HISTORY | SEPTEMBER 8, 2022

Elizabeth II Was an Enduring Emblem of the

Waning British Empire
The British queen died on Thursday at age 96

Elizabeth remained staunchly tight-lipped, rarely commenting publicly on current events. Photo by Sean
Gallup / Getty Images

Nora McGreevy
Correspondent
Elizabeth II, the long-reigning British queen who buoyed a shrinking empire
and an increasingly embattled monarchy, died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle,
her estate in the Scottish Highlands, at age 96. The royal family confirmed her
death in a statement, saying, “The queen died peacefully at Balmoral this
afternoon. The king and the queen consort will remain at Balmoral this evening
and will return to London tomorrow.”

Elizabeth succeeded her father, George VI, upon his death in 1952, when she
was just 25 years old. Over her 70-year reign—the longest of any British
monarch and any female monarch in history—she worked with 15 prime
ministers (16 counting Liz Truss, who took office earlier this week), met 13 of
the past 14 American presidents, oversaw thousands of royal engagements
and made 89 state visits overseas.
Elizabeth ascended to the throne in 1952. Getty Images
Elizabeth in 2012 Photo by Chris Jackson / WPA Pool / Getty Images
The queen’s steady presence symbolized stability during a period of profound
change. Under Elizabeth’s leadership, the United Kingdom navigated multiple
wars, ongoing unrest in Northern Ireland, leaps in technology, economic crises,
Brexit, the rise of far-right nationalist politics, pandemics and the dissolution of
a once-dominant empire. Four out of five people currently living in the U.K.
were born after the queen’s ascension, making Elizabeth the only monarch
most of her subjects have ever known.

Per the New York Times, her death “marks both the loss of a revered monarch ...
and the end of a figure who served as a living link to the glories of World War II
Britain, presided over its fitful adjustment to a post-colonial, post-imperial era
and saw it through its bitter divorce from the European Union.”

Inside Elizabeth II’s reign

Elizabeth was a private person who spent much of her life squarely in the
public’s gaze. Her June 2, 1953, coronation ceremony aired live to 20 million
television viewers—a royal first. Her meticulously planned funeral celebrations
will likewise be televised, Tweeted, Tik-Toked and shared by millions on social
media in the weeks to come.

Born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor on April 21, 1926, the future queen
became the U.K.’s heir presumptive at age 10, when her uncle, Edward VIII,
abdicated the throne to marry American socialite Wallis Simpson. Conflict
defined Elizabeth’s teenage years, with World War II breaking out in September
1939. At the behest of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the princess delivered
her first public speech over the radio the following year. Speaking in carefully
enunciated tones, 14-year-old Elizabeth—or “Lillibet,” as she was known to her
family—stood next to her younger sister, Margaret, and delivered a message of
comfort to Britain’s children, many of whom had been sent away from their
families during the Blitz.

Toward the end of the war, in March 1945, the 19-year-old Elizabeth joined the
British Army’s Auxiliary Territorial Service. She spent her days at a training
facility, learning how to maintain vehicles, and her nights sleeping at nearby
Windsor Castle. Her future husband, Prince Philip, served in the Royal Navy;
the third cousins, who’d first met in 1934, exchanged letters throughout the
war.

Against the advice of royal advisers, Philip and Elizabeth fell in love. They wed
in November 1947 and remained together until Philip’s death at age 99 in April
2021. The couple is survived by four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew and
Edward.

Elizabeth spent her first years as queen attempting to secure Britain’s symbolic
foothold in a rapidly changing world. After her coronation, she and Philip
embarked on a six-month, globe-trotting tour that spanned 13 countries in the
Commonwealth of Nations, a voluntary association comprised largely of former
British colonies.

“[T]he Commonwealth bears no resemblance to the empires of the past,” the

queen said in her inaugural 1953 Christmas broadcast. “It is an entirely new
conception built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man. … To that new
conception of an equal partnership of nations and races I shall give myself
heart and soul every day of my life.”
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The royal family poses for a photo during a picnic on the grounds of Balmoral Castle in 1960. Getty
Images
2/3

The royal family at Buckingham Palace in London in 1972. Left to right: Princess Anne, Prince Andrew,
Prince Philip, Elizabeth II, Prince Edward and Prince Charles Photo by Fox Photos / Hulton Archive / Getty
Images
3/3

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (left) chats with Elizabeth II (right) at a 1979 gathering in Zambia.
Getty Images

Elizabeth’s reign was marked by rocky periods of intermittent violence abroad,

including Britain’s botched attempt to gain control of the Suez Canal in 1956
and the Falklands War, a ten-week-long battle with Argentina in 1982.
 Closer to home, the British Army waged its longest military campaign to date:
Operation Banner, an effort to establish order during the Troubles, a bloody
sectarian conflict that engulfed much of Northern Ireland between 1968 and
1998. The conflict touched Elizabeth directly in 1979, when the Irish Republican
Army assassinated her second cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten.

