IV.

Elizabeth’s Reign

Elizabeth’s reign has been marked by vast changes in the lives of her people and in the power and prestige of her nation. By the early 1980s, some 40 former British colonies, protectorates, and mandate territories had been granted their independence. Beginning in the mid-1950s, there was constant turmoil in Northern Ireland. On the home front, the nation suffered economic difficulties in the period after World War II. Many industries were nationalized, and in 1973 Great Britain became a member of the European Economic Community. Throughout this period Elizabeth’s primary role was as a symbol of unity and continuity within the Commonwealth of Nations; Elizabeth and her husband frequently visited the Commonwealth nations.

The royal family has also undergone changes during Elizabeth’s reign. Since the 1980s the public has become much more informed about the lives of the royal family due to in-depth media coverage. The wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, which was broadcast on television around the world, was portrayed as a fairy-tale love match. But by the late 1980s signs that the marriage was under strain had become clear. Televised interviews with the prince and princess accompanied the collapse of the marriage in the early 1990s, and revealed details of family life that did little to bolster the popularity of the monarchy.

Queen Elizabeth described 1992 as an “annus horribilis” (horrible year). Her daughter and two of her sons separated from their spouses. The separation of Prince Andrew from his wife, the former Sarah Ferguson, was announced in March. The marriage of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips ended in April, and Anne married Timothy Laurence, a naval officer, later in the year. The Prince and Princess of Wales parted in December. The separations of Andrew and Charles from their wives occurred amid a flurry of international press coverage. Accusations of infidelity in both marriages damaged the reputation of the royal family. Also in 1992, part of Windsor Castle was seriously damaged by fire. An announcement that the approximately $100 million needed to repair the castle would come from public funds set off a furor about the monarchy’s exemption from the tax code. As a result the queen and Prince Charles agreed to pay income taxes on their personal income, the first time the monarchy has done so. In 1993 Buckingham Palace was opened to tourists to help pay for the repairs at Windsor Castle.

The divorce of Prince Charles from Princess Diana in 1996 raised questions about Charles’s succession as the monarchy has no modern precedent for a divorced sovereign. Following the death of Diana from injuries received in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, Elizabeth came in for some public criticism for the apparent coolness of her response. Her live broadcast to the nation in tribute to Diana, which she made a week after the crash, partly restored public opinion. Diana’s death, however, sparked much debate on the role of the monarchy, its perceived lack of “popular” touch, the formality of its institutions, and its size in terms of the number of royals with public duties.

In 2002 Elizabeth toured the Commonwealth countries to mark her golden jubilee, the 50th anniversary of her accession to the throne. An estimated 2 million people attended the golden jubilee celebrations, which included concerts and fireworks outside Buckingham Palace in June. The year also saw the deaths of her mother and her sister. In 2005 Elizabeth gave her blessing to Charles’s marriage to his longtime companion, Camilla Parker Bowles.