Last Great Queen?: Elizabeth Ii, Mother of Leadership, Seen from the Crowd

By Unity Elias Yang

Elizabeth II is a model of feminine excellence and an example for young people who may not be born to royal families, but who should consider themselves as princesses and princes of the family to which they have been born. Like Elizabeth, who even as a child knew the significance of the role into which she had been born and started training for the future task, young people should prepare for their future by acquiring training early in their life. Like Elizabeth, who married the first man she fell in love with, young women should insist on marrying the first man they fall in love with, to preserve and protect their womanhood and honour. Finally, Elizabeth trained as a car mechanic and driver, despite her wealthy royal background. How many women have the courage today to train in skills which society considers a mans domain? The Queen of England recommends training to young people with this remark: Its all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you are properly trained.
In this era when the monarchy is considered to be an outdated institution, the British Royal Family has made it known that they will step aside when the British people will ask them to do so. What makes the British monarchy different from other royals in the world? What, in the 1870s, might have motivated the pre-colonial Kings of Douala on the coast of todays Cameroon to apply to Queen Victoria, the great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II, to colonise them?



Unity Elias Yang is also the author of:
- The Third World, where is it?
- A Global State through Democratic Federal World Government
- Your Babys long journey to school
- Little Anita visits the Bank
- Children and Citizenship levels 1-6
- Women and Childrens Chamber of Parliament: democratising representation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Apr 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491895160

Unity Elias Yang

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© 2014 Unity Elias YANG. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/16/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-9515-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-9516-0 (e)

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Beauty Model

2 Anchor of our Age

3 Style and Public Perception

4 Blend of Feminism, Motherhood and Leadership

5 Yes Monarchy

6 No Monarchy

7 From Hard to Soft Power

8 Future of Commonwealth Realms after Elizabeth II

Bibliography

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I extend my deep appreciation to the British royal family and to all those who’s opinion have been quoted or related in this book, with special thanks to the Centre for Citizenship for giving permission to use portions of John Pratt’s speech.

INTRODUCTION

W hy should a non-British citizen write about the great Queen Elizabeth II? This is the question that will spring to the minds of people who think that excellence belongs to the privileged only. Let nobody forget that the Queen of England, as the British monarch is generally called, is the supreme leader not only of the United Kingdom, but also the Head of State of fifteen other nations or realms, leader of the Commonwealth and the moral head of the defunct British Empire.

Queen Elizabeth II is an international personality of an exceptional class, and the British people can no longer lay claim to sole ownership of her. As a non-British, many examples lead me to present Her Majesty as I perceive her from the crowd. No culture, people or nation can exist without some form of external influence on its local values. No political system is complete or autonomous. In the past, kings hired wise men from foreign lands to serve as their close advisers, today; the global system makes it possible for knowledge and wisdom to move and be shared almost instantaneously.

The Japanese used the trick of making strangers comfortable so as to learn from them. Today, the exceptional charisma and talents of any citizen or personality can be disseminated to help to inspire and teach people in faraway lands. Queen Elizabeth II incarnates values that should be made known to humanity, with the expectation that many, especially the womenfolk, will learn from and be inspired by her style.

First, during the period of colonization, the norm was that colonized people resisted all forms of subjugation to foreigners. However, the case was different with the coastal kingdoms of pre-colonial Cameroon in the 1870s, when three kings wrote three successive letters to the British monarch Queen Victoria requesting her to colonise their kingdoms. What might have motivated these independent kings to propose voluntarily that the British monarchy colonise them?

Second, my parents, who attended colonial schools in the British Cameroons, sang the anthem God save the Queen, and as a young student, I asked myself the question, Who is this Queen that teachers and school children sing about, asking God to save her?

Third, I use the English language in my daily communication because it is a national and official language in Cameroon and in other former members of the British Empire and the Commonwealth. It amuses me when I hear language experts describe the English language as the Queen’s language. A language is an element of culture that is generally the property of a people and not of an individual and to call the English language the Queen’s language simply adds to the superhuman qualities of a Queen for whom a country in its national anthem prays to God to save.

Fourth, Queen Elizabeth II is the moral head of the defunct British Empire, over which, according to geopolitical experts, the sun never sets. This means that, when the sun rises in the East, it shines over New Zealand, Australia and others, as it moves west, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are lit. As the sun approaches the middle continents, Africa shines with Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania in the East, Cameroon and Nigeria in the centre, and Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Gambia in the West. Across the Atlantic, the Caribbean Islands of Jamaica, the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, to the South, and the United States and Canada to the North are former British colonies.

