Victory for liberty enshrined in constitutional monarchy and the steadfast handling and stoic character of the Queen, who defied expectations from both horrified Marxism and short-term Western postmodernism, to deliver a Cold War free world. For 70 years she was head of state but refused to exercise power but acquired the subtle diplomatic experience whilst on the job that required to advise and console her 15 Prime ministers in 70 years!
Queen Elizabeth II modernised the institution of the monarchy whilst being a very private woman yet in the full gaze of the international media, and she continued to maintain her religious faith as well as being head of the Church of England. Indeed, she overcame all sorts of transitions and demographic changes from 1952 UK to fully devolved UK today. She provided the lever of impartial moderation as the British Empire supported independence of a robust and respectful Commonwealth, and yet prevailed, by more recent times to complete that cycle as Brexit finally reinforced British transition from being the 'sickman of Empire and Europe' and dependent almost exclusively to NATO, into becoming truly independent of its past and galvanising forward thinking into its British future. But she met these challenges whilst managing her family's needs, global threats but refused to interfere with global Capitalism despite having considerable experience with the changes that occurred to the global British Empire.
But like Pope John Paul, she posed a threat to the atheistic Marxist -Leninism because she de-mystified and demythologized the aloof 'privileged stereotype of the Parliamentary democracy being manipulated by the Crown' that so modernized the Monarchy at variance with 19th century Marxist ideas of Monarchy. She came to symbolize a 'heresy' that Moscow couldn't either equate with' privileged, narcissistic, corrupt, and degenerate' role in history with today's House of Windsor's role in constitutional monarchy, let alone being unprepared to accommodate Western relativism that undercut Soviet 'dialectical materialist' certainty' and its definitive version of its place in the 'inevitable superior science' by its doctrine. But the Queen reversed assumptions, upgraded reform but remained dutifully a consoler and an advisor to all who sought her advice. As someone who was born the same year as the British 'general strike', and whose relatives had died at the hands of the Bolshevik Revolutionaries and having been born into the aristocracy only 9 years after the 1917 Revolution you would have forgiven her for wanting some revenge? But instead, she chose 'closure’, and a bright future for all who had suffered and all who had survived at the hands of a cynical failed ideology, without any semblance of self-indulgent triumphalism, yet just like her role of welcoming new nations to the growing Commonwealth, she humbly supported all to the Democratic fold to parts of Eastern Europe that hitherto were closed to it . The West had not experienced any such 'conversion' during her reign, but Her Majesty symbolised the freedom of free thinking and free movement for all ! So here was the great irony: The Soviet Union had not brought equality or freedom, but the end of the Cold War brought Democracy and Capitalism together whilst offering not just freedom but the equality for all that Sovietism had not !?! Perhaps the rush for freedom began with the rush of exhilaration that accompanied the 'rush for Russian Capitalism' ? Such a massive conversion and mind-shift that has yet to trickle down to all of the Russian Federation's economy, notably the military, but with a low tax economy things may be upgraded. All militaries are often subsidized by taxation, and low taxes means fewer tanks that break down and that can't turn a corner for a true 21st economy.
The Queen never avoided public displays of British tradition because she understood the power of symbolism and formality that cemented British roots and stability, but her greatest loyalties lay with her own personal family and the families and nations that make-up the UK, a 'Commonwealth' of four nations that provided a precedent for the formulation of the wider global new independent Commonwealth of nations from beyond our shores. Moreover this is reflected in a series of demographic changes in the UK largely since the beginning of her reign, where multi-social class , multi-ethnic and multi-religious and multi-cultural and multi-layered values and traditions attract the best forward thinking that all Britons now aspire to enjoy and which the Queen has presided over.
Indeed, just as the Queen ascended to the throne when the NHS was in its infancy, the Queen's 70 years bequeathed that our NHS has grown-up during her reign and the British public understood that the Queen represented the enduring 'health of the Nation', and the institution of the monarchy has became identified with the progressive continuity of our multi-facetted 'beloved country'. But unlike the multitudes who work for the NHS, the Queen 's role is a solitary one that she has had to bring balance by the discipline of due diligence on her own ?!! How the Queen remained level headed under overwhelming responsibility and how she did not show the struggle of those difficulties was utterly extraordinary! By Stoic resilience and yet having to remain sociable to host to a vast array of different and diverse interests was something that few could have managed!
But the Queen provided leadership, individualism and moderation but quintessentially she bequeathed to her successor the most enduring inheritance of all : Duty and service that she inherited from her father George vi. I'm sure that the Queen would have never admitted that her true legacy were the very qualities of altruistic humility that puts materialism, ownership, titles, positions into perspective. But the Queen does remind me of Pope John Paul insofar as she didn't seek leadership but felt duty-bound to accept it and, as she would pithily say " she did her bit" to contribute. Her contribution to the concept of power was example enough in its refusal to never be corrupt or indolent, selfish or conceited, whilst having to spin so many plates at the same time and being a successful woman in the public and private stage. I hope the Queen doesn't mind if we eponymously call our age an 'Elizabethan Age' as a reminder of duty, hard graft and responsibility personified.?!!