The River Green

So, there’s this wedding in England, have you heard of it? Yes, Prince William and Catherine Middleton are tying the knot in London on 29 April 2011. It is true that a great many people died right around 235 years ago so that we Americans wouldn’t have to care about stuff like this, right? Then why are there more news media from the US in London right now, than from any other country?

I am one of those people who are enthralled by stuff like this. The ceremony, pomp and circumstance is not unlike the excitement surrounding a Presidential election. The difference of course, couldn’t be more starkly contrasted. We are, after all, precisely not a colony, commonwealth or territory. Yet there is still a certain allure to the monarchy in general. The idea that a country can be singularly united in the face of a national crisis- World War II, for example, is such a foreign concept for we who are male and female, white and black, red state and blue state, etc. For the British and other constitutional monarchies, the regent is part of their national identity, and thus exemplify a national unity.

Naturally, I have a reverence for the Dutch Queen Beatrix for obvious reasons. But there is also a certain attachment to Queen Elizabeth II. I’m sure it has to do with the language, and yet there is more. She is history, more than any other person alive in the world, she has been a central figure in historical events since her birth in 1926. Her father, King George VI (the King referred to in The King’s Speech), led Britain and its Empire (including Canada and Australia), through some of the darkest times in history. With his family, including the future Queen Elizabeth, he stayed in London during the bombing blitz. That small gesture had a profound effect- not just on Britain, but on the entire Allied movement. There was a very real threat that their Palace would be hit by a Nazi bomb and they could all loose their lives. The entire population lived under constant fear of occupation and invasion, yet the Royal Family stayed, along with their people, facing the same chances of survival as everyone else.

In fact, the British Royal Family hosted Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands when that country was occupied. She ran the Dutch government-in-exile and the resistance movement from Buckingham Palace and daily addressed her people from London.

To re-iterate a point made earlier, a national identity can depend on the continued existence of their monarchy. It is that sense of continuation that draws me very close to this wedding. William is going to be King of England one day, and beside him will sit Queen Catherine. To know that they got their start as a couple and as the future monarchs of their country on a damp Friday morning in April 2011, is somewhat comforting.

We live in very uncertain, very anxious times. It does everyone some good to focus on the future in the form of this wedding. The world will go on as the tradition endures and history goes marching surely into the future.

And so, with English Muffins and a spot of tea, I shall enjoy watching history unfold on the telly.

Labels: history