BY DR MASIMBA MAVAZA
London, (News of The South) – On the 8th September 2022 the United Kingdom reached the end of an era with the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. It was shocking to hear the news especially few hours after the Queen performed her constitutional mandate of accepting the resignation of a Prime minister and immediately accepting the new prime minister Elizabeth Truss her name sake. With that her family and people worldwide are mourning her death. The last public photo of the Queen was a smiling Queen receiving her name sake the new prime minister. Exit Elizabeth enter Elizabeth.
Many people who had never met her and not particularly raving fans of the Royal family, felt a deep sense of loss on hearing the news. This shows the impact the Queen had on people’s lives.
The longest reigning monarch this country has seen, she has welcomed 15 Prime Ministers into the role, including the most recent Liz (Elizabeth)Truss, just hours before she died.
The country had experience a very historic week which has been historic. The resignation of prime minister and the appointment of a new prime minister. The death of a Queen and the coming in of a King after 70 years of having been under a Queen. The week was remarkable. In all this drama of historic proportions one person was subjected to the most difficult moment of his life. This person was Prince Charles now King Charles the Third.
Lets become humans for a minute. You become a king the day your mother dies. The kingly robes will always be there to remind you that your mother died. Each time you adjust to your new royal duty you will be reminded of the day your mother died but such is the way it is. Life sucks so to speak.
Given her age, and her recent health issues, it was inevitable that this day would come, but it is emotional none the less. For many she signifies something constant and solid. Someone who has always been there. She was a woman grounded in her Christian faith and totally dedicated to her role as Queen, with a strong sense of duty and service.
She took a direct interest, as a practicing Christian herself, in the life and work of the Church as she is the head of the Church of England. The monarch has held this role ever since it was founded by HenryVIII in the 1530s. The spiritual leader of the Church is the Archbishop of Canterbury and so The Queen’s role is mostly ceremonial but she remained spiritual and political. The British take pride in their culture and the Royal family represents that culture.
The Queen has ruled for longer than any other Monarch in British history, becoming a much loved and respected figure across the globe.
Known for her sense of duty and her devotion to a life of service, she has been an important figurehead for the UK and the Commonwealth during times of enormous social change.
Yes, historic atrocities carried out by the Royal Family over the years have led to many of the divides, and power and wealth imbalances we see in the world today. And this should be addressed. But whether you are a royalist, anti-monarchist, or somewhere in-between, she was a mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, who was loved. She will be missed not only by her family, but by people all over the world for different reasons.
Her Majesty The Queen held many important responsibilities in the UK. She was the Head of State and the Head of the Church of England known as Anglican in some countries. So the church has lost a spiritual leader even though she has been replaced by King Charles the Third. The Queen was again the Head of Nation and Head of the Commonwealth she was again the Head of the Armed Forces. The Queen held
Constitutional Responsibilities and she was the Patron of Charities in the whole country.
Indeed she was the very important person with shoulders holding a nation together.
As we have said the Royal family is a spiritual and political entity. Even though we are made to believe that it is only ceremonial it is those ceremonials which move the will of the country. Many questions rose about what happens when Her Majesty dies.
The death of Elizabeth the Queen of England triggered a set of Royal protocols.
Operation London Bridge is a set of royal protocols that layout what happens between her passing and state funeral. In place since 1960, it demands that that shortly after her death, “D-Day” goes into effect. The day that the Queen dies will be referred to as D-Day, while every day afterward will be referred to as D+1 and D+2 and so on. The process is done in exact precession it is spiritually and religiously adhered with. A series of phone calls have been taking place informing senior members of parliament and political and religious leaders retired and current. The “Call Cascade” involves informing the U.K’s prime minister and the cabinet secretary formally of the demise.
An email draft will be sent to senior civil servants. It will roughly read like “Dear colleagues, It is with sadness that I write to inform you of the death of Her Majesty The Queen.”
Furthermore, an official statement will come from the royal household informing the staff, civil servants, and the public of the Queen’s death.
After this email is received, flags across Whitehall in London will be lowered to half-mast.
The news will be announced via an alert on the Press Association wire. Any pilots who are mid-air will also inform passengers on flights if the news is announced when they are in the air.
Gun salutes arranged by the Ministry of Defence will also take place and a minute’s silence will be announced.
The head of government who is the prime minister, will be the first member of the government to make a statement on Her Majesty’s death.
The document also outlines social media guidelines following the Queen’s passing. Those guidelines point to the royal family’s website and the U.K government website both displaying black banners. Their social media pages are also required to show black banners. The report says, “Non-urgent content must not be published. Retweets are explicitly banned unless cleared by the central government head of communications.”
