To have sustained a role as constitutional monarch of such a diverse and wide-reaching country as ours is one of the great achievements of Queen Elizabeth’s long reign. It will stand in the history books as outstanding in this or any other era.
Her first decade on the throne, the 1950s, was a time of turbulent upheaval – socially, politically, culturally. For Elizabeth II it coincided with her 30s, when many of her subjects were relishing new freedoms and the exhilaration of new ideas and opportunities.
The Queen, meanwhile, was bringing up a young family and also fulfilling the sort of royal duties many of us thought must be a chore. She was remote, wealthy, settled into the life of country pursuits and official events. Yet for those of us who lived through that time it was her very steadfastness as the constitutional monarch, representing continuity, reliability and duty in a world gone dizzy, that anchored the change we were relishing and celebrating.
The 1960s began with a family celebration: the marriage of her sister Princess Margaret to Anthony Armstrong-Jones, who, despite his posh connections, was headlined in the papers as “a commoner”. It was good to see the princess happily matched after the 1950s distress of her affair with Group Captain Townsend.
It was a time, too, when the Queen as head of her own family saw its values confirmed and celebrated. She believed in family life, its rules and values.
Through her reign those values have shifted and changed. Her own children were to divorce. But somehow the importance she had placed on those values continued.
As I began my career, “the times they were a-changing” … and not just among the giddy young. An enlightened home secretary, Roy Jenkins, saw into law a whole swathe of changes that promoted values of tolerance that became the hallmark of the more enlightened world we know today.
Divorce became easier, homosexuality was decriminalised, hanging was abolished; the whole mood of the times accelerated the changes. But these changes happened successfully because of a secure sense of national identity and continuity epitomised by the Queen’s steadying presence in public life. Without a profound belief in the durability of our national institutions, such change would have been bitter and acrimonious.
Over the 70 years of her reign, the country has shifted from a buttoned-up, conventional world that she inherited, to a far easier place, where emotions were freely expressed, joys and hurts given public voice. The world of the internet, of social media, selfies and reality television, invites us to bare our thoughts and our flesh.
In more serious matters of how we treat each other, and those different from ourselves, legislation is now invoked to avoid offending minority sensibilities and consider the lot of the most vulnerable.
All this has been paralleled by a more accessible monarchy, happy to go walkabout, at ease with those she meets, unfussed about protocol, while managing in some way to retain dignity and authority.
In my three meetings with Her Majesty, that authority was clear. Shake hands with the Queen and you knew who was in charge: she took just your fingers, rather than grasping the palm, and a gentle push indicated in the politest way that the conversation was over.
So, too, in the world at large. Britain has liked to see itself at the fore in movements towards greater freedoms and change. The gradual retreat from empire and the emergence of independent countries has proceeded with relative equanimity: South Africa and Kenya leave behind a troubled history of conflict and violence.
It is hard to know what views the Queen had of such events. But it is certain she would have followed all this with knowledge and concern. She has welcomed leaders from countries both enlightened and tyrannical. In her hospitality she has not passed judgment.
Instead, she has gently endorsed the values that underpin our way of life, our governance and our place in the world. She has done that consistently and on our behalf. No wonder the grief at her loss is so great.
• Joan Bakewell is a writer and broadcaster
