The end of the second Elizabethan Era

For seven decades, Elizabeth II gave Britain a constant. The death of Queen Elizabeth II today ends the second Elizabethan era.HM Queen Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926, and has reigned over Britain since 1952. More than anyone, Elizabeth understood Britain’s sense of itself as an old country. She was that rarest being, an Aristocrat that never spoke of her privilege, just her duty. The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral

Her words would be scoured for a hint of controversy or an opening into her character. But she was too wise – and her friends too loyal – for anything important to slip out.

Elizabeth the Great

“I find that one of the sad things,” she would say in the late 1980s, is “that people don’t take on jobs for life, they try different things the whole time.” For her, being Queen was not a choice, it was her duty and one that she carried out to perfection. She would rarely take a holiday outside the UK – travelling abroad meant work. she was there to listen. All her prime ministers could be entirely confident that nothing they told her would be repeated.

It was this avoidance of any political controversy as head of state, and her refusal to bend  to the winds of fashion, that enabled her to triumph in the role that would earn her the love and respect of so many, as head of our nation.

I am now in my 70s and Queen Elizabeth has been the monarch for my entire life. It will be very strange not to have her there. The 2 great Elizabethan eras are now over and we shall soon have a King on the throne.

For seventy years Queen Elizabeth II has been a guiding light of service, a beacon of faith and the best role model of gentle diplomatic rule.