Since moving abroad, I have got a lot of questions about my opinion on the British royal family. When I lived in France, the general consensus was that the mere existence of a royal family is elitist and undemocratic. Now that I am in Sweden, a country that also has a monarchy, people tend to be surprised at my royalist tendencies. For them, the monarch doesn’t do a lot. Some people I have met couldn’t even tell you their King’s name. Even those who are well-versed in the merits of constitutional monarchies are still surprised when I say I favour their existence. So here goes, this is why I think the monarchy is useful to keep around.
First, I
would like to clarify that I support the British constitutional monarchy. I
think it works for us – I don’t agree with
my friends who think that all of Romania’s problems would be solved if
they reinstated the monarchy. For me, the British royal family is an asset
because it has evolved through time. In countries where the sovereign was
unwilling to move away from absolutism, I can understand why revolution was
necessary to remove the yoke of absolute rule. However, the English (and then
British) monarchy has never really been absolutist, its powers have been
limited since 1215. Sweden is a bit different, their monarchs swung from
absolutism to constitutionalism until eventually landing on constitutionalism.
But even then, it remains true that the most democratic countries in the world tend
to be constitutional monarchies (and not republics). As the table below
demonstrates, there is nothing innately undemocratic about having a monarchy,
and certainly nothing inherently democratic about being a republic. For me, the
existence of a constitutional monarchy is a symbol of a tradition of democratic
values.
Having established that a constitutional monarchy can be extremely democratic, let’s consider what got me thinking about this issue in the first place. As it happens, what inspired me to write on this topic is a show I have never seen. The Netflix series The Crown made waves last year after dramatizing Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana’s love story, and, more importantly, its unravelling. My fear was that this show might reignite doubts about Prince Charles’ fitness to become King. I don’t have particularly strong opinions about Prince Charles – I like him insomuch as he is an environmentalist – but I have no particular loyalty to him as a person. However, he will one day become King, and I think it’s important that the British people like their monarch. Queen Elizabeth II is an icon. She is known worldwide and is well-respected, and dare I say it, loved.
In April last year, when the pandemic had just started, hundreds of people were dying every day in the UK, and people were scared. I was far away from home, in lockdown in France. When Queen Elizabeth made her extraordinary speech on the 5th of April, I cried. As I have said, I am not particularly attached to the Queen’s person; I don’t read the tabloids, I pay minimal attention to the royal gossip. But when Her Majesty said the words, “We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again” I was quite overcome. 24 million people listened to that speech on the 5th of April. From my perspective, when the Queen speaks, she makes the UK a nation.
In essence, I believe that having a monarch who is both popular and respected is above all useful. The current British government is like Marmite, you either love them or you hate them. I for one have very little faith in the Prime Minister and his cronies. We need someone to rally around: the Queen has an important unifying role, and by jingo is she good at it.
