எலிசபெத்தின் பெரியப்பா எட்வர்ட், தன்னுடைய காதலுக்காக அரசப் பதவியை இழந்தார். அதனால் இவரது அப்பா ஆல்பர்ட் அரசர் ஆனார். ஆறாம் ஜார்ஜ் என்கிற ஆல்பர்ட்டுக்குப் பிறகு இவர் ராணி ஆகக்கூடிய வாய்ப்பு கிடைத்தது.
உலகிலேயே அதிக காலம் ஒரு நாட்டை ஆண்ட அரசி ஆவார். 9-9-2015அன்று இதற்காக விழா நடத்தவும் திட்டமிட்டுள்ளனர்
எலிசபத் ராணி, காதலுக்கு முக்கியத்துவம் கொடுத்தவர்தான். பதிமூன்று வயதிலேயே எடின்பர்க் கோமகன் பிலிப்பை காதலித்தார். கிரீக் மற்றும் டென்மார்க் அரச குடும்பத்தைச் சேர்ந்த இந்த இளவரசர், இங்கிலாந்து அரசக் குடும்பத்தை ஒப்பிடும்போது மிக எளிய குடும்பத்தில் பிறந்தவர். இந்த வேறுபாட்டை தன்னுடைய அடமான காதலால் தகர்த்தவர் எலிசபெத்.
மக்கள் மீது அன்பையும் சமூகபணியில் பெரியளவில் ஆர்வமும் கொண்டவர் நூற்றாண்டு கண்டு வாழ்வாங்கு வாழ வேண்டும் இவர்.
The Queen’s former private secretary Martin Charteris used to say: “May the Queen live for ever.” That sadly is impossible but when on Wednesday Elizabeth II passes her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria’s record of 23,226 days 16 hours and 23 minutes on the throne she enters the record books as the longest reigning monarch in this country’s history.
It’s no mean feat. Queen Victoria was 78 when she was able to write in her diary: “Today is the day I have reigned longer by a day than any English sovereign.” It was September 23, 1896, and the record she broke was that of her grandfather George III, who reigned for 59 years 96 days. Victoria went on to reign for another three years, dying in 1901 at the age of 81.
At 89 Elizabeth II is more than a decade older than Victoria was when she set her record. Despite her age she enjoys remarkable health. She continues to carry out a full programme of public engagements, including visits overseas.
By contrast Victoria was virtually confined to a wheelchair for the last five years of her life. At the service of thanksgiving for her Diamond Jubilee in June 1897 she remained in her carriage on the steps outside St Paul’s Cathedral, unable to walk the length of the aisle.
So bad were her cataracts that she could scarcely see. At dinner at Windsor Castle she complained about the quality of the candles, which seemed to her hopelessly dim.
Victorians, however, revelled in their queen’s long reign and even longer life. At her Diamond Jubilee, the London and North Western Railway company put up special decorations that spelled out the words Longest, Noblest, Wisest Reign.
But Victorians worried, too. One well-wisher wrote to Victoria suggesting that in order to take the weight off her feet during the jubilee celebrations she might like to tie balloons to her coat. Another suggested replacing her in the carriage procession with a puppet.
Fast forward more than a century and we take it for granted that Elizabeth II is every bit as indomitable as she looks. Although the Queen and Prince Philip recently gave up longhaul trips to Commonwealth countries such as Australia and New Zealand the Queen’s schedule remains much as it was when she was a young woman. It is one of many ways in which she differs from Victoria.
Victoria became queen in 1837 on the death of her elderly uncle William IV. She was 18 years old, pleasure-loving, determined and with a fiery temper. Her father had died when she was a baby and her relationship with her German mother was tense. Her closest companions were her governess Baroness Lehzen and a spaniel called Dash.
The country erupted with excitement hailing its new monarch as the Queen of Hearts and England’s Rose. At first Victoria enjoyed herself so much that she told a courtier she woke up each morning “quite afraid that it should all be a dream”.
On February 10, 1840, she married her German cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. On Victoria’s side it had been love at first sight. Their relationship included powerful physical attraction and they went on to have nine children before Albert’s untimely death at the age of 42 in 1861. Victoria described their marriage as “full of the friendship, kindness and affection which a truly happy marriage brings with it”.
