Jeremy's Blog 16th September 2022: Crown and Continuity
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 15th September 2022
There are occasions when the sinews of a country are laid bare, when the veil of daily life and concerns are swept back to reveal deeper things that we rarely see. The combined death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of His Majesty King Charles III is such a moment. We commemorate, with shared and individual memories, and we look ahead.
We see the value of a life of service, duty and commitment and beneath that an affirmation of continuity. Her reign and the monarchy beyond it have echoed the principles of our common law, with origins beyond memory but ever adapting to evolving circumstances as the country changed, revealing the inner principles of an old country supporting it into new ages.
The Queen’s life has been woven through the fabric of the country not only over her 70 years reign but her apprenticeship as a wartime princess. Of Her 15 Prime Ministers, Her first, Winston Churchill was, born in 1874 and rode in the cavalry charge at Omdurman; Her last, Liz Truss, was born in 1975. An Empire has been dissolved with relative ease and a country moved on.
Alongside the embedded symbols of state and church, regalia and public life at home and abroad, one key thread has been engagement with rural life and farming over the decades from the plough team to GPS and data. This goes beyond the family estates at Sandringham and Balmoral and the Sovereign’s land at Windsor and as Duke of Lancaster. Royal patronages across the UK are but one expression recognising the value of our countryside with sustained quiet support. The serried tractors lining the A90 as Her coffin came south from Balmoral showed how that was appreciated.
Saturday’s Accession Council marked an ancient continuity, proclaiming Charles III as King who in turn gave commitments to our constitutional life. With the principles of an Anglo-Saxon charter, indeed of Magna Carta, those in public life attested to and signed a public deed, putting it beyond doubt: a ceremony with a point when a nation needs its rituals for marking change and continuity. These matters move seamlessly, as QCs at the bar become KCs.
With thanks for the life of the Queen and support and sympathy for the Royal Family, our best wishes go to the new King. His long interest in rural and farming matters is well known, given practical depth with the Duchy of Cornwall’s estates and expressed in work such as the Prince’s Countryside Fund, now providing resilience advice to farmers facing change but more widely aiding rural communities and so the social fabric of countryside.
Such things hold a nation together, give it resources beyond the usual. Then the veil of daily life, politics and business will be drawn back across those reserves for when they are needed.