God Saved The Queen
She never wanted to be Queen, not even for a day. Yet, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor went on to be the longest reigning monarch in Britain’s illustrious history.
When she was born on April 21, 1926, she was third in line to the throne. Though she was the eldest child, she was daughter to a king’s second son. Barring tragedy, she should have been able to live out her days in the relative peace and comfort peculiar to members of the extended royal family. But tragedy did strike, and Duty came calling for the young princess at the tender age of 10.
When Elizabeth’s grandfather, King George V, died in 1936, the crown passed to Edward VIII, the King’s firstborn son. But Edward caused the scandal of the century when he married an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, and abdicated the throne after having reigned for less than a year. The weight of the crown then fell upon Elizabeth’s father, King George VI. With the death of her grandfather, the abdication of her uncle, and the ascension of her father, the course of Elizabeth’s life–and the future of the British monarchy–would be forever altered.
On February 6, 1952, King George VI died suddenly in his sleep at the age of 56. Princess Elizabeth was on safari in Kenya when she heard the news. She went into the African brush a shy princess, and emerged “Queen Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.”
Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953, with over 277 million spectators looking on through the new medium of television. Around the world, people were made privy to the pomp and circumstance of a scene never before witnessed by the masses. For the majority of viewers, this was the stuff of fairy tales. But for the young Queen, it marked the end of an idyllic life and the beginning of the long, selfless life of quiet service to God and to the realm.
In a letter to a friend written in 1953 shortly after the coronation, C.S. Lewis observed,
You know, over here people did not get that fairy-tale feeling about the coronation. What impressed most who saw it was the fact that the Queen herself appeared to be quite overwhelmed by the sacramental side of it. Hence, in the spectators, a feeling of (one hardly knows how to describe it) — awe — pity — pathos — mystery. The pressing of that huge, heavy crown on that small, young head becomes a sort of symbol of the situation of humanity itself: humanity called by God to be his vice-regent and high priest on earth, yet feeling so inadequate. As if he said, “In my inexorable love I shall lay upon the dust that you are glories and dangers and responsibilities beyond your understanding.” Do you see what I mean? One has missed the whole point unless one feels that we have all been crowned and that coronation is somehow, if splendid, a tragic splendour.
It is to this “tragic splendour,” this utter resignation to duty, that Queen Elizabeth dedicated herself for over seventy years. As part of her coronation oath, she vowed, “The things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep. So help me God.” Later, in a radio broadcast following the ceremony, Queen Elizabeth said,
The ceremonies you have seen today are ancient, and some of their origins are veiled in the mists of the past. But their spirit and their meaning shine through the ages never, perhaps, more brightly than now. I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust.
In this resolve I have my husband to support me. He shares all my ideals and all my affection for you. Then, although my experience is so short and my task so new, I have in my parents and grandparents an example which I can follow with certainty and with confidence.
There is also this. I have behind me not only the splendid traditions and the annals of more than a thousand years but the living strength and majesty of the Commonwealth and Empire; of societies old and new; of lands and races different in history and origins but all, by God's Will, united in spirit and in aim.
Therefore I am sure that this, my Coronation, is not the symbol of a power and a splendour that are gone but a declaration of our hopes for the future, and for the years I may, by God's Grace and Mercy, be given to reign and serve you as your Queen.
By the grace of God, she kept her promise, fulfilled her vow, and provided the entire world with a shining example of a life spent in service for others. For most of the last century, millions around the world sang the same prayer:
God save our gracious Queen!
Long live our noble Queen!
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen.
And God heard that prayer. Her historic reign, ‘happy and glorious’ as it was, knew the bitterness of war, the shame of familial scandal, and the chaos of national upheaval. But time and time again, the Almighty was pleased to ‘send her victorious,’ saving his humble servant and those over whom she did faithfully rule.
Yesterday, on September 8, 2022, Her Majesty died as she had lived–doing her duty. Like King David of old, she has now been gathered unto her people, and sleeps with her fathers. Waiting for the Day of Resurrection when Kings and Queens will bear their peculiar glories into the New Jerusalem. Only then shall we see her like again.
She never wanted to be Queen, not even for a day. But as twilight descended upon the West and men became increasingly less concerned with the outmoded ideas of religion and duty and honor and country, God saved one last, shining gift for the end of an age. God saved The Queen.