On D-Day+1, at 10 a.m. the day following the Queen’s death, the Accession Council will meet at St. James’ Palace and the Queen’s eldest child, Prince Charles, will be formerly proclaimed the new sovereign.
On the day of the Queen’s funeral, which will be D-Day+10, a state funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey and there will be a national day of mourning.
A two-minute silence will also be held across the U.K at midday.
Following the funeral, the Queen will be interred at Windsor Castle’s King George VI Memorial Chapel.
Once Charles is King, changes will eventually be made to money, stamps and passports.
A royal portrait of the new King will be commissioned and once approved, the Royal Mint will start printing bank notes with the King’s portrait. The new notes will feature the new King facing to the left, a tradition dating back to the 17th century.
Royal Mail will also roll out new stamps featuring King Charles III, and royal cyphers on mail boxes will also be updated to replace E II R.
Passports will change to say “His Majesty.” New passports will eventually start being issued with the King’s name, and wording will be changed from Her Majesty’s Passport Office to His Majesty’s Passport Office. Although her father died at the young age of 56, her mother lived to the ripe old age of 101, so longevity is in her blood.
But God works in His own time and at 96 she is defeated by death and – as is the English culture there are careful plans for Elizabeth’s passing to assure the situation is handled gracefully, respectfully, and full of the tradition, pomp, and ceremony the Queen deserves.
This plan,is called “London Bridge.” When London Bridge is activated a Code words will be spoken. On receiving the news from the Queen’s doctor, the Queen’s private secretary will call the Prime Minister,and say “London Bridge is down.”
Then Britain’s Foreign Office will call the 15 governments where the Queen is head of state and the 36 nations in the Commonwealth, an association of independent former colonies where she remains a symbolic figurehead, to let them know the sad news. This takes few hours which means from her death to the time the public became aware it would be almost a day.
So people had to find out in ways both modern and ancient.
Once all the really important people know, everyone else across the United Kingdom and the world will find out – you’ll probably remember for the rest of your life where you were when you heard the news.
At the same exact moment and in keeping with tradition, a footman in mourning clothing will post a black-edged notice to the gates of Buckingham Palace. Also at the same time, the royal family’s official website will show the announcement on its homepage.
The palace has a plan for exactly what will go down when their beloved monarch passes on. This is exactly the same way the announcement of the Chief’s death is done in Zimbabwe.
The bells will toll and the Flags will be lowered to half-mast. Bells will toll in churches around the city. Westminster Abbey’s famous tenor bell, rung in the event of royal deaths, was heard; as on most solemn occasions, Westminster’s bells will be muffled.
St. Paul’s Great Tom will toll as well. Businesses, theatres and some sporting events have been closed or cancelled.
People are gathering outside Buckingham Palace as the nation enters a ten-day period of mourning before the funeral. Parliament had to sit because The Queen is officially head of state, so the government will also be involved.Prince Charles is now the King, but to ensure a smooth transition, all members of parliament have to gather to swear allegiance to the new monarch.
Since the Queen died in Scotland she will need to be in Buckingham Palace, where she will be placed in the throne room and watched over by four Grenadier Guards (the ones who wear the big bearskin hats and red coats).
The Queen passed while at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where she spends every summer, and where Scottish rituals took place after her death.
She would be moved to Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, then be carried up the city’s Royal Mile to St. Giles Cathedral for a service before being placed on the Royal Train to London.
Her subjects will likely wait along the route to throw flowers and pay their respects as her train passes by. This is culture and custom. Several rituals will take place to solidify the new monarch’s position.
“There are really two things happening,There is the demise of a sovereign and then there is the making of a king.”
The next day, at 11 a.m., Charles will be proclaimed King, and he will swear an oath called the accession declaration.
Heralds will read a proclamation throughout the city, trumpets will sound, the flag will be raised back up, and cannons will go off in a royal salute.
The coronation, however, won’t happen for months to allow time for a mourning period and preparation of the ceremony.
British monarchs are allowed to pick their own ruling name when they take the throne.
Queen Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, was born Prince Albert and known as “Bertie”, but he chose to be King George after his father, King George V.
Elizabeth had a far easier choice, since her birth name recalls another of England’s great queens, Elizabeth I.
King Charles kept his given name and become King Charles III.
Finally the Queen will be laid to rest. After her burial the her husband will be rebutted next to the Queen. Custom did not allow him to be buried at the place before the Queen.
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