She was one of the world’s best-known public figures, and her peaceful death on Thursday afternoon, after a string of false alarms that left her invincible and straight, seemed at first a bit unreal. At the end of the longest British reign and after a whole life dedicated to monarchical rectitude and weightiness, Queen Elizabeth II is gone.
The tributes that have been pouring in ever since linger on the constancy, sense of duty and longevity of this woman, who was crowned in 1953. Since then, and even before, when she was a very young princess, she gave herself entirely to the operation of the royal machine, sometimes less oiled according to the scandals. She entered a monarchy as one enters a religion, immersed in this confinement entirely made up of protocols, decorum and symbols, to the point that one loses sight of the primary meaning of this empty shell. This devotion coupled with a cold and austere public image never made her a queen of hearts. Netflix’s Anglo-American series The Crown, seen in some 100 million homes around the world, provided access to a more intimate version of the queen, sympathetically spiced up with fiction. For authenticity and truth, incompatible with the ornaments of the monarchy, it was therefore necessary to go through television.
At 14, a young princess flanked by her sister, Margaret, she gave her first speech to the BBC. It was October 1940, in the middle of the Second World War, and the teenager was addressing the children, inviting her future subjects to show solidarity with the efforts of the British soldiers. This little princess knew about steam trains, but the queen ended her life being active on Twitter. She crossed the ages.
Until the very end, Elisabeth was compelled to official trips and events of all kinds, inaugurations, receptions, medal presentations, conferences, the daily life of the royals, what! On Tuesday, from her Scottish residence in Balmoral, she was still shaking hands with Boris Johnson, who had come to tender his resignation, and the new Prime Minister Liz Truss. This woman of duty managed to deliver only the symbolic part of the woman she was, keeping all political opinions to herself. She knew 15 Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom.
Here below, his death plunges us into mixed feelings. Stuck, we are, between a great respect for the person, but a detestation of the function that she occupied. Quebec balks at this monarchy that has chained us for ages — in May, we celebrate Patriots’ Day, while the rest of Canada celebrates Queen’s Day. A Léger poll released in 2021 revealed that 74% of Quebecers believe that the monarchy no longer has a place in Canada. The founder of To have to, Henri Bourassa, fought for a large part of his life this chaining of the nation to British imperialism. Whatever may be said, the head of state in Canada was Queen Elizabeth II, and it is now Charles III who will hold this position. The Canadian Prime Ministers see no aberration in this, and yet it undermines our independence.
Quebecers pay homage to the character, but hate the fact of still being legally subject to the Crown. These function-persons, a little like the pope, whose recent visit to Quebec aroused a certain curiosity without arousing the crowds, are observed as one watches a spectacle. The monarchy scene sometimes makes us greedy and voyeuristic, let’s face it. It is above all made up of scandals, which feeds a certain press that gathers together at the slightest deeds and gestures of royalty. The family of Elisabeth, whose three children are divorced, oh scandal, generously gave in the genre. The fact that she withstood this insane and over the top media attention alone earns her homage, because there was something to drive crazy about.
It’s not just in Quebec that the monarchy tickles. While here, we would hope to free ourselves from this submission, as several former dominions have done with pride, the British are also critical of this obsolete institution. The British daily The Guardian headlined in Thursday’s editorial “The end of an era”. “Let us recognize, at this time, and while we are in the midst of a national shock, that The Queen has done the job for so long and with such dedication that she deserves the national respect and affection shown to her in following his death. But then, let us be sensitive enough, as a nation in change and which has changed, to admit that the monarchy will and must change too. The next few days will be filled with solemnity. But soon the time will come to discuss this question, and, if possible, without the blindness that often surrounds it. »
The time of respectful and sincere homage to a proud and worthy sovereign does not exempt us from remaining critical and sorry to see ourselves still functioning in a constitutional monarchy, this legacy from another time.