Medieval & modern amnesia of Elizabeth II

Peter Stewart

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Feb 20, 2021, 3:34:01 AM2/20/21

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According to a stolidly arrogant press release from Buckingham palace,
"The Queen has written confirming that in stepping away from the work of
The Royal Family it is not possible to continue with the
responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service."

She appears to have forgotten (if she has ever registered the
information) that her Norman and Angevin predecessors ruled extensive
territories abroad from England, that for many centuries several
succeeding dynasties claimed to be kings of France without ever
peacefully visiting that country, and that her Hanoverian ancestors were
electors and kings of their ancestral land in Germany without setting
foot there.

Yet somehow in the age of jet travel and the internet, it is "not
possible" for a cadet of the family to remain captain-general of the
Royal Marines".

O what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to follow the
advice of fuddy-duddy courtiers...

Peter Stewart

JBrand

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Feb 20, 2021, 4:46:23 PM2/20/21

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She seems to be following the example of the "distanced" treatment of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Peter Stewart

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Feb 20, 2021, 5:33:04 PM2/20/21

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But the duke of Windsor was appointed governor of the Bahamas after
abdicating, so even with his attitude to all-or-nothing royal duty he
was considered eligible for further service.

It seems Prince Harry's being domiciled in California and at most a
part-time attendee in the UK provides a fig-leaf for the real objection,
that he does not pay total fealty to the institutional narcissism of his
paternal grandmother. She could do her public duty as monarch by Zoom
under lockdown in Windsor for a year and remains queen of her overseas
realms with no intention of ever visiting any of them again, but he
can't do anything like the same if he and his wife won't kiss the soles
of her ridiculously overpriced shoes.

Peter Stewart

JBrand

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Feb 20, 2021, 9:07:05 PM2/20/21

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Poor old thing, perhaps she's a little crazy at this late stage.

Peter Stewart

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Feb 21, 2021, 2:30:08 AM2/21/21

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Well, I'm not as charitable as you are - to me she has never been any
different, a good enough character in fair weather no doubt but morally
craven when the going gets harder and one of the most wildly overrated
personages of the modern era.

Peter Stewart

lancast...@gmail.com

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Feb 21, 2021, 4:06:24 AM2/21/21

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I'm not sure that the medieval standards of public service are still seen as the appropriate benchmarks for holders of public offices, although the court of Mar-a-Largo maybe shows that it is never far away. :)

Peter Stewart

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Feb 21, 2021, 5:54:25 AM2/21/21

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"Mar-a-Largo" makes Mar-a-Lago sound rather slower than the frenzied
pace of Trump's delinquencies enacted there.

His is a cult of personal narcissism that will burn itself out in short
order, as opposed to the equally brainless cult of institutional
narcissism maintained by Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham palace over the
past 60+ years that may yet outlive her.

Peter Stewart

pj.ev...@gmail.com

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Feb 21, 2021, 12:54:30 PM2/21/21

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I suspect she'd like to retire, but doesn't completely trust her eldest son (who's getting up there himself).

Peter Stewart

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Feb 21, 2021, 5:17:36 PM2/21/21

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Doing the job to the end of her life is the part of her coronation oath
that she seems determined to keep despite hardship, while fudging the
rest to suit the times.

The highest purpose of her reign appears to be making as little trouble
as possible in order to sustain the hereditary monarchy. If this has any
meaning for the supreme governor of the Church of England, only God
working through nature (or failing that parliament) can decide when a
succession takes place.

Her god has evidently changed his mind several times to make her life
easier since she came to the throne, for instance on the remarriage of
divorced people - especially within her own family - since the cases of
Wallis Simpson and Peter Townsend. Maybe he will let her off the gilded
hook of being the monarch somehow before she dies, but I doubt it.

Peter Stewart

Nora Whisenant

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Mar 4, 2021, 6:17:58 PM3/4/21

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I'm a little confused. I thought this group's purpose was the discussion of medieval genealogy. Was I wrong?

wjhonson

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Mar 4, 2021, 7:09:19 PM3/4/21

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On Sunday, February 21, 2021 at 2:54:25 AM UTC-8, pss...@optusnet.com.au wrote:

Taking the remains of the Republican party with it, for better or worse.
We will then be left with a party on the left, and a part on the ultra-far-right
It seems like a few other countries have seen that recently