That same year, the U.K. elected its first woman prime minister, Margaret
Thatcher. As Thatcher embarked on an ambitious agenda of economic
deregulation, the queen and the prime minister enjoyed a tense but respectful
relationship.

Despite the tumult of post-war British politics, Elizabeth remained staunchly

tight-lipped, rarely commenting publicly on current events. “[She] aggressively
cultivated a reputation for being impartial,” says Brooke Newman, a historian
at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Elizabeth met with the prime minister

“[She] aggressively almost every week of her reign, in
cultivated a addition to leading the annual opening
reputation for of Parliament. But her involvement in
being impartial.” day-to-day politics was fairly limited,
and she took great pains to avoid
seeming publicly biased toward one
political party or another. (Other members of the royal family proved more
vocal than the queen: Philip, for one, earned notoriety for making
inappropriate and racist comments, while Charles has spoken publicly about a
number of political pet projects.)

As queen, Elizabeth instead devoted herself to diplomatic duties such as state

dinners, visits with dignitaries and other acts of ambassadorship. Though she
took on fewer duties over time, the queen marked a series of major
milestones, including her silver, golden, diamond, sapphire and platinum
jubilees—the last of which she celebrated in February 2022.

Elizabeth II and the Smithsonian

Among Elizabeth’s countless public engagements were three state visits to the
United States: an October 1957 meeting with Dwight D. Eisenhower; the
bicentennial of American independence in July 1976, when she was greeted by
Gerald Ford; and a May 1991 trip to see George H. W. Bush. Several other U.S.
presidents visited Elizabeth at Windsor Castle. In 1982, Ronald Reagan rode
horses around the castle grounds with the monarch.

The queen’s 1976 visit to Washington, D.C. also included a trip to the
Smithsonian Institution, says Richard Kurin, the Smithsonian distinguished
scholar and ambassador-at-large. At the time, he was a young anthropologist
working in his very first Smithsonian job.

“It was the 200th anniversary of the United States,” Kurin recalls. “And we had
just opened the [National] Air and Space Museum, which was a big deal,
because that was our country’s birthday present to ourselves.”

Curators made special arrangements for the visit, transporting the prized Hope
Diamond from its high-security home at the National Museum of Natural
History to the Smithsonian Castle, where the 45.52-carat diamond was placed
in a temporary display case for the queen’s viewing.
1/3

President Gerald Ford dances with Elizabeth at a White House ball in July 1976. Photo by Universal
History Archive / Getty Images
2/3

Elizabeth II and Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley view the Hope Diamond on July 8, 1976. Photo
by James Wallace / Smithsonian Institution Archives / Record Unit 371 Box 2 Folder August 1976
3/3

Elizabeth with President Dwight D. Eisenhower at a White House State banquet in October 1957 Photo
by Keystone / Getty Images

Elizabeth’s visit represented a full circle moment for the Smithsonian, says
Kurin. After all, an 1838 donation from Englishman James Smithson established
the Institution as it’s known today. The 104,960 gold sovereigns that made up
the cache bore the likeness of a teenaged Queen Victoria.
Several sources also suggest that Elizabeth’s distant relation, George IV, may
have once owned the Hope Diamond himself. “Elizabeth’s predecessor may
have actually possessed [the gem],” adds Kurin, who has written a book on the
stone’s winding journey from 17th-century India to the U.S.

The royal family in crisis

The queen championed the Victorian propriety of her ancestors—a stance that
increasingly placed her at odds with the rest of the royal family, whose affairs,
spending habits and personal feuds became fodder for endless celebrity gossip
columns by the turn of the 21st century.

Still, not even Elizabeth could fully evade criticism. The queen’s finances caught
the public’s attention in 1992, when a fire burned much of her beloved Windsor
Castle to the ground. British commentators balked when the government
announced that taxpayers would shoulder the $90-million burden of
restoration costs. In response, Elizabeth quickly announced a plan to pay taxes
on her personal income—something she had never done before—and dipped
into her own substantial reserves to rebuild the castle.

The 1992 fire coincided with a maelstrom of negative press for the royal family,
including a flurry of highly publicized divorces and a tabloid frenzy over royal
scandals. (The acclaimed Netflix series “The Crown” dramatizes many of these
incidents, including clashes with prime ministers, reports of Philip’s infidelity
and a break-in at Buckingham Palace.) In a rare public display of emotion, the
queen dubbed 1992 an annulus horribilis—Latin for a “horrible year”—in her
annual Christmas address.

