English Video Lesson About The Queen’s Death And 70-year Reign

Queen Elizabeth II – Her Reign, Her Death, My Personal Tribute

Queen Elizabeth II, our longest-reigning monarch, died peacefully and surrounded by her family, in the afternoon of Thursday 9th September, at her beloved Balmoral Estate in Scotland. She had reached the great age of 96.

The official cause of her death has not yet been published, but it has been reported that the stress, loneliness, and grief that she suffered after losing her husband, Prince Philip, caused multiple health problems for the Queen.

She also sprained her back and contracted COVID-19 earlier this year, compounding all of those problems. 

The Queen and Prince Philip were married for 73 years, and we will never forget the poignant and symbolic image of her sitting isolated and alone during his funeral, which took place in the middle of the Covid 19 pandemic and during a national lockdown.

 
We had all seen the Queen on the TV news only 2 days before her death, when Liz Truss,  the new British Prime Minister (and the 4th one in the last 6 years), had gone to Balmoral to be invited by the Queen to form a government. 

 
The Queen looked frail but was standing up and smiling as she shook hands with Truss.

The photographer that day said that The Queen was in high spirits and made cheerful small talk about the weather – which was terrible! 

 
So it is some comfort to us to know that until at least two days before her death, the Queen did not appear to be suffering greatly,  still had all her mental faculties, and was well enough to carry out her last official duty as Queen.  

Queen Elizabeth II was on the British throne for 70 years.

This means that she was not only the longest-reigning monarch but also the longest-serving head of state in world history. That really is some achievement! 

 
The Queen’s 70-year reign was marked by the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022.

She was not well enough to attend much of the celebrations, but to the delight of British people, she filmed a sketch with Paddington Bear, where they settle down together to watch the Platinum Jubilee celebrations with a marmalade sandwich.

 
This was her second comedy sketch. During the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games in 2012, she filmed a sketch with James Bond, where she appeared to parachute out of an aeroplane into the Olympic Stadium. 

 
The film director had approached the Queen and asked her if they could use a double to involve her in the sketch, but apparently she insisted that she wanted to appear in it herself.

 
During her 70-year reign, Britain had 15 Prime Ministers. The USA had 14 Presidents. 

Leaders all over the world came and went, but the Queen remained constant, and a constant, throughout. She also met nearly all of these world leaders.

As a ceremonial Head of State, in Britain’s political system of Constitutional Monarchy, the Monarch is never supposed to support any particular political cause or party. 

Queen Elizabeth II had to keep her political views very much to herself. However, she did manage to express them in subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, ways. 

One of my favourite examples of this was at the State Opening of Parliament in 2017, after the UK had voted to leave the European Union.

Instead of wearing her crown and ceremonial robes , as she usually did on this annual occasion, the Queen wore the colours of the EU flag. 

Her hat, in particular, bore a startling resemblance to the EU flag, as it was blue and studded with yellow/gold stars.

This was widely interpreted as showing her support for the EU and her wish that Britain had not voted to leave.

 
Similarly, when former US President Trump came to visit the Queen in a highly controversial state visit in 2018, she wore a brooch given to her by Barack and Michelle Obama during their visit, and a blue outfit – the colours of the Democrat Party in the USA. 

This again was widely interpreted as showing her support for the former President Obama and her objection to the divisive policies of the then President Trump.

In 1998, when Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia visited the Queen at her Scottish home in Balmoral, she showed her politics in a different way. 

It was illegal for women to drive cars in Saudi Arabia, so when the Prince arrived, the Queen immediately suggested that they start his visit with a drive around the grounds of the castle. 

The Queen herself was at the wheel of the Land Rover,  and apparently drove very fast, talking constantly. This is reported to have made the Prince extremely nervous.

Apparently, she accelerated along narrow tracks to show that women are perfectly capable of driving cars. I love that story. 

 
When the Queen met President Trudeau of Canada in March 2022, she made sure that the large bouquet of flowers next to her, and appearing in all the photos and footage, contained only yellow and blue coloured flowers. This is an uncommon kind of flower arrangement. 

However yellow and blue are of course the colours of the Ukrainian flag, and this was shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

She also wore the same colours when she opened the new Elizabeth line on the London underground in 2022. 

Royal insiders have said that these things are never simply a coincidence, and such gestures are really our only insight into what the Queen actually thought.

As the longest-ever reigning monarch and head of state, the Queen was a symbol of continuity and stability spanning many decades and huge periods of change. 

I’m not trying here to dismiss or excuse Britain’s role in some of the world events that have taken place over those decades, just to give my own tribute to the passing of the Queen. 

Her death marks the end of an era. We will miss her greatly.