Kerry Parnell: When it comes to royalty I’d rather have a Queen than a King
Everyone loves a queen. They’re so romantic, so glamorous. It’s no coincidence female rulers became the most enduring in history and we are not going to see another for a very long time, writes Kerry Parnell.
Opinion
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Queens are, no offence to Charles, better than kings. As we prepare to finally say goodbye on Monday to the longest-serving British monarch in history, it’s no wonder the mourning and funeral preparations have been so seismic.
The Queen’s funeral symbolises something more than the end of her reign – it’s also the final closure on a generation and way of life that are gone, forever. We are saying goodbye to a century, I suppose, goodbye to the war generation, to our grandparents, to our past. I think that’s what the Queen embodied and why the UK – and world – is so moved.
But we are also saying goodbye to a queen, because we won’t have another female monarch for many, many, years. Although the Queen changed the order of succession in 2015 to mean the first-born, whether male or female, will take the throne, it still means the line of succession of course goes to Prince William, then Prince George, then his future offspring.
The only way that might change is if George decides he doesn’t want the throne and passes it on to his sister, Princess Charlotte.
Everyone loves a queen. They’re so romantic, so glamorous. It’s no coincidence female rulers became the most enduring in history – we can all name Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, but how many of us know who came after Elizabeth I?
Or even Victoria?*
There’s something special about a queen, Lucy Worsley, historian and chief curator at the UK’s Historic Royal Palaces, told the BBC this week.
“I think females make good monarchs in the sense that they traditionally are thought to be able to bring people together. Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II are in that realm of very long-reigning, very stable monarchs,” she said.
And no matter how dressed up King Charles III gets over the coming months – including his coronation – I’ll miss the glorious frocks, the glittering jewellery, the general fabulousness of it all.
Even the Queen’s rainbow outfits and matching brollies of her later years are sadly now being mothballed by her dresser, Angela Kelly. Nobody’s going to bet on the colour of Charles’s hat at Ascot every year, more’s the pity.
When the Queen acceded the throne in 1952 she was only 25 and a vision in her Norman Hartnell gowns, with their tiny waists and full skirts.
Now, the only style-note we have to look forward to with Charles’s wardrobe is the cut of his (admittedly impeccable) Savile Row suits.
Although, it has to be noted, he is a fashion fan and champion of the textile industry, launching the Modern Artisan collaboration with high-end e-tailer Net-A-Porter and telling Vogue he likes to, “buy once, buy well”.
It’s why queens play such a big role in popular culture, including the evil ones – from dragon queens Rhaenyra and Daenerys Targaryen, to Snow White’s the Evil Queen, Titania, the Snow Queen and the Queen of Hearts, right up to Elsa.
And yes, I know, I just need to Let it Go.
* Fact fans: James I succeeded Elizabeth I and Edward VII came after Victoria.
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