In the recent past, Queen Elizabeth II has undergone some disturbance as major shifts and drama happening in her family. According to one royal expert, Her Majesty has used her religious faith to stay calm amidst the commotion.
While speaking to Fox News, Matthew Dennison said: “She has a strong religious faith. One of the things that the queen has done is pray throughout all of this.”
“She also has a loyal, supportive group of private secretaries, ladies in waiting and devoted friends who have been a strong system around her. She also has the support of her close-knit family,” he added.
“She finds it difficult to confront difficult issues. I think she has gotten better over time,” he said.
“She has a connection with the divine. She is a monarch who made a promise before God to fulfill her duty. And it’s a promise she has taken very seriously in her life. Even as a young woman, she has faced an overwhelming expectation on what kind of queen she should be… She has embraced that role,” he said.
“There wasn’t ever a realistic expectation that the death of the Duke of Edinburgh would lead the queen to abdicate.”
“In the very few times she has spoken about it to her close friends, she has always been quite clear that the promises she made in her coronation are binding. These are promises she made to God in the church. These are holy promises. She’s always said she would abdicate only if she got Alzheimer’s disease, a stroke, or something that would leave her incapacitated in some way. But this role is for life,” he added.
“There are two other very significant deaths in her life that shaped her in the later years – the death of her mother at 101 and then the death of her beloved sister Princess Margaret a few weeks before that,” Dennison said.
“The queen’s response to both of those tragic losses was to keep going with the job at hand. Therefore, I’m not at all surprised that this has been her response to the duke’s death, too. It doesn’t mean that she isn’t feeling it very deeply,” he wenton to say.
While speaking about the exit of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Dennison said: “Ultimately, the decision to step back had to be taken to the queen first.”
“The queen acted considerably. The decision [the Duke and Duchess of Sussex initially] reached was a sort of half in and half out arrangement. One where they would spend part of the year in North America as ordinary individuals and then part of the year in Britain, or based in the Commonwealth, as working members of the royal family.”
“That simply isn’t possible. That duty, as the queen has shown, cannot be a part-time calling. Duty, to the queen, is all-encompassing. You are devoted to duty every day of your life. You can’t take six months or a year off from it.”
“She reacted very sensitively to her grandson, but she also reacted very clearly and strongly,” he explained.
“There is no doubt that the queen felt a level of disappointment by what has happened. And when the interview [with Oprah] aired, it was quite shocking in Britain. Many were shocked by the televised interview because it seemed like such an unkind thing to do. And of course, the timing was shocking. Many believe that at her age, she should be in tranquil waters. She shouldn’t have to deal with this sort of thing,” he added.