A relentless sense that we are hurtling through history is one of the privileges and burdens of the modern age. Yet, with the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth, we experienced something truly extraordinary. A spectacle of such glory has not been witnessed in the UK since at least the late Queen’s coronation in 1953.
But Her Majesty’s send-off was also an unprecedented global communion. Five hundred heads of state and other foreign dignitaries came to the UK. Billions of people around the world, from Japan to Jamaica, are estimated to have watched the events – live-streamed in everything from converted cinemas to British-themed tea shops. The crowds 50 deep that lined the procession route whooped, threw red roses and snapped pictures of the cortege on their phones.
For one last time, Queen Elizabeth left the world in awe. The weather was poetic – a crisp and luminous September day that sat on the threshold between summer and autumn. The mood was sombre but resolute. The mind-boggling logistics were pulled off with military precision.
A world leader in death, as well as life, the spiritual message was one of hope that will carry global significance. The hymns included My Soul, There is a Country, based on words by Henry Vaughan, a 17th-century poet, who found solace in Jesus Christ and the metaphysical beauty of the Welsh landscape amid the darkness of the English Civil War.
It was a powerful reminder that our monarch drew strength from her own “One who is permanent” – and that, for her, was God. Justin Welby ended his sermon fittingly with the affirmation: “Service in life, hope in death.” Such a message could only have been reassuring to the late Queen’s many admirers around the world who worry that the extinguishing of her light somehow augurs a new age of uncertainty and darkness.
In a way, however, everything has changed, and nothing has. On the late Queen’s coronation almost 70 years ago, the country didn’t know whether to expect a new Elizabethan Age brimming with dynamism or to steel itself for national decline. In the end, the people settled for feeling “very proud of it all, and the fact that we put on a show rather well”.
Today, the country can feel pride once again in its ability to execute a momentous royal event. But more than that, our country has, in its own way, shown itself to be a model for the world to follow. Read the copious foreign press reports, and it’s clear that other nations have detected in Britain something that they admire and wish they could emulate. Not necessarily the pomp and pageantry of ancient institutions and custom; rather, an elegant confidence and a quiet resilience that can only come from finding a balance between modernity and tradition.
True, monarchies are in decline across the world, with 7.6 per cent of the global population living under such institutions compared with more than a third in the 1950s. Global attitudes to Britain are undoubtedly nuanced. A world impressed by the splendour of ceremony has also been tersely discussing our country’s colonial legacy. Still, with a few dishonourable exceptions, the death of Queen Elizabeth has been an unprecedented global unifier. Both friends and enemies have looked to Britain with a yearning for something they lack.
Consider the United States. If the country’s media outlets are any guide, the world’s avatar of modernity is fascinated not simply by the fact that we are in touch with our traditions, but that we are one step beyond that – a nation living in history. They have marvelled at the fact that people were happy to queue for hours to see the Queen as she lay in state. They have goggled at the public’s profound and instinctive connection to the past, as well the historic present.
Americans in contrast can lack an emotional relationship with history. As a future-oriented nation since its foundation, the country is propelled by a drive towards the American Dream. And yet faced with fears of its own decline and pressure to address its own historical sins, attitudes are changing. As a Wall Street Journal columnist put it, Americans have found in Britain reassurance that “it’s not bad to tell the story, to put it out there for the world to see … Respect the past and respect your own memory”.
One wonders whether some in China are having a similar epiphany. Media outlets that tend to dismiss Britain as a faded empire have expressed a wistful admiration for the late Queen as the embodiment of duty and dignity, a force that “never changed”. In a country that is steadily starting to question its own mania for modernity, this is perhaps unsurprising. A small but influential school of Chinese thinkers increasingly despairs at the price their country must pay for its relentless quest for progress – rootlessness, boredom and “extinction of any appreciation for the divine”. It has speculated about whether China made a catastrophic error in the 20th century by seeking to emulate the French revolutionary model rather than the English reformist one.
In France itself – where there has been wall-to-wall coverage – there are similar traces of regret. Take the celebrity academic, Christian Monjou, who suggested that France grieves not just for the Queen but for a continuity that its own presidential system lacks, due to the “brutal hyphenation” in its history, the French Revolution.
Even former colonies have shown a deep, complex admiration for the Queen. Nigerians have in recent days proved particularly captivated with her legacy. In her they saw a leader who embodied the middle class values of the day and yet charmed the world “in the original African sense of holding people spellpound”.
Perversely, even our enemies see something in Britain that they have lost. Russians seem to have felt genuinely wounded at their leaders being barred from the funeral, to the point that they condemned it as “blasphemy”. Strange as it might sound, many see in the British Royal family the miraculous preservation of mystical values that they believe have been trampled elsewhere in the West over the years. The Russian press has marvelled at the divine “secret” to monarchical power and the late Queen’s ability to make the Royal family more open “without destroying the veil of mystery”.
