The 41 days that broke the Queen in 2021
In the space of just 41 days Her Majesty has faced the most devastating and trying chapter of her long reign.
COMMENT
One of the defining experiences of the Queen’s (very long) life was World War Two. Her parents, the stoic King George VI and steely Queen Elizabeth refused to evacuate Buckingham Palace as bombs rained down (the palace and it’s grounds were hit on nine separate occasions), demonstrating a degree of grit and fortitude that became the stuff of legend.
All of which is to say, enduring in the face of adversity is baked into the current Queen’s DNA.
Lucky that, because a scant period of only 41 days earlier this year, from the Sussexes’ Oprah interview to the funeral of Prince Philip, must surely figure as one, if not the, most testing, and devastating, chapters in Her Majesty’s nearly 70-reign.
Looking back, there is not a shred of a doubt that 2021 will figure, when historians sit down to write the definitive accounts of Elizabeth II’s life, as one of the most painful years, one that was defined by loss, grief and hurt.
The thing is, only part of that anguish was inevitable; it did not have to be this way.
The first indication that things were heading south came on February 17 when it was revealed that Prince Philip had been admitted to hospital in London, supposedly as a “precautionary measure.” Aged 99 at that point, it seemed inconceivable that he would not stage some sort of Lazarus-like resurrection and re-emerge to wave at the waiting press as he had done on numerous occasions before.
After all, he was set to turn 100 in June and a grand family lunch was planned to mark the occasion. It still seemed eminently possible that he would be there to raise a glass and celebrate.
And then the days passed, and it became a matter of weeks. At the beginning of March, he was moved to St Bartholomew’s Hospital for a heart procedure and then on March 3, back to King Edward VII hospital in Marylebone.
Unlike previous instances when he had wound up in hospital, this time, Philip was not staging another miraculous recovery and the situation looked increasingly grave.
While worries about the Duke of Edinburgh’s health grew, in California, another storm was brewing.
In late January, Prince Harry had given his first interview since the fissure of Megxit, appearing on James Corden’s Late Late Show for a deeply questionable turn as the self-appointed Duke of Normal. (He asked a stranger to use their loo, took part in a mock British tea party and did a bit of an action man turn taking part in a jokey assault course.) Abjectly lacking in dignity? Sure, but by and large it was all pretty harmless.
That all changed on February 22 when it was revealed that he and wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex were set to be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey for a two-hour special. This was clearly not going to be the same strip of idle chat about waffle-makers and cheap jokes that Corden had been, and instead things looked set for painfully long and surgical post mortem of the brief Sussex era in prime time.
On March 7, when the interview was broadcast in the US, first Meghan, and only later Harry, like an addendum to his own life, sat down with the talk show titan to detail their allegedly miserable treatment by the royal family and courtiers, in what was the most stinging attack on the monarchy in a generation.
According to the Duchess, she had faced institutional racism, an organisation that brutally refused to help her when she suffered suicidal thoughts, and a period of excruciating isolation and marginalisation bordering on the intolerably cruel.
Harry also came out both barrels blasting, charging that Prince Charles had cut him off financially and that he felt “really let down” by his father.
By the time the credits rolled, the world – and the palace – was left reeling.
This was not a whingey listing of petty grievances but rather a precision strike with the Sussexes’ allegations presenting a direct challenge to the moral fibre and fitness of The Firm as an institution. The fact it was a lifelong member of this organisation who had turned whistleblower made it all the more devastating of a blow.
Keep in mind, all of this was happening while Philip was still in hospital.
While both Harry and Meghan insisted that they had huge respect for the Queen, how does that square with the fact they went ahead with this onslaught despite the continuing Philip health crisis? That they chose to proceed as planned and to launch a searing and trenchant take down of the institution that Harry’s grandmother has spent her entire life supporting, while nearly 60 million people watched on, while her husband was in hospital is stunning.
While the Queen watched the interview in her private sitting room at Windsor Castle, it would be 40-hours before Buckingham Palace would respond, putting out an economical 61-word statement including the assertion that “some recollections may vary.”
With the royal family’s reputation in tatters, things were looking even more dire in London.
When Philip left King Edward VIII on March 16, his gaunt appearance shocked the world.
On April 9, the news broke; after 73 years of marriage, the Queen’s helpmate, husband and lifelong confidant had passed away.
Sun shone brilliantly in Windsor on April 17 when the royal family, including a freshly returned Harry, gathered to farewell Philip. The image of the Queen, tiny and alone, in the back of her Bentley and later in a pew away from family due to Covid restrictions, was a heart tugging rendering of grief and loss.
Either of those moments – the Oprah interview and the Duke of Edinburgh’s death and then funeral – would have been agonising in isolation but the fact that they hit just over a month apart makes this chapter an historically horrible one for the Queen.
The question is, can not only Her Majesty but also the monarchy, ever fully recover from 2021?
In a personal sense, the 95-year-old has lost the person who has stood redoubtably by her side since she was 20. In losing Philip, the Queen not only lost her first and only love and the one person who had unflinchingly had her back.
Then, there is the poor old crown which has really gotten seriously dinged this year. What made Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview so calamitous for the palace was that the charges they raised go to the very heart of the monarchy and raised still unanswered questions about what it stands for and represents in contemporary society.
The better part of a year on, Buckingham Palace has yet to fully address the charges raised by the renegade couple. Is that good enough? Especially when the Queen is the head of an organisation that represents more than a billion people of colour around the world? I think not.
After World War Two, the King and Queen set about rebuilding Buckingham Palace, patching up the parts of the imposing stone edifice that had taken direct hits. If only it were that easy now. Who knows if the damage done to the palace, figuratively speaking, over those 41 days can ever truly be fixed.
Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
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