Early last week Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
announced to the citizens of her Kingdom and the entire world that she intends
to abdicate on Queen’s Day in April and
hand over the crown to her son Willem Alexander, Crown Prince of the
Netherlands and Prince of Orange making him the first Dutch King in 123 years,
the last time the Netherlands has had a male monarch was in 1890 when King
Willem III died, since then the Dutch people have had a succession of Queens, first
Wilhelmina, then Juliana and finally Beatrix all of whom abdicated to
facilitate the next generation after reigning for a long period.
Within the
Commonwealth Realms there have been speculations as to whether or not our Queen
Elizabeth II will follow the example of
her Dutch counterpart and abdicate in favour of her son Charles, Prince of
Wales after all she has been on the throne for twice as long as Queen Beatrix
and the Prince of Wales has been in waiting much longer the Prince of Orange,
in fact he is the longest waiting heir apparent of all time beating the record
previously set by his great-great-grandfather King Edward VII who ascended the
throne at 59 years old. Despite these facts the Queen shows no sign of wanting to
slow down despite celebrating her Diamond Jubilee last year, in fact this week
the Queen will mark 61 years on the throne inching closer yet to the record set
by her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria and given the fact that longevity
of life is a common trait among her female ancestors there are speculations by
many that she will in fact eventually become the longest reigning sovereign of
all time in the history of the Commonwealth therefore abdication is certainly
not in the cards at this time.
It is no secret that Queen Elizabeth views her job as a
lifetime commitment and takes her coronation oath very seriously as it was a
vow solemnly made to both God and to her loyal subjects , even before her
ascension she has committed her life to duty and service, who can forget those
now famous words she spoke on her 21st birthday in South Africa so
long ago “my whole life whether it be long or short, shall be dedicated to your
service and to the service of our great
imperial family to which we all belong”
that sentence alone should have been enough to dispel any notions
whatsoever that the Queen would abdicate her responsibilities but some continue
to speculate on this matter.
To be frank Dutch tradition is totally different from those
used in the British Commonwealth , whereas in the Netherlands the monarch is
actually expected to abdicate after reigning for a long period of time though
this period is totally at the Monarch’s discretion. In the Commonwealth abdication has
a very negative connotation, who could forget the Abdication crisis of 1936
involving the Queen’s uncle King Edward VIII, who gave up his birthright to marry an American divorcee we surely don't want a repeat of that incident, here in the Commonwealth we
expect our monarch to reign for life, if they get too old or too ill to carry
out their daily duties then a regent may be appointed as was done when King George III was declared mentally unstable in 1811, his heir (who later succeeded him as King George IV) became regent, still final authority still
rest with the Sovereign as long has he or she is alive.
One must also remember that
the Dutch concept of monarchy is totally different from ours. In the Netherlands
and some our European countries the monarch is now regarded as a citizen
(though this was not always so) and as such the monarch goes through an investiture
or enthronement ceremony rather than a coronation. In the Commonwealth Realms
this is no so, our Head of State is not a citizen but she is sovereign and we
are her subjects ,it would have been a very sticky situation for her to be
citizen of 16 sovereign countries, inherently she could only be a citizen of one
and a foreigner to the rest. This is why she is anointed and crowned as our sovereign
lady in her coronation ceremony, she is the living embodiment of the state and
all its authority, sovereignty does not rest with the people, it rest with her
and as such she cannot afford to give up the throne whenever she likes but
instead is bound to stay true to her coronation oath. King Edward VIII had a
lucky escape since he abdicated before he got a chance to be anointed or to
take the coronation oath (regardless he was still king), or else his position
would have been a much more precarious one, had he been crowned he maybe would have
felt more obliged to stay infuriating his ministers even more and could
possibly lead to another king being involuntarily deposed by parliament like what
happened to King James II in 1688, that would have been an even more unpleasant
scenario had it happened that way.
Queen Beatrix is possibly the most well loved and loved
respected figure throughout her Kingdom but now she’s calling it quits , but Queen
Elizabeth II shows no sign of wanting to follow suit, she intends to reign till
her last breath which really and truly is the monarchist way of doing things, I
personally hope to see her stick around at least long enough to beat the
previous record set by Queen Victoria and become the longest reigning Queen
ever in Commonwealth history.
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