The death of Queen Elizabeth at 96 today, still came as a surprise to many. In a world of monotheism and of man-made religions of The One God, “royalty”—the concept of a monarch called by God and coronated by God—tells us that humans still believe they determine their destiny.

Indeed, in the case of Elizabeth II whose reign spanned 70 years and 15 United Kingdom prime ministers, and school children from Boomers through Gen Z who grew up under her monarchy, she seemed immortal.

Yet, her power was illusory. In the aftermath of the English Civil War of the 1600s, the system of Constitutional Monarchy that now governs the United Kingdom and Australia gives pre-eminence to parliaments of the people, by the people and for the people. In the making of laws, the Queen and her representatives as Governors and Governors General have always been rubber stamps.

Still, Queen Elizabeth II was something more to her multigenerational public.

When she took the Crown in 1952 Great Britain was a global superpower. In 1956 the UK and France with Israel, stared down Egypt over the closing of the Suez Canal, and while US president Dwight Eisenhower would put both nations in their post-WW2 place, the USA lost Vietnam while Great Britain won the Falklands.

In the spiritual realm many accept God as “The One True King” but in essence they’ll readily turn to flesh and blood. So, almost a third of the world lost its link to God-on-Earth today.

The Queen as “Defender of the Faith” is gone. The Queen, as an institution seven decades in the making is gone. The Queen as a monarch with historically rare omnipresence is gone.

Replacing her are true mortals—despised leaders of governments at a time when peoples’ distrust is at an all-time high. Where corruption has become a way of life, where leadership vision is so bereft few voters expect it, where a political media defines truth.

The loss of Elizabeth II implies a Dark Age, a fresh attempt to replace altruism with industrial greed.

Indeed today, Australia’s governments by unanimous agreement, will end their daily reports of Covid-19 case numbers and deaths to avoid public scrutiny of their failures. Today, in the UK, government has all but erased mention of Covid-19 having lost a prime minister to his pandemic ineptitude.

Long live 73-year-old King Charles III. A weak man, for a weakened world, of weak governments.

Charles I lost his head to the Parliamentarians, Charles II fled after his defeat at their hands. Alas will this be another Unhappy King Charles in a broken land?

© 2022 Adam Parker.

Main Picture Credit: “An allegorical engraving printed in 1683 shows the ‘ship of state’ in stormy waters with the king being thrown overboard, while Westminster stands firm”. © 2022 English Heritage.