Most people in the UK have lived, struggled, joyful and sad in the "Second Elizabethan era". Their life stories may have nothing to do with the Queen himself, but they must be related to this era of great change called "Second Elizabethan era".

Most people in the UK have lived, struggled, lived, lived, and were sad in the "second Elizabeth era". Their life stories may have nothing to do with the Queen himself, but they must be related to this huge change era called "second Elizabeth "

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article | Special contributor of "Finance" Wei Cheng from London "Finance" reporter Jiang Wei

edit | Haozhou

British Summer Time At 18:35 on September 8, 2022, Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96.

"The Rock on which modern Britain is built"

message came very suddenly. On September 6, just two days before his death, Elizabeth II also performed the British constitutional duties: he met the former Prime Minister and the new Prime Minister at Fort Barremore in Scotland, and first accepted the resignation of Johnson , and then officially appointed Tras as the new Prime Minister.

After Elizabeth II's death, Trass called the queen "the rock on which modern Britain was built."

After the death of the Queen, the eldest son Charles ascended the throne and became the new king of England.

Since her husband of Queen of England , Prince Philip , died on April 9, 2021, her physical and mental state have begun to decline. For more than a year, news about her gradually weakening body has been heard from time to time.

In October 2021, after she canceled the Irish itinerary and was hospitalized, her health status deteriorated significantly, and she often reduced the number of public activities and appearances due to "occasional mobility problems".

In February 2022, she was diagnosed with the new coronavirus. In early May, due to mobility difficulties, she absent from the opening ceremony of the new year session of the British Parliament. In June, during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Queen's ascension, Elizabeth II also gave up participating in some celebrations due to health reasons.

On September 6, the Queen was abnormal and did not appoint Tras at Buckingham Palace in London as British customs, but chose to hold a new Prime Minister's appointment ceremony in Fort Ballemore in Scotland. After the ceremony, the virtual meeting of the Privy Council Advisory Group, which was originally scheduled to be held on September 7, had to be postponed because the doctor advised him to take a break.

This new prime minister’s appointment ceremony not only selected an abnormal location, but the official photos of the queen when she met the new prime minister also triggered many associations. Observers pointed out that the image of the queen in the photo seems to be extremely weak, with the back of her hands black and needs crutches to support her.

The end of an era

Elizabeth ascended the throne on February 6, 1952 after his father George VI died, and was later crowned on June 2, 1953, known in history as Queen Elizabeth II. She is the longest-lived and longest-reigning monarch in Britain so far, and is probably one of the most well-known women in the contemporary world. When most of her peers have become distant history, as the Queen of England, she has left long enough traces in the long river of history.

Elizabeth was born in London on April 21, 1926. In the first decade of her life, no one expected that one day she would become queen, after all, the heir to the British throne at that time was her uncle David rather than her father, Albert . At the age of six, Elizabeth once told her equestrian coach that she wanted to be a country lady and raise a large herd of horses and dogs. Her life took a turn in 1936. That year, King George V of England died in January, and David succeeded to become King George VIII, but abdicated a few months later because he insisted on marrying Wallis Simpson, who had been divorced twice. Elizabeth's father became King George VI.

1947, Elizabeth delivered one of the most important speeches in her life on the radio on her 21st birthday in South Africa."I swear before all of you that no matter whether this life is short or long, I will devote my life to the whole people of the Commonwealth and the imperial family we belong to." She often recalled this oath later.

5 years later, on February 6, 1952, Elizabeth and her husband learned about their father George VI's death and her becoming the Queen of England. At that time, she and her husband were in a hotel on a tree. This experience was wonderfully called by the locals "up the tree is a princess, and down the tree is a queen." In the first decade of her life, no one expected that one day she would become queen, after all, the heir to the British throne at that time was her uncle David rather than her father Albert. At the age of six, Elizabeth once told her equestrian coach that she wanted to be a country lady and raise a large herd of horses and dogs. Her life took a turn in 1936. That year, King George V of England died in January, and David succeeded to the throne to become Edward VIII, but abdicated a few months later because he insisted on marrying Wallis Simpson, who had been divorced twice, and Elizabeth's father became King George VI.

