“The Queen is dead. Long live the King.” And so it goes when one English monarch passes and another steps up to the throne. They change England’s national anthem from “God Save the Queen” to “God Save the King,” and continuity is maintained. Queen Elizabeth II’s passing at 96 gives way to her son Charles, who has taken the royal moniker of Charles III.
Why he went with Charles and not the other royal names available to him–he could’ve been King Arthur II, for instance–is something only he can answer, given the records of previous kings named Charles. The first one got embroiled in England’s devastating civil war and literally lost his head over it. His son’s accession only proved the pointlessness of that war and the necessity of getting one’s civil rights codified in writing. America’s founders took that lesson to heart a century later.
But enough about Charles III, whose reign has only begun.
The extreme haters on “The View” marked the end of the longest reign in English history by denouncing Elizabeth II and her country. “The monarchy . . . was built on the backs of black and brown people,” said co-host Sunny Hostin, a woman incapable of reacting to anyone or anything white with anything other than undiluted hatred and contempt. “She wore a crown with pillaged stones from India and Africa, and now what you’re seeing, at least in the black communities that I’m a part of, they want reparations.”
Every monarchy has its moments of greatness and its crimes and misdemeanors. Americans threw off the yoke of England because King George III was a tyrant. Charles I was so awful they did away with the monarchy entirely for a few years. Cast about the world for the records of pharaohs, caesars, czars, and kings, and you’ll find plenty of despots, madmen, knaves, and fools, along with a few heroes here and there.
Elizabeth II is in a category of her own. Her long reign comprised class, grandeur, patriotism, and service. Perhaps in Hostin’s mind the late queen’s greatest crimes are, first, being born white, and second, being a stalwart friend of America. In today’s woke, intolerant, and often racist media, both of those are cancelable offenses. And so Hostin, who is so oppressed in America that she enjoys a multimillion-dollar life most can only dream of and is enthroned on a media platform from which she can address the entire world, denounces someone whose crown Hostin would never be fit to hold. Hostin lacks judgment, discernment, self-control, and fairness.
The fact is, Elizabeth II was more than the queen of England. She was a symbol of stability in uncertain times and a fighter for freedom when the Nazis and then the communists imperiled it most. She provided a sense of youth and optimism when she was coronated in the post-war world. And she was one of the world’s greatest philanthropists. People magazine researched and detailed all of the many charitable organizations to which the queen lent her authority, name, prestige, and finances. The list stretches into the hundreds of groups and millions of lives touched, and ought to be humbling to a hater such as Hostin, about whom nothing is and never has been “sunny.”
The list of the queen’s charities includes works in hospitals, education and training, the environment, and museums. She worked to preserve traditional rural life in England. She worked to deliver world-class medical services to people who desperately need them in Africa and all over the world. She was a lover and preserver of history in England and around the globe. The head of the Charities Aid Foundation said Elizabeth “did more for charity in the last 60 years than probably any other monarch in history.” That’s not just monarchs of England; that’s worldwide. Louis XIV, France’s “Sun King,” built himself the opulent estate at Versailles to demonstrate his wealth and power. The Saudi sheiks live on lakes of oil and make hundreds of millions of dollars per day, which they spend on who knows what. Vladimir Putin sits atop a throne of lies and blood, and also vast quantities of oil and gas, and is but the latest tyrant to become a billionaire by grand theft of his country’s national resources.
Elizabeth II did more for the good of the world than any of them, with a lot less at her disposal.
For that, she deserves far more respect and honor than the likes of Hostin and the haters can ever grasp.