Among the many highs of the Queen's 70-year reign, were a number of low points-- which only serve to underscore the humanity of the long-serving monarch.
On October 21, 1966, nearly 140,000 cubic yards of black slurry cascaded down the hill above Aberfan, Wales. It destroyed everything it touched, eventually killing 144 people, most of them children sitting in their school classrooms. Despite the magnitude of the calamity, the Queen at first refused to visit the village, sparking criticism in the press and questions about why she wouldn’t go. Finally, after sending her husband, Prince Philip, in her place for a formal visit, she came to Aberfan eight days after the disaster to survey the damage and speak with survivors. Nearly four decades later, in 2002, the queen said that not visiting Aberfan immediately after the disaster was “her biggest regret.”
In the early 1980's prime minister Margaret Thatcher had a blanket opposition to economic sanctions of any kind against South Africa's apartheid regime. The Queen was disturbed by Thatcher's refusal to back sanctions, concerned that Britain would be on the wrong side of history regarding apartheid. On July 20, 1986, the Sunday Times released a bombshell article which amounted to a public rebuke from the queen. Although QE2 herself is not directly quoted, the article claims that the queen is "dismayed" by Thatcher's lack of compassion for the people of South Africa, and quotes an anonymous palace aide as the source. Thatcher was said to be hurt by the accusation that she was uncaring, which led to the Queen reportedly apologizing to Thatcher over the article.
In 1986, Elizabeth became the first British monarch to visit the Chinese mainland, touring the terracotta warriors in Xi’an, the Great Wall in Beijing and other sites. For the press, the diplomatic importance of the queen’s visit was outweighed by her husband’s characteristic (and often racist) gaffes: Philip called Beijing “ghastly” and told a group of British students they would get “slitty eyes” if they stayed in China too long.
Prince Charles' affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles led to deterioration of his marriage to Diana, and in 1992 they announced their decision to separate. Prince Andrew, the queen’s second son, and his wife, Sarah Ferguson, also separated, while Anne divorced her husband, Mark Phillips. Late that year, a fire broke out in Windsor Castle, destroying more than 100 rooms. In a speech delivered to mark the 40th anniversary of her succession, Queen Elizabeth remarked that 1992 “has turned out to be an 'Annus Horribilis'”: Latin for “a horrible year.”
Public criticism of the royal family grew more intense after Charles and Diana’s divorce in 1996 and especially after Diana’s death in a car crash in Paris the following summer. The queen stubbornly remained at her estate in Balmoral, Scotland, refused to allow the flag to fly at half-mast over Buckingham Palace, or even address the grieving nation. After repeated urging of her advisers, she revised her stance on the flag, returned to London to greet crowds of mourners and delivered a rare televised address to a nation devastated by the loss of the “People’s Princess.”
The queen’s celebration of her 50th year on the throne was marred by a double loss, when her younger sister, Princess Margaret, and their mother died within weeks of each other. As the first British monarch since Queen Victoria to celebrate a Golden Jubilee, Elizabeth traveled more than 40,000 miles that year, including visits to the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
In late 2019, the Queen sacked Prince Andrew-- ordering him to step down from public duties and stripping him of his $320,000 salary-- amid fall-out from his friendship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. "Randy Andy" kept his home in Windsor and his income from the Queen's Duchy of Lancaster estate. The Queen took action against her second son in a desperate bid to contain the fall-out from the duke's disastrous BBC interview about his years of friendship with Epstein.
No other event during Elizabeth’s reign symbolized the modernizing monarchy more than the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle, a divorced, biracial American actress. Though the queen reportedly gave her quick approval to the match, the relationship between the couple and the British media (as well as the rest of the royal family) grew increasingly tense after their marriage. After it became apparent that "the Firm" would not publicly support the couple, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced in early 2020 they were stepping back from their role as senior royals.
In early 2021, an undercover investigation by the UK's Sunday Times disclosed that the Queen's cousin-- Prince Michael of Kent-- leveraged his status as a member of the royal family and his privileged access to Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime by selling access to business clients seeking favors from the Kremlin.
On April 9, 2021, Prince Philip, Elizabeth's husband of 73 years, died at the age of 99. The British monarchy’s longest-running love story began just before World War II, when 18-year-old Prince Philip of Greece met his third cousin, Princess Elizabeth, during her family’s visit to the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, where Philip was studying. On November 14, 1947, the couple were married in Westminster Abbey, and King George VI named Philip as Duke of Edinburgh shortly after that. For more than a half-century, Prince Philip supported his wife in her royal duties and took on an ambitious slate of obligations of his own. Philip's funeral was held on April 17, 2021. Because of coronavirus restrictions, only 30 guests were invited to attend. Photos of the queen sitting alone in St. George's Chapel struck many as a symbol of her loneliness and grief.
No comments:
Post a Comment