The Queens on the Throne of Kings

“Presiding over a declining empire is more arduous than presiding over one that is rising.”

“The Queen, my lord, the Queen!”

William Shakespeare, Antony & Cleopatra

“This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle, this earth of majesty, this seat of Mars….this England.” So wrote Shakespeare in Richard II. However, the monarchs who have sat the longest on the throne of kings have been queens.

On February 6, 2022, Queen Elizabeth II will become the first monarch in the history of the British Isles to celebrate a platinum jubilee, a queen who, for 70 years, has graced the throne of kings. She became queen in 1952 at the age of 25 upon the death of her father, who, in turn, had become king only because his brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated the throne.

Until six years ago, the longest-reigning British monarch was Queen Victoria. Victoria ascended the throne at 18, but only because her father’s three brothers died without legitimate, male sons. The rules of royal succession have recently been changed to make princesses equal to princes, but Victoria and Elizabeth II were crowned only because there were no males ahead of them in the line of succession.

According to Buckingham Palace, on September 9, 2015 at approximately 5:30 in the afternoon, Elizabeth II broke Victoria’s two records previously considered near-impregnable: Britain’s longest-reigning monarch—63 years, 216 days—and the longest-reigning female monarch in world history. (Victoria was plagued by ill-health toward the end of her life; otherwise, her reign may have been even longer.) But there it is: Elizabeth, who is in robust health, outdistanced her. There was minimal fanfare from the palace. The British pride themselves on being proper, and it would not be very proper to thump one’s chest, Tarzan-style, and trumpet with bravado that you had overtaken your great-great-grandmother.