The Life and Legacy of Queen Elizabeth II
Britain’s longest-reigning monarch died on Thursday, September 8th, 2022, at the age of 96. Learn about her seven-decade reign, as well as what is next for the British monarchy.
Interesting Articles to consider: (click on the links below)
Fun Facts about Queen Elizabeth II
30 Things you never knew about Queen Elizabeth II
Warm up: Who is Queen Elizabeth II? Watch a short reel of historic photographs in the video below. Each photo represents a year in the life of the Queen
Britain’s longest-reigning monarch died on Thursday, September 8th, 2022, at the age of 96. Learn about her seven-decade reign, as well as what is next for the British monarchy.
Interesting Articles to consider: (click on the links below)
Fun Facts about Queen Elizabeth II
30 Things you never knew about Queen Elizabeth II
Warm up: Who is Queen Elizabeth II? Watch a short reel of historic photographs in the video below. Each photo represents a year in the life of the Queen
Task 1
What do you know about Queen Elizabeth?
When you think of her, what images come to mind?
What major events in history did her seven-decade reign over Britain include?
Take a few moments to reflect.
Think: Queen Elizabeth was born in 1926 and became Queen at the age of 25 in 1952. How many famous people -politicians, dignitaries, and celebrities do you think she has met during her reign?
Can you think and name some of those famous people? List as many as you can
Task 2
Now, spend some time viewing this selection of photos from her remarkable life.
Selection of photos about the Life of Queen Elizabeth II (click this link or use the You Tube video below)
What do you know about Queen Elizabeth?
When you think of her, what images come to mind?
What major events in history did her seven-decade reign over Britain include?
Take a few moments to reflect.
Think: Queen Elizabeth was born in 1926 and became Queen at the age of 25 in 1952. How many famous people -politicians, dignitaries, and celebrities do you think she has met during her reign?
Can you think and name some of those famous people? List as many as you can
Task 2
Now, spend some time viewing this selection of photos from her remarkable life.
Selection of photos about the Life of Queen Elizabeth II (click this link or use the You Tube video below)
Task 3
Choose one photograph to write about. You might use these questions to guide your thinking:
Choose one photograph to write about. You might use these questions to guide your thinking:
- In your own words, what is going on in this image?
- What made you choose this photo? Why did it stand out to you? What does it make you think and feel?
- What do you think this photo says about Elizabeth and her reign? About the monarchy and its role in British society? About the portrayal of the queen in the media over the years?
- What questions do you have about this image, about Elizabeth’s life or about the monarchy in general?
- Finally, why do you think the queen, and the royal family in general, is so fascinating to so many? What is the power of royalty, in both substance and symbol? Are you interested in the British monarchy? Why or why not?
Task 4
Watch a tribute video
Watch a tribute video
Answer the following questions verbally with your partner
1. What stood out for you in this video? What images or lines particularly resonated? Why?
2. What did you learn that you didn’t know before? Did anything surprise you? What questions do you still have?
3. The video opens with footage from four different eras in Queen Elizabeth’s life, and in each she is addressing the nation. What does she say? How do those four quotes introduce her, her role and the focus of this short film?
4. “Her reign blended the ancient and the modern,” the narrator tells us. How? What aspects of the monarchy have been in place for centuries, and what aspects of the modern world did Queen Elizabeth have to negotiate for the first time?
5. This piece focuses on Queen Elizabeth as the “media queen.” Throughout, it gives examples of how “the royals understood the power of imagery” and how the queen “sought to control the royal narrative.” What are some examples? How successful was Queen Elizabeth? How important do you think controlling the royal narrative was, given her role as monarch?
6. At what point, according to the film, did Queen Elizabeth “almost lose public sympathy irrevocably”? Why? What did she do to “help the monarchy begin to restore its image” afterward?
7. How have the “junior members” of the monarchy made it difficult for the royal family to both keep its mystique and reinforce the impression that it is “a family at the service of the nation itself”? How much have you been aware of and interested in the stories — for example, those about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle? What impression have they given you of the queen and the royal family?
8. The video ends by describing the monarchy as “central to Britain’s sense of itself.” How?
1. What stood out for you in this video? What images or lines particularly resonated? Why?
2. What did you learn that you didn’t know before? Did anything surprise you? What questions do you still have?
3. The video opens with footage from four different eras in Queen Elizabeth’s life, and in each she is addressing the nation. What does she say? How do those four quotes introduce her, her role and the focus of this short film?
4. “Her reign blended the ancient and the modern,” the narrator tells us. How? What aspects of the monarchy have been in place for centuries, and what aspects of the modern world did Queen Elizabeth have to negotiate for the first time?
