– New Elizabethan Age? –
Historian David Starkey said the queen’s style, inherited from her father King George VI, and grandfather King George V, had helped “established a record of unimpeachable integrity”.
He said her refusal to comment on controversial issues had deprived “republicanism of the necessary oxygen of controversy”.
However, it also meant she had “done and said nothing that anybody will remember” and she would therefore “not give her name to her age” as Victoria did, the historian wrote in the Radio Times.
By contrast, fellow historian Andrew Gimson argued that Elizabeth’s reign “will be seen as an incredible accomplishment,” spanning a period “marked by many major social and economic changes”.
These changes saw Britain’s global influence, which peaked during Victoria’s reign, diminish as the empire gave way to independence.
It was a process already under way when Elizabeth came to the throne, as the country was rebuilt after the trauma of World War II.
She then witnessed Europe draw closer together, eventually leading to the formation of the European Union, but also saw turmoil at home as Britain’s economy collapsed during the 1970s.
Over the Irish Sea, the Troubles raged in Northern Ireland for decades of her reign, eventually being brought to an end by the 1998 peace agreement, while mass immigration changed the face of the country.
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