In 1997, the queen attracted criticism in the press for her aloof public response
to the death of her daughter-in-law, Princess Diana. More than two decades
later, Diana’s son Prince Harry and his wife, American actress Meghan Markle,
described how a culture of racism in the royal family led to their eventual
departure from the “Firm” in a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey. Elizabeth
responded to the allegations with a curt, 61-word statement.

1/3

Princess Diana and Elizabeth in 1987 Photo by Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
2/3

L to R: Prince Charles, Camilla, Elizabeth, Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate
Middleton in July 2018 Photo by Chris Jackson / Getty Images
3/3

Elizabeth photographs her corgis at Windsor Park in 1960. Photo by Anwar Hussein / Getty Images

The queen also met with judgment for quietly standing by her second son,
Prince Andrew, as he faced a civil sexual assault case for allegedly raping a
teenager in 2001. (Details of the case have since brought Andrew’s relationship
with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein into harsh relief.) In January 2022,
the queen stripped Andrew of his royal titles and duties. Andrew settled the
case out of court for an undisclosed—but likely multimillion-dollar—sum.

The queen’s image

As the embattled royal family negotiated a seeming unending series of crises,
Elizabeth maintained public favor by cultivating an image as a morally
unflappable monarch.

Among her subjects, support for the queen—and the broader institution of
monarchy—varied widely by age group. One recent poll found that 41 percent
of 18- to 24-year-old Brits want to replace the monarchy with an elected head
of state.

Elizabeth herself, however, has received consistently high public approval

ratings, bolstered in the past decade particularly by supporters over the age of
65.

“When the British think about themselves and their best selves, they think
about Queen Elizabeth,” Newman says. “She’s dignified, she’s inscrutable. Her
feathers are rarely ruffled. She’s the face of the nation that they can be proud
of.”

The queen cut an iconic, matriarchal figure. Standing just 5-foot-4, she
established a uniform of bright, monochromatic outfits and hats that set her
apart from the crowd. Accompanied by an entourage of corgis and, in her later
years, crowned by a cloud of white hair, she became “not only the queen but
the defining image of one,” as critic Guy Trebay wrote in 2012.

“She often emphasized, ‘I have to be seen to be believed,’” says royal historian

Carolyn Harris. “And she meant that literally.”
Elizabeth leaves the Venue Cymru Arena in Llandudno, Wales, on April 27, 2010. Photo by Chris Jackson /
WPA Pool / Getty Images

Elizabeth embodied these attributes in a rare televised speech delivered during

the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. (Besides her annual Christmas Day
addresses, the speech marked only the fifth time that she had addressed the
British public in such fashion.)

“I hope … those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were
as strong as any, that the attributes of self-discipline; of quiet, good-humored
resolve; and of fellow feeling still characterize this country,” said the queen,
dressed in bright green with a string of pearls on her neck and a bouquet of
roses in the background, in April 2020.
Some of Elizabeth’s domestic popularity can likely be attributed to a sense of
colonial nostalgia that has surged in the U.K. in recent years, Newman says.
While the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 prompted some Britons to
dismantle symbols of colonialism, nationalist and anti-immigrant movements
continue to promote a sanitized narrative of British history that overlooks
slavery and glorifies imperial ambitions.

At its apex just a few years before Elizabeth’s birth, the British Empire claimed
roughly a quarter of all land on Earth. European colonizers—among them
enslavers, traders and investors, including members of the royal family—
enriched themselves through the enslavement of African and Indigenous
people and the appropriation and exploitation of colonies’ resources.

Powerful anticolonialism movements chiseled away at the British Empire

throughout the 20th century, with countries from India to Kenya successfully
lobbying for independence from the U.K. While the empire of her ancestors
crumbled, Elizabeth dedicated herself to preserving its descendant: the
Commonwealth. Officials proposed the organization, which formally coalesced
around Indian independence in 1947, as a “counterbalance to the centrifugal
forces that were drawing the empire apart,” writes Philip Murphy, a historian at
the University of London, in Monarchy and the End of Empire.

Elizabeth strived to preserve the Commonwealth—and by extension, the

monarchy’s relevancy outside the United Kingdom. She even had the symbols
of various Commonwealth countries embroidered on her coronation gown.
Her dedication was so evident that, in 1996, historian Frank Prochaska quipped
that the queen “likes dogs, horses, the Commonwealth and her grandchildren.”
1/3

Elizabeth inspects a guard of honor in Barbados on October 31, 1977. Photo by Anwar Hussein / Getty
Images
2/3

Elizabeth reviews troops in Brisbane, Australia, during her 1977 Jubilee Tour. Photo by Tim Graham Photo
Library via Getty Images
3/3

Elizabeth and Philip with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Zail Singh in 1983 Photo by
Fox Photos / Hulton Archive / Getty Images

The queen was “far and away” the most-traveled British monarch of all time,
visiting former British colonies by boat, train, car and plane, says Harris. She
wielded her power as a diplomat and symbol of British identity to stress unity
among the former colonies.