On February 6, 2022, Elizabeth II celebrated the 70th anniversary of her ascension. Starting from June 2 of the same year, the UK held a four-day platinum Jubilee celebration for her. At the celebration held in Beijing, the British Embassy in China specially found people who participated in the Queen's visit to China to recall the past. During her tenure, the Queen of England visited more than 100 countries around the world. She was the first British monarch to visit China. In October 1986, the Queen of England conducted a six-day state visit to China, visiting Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Kunming and Guangzhou, and visited the Great Wall , the Forbidden City and the Terracotta Warriors and Horses .

Zhang Youyun is the full translation of the Queen during her visit to China. Before meeting the queen, she said that she was thinking about Her Majesty the Queen, who was very reserved, but once she came into contact with the queen, she felt that she was very friendly and like an ordinary person, she did not have the majesty of the queen. "This is something I didn't expect," said Zhang Youyun.

In Qin Shihuang Terracotta Warriors Museum , the queen was amazed at the spectacular scene of the Terracotta Warriors. Wu Zilin, the director of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses at the time, recalled: "She was very surprised. More than 2,000 years ago, there were such a large area of ​​ terracotta warriors and horses in China... She had to look at everyone's nose and eyes carefully, and also the corpus horses."

Elizabeth II reigned for 70 years and witnessed the tremendous changes in the political, economic, social and cultural areas of Britain. When she succeeded to the throne, the British Prime Minister was Winston Churchill , and Trass was the 15th British Prime Minister she appointed.

In these 70 years, Britain has experienced countless changes like a world of change: Austerity, reconstruction, prosperity and decline after WWII, The fall of of the British Empire and the subsequent transition to the Commonwealth, the beginning and end of the Cold War, the UK's joining EU

The year when the Queen of England died was not ordinary, and it may even be one of the most turbulent years in the UK in 70 years of her reign.

2 It has only been more than eight months since 2022, and the UK has experienced many political and economic storms such as the rare cost of living crisis, Johnson's "party gate", the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, national strikes in multiple industries, the cloudy economic recession prospects, and the Prime Minister's resignation. Now the death of the Queen has brought an emotional storm to the British. The death of the Queen of

has had a very heavy emotional blow to the British. On the night she passed away, many people sadly called her 70 years of reign the "Second Elizabeth" (there is also a queen named Elizabeth in British history, known in history as Elizabeth I ).

It should be said that most people in the UK have lived, struggled, joyful and sad in the "Second Elizabethan era". Their life stories may have nothing to do with the Queen himself, but they must be related to this huge change era called "Second Elizabethan era". They talk about the sentimentality of this era, probably just like the British talked about the sentimentality of the "Victorian era" more than 100 years ago.

As the queen, Elizabeth II is just a constitutional monarch, not a political leader with real power. Although her role is symbolic, the Queen of England represents the stability of the country to a large extent, and her presence on the international stage is also believed to have enhanced Britain's reputation. But she also faced controversy, especially in 1997 when she faced the death of Princess Diana. After the death of Diana in a car accident, the queen was criticized for being too cold. She was staying in Fort Ballemore, Scotland, and did not return to London until five days later. Eventually, she broke the condolences for Diana's death in a live television format.

Will the British monarchy go with her?

Constitutional Monarchy first originated in the UK and is a unique contribution made by the UK to the development of human political system.

As a polite head of state in British political system , the king or queen after the British implemented a constitutional monarchy did not have term limits and did not perform the essential responsibility of managing the state. This originally criticized "hereditary system" and "lifelong system" role actually made the British who like to compromise tradition and trend, mixed race radical and conservative turn decay into magic, and "inspired" it into a symbol of stability in the process of modern political revolving party rotation, a certain stable symbol of the prime minister's reciprocity, and a support for emotions.

And this polite role seems to be born for women.

but not all. There are many queens and queens in ancient and modern times, and there have been many queens in British history. Some queens and queens, including queens in British history, are either tyrannical, perverse, cruel, or dull, Elizabeth II is different. She is gentle and diligent, but there are few scandals. She is neither humble nor arrogant, but she has no intention of interfering in politics. She seems to be quite consistent with the design and expectations of a constitutional monarch in the modern British political system. Therefore, for 70 years, she has been deeply loved by all walks of life in the UK.

However, during the 70 years of Elizabeth II's reign, the British constitutional monarchy also had serious crises. Elizabeth II herself had few scandals, which does not mean that her family has no scandals.

