The second Elizabethan era

My interest in history began with tales of my grandfather’s childhood. He was born on 27 October 1887, the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. He spent the first thirteen years of his life as a Victorian and lived under six different monarchs. History is not a static thing confined to the past. It is dynamic, ever changing and happening all around us. Yesterday, we witnessed it unfolding. I doubt my grandfather ever thought of himself as a Victorian or an Edwardian, any more than I considered myself an Elizabethan, but I have known only one queen, so that is exactly what I was. Now, the second Elizabethan era has ended and we have a new king, Charles III.

Victoria was not born to be queen. Her father, Prince Edward, was the fourth son of King George III and Victoria was born fifth in line to the throne. In 1820, Prince Edward died, and within a week, George III had also died. The new King, George IV, reigned for just ten years; his brother, William IV, for only seven. Neither had surviving heirs, and on 20 June 1837, aged eighteen, Victoria became queen. She reigned for sixty-three years and seven months, longer than any previous British monarch. On 22 January 1901, she died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. The future king, Edward VII and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, were among them.

Victoria’s eldest son, Albert Edward, became King Edward VII. He was a popular king, a lover of yachting, horse racing, gambling and women. He and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark, had six children. The eldest, Edward, Duke of Clarence, died of pneumonia during an influenza epidemic in 1892, leaving his brother, George, as heir apparent. When King Edward died in 1910, George became King George V.

George was a seafaring man. Not expecting to be king, he had joined the navy in 1877. In 1893, he married his late brother’s fiancee, Princess Mary of Teck. His reign was fraught with difficulties, encompassing the First World War against the forces of his cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and the Russian Revolution, during which his cousin, Tzar Nicholas II, was assassinated. In 1932, he also became the first British monarch to broadcast to the nation on Christmas Day. George V died on 20 January 1936 and his eldest son, Edward, succeeded him.

The British people loved Edward as their Prince of Wales, but his reign as their king was short-lived. Within months of his father’s death, his determination to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee, led to an uproar. As Mrs Simpson’s first husband was alive, and she was still married to her second, the marriage was unacceptable to the church and caused a terrific scandal. When he realised that he could not marry Mrs Simpson if he wished to remain king, Edward abdicated. His reign of three-hundred-and-twenty-six days made him the shortest reigning British monarch.

George VI was a shy, retiring man, the opposite of his brother Edward. Despite this, he and his wife Elizabeth became a well loved king and queen. Their courage and endurance set an example for the people during the dark days of the blitz. They remained at Buckingham Palace throughout the war, even though the palace was bombed nine times. Like Winston Churchill, George had to be dissuaded from landing with the troops in Normandy on D-Day. He may not have been born to be king, but he made a wonderful job of it. Since the end of the war, King George’s health had been poor, and on 31 January 1952, against all advice, he went to London Airport to see his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Phillip off on a tour of Australia and Kenya. It would be his last public appearance. On 6 February, he died at Sandringham House, aged just fifty-six.

King George’s eldest daughter Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born on 21 April 1926. Like her father and her great-grandmother, Victoria, Elizabeth had never expected to be crowned. When she was born, her parents were the Duke and Duchess of York. Her grandfather, George V, adored her. She called him ‘Grandpa England,’ and he called her Lilibet.

When the second world war broke out, it was suggested that Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret, be evacuated to Canada for their safety. Queen Elizabeth said, ‘The children won’t go without me. I won’t leave without the King. And the King will never leave,’ so the princesses spent the majority of the war at Windsor Castle. In 1940, aged fourteen, Princess Elizabeth made her first radio broadcast during BBC Children’s Hour. She told the children of Britain, ‘We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers, and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well. — Thousands of you in this country have had to leave your homes and be separated from your fathers and mothers. My sister Margaret Rose and I feel so much for you, as we know from experience what it means to be away from those you love most of all. To you living in new surroundings, we send a message of true sympathy and at the same time we would like to thank the kind people who have welcomed you to their homes in the country.’

During the war, unmarried women under thirty were conscripted to join the armed forces, work on the land or in industry. Princess Elizabeth insisted on joining the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British Army. King George ensured they gave his daughter no special treatment, and she started as a subaltern, later progressing to Junior Commander. After she completed a driving and vehicle maintenance course at Aldershot, the press called her ‘Princess Auto Mechanic.’ On VE day, in May 1945, Elizabeth, wearing her ATS uniform took her sister Margaret to join the crowds on the streets of London to celebrate. She later said that they were terrified of being recognised, so she pulled her cap down over her eyes. Even so, she called it, ‘one of the most memorable nights of my life.’

On 9 July 1947, when Elizabeth was twenty-one, she announced her engagement to Prince Phillip of Greece and Denmark, her second cousin once removed. She had met him in 1934 and 1937, and began exchanging letters with him after their third meeting at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in July 1939. They were married on 20 November 1947 at Westminster Abbey. Elizabeth wore a dress designed by Norman Hartnell, made from material she had saved her clothing coupons to buy.

On 6 February 1952, Princess Elizabeth was in Kenya, on the first leg of a commonwealth tour when her beloved father died. Prince Philip broke the news to her. On 2 June 1953, Elizabeth was crowned at Westminster Abbey. For the first time, the ceremony was broadcast to the nation on television. The second Elizabethan era had begun.

Yesterday, on 8 September 2022, our longest reigning monarch died peacefully at Balmoral, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. During her seventy years and two-hundred-and-fourteen days on the throne, the world has changed immeasurably. Her long reign has not been without sadness, unrest or controversy, but she has more than lived up to the pledge she made on her twenty-first birthday, whilst still a princess. ‘I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.’

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