Unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere, you must have heard that Queen Elizabeth of England has passed away. I find myself puzzled, as always, by how interested people are over here in the United States. This is something I noticed when I was finishing up college, and there was such a furor over the marriage of Prince Charles to Lady Diana. The media was obsessed with their royal marriage, and I felt… disinterested. I mean, I am not British or Canadian, so why does this matter to me?
So now here we go again. Wall-to-wall coverage of Elizabeth’s passing, the ascension of Prince Charles to King Charles, tributes from around the world, and much dramatic speculation about whether Prince Harry will be clawed back into the family so the new king can put himself out there as a “unifier.” (And also a few, mostly overlooked, voices commenting about finally ending colonialism.)
I really don’t know what to think about Americans, with a well established democracy, being so drawn to a non-democratic institution like the British monarchy. However, monarchies are well entrenched in the fantasy genre, so this is something I will be pondering about in coming posts.
First, though, I’m interested in what you think. Why are people so fascinated by royalty?
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Personally, I’m not very fascinated by royalty or movie stars or sports celebs. I think everybody, prince or pauper, needs friends and education and beliefs and love and goals.
Like you, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the wedding of Charles and Di, but I have been interested in the news around Elizabeth’s passing. For me, it has a lot to do with the history she saw and how she transformed the British monarchy. It will be interesting to see where Charles goes from here and whether he even has the power to make things much different. I was similarly fascinated when the Soviet Union fell and Russia elected its first president. So for me, it’s more a fascination with the way governments work than a specific fascination with the British monarchy.
It’s the “what a tragedy!” comments that confuse me the most, she was 96! She lived a privileged life, with the best medical access, it’s not a tragedy, she was old. Also, as a US citizen, the actual role that the royal family plays is confusing. They don’t have any political power, right? They’re just figureheads? Eh. I’m more interested in voter rights here in the US.
I think you got it right here: “However, monarchies are well entrenched in the fantasy genre….”
I don’t know how common it is now, but it wasn’t exceptional for an American father to call his daughter “Princess.” And, of course, there’s the extremely popular Disney Princesses. And there’s King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, *Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland*, *The Lord of the Rings* etc. etc. etc.
To many Americans, kings and queens and princes and princesses are the stuff of legend.
On a side note, ironically the Society for Creative Anachronism kingdom where I dwell is having its Crown Tourney this weekend to determine the new King and Queen….
(And keep in mind the modern day British monarchy actually has little actual authority.)
Yet people speak of them as if they do have authority, which is odd.