From history’s perspective it will be remembered as being more tumultuous than the first one, the key difference being the eclipsing of Britain as an Empire rather than its growth in the world, and the very different place that a Queen of England would hold in it.
Being a Republican I always looked upon the age of Kings, Queens and Emperors as simply a traditional hangover from the past, their powers everywhere slowly whittled away by the development of modern societies and mass politics.
But even so, like many traditions, I respected them, even with all their pomp and silliness. Such are the threads of our cultural bloodstream. I suspect that around the world there will be people who opposed her station, status and institution who nevertheless may shed at least one tear at her passing and feel an unexpected sadness at the news of her death.
And Queen Elizabeth II was one to be respected. The photo below is her explaining the workings of a car engine to her mother, during a visit to a base of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), a women’s army auxiliary branch in which Elizabeth served.
She endured a lot and I would have given more than a penny for her thoughts on the changes she had seen in her Empire during her life and reign as Queen. Was she sad? Disappointed? I don’t think she was ever melancholy about it; the toughness of her generation and her own character saw her deal with much worse things up close – sadly often her family – than the decline of a world, and she had a sense of humour through it all, as shown in my favourite example shown here.
No Minister 
You think?
Elizabeth I’s life was far more tumultuous than Elizabeth II’s – engaging in the politics of the day could result in the loss of your head or even worse being gutted alive.
Indeed a fellow who wrote a pamphlet that displeased her, equivalent to a blog post of today had his right hand cut off.
Her reign is remembered as glorious for , the defeat of the Spanish Armada and Shakespeare. The first American colony in Virginia, named after her, came three years after she died.
The issues of her time were religious in nature
Not the lives of the woman, obviously. But their respective ages. As great as those events were I think a World War puts even them in the shade, not to mention other aspects of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The 16th century was a very tumultuous time Tom – the Reformation and Counter Reformation providing the major ideological divide.
In the 20th Century it was communism/capitalism
Our ideological battle maybe one of Technocracy v Individual Autonomy, Globalism v National Sovereignty
Its the way of the World, peace is illusive
I agree with you Andre.
One only has to look at how Liz version One came to power. She very nearly lost her head to Bloody Mary, her sister, she survived assassination attempts plus she had real political power.
Life then was short nasty and brutal but she put England on course for becoming a world power that eventually ruled a quarter of the earths surface
QE2 was a figure head, lived a refined wealthy life and no doubt was a fine woman and a fine Queen.
May Her Royal Majesty Rest In Peace
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
Given the emotional touch she showed in this incident, dealing with a British doctor who returned from the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo a few years ago in a rather traumatised state, you’d think her kids would have turned out better than they have.
Dear Tom,
Hi! I have returned to make a more substantial comment. I hope that you have been keeping well. One month has elapsed since Her Royal Majesty passed away, allowing us to have some time to reflect more fully on the late Queen’s legacy.
I have finally had the chance to publish something much lesser known about Her Royal Majesty in a special post entitled “🎼🎹 Pondering Musical Lineage on the Queen’s Birthday 👑🍰“, available at
In addition, please turn on your finest speakers or headphones, as the multimedia post will be playing music to you automatically for about three and a half minutes.