In short, almost every country is tortured by the same question: how to reconcile tradition and modernity. And in Britain, many can see the tantalising glimmers of an answer.
This is not a perfect country. But we can be proud that, in the late Queen, we were blessed with something that eludes much of the rest of the world – a rock, a lodestar, an unchanging logos in an ever-changing world. May she rest in peace.
15 comments
A relentless sense that we are hurtling through history is one of the privileges and burdens of the modern age. Yet, with the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth, we experienced something truly extraordinary. A spectacle of such glory has not been witnessed in the UK since at least the late Queen’s coronation in 1953.
But Her Majesty’s send-off was also an unprecedented global communion. Five hundred heads of state and other foreign dignitaries came to the UK. Billions of people around the world, from Japan to Jamaica, are estimated to have watched the events – live-streamed in everything from converted cinemas to British-themed tea shops. The crowds 50 deep that lined the procession route whooped, threw red roses and snapped pictures of the cortege on their phones.
For one last time, Queen Elizabeth left the world in awe. The weather was poetic – a crisp and luminous September day that sat on the threshold between summer and autumn. The mood was sombre but resolute. The mind-boggling logistics were pulled off with military precision.
A world leader in death, as well as life, the spiritual message was one of hope that will carry global significance. The hymns included My Soul, There is a Country, based on words by Henry Vaughan, a 17th-century poet, who found solace in Jesus Christ and the metaphysical beauty of the Welsh landscape amid the darkness of the English Civil War.
It was a powerful reminder that our monarch drew strength from her own “One who is permanent” – and that, for her, was God. Justin Welby ended his sermon fittingly with the affirmation: “Service in life, hope in death.” Such a message could only have been reassuring to the late Queen’s many admirers around the world who worry that the extinguishing of her light somehow augurs a new age of uncertainty and darkness.
In a way, however, everything has changed, and nothing has. On the late Queen’s coronation almost 70 years ago, the country didn’t know whether to expect a new Elizabethan Age brimming with dynamism or to steel itself for national decline. In the end, the people settled for feeling “very proud of it all, and the fact that we put on a show rather well”.
Today, the country can feel pride once again in its ability to execute a momentous royal event. But more than that, our country has, in its own way, shown itself to be a model for the world to follow. Read the copious foreign press reports, and it’s clear that other nations have detected in Britain something that they admire and wish they could emulate. Not necessarily the pomp and pageantry of ancient institutions and custom; rather, an elegant confidence and a quiet resilience that can only come from finding a balance between modernity and tradition.
True, monarchies are in decline across the world, with 7.6 per cent of the global population living under such institutions compared with more than a third in the 1950s. Global attitudes to Britain are undoubtedly nuanced. A world impressed by the splendour of ceremony has also been tersely discussing our country’s colonial legacy. Still, with a few dishonourable exceptions, the death of Queen Elizabeth has been an unprecedented global unifier. Both friends and enemies have looked to Britain with a yearning for something they lack.
Consider the United States. If the country’s media outlets are any guide, the world’s avatar of modernity is fascinated not simply by the fact that we are in touch with our traditions, but that we are one step beyond that – a nation living in history. They have marvelled at the fact that people were happy to queue for hours to see the Queen as she lay in state. They have goggled at the public’s profound and instinctive connection to the past, as well the historic present.
Americans in contrast can lack an emotional relationship with history. As a future-oriented nation since its foundation, the country is propelled by a drive towards the American Dream. And yet faced with fears of its own decline and pressure to address its own historical sins, attitudes are changing. As a Wall Street Journal columnist put it, Americans have found in Britain reassurance that “it’s not bad to tell the story, to put it out there for the world to see … Respect the past and respect your own memory”.
One wonders whether some in China are having a similar epiphany. Media outlets that tend to dismiss Britain as a faded empire have expressed a wistful admiration for the late Queen as the embodiment of duty and dignity, a force that “never changed”. In a country that is steadily starting to question its own mania for modernity, this is perhaps unsurprising. A small but influential school of Chinese thinkers increasingly despairs at the price their country must pay for its relentless quest for progress – rootlessness, boredom and “extinction of any appreciation for the divine”. It has speculated about whether China made a catastrophic error in the 20th century by seeking to emulate the French revolutionary model rather than the English reformist one.
In France itself – where there has been wall-to-wall coverage – there are similar traces of regret. Take the celebrity academic, Christian Monjou, who suggested that France grieves not just for the Queen but for a continuity that its own presidential system lacks, due to the “brutal hyphenation” in its history, the French Revolution.
Even former colonies have shown a deep, complex admiration for the Queen. Nigerians have in recent days proved particularly captivated with her legacy. In her they saw a leader who embodied the middle class values of the day and yet charmed the world “in the original African sense of holding people spellpound”.
