Queen Elizabeth II passed away on September 8, 2022; and, having ascended to the British throne on 6 February, 1952, she had ruled continuously for seventy years, making her the longest reigning monarch ever. Her predecessor and namesake, Elizabeth I, also did not do too badly in monarchical longevity, having ruled for almost forty-five years from 17 November 1558 until her death in March 24, 1603. Their long reigns were not just noteworthy for their spans, but also for facilitating continuity at the top of the governance structure of a country that launched an Empire during the reign of the first, and unwound it during the second.
Elizabeth 1 became monarch of England and Wales at a time when the Spanish-funded Columbus had stumbled across a “New World” half-a-century earlier, and the Spanish were flooding Europe with their gold and silver, not to mention new agricultural products like tobacco and sugar. Vasco da Gama had discovered a sea route to the wealth of India around the Cape of Good Hope. But more to the point, the Portuguese and Spanish had started shipping Africans across the Atlantic to be used as slaves in the Americas. The world had been split between the Spanish and the Portuguese by the Pope, with newly “Anglican” England left out in the cold.
Elizabeth I would issue “Royal Charters” to English adventurers to found colonies, and even Buccaneers to raid Spanish settlements and treasure-laden ships. One of those Charters was to Sir Walter Raleigh, who would look for “El Dorado” up our Essequibo River. Another was to the East India Company that would start trading with Moghul-ruled India and eventually conquer it. After Elizabeth’s death, by the time of Victoria (1837-1901) the British Empire, on which “the sun could never set” had been drained of its wealth to make Britain the richest country in the world.
Half a century later, however, after becoming embroiled in two world wars with its European rival Germany, Britain found itself overextended, exhausted, and unable to hold on to its empire. This drained Britain conceded world dominance to the United States, and granted independence to India, Ceylon and Burma in 1947. Princess Elizabeth flew back from Kenya in 1952 to become Queen just before the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya erupted and was savagely put down in 1960.
Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah would precipitate the independence dominoes in Africa in 1957, and Jamaica and T&T in the West Indies in 1962. Elizabeth II visited Guyana in Feb just before we became independent in May 26,1966. As Britain tried desperately to hang on to her ex-colonies by shepherding them into a Commonwealth, she visited these countries, since she had been placed as the symbolic head of the organisation. She did visit Guyana in 1994.
By the 1970s, Britain had fallen to a level where it was almost a member of the “Third World”, into which most of her former colonies had been relegated. It was not surprising that Queen Elizabeth’s stock rose, since she was a rock of stability and continuity for ordinary Britons.
Margaret Thatcher’s Prime Ministership from 1979 to 1990 – one of the longest runs in 150 years – placed a microscope on the two women who led Britain out of its difficult times. They were born just months apart, but were worlds apart temperamentally. They met weekly, as was the protocol, and, reportedly, the meetings were formal and stiff. One reason was that Elizabeth had a dry wit, while Thatcher had no sense of humour. The other more substantive one was that the Queen thought Thatcher “uncaring”, for her policies stressed austerities in Britain. Also, according to the NY Times in 1986, “The Queen (was)…worried that Mrs. Thatcher’s firm opposition to sanctions threatened to break up the 49-nation Commonwealth.” Not about the evil of apartheid, per se.
Even though British colonialism has left a stubborn stain in the psyches of the former subjects, Queen Elizabeth maintained a benign image to those subjects.
