25-year-old Lilibet and her husband Philip were perched in a treehouse in Kenya, watching a herd of elephants being led to a watering hole by its matriarchs, the day she got the news that her father had died in his sleep at the age of 57. I know something of what she might have felt, as I was also traveling internationally when I received word of my mother's untimely death.
There is one major difference: Lilibet was Princess Elizabeth, daughter and heir to the throne of King George VI of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In an instant her life changed forever, 70 years ago to this day. Yes, she knew this was all coming since her father had become king after the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII; but can one ever be fully prepared to become a monarch with over 2 billion subjects?
On June 2, 1953 Lilibet was coronated as Queen Elizabeth II in the venerable Westminster Abbey. Today she and her subjects observe her Platinum Jubilee, marking her accession to the throne 70 years ago. I might use the word "celebrate" were it not for the fact that, as Her Majesty put it, "It is a day that, even after 70 years, I still remember as much for the death of my father, King George VI, as for the start of my reign."
Elizabeth has dealt with 14 prime ministers, survived numerous royal scandals, but always remaining above the fray. She has at times been seen as distant and aloof, other times as good-natured and witty; but always as steady and consistent.
“Can one ever be fully prepared to become a monarch with over 2 billion subjects?”
Opinions about the very existence of a British royal family in the 21st century vary wildly, from scorn to fascination, among us monarch-allergic Americans. In the UK, a vast majority of older people support the monarchy, while younger people are divided. Yet I suspect, with a pandemic and now a new scandal at 10 Downing Street, many Brits are happy to have the constance of a most remarkable woman by all accounts.
She is 95, though. As a possible foreshadowing of the passing of the torch, Elizabeth used today's auspicious occasion to announce her desire that Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, carry the title of Queen Consort once her husband, Prince Charles, accedes to the throne.
However longer she reigns, here's to the steady hand that has guided a nation and a commonwealth longer than any other British monarch in its thousand-year history.