance of income taxes [the Queen began paying it in 1993], the importance of the welfare state, the importance of growing it the economy in the 1960s and 1970s,” said Mr Hunt.
“And arguably now, because of global social economic changes we are seeing high levels of inequality once again. And the question is whether we are going back to some of those elements that were there when she assumed the throne in 1953?”
And for the new King there are added pressures too – not least around the unity of the UK, against the drumbeat of Scottish independence and growing calls for the reunification of Ireland following Brexit.
Beyond Britain, King Charles must seek to reinforce the monarchy’s role in the Commonwealth too, which was so tied to Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. Queen of 14 of those 56 independent states, the Bahamas has already said it will hold a referendum to become a republic, while New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden said she believed her country would also become a republic in her lifetime.
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Can the monarchy stay relevant?
There is also the question of how the monarchy can stay relevant in the Carolean age. A YouGov poll released last year showed that just 31% of 18 to 24-year-olds wanted the monarchy to continue against 69% that either did not know (28%) or thought Britain should have an elected head of state (41%).
That compares with 70% of 50-64 year olds who support the monarchy. From the stability of the Elizabethan age, the monarchy must now navigate the uncertainty of the next.
“It’s always going to be difficult for any leader taking over from a giant,” observed Sir Anthony.
“It’s going to be particularly difficult for him because there are so many strains on the continued maintenance of the United Kingdom, maintenance of the Commonwealth, indeed of the monarchy.
“When she came to the throne, there were 100 monarchies, now, outside the Commonwealth there are barely 25 and those who remain are absolutist or irrelevant. So seeing all that through, being one unifying figure will be extremely difficult for him.”
Read more:
In pictures: the Queen’s state funeral
The history and significance of Queen’s final resting place
Words of wisdom from the Queen herself
As for his late mother, Queen Elizabeth’s reign was so long, taking in multiple global, historical, epochal moments, it is near impossible to distil her age. But it will undoubtedly be remembered as one of great consequence in the history of not just our nation but the wider world. Her life truly remarkable, her legacy beyond compare.
But perhaps the last word on the new Elizabethan age should be left to the Queen herself, who, in a rare special broadcast to the nation at the height of the coronavirus crisis in 2020, offered us her own definition of what it meant to be a new Elizabethan – a common character that binds us all.
“In the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge,” she said.
“And those who come after us will say, the Britons of this generation were as strong as any; that the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow feeling, still characterise this country.
“The pride in who we are is not part of our past. It defines our present and future.”
