HUGO VICKERS: Giving her blessing to ‘Queen Camilla’ is a masterstroke so typical of Elizabeth

For 70 years, the Queen has served the nation with unparalleled duty and dignity.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has spoken of the stability she has brought us in good times and bad, uniting our diverse country in a way that no one else comes close to matching.

After seven tumultuous decades caring about her subjects, however, this a decisive moment.

Her Majesty has marked the anniversary of her accession to the throne by looking not just to the present but also to the future – of both the Monarchy and the nation.

As the Queen made clear in yesterday’s address, when Charles eventually takes the throne as King, the wife at his side will be styled as Queen Camilla.

This is only right, for practical and for personal reasons.

Her Majesty has marked the anniversary of her accession to the throne by looking not just to the present but also to the future – of both the Monarchy and the nation.

There can be no doubt that Camilla has been an exemplary wife and a model member of the Royal Family since her marriage to Charles in 2005.

A lesser woman might have been vindictive, perhaps even vengeful towards those who had criticised her in the past. Camilla has not stooped to that.

Whether this is down to forbearance or a streak of relaxation in her character, or both, it is thoroughly commendable.

Camilla has been an admirable support for Charles, jumping in from time to time in to alleviate what could have been difficult situations – when, for example, the Prince of Wales has shown moments of petulance.

On one occasion, the Prince looked irritated by someone who shook his hand. Hers shot out. ‘How very nice to see you again,’ she said, diffusing the moment. Camilla had never met this person before.

The Duchess of Cornwall has impeccable manners. She is popular with guests and with the journalists who follow the Royal couple, cultivating an air of informality that does not descend to intimacy. 

Ultimately the best description of her is this: she is a good sport.

There can be no doubt that Camilla has been an exemplary wife and a model member of the Royal Family since her marriage to Charles in 2005 HUGO VICKERS writes 

The Queen knows only too well the importance of unwavering support from those around her. She had it in Philip and watched her mother work alongside her father when he found himself unexpectedly upon the throne

The Queen, then, is making it as clear as she can that she recognises the vital part that Camilla has been playing, and will eventually play as Charles’s consort.

Camilla has not always been so well regarded, of course. Many – especially Diana devotees – disapproved both of her and of the marriage, a hostility that could have proved toxic at the start of a new reign.

Transforming the way she was understood from ‘hated mistress’ to ‘supportive wife’ has been important, not just for Camilla and Charles, but for the Monarchy.

Styling her as Duchess of Cornwall when they married was first a careful step along the way – a sop to those who disapproved and a necessary one.

Since then, the Duchess has not put one foot wrong. Working discreetly but effectively, she has both supported and protected her husband and his work.

It was at New Year that the Queen finally made her feelings known, appointing Camilla to the Order of the Garter.

This was the highest accolade she could give her and evidence – if evidence were needed – of Her Majesty’s complete support.

Making it clear that Camilla should be Queen is not just a wise and generous decision, it is a masterstroke, and typical of a thoughtful Sovereign 

Making it clear that Camilla should be Queen is not just a wise and generous decision, it is a masterstroke, and typical of a thoughtful Sovereign.

The timing has great symbolism. This is an important moment for the Monarchy, one that says as much about the character of Her Majesty as it does about her daughter-in-law.

It is a strength that was evident from her earliest days. Great men of the age had watched the Queen growing up and approved.

In 1928, when she was two, Winston Churchill wrote that ‘Princess Elizabeth… has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant.’ Interviewed on a transatlantic crossing in 1936, George Bernard Shaw said that he hoped nothing would stop her one day becoming our Queen. It has been our good fortune that nothing did.

The Queen possesses the humility to accept that she has her role in life entirely through accident of birth. Her philosophy, I believe, is that she has always wanted to be a good daughter to her father so that, should they meet again in the afterlife, she could look him squarely in the eye.

He, in turn, would recognise that his daughter had fulfilled her mission to the letter. Her approach is simple and wise: do your best every day and say your prayers at night.

With such a clear vision of her role, our longest-serving Monarch should perhaps be known as ‘Elizabeth the Steadfast’.

Or ‘Elizabeth the Conciliator’.

It was at New Year that the Queen finally made her feelings known, appointing Camilla to the Order of the Garter.

With Prince Philip, she has shown herself determined to work for peaceful relations between the nations – including former antagonists such as Germany, Japan and Ireland – and put the more destructive elements of history behind us.

Now she is putting her diplomatic skills to impressive use with her own family and its future.

Aware that her reign cannot last forever, she is determinedly making matters easier for her successor, The Prince of Wales, when he succeeds her.

Take, for example, the question of the Commonwealth. It was never certain that Charles would be its head, but after a series of subtle negotiations, the Queen asked the Commonwealth leaders to confirm him in that role.

At the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in London in 2018, they did just that.

Now she has taken responsibility for a decision that some will continue to dispute – bitterly, in the case of a few.

In so doing, she makes Prince Charles’s eventual transition to Monarch considerably easier.

This 70th anniversary – the Platinum Jubilee – is well timed.

The Queen came to the throne 70 years ago 

We have been through the divisions of Brexit, followed by the fear and terrible uncertainty of the pandemic. Many have lost businesses, millions face economic hardship. Others have suffered mental anguish from long months of isolation. So the time is right for us to emerge and celebrate. And reflect.

On this day 70 years ago, a young woman who had gone up a treehouse in Kenya as a Princess came down a Queen.

Thousands of miles away, in his address to the House of Commons, the veteran Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, described our new Monarch as a fair and youthful figure who ‘comes to the throne at a time when a tormented mankind stands uncertainly poised between world catastrophe and a golden age.’

Clement Attlee, then leader of the Labour opposition, replied: ‘It is our hope that Her Majesty may live long and happily… [that] we are witnessing the beginning of a new Elizabethan Age no less renowned than the first.’

In so many ways, those hopes have been fulfilled.

And even now she is doing her duty – playing the fullest part she can in order to secure a calm and happy reign for those who follow.

Hugo Vickers is chairman of the Commonwealth Walkway Trust, which is creating a special Platinum Jubilee Walkway in Birmingham.

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