A king is being made into a coin; a man is being made into a monarch
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskII did die at 3.10pm. But for the world, she continued to live. For over three hours, she was merely “extremely unwell” or “comfortable and at Balmoral”. Her death, for most people, only happened later, at a few minutes past 6.30pm, when a footman walked from Buckingham Palace holding a black-edged sign; when thewent black; when the national anthem played. A queen has two birthdays; she also has many deaths.
According to the law she has none: “the King never dies”, as the legal maxim has it. A monarch’s heart might stop; the monarch’s heart does not. The king is dead; long live the king. But the law is not life and a king is more than a man in a crown. Britain did not abruptly change from being Victorian to Edwardian on January 22nd 1901; Charles III did not instantly feel like Britain’s new king at 6.30pm on that Thursday, but like a man playing a part.
This has begun. The nation’s pronouns have already changed. Her Majesty’s Government is now His; criminals are now detained in His Majesty’s prisons, not Hers. In Qatar, God is called upon by English footballers to save their gracious king, not their queen. On military buttons and police badges and the breasts of Beefeaters, CIIIRIII Rex” started to fall from the Royal Mint in October. .
The corollary of this is that a queen is being undone. Elizabeth’s “E” will be unpicked from the embroidered tunics of the Beefeaters and replaced with Charles’s “C”; her crest will cease to appear on ketchup bottles as the royal warrants that signify suppliers to the royal household expire; worn banknotes bearing her face will be gathered and shredded on a rolling basis.
Rarely does this shorthand transcribe what the era itself would have imagined: the Victorians considered themselves thrillingly modern, not a byword for fustiness. Quite what the second Elizabethan era will mean is not yet clear and will not be so for years. For now, there are changes to coins and buttons and ketchup bottles as a queen is reshaped into an idea.