5. This piece focuses on Queen Elizabeth as the “media queen.” Throughout, it gives examples of how “the royals understood the power of imagery” and how the queen “sought to control the royal narrative.” What are some examples? How successful was Queen Elizabeth? How important do you think controlling the royal narrative was, given her role as monarch?
6. At what point, according to the film, did Queen Elizabeth “almost lose public sympathy irrevocably”? Why? What did she do to “help the monarchy begin to restore its image” afterward?
7. How have the “junior members” of the monarchy made it difficult for the royal family to both keep its mystique and reinforce the impression that it is “a family at the service of the nation itself”? How much have you been aware of and interested in the stories — for example, those about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle? What impression have they given you of the queen and the royal family?
8. The video ends by describing the monarchy as “central to Britain’s sense of itself.” How?
Task 5
What happens next?
What happens next?
Consider and discuss with your partner:
1. How is this “a moment of reckoning” for Britain? What do you know about what the nation is facing right now, beyond the death of the Queen?
2. What predictions can you make about the days and weeks to come in Britain? Why?
1. How is this “a moment of reckoning” for Britain? What do you know about what the nation is facing right now, beyond the death of the Queen?
2. What predictions can you make about the days and weeks to come in Britain? Why?
“In recent years, public pressure has been building on the British state and institutions to acknowledge and make amends for the legacies of empire, slavery and colonial violence,” Maya Jasanoff writes in a guest essay, in the New York Times “Mourn the Queen, Not Her Empire.” (you can read the entire article time permitting)
3. What do you know about the history of the British Empire and the monarchy’s rule over its colonies? What have you learned in school about this topic?
Ms. Jasanoff, a historian, introduces Queen Elizabeth’s role in the era this way:
The queen embodied a profound, sincere commitment to her duties — her final public act was to appoint her 15th prime minister — and for her unflagging performance of them, she will be rightly mourned. She has been a fixture of stability, and her death in already turbulent times will send ripples of sadness around the world. But we should not romanticize her era. For the queen was also an image: the face of a nation that, during the course of her reign, witnessed the dissolution of nearly the entire British Empire into some 50 independent states and significantly reduced global influence. By design as much as by the accident of her long life, her presence as head of state and head of the Commonwealth, an association of Britain and its former colonies, put a stolid traditionalist front over decades of violent upheaval. As such, the queen helped obscure a bloody history of decolonization whose proportions and legacies have yet to be adequately acknowledged.
“Now that she is gone, the imperial monarchy must end too,” this author argues.
Read her full piece and follow the links. Do you agree? Why or why not?
3. What do you know about the history of the British Empire and the monarchy’s rule over its colonies? What have you learned in school about this topic?
Ms. Jasanoff, a historian, introduces Queen Elizabeth’s role in the era this way:
The queen embodied a profound, sincere commitment to her duties — her final public act was to appoint her 15th prime minister — and for her unflagging performance of them, she will be rightly mourned. She has been a fixture of stability, and her death in already turbulent times will send ripples of sadness around the world. But we should not romanticize her era. For the queen was also an image: the face of a nation that, during the course of her reign, witnessed the dissolution of nearly the entire British Empire into some 50 independent states and significantly reduced global influence. By design as much as by the accident of her long life, her presence as head of state and head of the Commonwealth, an association of Britain and its former colonies, put a stolid traditionalist front over decades of violent upheaval. As such, the queen helped obscure a bloody history of decolonization whose proportions and legacies have yet to be adequately acknowledged.
“Now that she is gone, the imperial monarchy must end too,” this author argues.
Read her full piece and follow the links. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Task 6.
Share your opinion on the roles of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Share your opinion on the roles of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Questions to discuss:
1. What is your opinion about Prince Harry's and Meghan Markle's decision to “step back” from official duties?
2. What is your opinion about Prince Harry's and Meghan Markle's Oprah Winfrey interview.
3. What is your opinion of the couple and the decisions they have made in relation to the royal family? Why?
4. Now that you know more about the role and history of the monarchy, how would you explain why they seem to pose such a threat to its traditions? Do you think the issues they have raised, including those about race and mental health, have broader implications beyond the royal family? Why and how, if so?
1. What is your opinion about Prince Harry's and Meghan Markle's decision to “step back” from official duties?
2. What is your opinion about Prince Harry's and Meghan Markle's Oprah Winfrey interview.
3. What is your opinion of the couple and the decisions they have made in relation to the royal family? Why?
4. Now that you know more about the role and history of the monarchy, how would you explain why they seem to pose such a threat to its traditions? Do you think the issues they have raised, including those about race and mental health, have broader implications beyond the royal family? Why and how, if so?