Perhaps, the kings and queens of ancient Britain had more and more ridiculous scandals, but at that time there was no newspaper, no TV, and no Internet. Ordinary people knew almost nothing about palace fighting and scandals in the palace. During the 70 years of Elizabeth II's reign, royal gossip became the topic of conversation for ordinary people after dinner, the "trump card" for British tabloids to expand their circulation. Even ordinary Chinese could vividly describe the extramarital affair between Diana and Charles, Prince Andrew's absurd sexual affairs, and the grievances between Harry and Meghan and his father, stepmother, brother and sister-in-law. These scandals not only completely ruined the reputation of the British royal family, but also added new "ammunition" to the groups that advocated the abolition of the monarchy in the UK.

However, despite decades of active efforts by the British Republicans to convince the people and eventually become their followers, they have not exceeded one quarter of the population.

polling agency Ipsos Mori has shown that the proportion of British people who advocate abolishing the monarchy accounted for 18% of the total population in 1969, 18% in 1993, 19% in 2002, 18% in 2011, and 22% in 2020, while the "royalists" have consistently accounted for about three-quarters of the British population.

pollsters described this finding as "probably the most stable trend we have measured."

Why has the British monarchy survived the impact of external revolution and internal scandals over the past few hundred years? Why have the British "royalists" always occupied the majority of the population?

First of all, it is a psychological need.

As early as more than 100 years ago, Walter Bai Zhihao, a British economist and former editor-in-chief of the Economist, was thinking about this issue. He believed that as the wealth of colonies and empires decreased, the British became increasingly eager to define greatness as something beyond wealth and territory. They believe they are special by nature. "People began to put respect into the dramatic performances of society, and the climax of the drama is the queen."

Bai Zhihao 's explanation still seems to apply to Britain more than 100 years later.

For example, Prince William and Princess Kate from the House of Commoners not only became the focus of global attention, but also satisfies the romantic imagination of ordinary British people about the marriage between princes and commoners.

Secondly, it is a constitutional reason.

Although the "virtual king" in the UK has no real power, the abolition of it may bring serious constitutional consequences.

British historian Simon Sharma believes that because the UK does not have a written constitution, if it is changed to a republic, it will elect the president as the head of state. The subsequent problem is to formulate a written constitution to provide a legal basis for legislation to elect a president. This involves the huge project of the major renovation of the constitution and also threatens the British tradition for hundreds of years.

An interesting statement is that Britain has never had a lasting revolution against the monarchy, precisely because Britain was the first country in the world to send a king to the guillotine: Britain executed King Charles I in 1649, and at that time, the continental powers had little idea that there were other political system options besides the monarchy. Since then, Britain has gained immunity to resist the revolution, which has continued to this day.

third is economic considerations.

Many people believe that the British royal family is entirely supported by taxpayers. But the British royal family is actually the largest landlord in the UK, and the various properties it owns naturally have great benefits, far exceeding the taxes allocated to the royal family by the government.

In addition, as the most well-known royal family in the world, the British royal family has also become one of the most well-known brands in the UK to attract foreign tourists.

U.S. Forbes magazine reported that the British royal family contributed nearly 1.8 billion pounds to the British economy every year, including 550 million pounds to the British tourism industry.

In comparison, British taxpayers paid only £82.2 million for the royal family in 2019.

"As long as our royal family brings far more income than their costs, it is unlikely that anyone will be dissatisfied." After the Scottish-published Sunday Mail analyzed the economic pros and cons of retaining the royal family, he concluded this way.

Finally, it is the queen's own affinity.

As mentioned earlier, Elizabeth II himself was gentle and friendly, with few scandals, and was deeply loved by the British. It is impossible to say that during the 70 years of Elizabeth II's reign, the British monarchy had experienced strong winds and waves, and scandals were constantly occurring among other royal members. If Elizabeth II himself had not maintained like a cable, the Queen's family would have been likely to capsize in the sea of ​​public opinion. If it were not for the Queen's "rock" as Tlas said, the British monarchy might have been shaking in the storm of the times.

But the deeper crisis may be hidden just behind the queen's affinity.

In a sense, with the death of Elizabeth II, who had become a "motherly" monarch in his later years, and with King Charles, who had been constantly scandalous since his youth, the British constitutional monarchy may experience a more serious crisis.

Perhaps, those British people who are tolerant of the royal scandal in the face of Queen Elizabeth II may not now be tolerant of the royal scandal in the face of King Charles?

(The author has served as a senior reporter and editor in many well-known media in the UK. The author’s WeChat official account: Wei Cheng Kan Tianxia)