One of Elizabeth’s earliest public appearances underscored this vision. It was

1947, and the princess and her family were visiting the newly independent
South Africa. (The following year, the all-white Nationalist Party would begin
constructing the racist legal architecture of apartheid, codifying racial
inequities inherited from decades of British and Dutch colonization.)

In a speech delivered on her 21st birthday, the heir apparent appealed to the
“youth of the British family of nations” to defend the principles of liberty, peace
and prosperity in their respective countries—or colonies, as many would not
achieve independence until later that century.

“[I]n our time we may say that the British Empire has saved the world first, and
has now to save itself after the battle is won,” Elizabeth said. “… If we all go
forward together with an unwavering faith, a high courage and a quiet heart,
we shall be able to make of this ancient commonwealth, which we all love so
dearly, an even grander thing—more free, more prosperous, more happy and
a more powerful influence for good in the world—than it has been in the
greatest days of our forefathers.”

She concluded with a promise: “I declare before you all that my whole life,
whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of
our great imperial family to which we all belong.”

The fate of the Commonwealth of

Nations
Seventy-five years later, the Commonwealth boasts 54 member countries. It
functions as the “surviving remnants of the British Empire,” according to
Newman, and “exists mainly as a trade and political organization.”
(Membership is technically open to all countries—Rwanda, for instance, joined
the fold in 2009 despite lacking historic ties to the U.K.)
 Whether Commonwealth countries will continue to voluntarily continue their
relationship with the crown, particularly as more countries weigh the royals’
symbolic roles as emissaries of empire, is unclear. As the primary
spokesperson for the royal family, Elizabeth acknowledged but did not
apologize for a long list of British imperial crimes committed in centuries past.
The crown continues to deny growing calls for reparations from former
colonies.

Without Elizabeth’s careful stewardship, the future of the Commonwealth

hangs in the balance. The position of “head of commonwealth” that Elizabeth
occupied for so many years is not hereditary and will not transfer automatically
to her successor, the newly ascended Charles.

The late monarch boasted extremely high public approval ratings. Charles, by
contrast, is a much more divisive public figure. The heir waited a record-
breaking 70 years to ascend to the throne; his track record led some to
speculate that Prince William, his eldest son, would take the crown instead.

Elizabeth’s likeness appeared on the currencies of more than 30 countries during her reign. Many
Commonwealth members will now mint new coins and print new bills with Charles’ visage, trading a
queen for a king for the first time in decades. (L to R: Coins from South Africa, the Gambia, Fiji and
Canada) Photo illustration by Meilan Solly / Photos via National Museum of American History

Commonwealth leaders informally agreed to elect Charles as their head in

2018. But this could always change, Newman says.
Member states could also follow Barbados’ lead and cast off the monarchy
once and for all. The island nation became a republic in December 2021 but
remained part of the Commonwealth.

“The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind,” wrote Prime
Minister Mia Amor Mottley of the decision. “Barbadians want a Barbadian head
of state.”

Fourteen nations continue to recognize the British crown as their ceremonial

head of state: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Tuvalu, Antigua and Barbuda,
the Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, the
Solomon Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It
remains to be seen whether these countries will pledge their loyalty to Charles
or, pushed over the edge by the queen’s death, echo Barbados’ example.

“Elizabeth has cobbled together the Commonwealth, basically through the

force of her personality, since 1952,” says Newman. But Britain’s once-
dominant role in world politics has waned, and the end of Elizabeth’s platinum
reign could trigger another wave of anti-colonial efforts in former British
colonies near and far.

“Now,” the historian adds, “the Commonwealth could just unravel completely.”

Editor's note, September 12, 2022: This story incorrectly stated that Elizabeth II and
Prince Philip were second cousins. They were third cousins.

Nora McGreevy
Nora McGreevy is a former daily correspondent for Smithsonian. She is also a freelance
journalist based in Chicago whose work has appeared in Wired, Washingtonian, the Boston
Globe, South Bend Tribune, the New York Times and more. She can be reached through her
website, noramcgreevy.com.

AMERICAN PRESIDENTS BRITISH HISTORY COLONIALISM DEATH

DIPLOMACY ELIZABETH II MONARCHS POLITICAL LEADERS

QUEENS ROYAL FAMILY SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION WORLD WAR II