As celebrations for the Queen’s platinum jubilee begin, professors from the University of Sussex have offered their views of Her Majesty’s impact on society, politics, and why Great Britain will never experience another monarch like her.
Martin Francis, professor of War and History, and Professor Lindsay Stirton, an expert in public law from the School of Law, Politics and Sociology, give their thoughts.
The “celebrity” culture of the Queen’s reign
Prof Francis said: “We would be mistaken to assume that the transition of the royal family from dynastic figures to international media celebrities is a product of recent decades. Paparazzi-style photographers pestered the Queen’s uncle, Edward VIII, as early as the 1930s.
“Britain’s national newspapers were circumspect during the abdication crisis of 1936, but after World War Two, a new generation of editors and journalists was much less deferential and sought to publish 'human interest' stories about the monarchy, including Elizabeth.
“Indeed, they refused to await a formal announcement before disclosing that she had become engaged to Prince Philip in 1947 and also criticised, if not the Queen herself, at least her closest advisors, during the controversy over her sister Margaret’s affair with Group Captain Peter Townsend in the mid-1950s.
“While the media became much more intrusive during the royal divorces of the 1990s, the Queen has been a celebrity as much as a monarch throughout her reign.”
The constitutional role of the Queen
Prof Stirton said: “Her Majesty has been a stabilising influence on our constitution that often lacks stability.
“The role of Her Majesty in politics has been a real one - and not a purely symbolic one.
"When Tony Blair was Prime Minister, he wanted to call an election in early 2001, but Her Majesty dissuaded him from doing so, because of the impact that rural voters traipsing to the polls might have had on the spread of foot and mouth disease.
"So, her weekly meetings with the Prime Minister have been impactful.”
How tradition has played apart in the Queen’s reign
Prof Francis said: “There is a need to emphasise the Queen’s more traditional aspects, an inevitable corollary of her age and length of her reign.
"When she was born, Queen Victoria had been dead for only a quarter of a century, a British monarch had not been heard on the radio - that only came six years after she was born - and her father was not merely a king, but an emperor.
“The notions of duty and respectability she has attempted to uphold were the products of a particular historical context: the need for the British monarchy to remain acceptable in an age transformed by the First World War, mass democracy and revolution.
"Her deep personal Christian faith - an aspect of the Queen which really deserves much more attention - was also in part about the need for the monarchy to demonstrate the values of duty and personal morality during a time of change and anxiety.
“Watching film of the 1953 coronation ceremony, my students are amazed at the extent of religious ceremony and symbol: Elizabeth was anointed and not merely crowned.
"This is why she will never abdicate, but this is also why when she finally passes, we will have lost our last significant living link to a lost world. Only then will memory finally eclipse history.”
Visit the Argus live blog for all the latest on the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in Brighton and Sussex.
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