In the last minutes of the film Nixon by Oliver Stone, the eponymous character, played by Sir Anthony Hopkins, forced to resign, finds himself face to face with the portrait of John F. Kennedy which dominates him with all his bearing – even dead, especially dead – and him launches with bitterness: “When they look at you, they see what they want to be. When they look at me, they see what they are.” Whenever it comes to Queen Elizabeth II, this sequence inevitably comes to my mind, because it is impossible to think of a king or a queen without thinking of his descendants, and I very well imagine the king henceforth Charles III poses in front of his mother’s portrait and, powerless, throws the same confession at her.
Elizabeth II is dead, Her Majesty died after seventy years of (very) loyal service to the crown, beating the record of her ancestress, Queen Victoria, who died in 1900, who reigned sixty-three years, seven months and two days. Elizabeth II will have survived 14 Prime Ministersthe first of which was her mentor, the immense Winston Churchill, and until the end, forty-eight hours before her death, as she had promised in two speeches, she will have fulfilled her duty and received the news and 15th Prime Minister to ask him to form a new government in his name. We must keep in mind the image of this old woman, standing, valiant on her cane, smiling and mischievous, who puts her duty before her pleasure. She will also have survived 10 French presidents, five popes, 1.5 million guests at Buckingham Palace garden parties, 260 official trips and 42 world tours. All without flinching, without showing any sign of impatience, without ceasing to smile, without noticing the boos that were unleashed on his way.
Because, before becoming the world’s favorite grandmother and seeing the criticism fade away, in the name of her wrinkles and her formidable endurance, about her proverbial coldness, her total absence of emotions, her jerky tone, her heart stone when it came to putting the crown before his family, because before being universally loved, being “one of the people I prefer” for Barack Obama, before parachuting with James Bond, tea with Paddington Bear, Elizabeth II was a queen without power, who had only one obligation: to hold the crown in the firmament. As an epitaph, we can say that she will have ensured the job.
“We look at it and we see what we would like to be”
We have always lived with her. More exactly, since June 2, 1953, when the one who dreamed of marrying a farmer, was crowned before the eyes of the world. The six-hour coronation was the first in the world to be broadcast on mondovision in eight countries, followed by 280 million viewers. She entered every household and never moved: all the episodes of her life were followed like a series until they became a “true” fiction, The Crownwatched by 100 million households.
Queen or not, she had to do with the escapades of her “rock”, the prince consort Philippe, who had so much trouble having to walk three steps behind his wife; she had to tack roughly with her very beautiful and very provocative sister Margaret, to whom she refused happiness; she had to agree to see three of her four children divorced the same year that Windsor Castle burned down, and to bury Lady Di like a queen when she had neither admiration nor patience with this generation which moaned more than it cared. took in hand and who refused the “never explain, never complain” which presided over all British life worthy of the name until then.
Elizabeth II disappeared, it is a page of history that is definitely turned. The sense of duty and sacrifice disappears with it. To put his load, his work, his responsibility before his little contentment now passes for a fad. Not praising your children as geniuses, not applauding their platitudes, not supporting their mediocrity is abuse today. Accepting that every choice is a sacrifice, that nothing can be obtained without effort, that work is the only reasonable way to earn a living is now an insult to the god of well-being. The unchallenged reign of “me, me and me” is the absolute opposite of Queen Elizabeth II. Maybe that’s why it fascinates us so much – like dinosaurs captivate us. We look at it and we see what we would like to be, then we collapse in front of the series The Crown ordering dinner.