Perversely, even our enemies see something in Britain that they have lost. Russians seem to have felt genuinely wounded at their leaders being barred from the funeral, to the point that they condemned it as “blasphemy”. Strange as it might sound, many see in the British Royal family the miraculous preservation of mystical values that they believe have been trampled elsewhere in the West over the years. The Russian press has marvelled at the divine “secret” to monarchical power and the late Queen’s ability to make the Royal family more open “without destroying the veil of mystery”.
In short, almost every country is tortured by the same question: how to reconcile tradition and modernity. And in Britain, many can see the tantalising glimmers of an answer.
This is not a perfect country. But we can be proud that, in the late Queen, we were blessed with something that eludes much of the rest of the world – a rock, a lodestar, an unchanging logos in an ever-changing world. May she rest in peace.
Interesting phraseology.
North Korean children are famously taught the slogan
‘We have nothing to envy in the world’
I don’t know. Abroad, while there’s fascination with the royal family, it’s all seen like a very nice soap opera.
I’m not sure that’s true. My SO and I are both EU citizens and I am not sure how much ordinary people cared about the funeral, though the general media coverage seems to have ranged from creeping servility to critical in my home country.
I entirely disagree… I mean I get it, you really like the queen and royals and think they’re the bees knees… however you haven’t actually specifically pointed to anything beneficial. And listing several countries without a monarchy, saying they really wish they had one too, is just not useful or in any way factual.
E.g. don’t believe for a moment the French regret no longer having a royal family, their cultural traditions have moved on on the intervening centuries, but you suggest they all crave a monarch. It’s just not the case.
I don’t think every country is torn by the question how to reconcile tradition with modernity, if they are they (govt) are wasting time focussing on an ideology rather than practical solutions to real problems.
See imperial measures for example.
Nah I totally disagree with your personal opinion here, and don’t see any real evidence for your position here.
Ain’t reading all of that, put a TL:DR in, cos the little I did read was just wrong.
Nobody envies the U.K. for having a monarchy, if anything, we’re a quaint curiosity for them to mock. The whole country went insane and the world is rightfully laughing at us for it
Laughing stock you mean. Weak ineffective government, economy trashed, sterling at rock bottom but we know how to bury a monarch.
The world has literally looked at us with pity during our collective nervous breakdown over the last half decade.
A massive funeral isnt going to change that.
I am getting the feeling that all these opinion pieces about how great we are and all that bollocks are just the last gasps of an idea of Britain that is fading away.
Just like the brexit “we can do whatever we want now and don’t have to check with Brussels!” That in practice actually means the opposite as we’re all worse off.
An old colleague who grew up in rural America always said that they’re constantly reminded that there’s no point in trying to go somewhere else because what they have is as good as it gets, because that’s “real ‘Merica”. Then you look around and all you see are communities devastated by unemployment, guns and chrystal meth.
Go figure.
No actual benefit of the monarchy listed beyond feelings.
Should be noted that the queen informed scottish government that her properties will be exempt from the then, incoming green requirements.
And king charlie wont be paying income tax because of course we wont.
An old woman dies and my self employed friends lose a days work and friends mums burial was postponed.
They arent playing the same game as you.
“Oh but tourism”
You dont think tourists will want to walk around the palace or have a photo in the throne when all the properties are open? Think it through.
I’ll be blunt: outside of the Commonwealth, Liz was considered a piece of pop culture (the corgis, the hats, the dresses, being quoted in a Sex Pistol song, the murales), a funny grandma, a favourite (with her family) of tabloid press, or – at most – an important figure or the XX Century.
The article cherry picks a couple of random opinion pieces from around the world, pasting them together to make it look like opinions are “nuanced” but there is great appreciation for the monarchy itself (at least as a symbol), instead of the former British monarch “person” and constructed PR profile, and even religion. Who wrote this piece must be the most deluded royalist ever.
I think everyone in the rest of the world looks at this as an end of an era and another sign of a declining Britain slipping beneath the waves.
Actually they tend to laugh at / pity us. This country is a theme park for the ruling class, the rest of us are the employees propping it up. In terms of freedom, the plebs don’t get much. Laurence Fox tweets something “offensive” but he doesn’t get arrested, only the pleb who *shared* the tweet gets arrested. My family member had to battle for years with the council over a shed that even the neighbours were vocally fine with, but Dominic Cummings can sidestep planning law entirely. People I know were given significant fines for trivial “offences” during lockdown, but we nearly had to revolt just to get the police to acknowledge that the government paid no attention to their own rules. For the plebs this country is an open air prison, with in-house propaganda so effective that they almost celebrate the terms of their subjugation. For the ruling class it’s a playground staffed with millions of lower class people they consider “the help”.
If you are not a millionaire, they do not care about you and the only reason you aren’t acutely aware of how detested and expendable you are would be that they haven’t got round to trampling on you yet.
No we’re not
I’ve elicited genuine pity before by mentioning to people from elsewhere in Europe that I live in Britain. Not just meme “lol you’re bri’ish” stuff but like, genuine pity
Jesus christ the cringe the bootlicking. Too much bruv have some self respect smh