God Save The Queen
By Mahons On June 4th, 2012What makes a republican Yank of Irish ancestry such as myself start to whistle Bess You is My Woman Now? Her Royal Highness, Elizabeth II, that gracious and noble Queen.
There will always be an England. That green and pleasant land is, despite its detractors (at home and abroad), is still a land of hope and glory. Some say there is nothing like a dame, but I say there is nothing like a queen who has weathered the storms of private life and public life and has come out, sixty years later, with a dignity that I can only describe as majestic. And her triumph is a shared triumph. The subject of the Queen must mention her subjects, a people given to understatement whose contributions can not be overstated.
I think those who discount her do so out of their own agendas. She has not always made the correct decision, but so often has. Over sixty years in the ultimate public eye I remind her detractors that the average modern politician usually can’t make it through a week without a faux pas. And she has been able to play the hand given her with an obvious sense of duty, remarkable sense, and undeniable legacy.
As to her enemies, well may she always frustrate their knavish tricks. I admire her, her people and her nation. And I raise a glass to her reign. God Save the Queen.
Good post.
Monarchies don’t suit most countries, but the British are proud of theirs, and why shouldn’t they be?
It does no harm, and is a link to an exceptional history.
Today’s flotilla was tremendous. Cheers to her.
I’m with Mahons and Phantom on this subject. Queen Elizabeth II has been a fine example of British Royality over the past 60 years.
Stately when the situation calls for it, warm and humble when the situation calls for it, but always regal. The sign of a true leader and an inspiration to all those who call her “Our Queen”!.
Nice post, Mahons.
I agree about QEII.
It’s also remarkable how, even after the Diana disaster, a string of Holywood-style divorces and plain farce in the family, the British people still come out in their millions to celebrate her.
The Olympics are just about to start there, but in London for the past month it was like nobody was even aware of it, all the talk was of the Queen and the Jubilee.
I’m so glad you Yanks got to watch some of the Pageant on the Thames!
Can I recommend this article to you in today’s Daily Mail..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2154217/The-Britain-feared-wed-lost–sail-more.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Part of our pride in the Queen stems from the fact that she has been there through and since the second World War, serving our country. The fact is that for so many of us Brits she is the constant factor through all the turbulence of these confused and confusing times.
And the reason you Mahons can salute her, is because you’ve got a big heart and can see beyond the nit picking little faults and failings picked upon and magnified by small minded, mean people.
Your all such a bunch of servile boot-licks! Have some dignity and stop beleiving the royals are better humans then you.
Charles – I don’t believe they are better than I am. I do believe they are better than you.
You miss the point entirely.
I don’t think that they’re better than me, and I don’t think that many, if any, British people think that the royals are better than them.
I think that the monarchy is a living link with an exceptional past. And that the queen or king is a symbol of national unity that is above political things, etc.
The institution may be above the petty affairs of the ordinary, but the individuals who are in it put their socks on one at a time, as we do.
And
As someone who treasures his privacy, I’d never ever want to be in the public eye the way the royals are forced to be in public nearly all the time.
All the wealth in London wouldn’t make me want to do that.
A kind, and very generous comment Mahons. I think that much of the fondness for her stems from her longevity. We seniors have good memories of her Father and Mother, and what young blood could not have had a touch of ‘puppy love’ for the young princess?
Who wouldn’t like her – after what is there to dislike? – very little!
However, I do find the BBC’s presenters simpering, kow-towing, servile tone, to be utterly nauseating. They really do undo much of the goodwill the Queen generates. Respect I can undestand and appreciate, but smarmy is as smary does, – and the Beeb do it so well…they spoil the day.
Of course I don’t think the Queen or any royal is better than me! But she was born int her family and I into mine. I am proud of my Geordie roots just as she probably is of hers: but she has had far greater expectations thrust upon her, than have been dealt me, and she has fulfilled those expectations magnificently -whereas all I have had to do is to annoy you lot!
Its the 21st century. Lets get real, if the british have so little to aspire to that the royals are their only escape then i feel sorry for them.
I think your misplaced sympathy is better channelled towards the lefty pc brigade who after all, can only display what is expected from them; ie, from a pig, but a grunt?
I think I’ve made my view clear, and I can leave it there for the Jubilee. Instead, let me tell you something about the Queen which knocks my socks off every time I think of it (which I usually do when she or the Monarchy is the topic).
It’s well known that the Queen is descended from every English monarch, every one of them. No, this doesn’t trace her line of descent back to 1066 and William the Bastard. It goes back further, to the first recognised King of England, Alfred the Great, who was crowned in 871.
Although he was very great and our first recognised “King of the English”, Alfred was of the House of Wessex, and he didn’t spring up from out of nowhere. His father Æthelred I was King of Wessex, and his father Æthelberht was also King of Wessex.
We can trace this line all the way back to Cerdic of Weesex, whose reign began in 519. It’s he who is believed to have led his Saxons warriors ashore on the South Coast, defeated the native Britons in battles around what is now the Hampshire area, and thend founded the House of Wessex.
Last week I linked to a Sean Gabb piece on the Jubilee. This line of descent and continuity is what he meant when he wrote:
Most people see what they want to see in Queen Elizabeth II. I see a line of English kings and queens which literally stretches into antiquity and dark Germanic forests.
For good measure, she’s also descended from the Kings of Ireland, all the way back to the 10th-Century Brian Boru, and she is a descendant of Charlemagne too.
It really does knock my socks off.
Yeah but can she do the 100 metres in under 10 seconds lol
The privacy of the royal family is heavily-guarded and no British publication would infringe it, particularly as they are all Establishment-owned. For example, it is known that Prince Phillip was sowing a whole load of wild oats through contacts from his in-law married to Princess Margaret, Lord Snowdon, so queenie needed escorting top functions by a military officer – the result being Prince Andrew. Go on, have a look and check Andrew’s military record and abilities against those of his half-brother, Edward
As for their real origins, I’m not sure how this became a ‘tradition’:
http://www.otbrit.com/circumcision/the-mohel/
It is noteworthy that in following the tradition of the Royal House of England – which requires circumcision of all male children, it was the Jewish Mohel of London rather than the Royal Physician who was called to circumcise the son of Princess Elizabeth:
Crown Prince Charles Circumcised by London Mohel London (JTA) – Crown Prince Charles, son of Princess Elizabeth and heir to the British throne, was circumcised in Buckingham Palace by Rev. Jacob Snowman, official Mohel of the London Jewish community, the Mizrachi News Bureau reported. Rev. Snowman, who is a noted Jewish scholar specializing in the poetry of Bialik, has been ritual circumciser in London for many years.
Pete,
“I see a line of English kings and queens which literally stretches into antiquity and dark Germanic forests.”
Smallpox stretches back even further than that, and we eradicated it in 1977.
You do know what kingship was based on, don’t you? The king had the biggest, most brutal band of cut-throats and mercenaries, thereby seeing off all comers and ruling the roost.
A bit like Colonel Gaddafi and other fragrant fellows, when you come to think about it
I sometimes wonder when seeing how ATW attracts daily crazies if perhaps coming here daily renders me crazy as well. You can’t go to a bar every night for instance and proclaim every other regular there alcoholics.
Time to grow up Charles and accept the respect and admiration of millions across the globe for our monarchy and our GLORIOUS QUEEN.
Long may she reign.