Portraits of Power
Thomas Penn and his colleagues have embarked on a project to publish a series of short biographies of England’s and, subsequently, Britain’s monarchs. Why is the study of kings and queens still relevant in our less than deferential age?
In the frantic atmosphere that accompanied the run-up to September 2014’s Scottish referendum, Westminster MPs of all stripes, scrabbling for every possible means to prevent Scotland’s secession from the UK, reached for the nuclear option. A statement from Elizabeth II in support of the union would, they said, ‘make all the difference’. One politician remarked that such a pronouncement would be ‘welcomed’ by the people of both England and Scotland, adding that ‘I don’t think it would be improper’. Royal sources disagreed, gently deprecating the possibility and stressing that even suggesting that the Queen could intervene was to misunderstand her constitutional role: she would always remain neutral and could not possibly take sides.
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