What Isabel hid in plain sight: the last queen of Europe who managed to be an enigma

The queen managed to be a symbol without knowing what she thought about practically any matter for 70 yearsMaintaining the ritual and the mystery is key to the survival of monarchies, but the challenge is increasingly difficultCarlos III has let his Opinions on a multitude of political or scientific matters People were able to see what was happening inside Westminster Abbey from home, but the rite was more theatrical and formal than those carried out by the kings of the past, according to historians. For every new thing that is seen, another is hidden. The monarchs of yesteryear were only seen on coins or paintings. Isabel surpassed the 20th century. The challenge for the monarchs of the present and the future is increasingly difficult, perhaps impossible.Coronation of Elizabeth IIMirrorpix”I want the royal family to remain out of sight, for our survival”Winston Churchill already warned at the coronation of what was in Game. The cameras will break the magic, he said, there are certain ritual aspects that should not be presented as theater. Following this criterion, the chamber was concealed with a cloth just at the moment in which Elizabeth received the sacred oil paintings and, according to tradition, came into direct contact with God. “At the heart of the queen’s brilliant success is having avoided giving the slightest clue of what she thinks about anything beyond cats and horses”, historian Max Hastings explained a decade ago. on account of the documentary that the BBC recorded about their day-to-day life in 1969. The Prime Minister of the day, Harold Wilson, raises his doubts with the queen in a scene. He doesn’t want the royal family to appear human, but to represent an ideal. The series makes Isabel respond like this: “No human being is ideal, only God is ideal. That’s why I want the royal family to stay out of sight. For our survival. But the contradiction is that we cannot be hidden. We have to be in full view at all times. The best we have found so far is ritual and mystery. Because it keeps us hidden even when in plain sight. The protocol is not there to keep us apart but to keep us alive”. Of the 43 hours that the BBC recorded following the British royal family for months for that report, only 90 minutes were broadcast. The rest of the material remains secret to this day. The mystery of Isabel, the open book of Carlos Isabel would have been a flat character, almost trivial, if not for what she has embodied, especially in solemn moments or charged with emotion for His town. But she has been a symbol that has never been clearly signified. It is not known what she thought of Brexit, in the Scottish independence referendum she only said (at David Cameron’s request) that people should consider their vote. She showed no emotion the day she received as minister for Northern Ireland Martin McGuiness, who was head of the IRA when the terrorists killed his uncle-in-law Lord Mountbatten. Only after Diana’s death was he accused of being a sphinx. And she acted accordingly. She went out into the street, a girl gave her flowers, lowered her head before Diana’s coffin. Isabel II approaches the people after visiting the chapel of Lady DiBoston GlobeCarlos III has not cultivated the virtue of secrecy. He has known what he thinks on everything from her faith in homeopathy to her advocacy for the environment. She sent 27 letters to Tony Blair with his opinion on political issues. His life is in the magazines, including his erotic conversations. But maintaining the mystique may be impossible even for a more prudent monarch, in a time when transparency is demanded, in which the world of information is too big for An unwritten pact of silence works for a long time, with growing divisions that reduce the common places in which royal speeches move. To have shown more of herself would have exposed Elizabeth II to the judgment of others, to being placed in the wrong side of the story because of something he did or said. And if monarchies have something, it is a sense of history. The whole mixture of secrecy and closeness must change just enough with the times so that the crown remains the same.