An impeccable monarch
In Britain we are mourning our Queen. The loss of her is enormous. We feel diminished. We are grieving not only officially but personally.
The affection between monarch and people is not automatic. It is earned. As Princess Elizabeth, the Queen was born into privilege but was not in the direct line of succession. It was the well-known constitutional crisis of 1936 that brought her father to the throne; her destiny became clear only at the age of 10. At the age of 21, she promised to be dutiful and to serve us, whether her life be short or long. Her life turned out to be very long and she kept her promise impeccably to the end, aged 96.
The Queen knew that she had to be visible and be close to the lives of the people. Until the last years of her life, she traveled constantly to every corner of the Kingdom and Commonwealth. Her “walkabouts” were legendary. She wanted to meet everyone: not just the dignitaries but also those doing the unseen, unglamorous jobs, and those who were simply prepared to wait to catch sight of her. She was an active patron of hundreds of charities. She chose them carefully, involving herself discreetly and supportively in the work they championed.
She invited the TV cameras into the life of her family. She opened up Buckingham Palace to the public. With the encouragement of her late husband HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, she made the Royal Family less stuffy, less “official.” The results were astonishing: At the end of her reign, some 30% of the British people say that they met her or saw her in person.
She was an impeccable constitutional monarch in an open, democratic age. She acted only on the advice of her ministers, and in return, fulfilled her constitutional duty of counseling them. As Supreme Governor of the Church of England she showed that her Christian faith was deep and underpinned the values she espoused. She encouraged us all to respect the beliefs of others. We felt that she rose above the often grubby and fractious politics of the day, to embody our best ideals and our best ideas about what we should be as a nation, as people.
In the early years of her reign, Britain completed the dissolution of its Empire. The Queen championed the Commonwealth. She put value in post-imperial international ties and worked hard to transform our international relations. She traveled more widely than any previous British monarch and was Britain’s greatest diplomat. She knew Greece well, not least through her beloved husband, Prince Philip, and had had a successful tour of the country in 1950 when she was still Princess Elizabeth. In 2013, when she gave me, her new ambassador to Greece, an audience at Buckingham Palace, I learned how closely she followed what was happening in Greece; she was concerned about the Greek people.
The Queen had unique personal qualities. When you met her, she put you at your ease quickly. You knew that you were in the presence of majesty, but she was humble and listened closely. She gave you her attention and responded with wisdom. She had a lively sense of humor and could be disarmingly funny (for all my nerves she made me laugh at the audience she gave me). Of course, we didn’t always understand her. After the death of Diana, the people wanted her to show more emotion and to relax the protocol that seemed to separate her from the people’s reaction to the princess’s death. She responded, explaining her instinct to protect her grandsons, but, nevertheless, adapting.
We felt that she rose above the often grubby and fractious politics of the day, to embody our best ideals
In fact, she was always there for us and with us: especially in times of national crisis. During the pandemic lockdowns, she gave by far the most effective message of hope. “We will meet again,” she said, channeling one of the nation’s best loved wartime songs. We wept with her and wanted to comfort her when, owing to pandemic restrictions, she sat in isolation from the other mourners in St George’s Chapel Windsor at the funeral of her beloved husband, Prince Philip. Life was indeed slow to return to normality, but we did meet again. Although she was already ill, the Queen kept it all going through the celebrations of her Platinum Jubilee in the first half of this year. Her appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, her smile of delight at the huge crowds, cheered the nation. She had become our seemingly eternal symbol. She seemed at peace with herself.
My sympathy and condolences are with His Majesty the King and the Royal Family. They have lost a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother. The new King leads the nation’s mourning, but also, at the same time, picks up the reins of his own destiny as Charles III. In the first days of his reign, the King has assured us of the continuity and stability at the head of our state.
The new King knows Greece well. In 2018 and 2021, Greeks saw at first hand his admiration for the Greek nation, for Orthodoxy and for Greek culture. The charitable work he supports in Greece will surely continue.
There are many difficult challenges ahead, for the UK and the family of democratic nations. The King will, I am sure, be a focus of national unity and a symbol of our resolve.
For many of us, grief today is unbounded. She was our Queen; she undoubtedly loved us the people and we undoubtedly loved her. It feels as if we have lost our mother, our protector, our guardian: the model of the virtues of her generation. The rituals of church and state are bringing comfort; the funeral will be watched by millions globally.
Our Queen is dead. May she rest in peace and rise in glory. May the memory of her be eternal. God save the King.
John Kittmer is chair of the Anglo-Hellenic League and was Her Majesty’s ambassador to the Hellenic Republic, 2013-16.