Fifth, as the leader of the Commonwealth organization consisting of former colonies and dominions of the defunct British Empire, as well as the Head of State in fifteen other independent states known as the realms, the Queen is beyond a state. She is an international stateswoman of multiple personality, as the only leader in the world who is Head of State in many other independent countries. My country of Cameroon is a member of the Commonwealth, and I take a lot of interest in its head, Queen Elizabeth II, for both her personal qualities and those affixed to her by the institutions that she represents.

Last, my village in the North West of Cameroon was beneficiary to a rural electrification scheme sponsored by the British government. The project was personally inaugurated by the first son of Queen Elizabeth II, Heir Presumptive to the British monarchy, Prince Charles of Wales, accompanied by his wife Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, when the couple visited Bamenda in Cameroon on March 22, 1990. By this gesture of her Majesty’s Government to my country, my village got electricity. Who, therefore, is this Great Queen?

1

Beauty Model

O n April 21, 1926 in London, a child was born to Prince Albert, Duke of York, and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Duchess of York. The newborn baby was given the name Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. She was named Elizabeth after her mother, Alexandra after her father’s grandmother Queen Alexandra and Mary after her grandmother Queen Mary.

The little Princess initially called herself Tilibet and later Lilibet when she could not pronounce her name Elizabeth. Her nickname is Brenda, which some members of the Royal family still call her today. Her father Prince Albert was the second son of King George V and the second in the line of succession to the British monarchy, after his elder brother Prince Edward, the Heir Presumptive. When King George V died in 1936, Elizabeth’s uncle became King Edward VIII, but he ruled for six months and abdicated following a controversy over his intention to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

Before the death of King George V in 1936, the chances were limited that Princess Elizabeth could one day become the Queen of England. Her father Prince Albert was second in the line of succession and had his elder brother King Edward not abdicated, Princess Elizabeth might never have become the monarch of the United Kingdom. Also, had Elizabeth’s father borne a male child, she would have lost her right to the throne, given that in the United Kingdom, a male child has the right to succeed over an elder sister.

Prince Albert and his wife Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon had two daughters, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, who they wanted to bring up in normal life and not allow them to be spoilt by the excesses and solitude of royal life. The couple had hoped that their daughters would attend public school and live an ordinary life like other British citizens. Unfortunately, that was not the case because when Prince Albert’s brother became King Edward VII in 1936, he decided that royal children should not mix with the common people, and consequently, Elizabeth and her sister Margaret could no longer attend public school. Their parents’ plans to bring up their children like ordinary Britons were dashed.

Elizabeth and her sister were educated at home, where they were supervised by their mother and their governess. They took courses in language, literature, history and music. When she became Heiress Presumptive in 1936, Elizabeth decided to begin training herself for the future role that was awaiting her as a prospective Queen and leader of her people. That is how she enrolled at Eton College, where she received private lessons in constitutional history, law and in the history of Europe from the Vice-Provost of Eton College, Henry Marten. She was taught French by a series of governesses and speaks the language very well.

The outbreak of war in Europe in 1939 interrupted normal life in England, thereby altering Elizabeth’s educational path. Intensive Nazi bombardment of London during the Second World War raised concerns about the security of the royal children. Some government officials and palace aides proposed that Elizabeth and her junior sister be evacuated to Canada until the war ended, but the princesses’ mother opposed the suggestion. The Queen declared that if her daughters were to leave, she must go with them, and if she left, the King must come with her, and because the King could not leave, everybody was staying. She told a senior politician who favoured the evacuation of the princesses to Canada that the children won’t go without me. I won’t leave without the King. And the King will never leave. In this circumstance, Elizabeth remained in London throughout the war, and escaped death by shifting from one hiding place to another in the multiple royal palaces across London.

Faced with the disruption of normal life across the United Kingdom, she joined the Army, where she also trained as a mechanic driver and drove a military ambulance during the Second World War. Before joining the army, she was a member of the first-ever Girl Guides Buckingham Palace Company, created specifically to give her the opportunity to socialize with other girls of her age.

In 1936, many things changed in the life and destiny of Princess Elizabeth, who was ten at the time, after the death of her grandfather, George V. Her uncle became the new King of England and her father Prince Albert became Heir Presumptive, given that the new King did not yet have a child. Within six months of reigning, the new king was forced to step down when he chose to marry a divorcee. Elizabeth’s father Prince Albert was enthroned as King George VI in 1936, and Princess Elizabeth became Heiress Presumptive and first in the line of succession to the British monarchy.

