[imagesource: Chris Jackson/Getty Images]
Ready yourself for weeks and weeks of wall-to-wall coverage about the Royal Family.
Then again, in the wake of Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview, that sort of coverage is something we have begrudgingly grown used to.
Anyway, I’ll pretend to care about this outdated institution long enough to get the basics down, regarding why ‘royal observers’ say Queen Elizabeth II won’t be stepping down from her duties.
In the wake of Prince Philip’s death, there has been much speculation on this front, as the Queen is known to have leaned heavily on her husband for support in troubling times.
According to Joe Little, the managing editor of Majesty Magazine, who spoke with The Guardian, Elizabeth II will soldier on:
“There has already been the handover of certain responsibilities, not least to the Prince of Wales in the last few years, and clearly that will continue. But as monarch, she will continue as long as she is physically and mentally able to do so.
“I think it is in her DNA. It also it goes back not only to her speech in 1947 in South Africa but more specifically to the oath she took at the time of the coronation. She is a committed Christian. That’s the contract she made with God, and I think something she feels can’t be broken. It’s just how she is.”
In that 1947 speech, delivered on her 21st birthday, the then Princess Elizabeth dedicated her life to the service of the Commonwealth:
In her coronation speech (watch that here), delivered on June 2, 1953, she repeatedly mentioned God.
These quotes from the Royal UK’s website:
“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.”
Royal historian Hugo Vickers concurs with Little:
“One main reason why the Queen will absolutely not abdicate is unlike other European monarchs, she is an anointed Queen,” Vickers told the Guardian, referring to the pact she made with God during her coronation.
“And if you are an anointed Queen you do not abdicate.”
Whatever happens next, let’s just be glad that Prince Andrew won’t be anywhere near the throne.
I see he’s being quoted at length by the likes of The Daily Mail, paying glowing tribute to his late father, yet there is almost no mention of the extensive allegations of rape and sexual assault of minors made against him.
The same media outlets still find time to bash Harry and Meghan, though – makes you think, right?