Although the infatuated Victoria considered Albert “perfection” he was every bit as determined as she was. At the age of 11 he had written that he intended to train himself “to become a good and useful man”. After his marriage he decided to make Victoria good and useful too. He set himself the task of reforming the British monarchy and making Victoria a model sovereign.
Victoria and Albert set about creating a royal family that was a byword for domestic bliss. Victoria’s uncles George IV and William IV had been extravagant, drunken and adulterous. Albert’s vision was of a royal family whose behaviour was beyond reproach. In portraits of his children he commissioned from the painter Franz Winterhalter, Albert insisted that the sun should be shining and the sky always bright blue.
Unfortunately neither Victoria nor Albert were natural parents. Both were strict disciplinarians. Victoria also loathed babies. Even when her children grew up Victoria insisted on her right to control them. So revolted was she when her daughter Alice breastfed her own children that she christened one of the royal cows Princess Alice.
Elizabeth II has faced challenges undreamed of by Queen Victoria
Victoria could be every bit as domineering towards those outside her family. Politicians and clergymen were quickly put in their place. Victoria was devoted to her first prime minister Lord Melbourne, who became a romantic father figure, and she was also fond of Benjamin Disraeli who flattered her.
Victoria could be every bit as domineering towards those outside her family. Politicians and clergymen were quickly put in their place. Victoria was devoted to her first prime minister Lord Melbourne, who became a romantic father figure, and she was also fond of Benjamin Disraeli who flattered her.
Other politicians fared less well. Victoria disliked premier Sir Robert Peel repeatedly informing him, “I am Queen of England!” And she seldom troubled to hide her loathing for William Gladstone. Correctly Gladstone wrote to his wife that Victoria would “never be happy till she has hounded me out of office”. Victoria described him as “halfmad”. It did not matter to her that the country elected him prime minister four times.
So frustrated was she occasionally by the limits to her constitutional power that she told her eldest daughter it was “a miserable thing to be a constitutional monarch”.
Yet for all her wilfulness Victoria was frequently in tune with the zeitgeist. Encouraged by Prince Albert she embraced innovations including railway travel and photography. She made seaside holidays fashionable, bought paintings by modern artists and enjoyed reading potboilers. She herself became a bestselling author when in 1868 she published extracts from her diary.
In 1876 Victoria became Empress of India. Four years later Britain embarked on its colonisation of Africa. Within 20 years it had acquired five million square miles of African territory. At the heart of this enormous worldwide empire was a single figure: the widowed, black-clad Victoria. No wonder one newspaper described her as almost as majestic as God.
Elizabeth II has faced challenges undreamed of by Queen Victoria. In place of imperial expansion Elizabeth’s reign has seen Britain downsizing overseas. In Victoria’s day the Industrial Revolution made Britain the richest nation on earth. Elizabeth by contrast has presided over periods of high unemployment and economic hardship. While Victoria could mostly take respect for the monarchy for granted Elizabeth reigns at a time when deference is a vanishing concept.
Instead, through a lifetime of unflagging public service, the Queen has earned that respect, admiration and love that earlier monarchs assumed. Former PM Harold Macmillan said: “She loves her duty.’
She herself has said that she “has to be seen to be believed”. Year in, year out she continues the round of visits to schools, hospitals and factories. She is passionate about her role as head of the Commonwealth and has crisscrossed the globe to visit its members.
After Albert’s death Victoria grew to hate her public duties, describing “the spectacle of a poor, broken-hearted widow... dragged in deep mourning, alone in state as a show”. With Prince Philip still at her side 68 years after their wedding in November 1947 Elizabeth continues to put herself on show.
Like Victoria she has embraced aspects of new technology. The Royal Family has a website, Facebook page and Twitter account. But the Queen herself has never attempted to be modern. Her virtues of duty and service, her clothes, even her voice are all old- fashioned.
In a country in which society has changed seismically since her accession the Queen’s consistency makes her a still point at the centre of the circle. Like Victoria she has been criticised as a mother although there is no evidence on which to base such criticisms. Unlike Victoria she has never overstepped the mark politically.
In 1947 Elizabeth told the nation: “My whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.” She’s made good her vow.
-K.S.Radhakrishnan
07-09-2015.
07-09-2015.
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