At 10, Princess Elizabeth became aware of her possible future role in the United Kingdom, as highlighted in the Royal profiles of Royal Report 1999-2001: Even as a child, Princess Elizabeth understood the full significance of the role into which she had been born.

Little Princess Elizabeth spent most of her early life with her grandfather King George V, and it is said that the two were very good friends and the king discovered many talents in his granddaughter. Besides acting like an entertainer, creating fun and laughter for family members and visitors of the royal family, she had the skill to lure her grandfather the king to participate in plays that were exclusively child-modelled. The Archbishop of the Church of England testified that in one of his regular working visits to the Palace, he saw the king crawling on all fours across the floor pretending to be a horse and little Elizabeth acting the role of groom. When her parents, the Duke and Duchess of York, set out to tour Australia and New Zealand to represent the King in the official opening of the countries’ parliaments in 1927, the Princess was barely one and her father thought she was too young to make the trip. So the one-year-old was left in London for the several months the tour had to last in the care of her grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary.

At an early age Elizabeth demonstrated exceptional qualities that made everyone anticipate that the young princess was destined by nature to play an invaluable role in society. She possessed not only intellectual and common-sense values, but was also a beauty model by her own merit. Generally, the words king and prince symbolize authority and power, while queen and princess invoke beauty and love. Whenever a woman is called a queen or a princess, everyone expects to see in her undisputed beauty and charm. Why is it that queens and princesses are always beautiful?

A possible explanation could be that in ancient societies, rulers and kings enjoyed absolute power and ruled without any form of moral or institutional control. Kings in the past and in some communities today could marry any woman they admired, even without her consent. It became possible for the kings to marry the most beautiful women in their community and in some cases, the king could usurp the wife of his subject if he thought that she was good for the palace.

The best and most precious of all things are always preserved for the king as a sign of loyalty and honour to the ruler, as are the most beautiful women. This explains why queens are always beautiful. And as biology does its thing, beautiful women bear beautiful daughters; therefore, princesses are born beautiful. So Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born a beautiful princess, a beauty that has not diminished with time and aging, but is simply being transformed. Someone commented on her photo, the Queen at 80: still beautiful. Jamaican Prime Minister Simpson Miller declared in 2012, I love the Queen… she’s a beautiful lady. It’s true; Elizabeth II is one of the most beautiful women born into the British Royal Family and she remains beautiful at 86.

It is possible that, many young men in London who grew up with Princess Elizabeth imagined what they could do to have her as theirs. Charming beauty coupled with her royal origin made her the dream of every young man in England. Which young man could resist the attractiveness of a well-built princess like Elizabeth? Who was the lucky man who finally won the jackpot of royalty and beauty? Who is Elizabeth II’s husband?

The lucky man was Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, who is also the third cousin of Elizabeth II, both of them great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria. Prince Philip is the fifth child and the only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. He was born on 10 June 1921 on the Greek island of Corfu into the Greek and Danish royal families. He was educated in Scotland, England, France and Germany. He speaks fluent English, German and French, but very little Greek, his mother tongue. Why does this Prince of Greece not speak Greek?

Philip’s maternal grandfather, Prince Louis of Battenberg, was a naturalized British citizen who, after serving in the Royal Navy, renounced his German roots and took the surname Mountbatten during the First World War. He died in London not long after Philip had been born and about the same period, Philip’s father Prince Andrew led an army division in the war against Turkey that ended badly for Greece in 1922 and led to the abdication of Prince Philip’s uncle, King Constantine I of Greece, in favour of a military government. Prince Andrew was arrested and later exiled from Greece for life by the military regime. Young Philip was just over one when his father was exiled from Greece.

Philip was smuggled to safety in a fruit box as his family moved to France to begin a lifelong exile. The first school he attended was an American school in Paris and in 1928, he went to the United Kingdom to live with his maternal grandmother and his uncle George Mountbatten, where he attended Cheam School. In the few years that followed, all four of his elder sisters were married to well-placed German citizens and moved over to Germany. His mother was diagnosed with a dangerous disease and placed in quarantine, such that Philip grew up virtually in the absence of his mother. His father Prince Andrew later led a low-key life in Monte Carlo.

In 1933, Philip was sent to Germany to attend a school that was owned by the Jewish family of his in-laws and had the advantage of fee reduction. However, his stay in Germany was not for long, as Hitler’s nationalism theory spread across Germany. With increased persecution of Jews, the founder of Philip’s school, himself a Jew, decided to escape to the United Kingdom, where he started Gordonstoun School in Scotland. Philip followed to continue his