This past week, Queen Elizabeth II died. As the longest-reigning English monarch, her life intersected with many important historic figures, including the Inklings. In the recent news coverage concerning her death, here are some of the things I’ve come across which I thought were interesting.
Update 19-Sep-22: I would recommend listening to this episode of The C.S. Lewis Podcast where Ruth Jackson interviews Dr. Michael Ward on this subject.
Lewis on the Coronation
In a letter on 10th July 1953, Lewis commented to Mary Willis Shelburn on Queen Elizabeth’s coronation:
You know, over here people did not get that fairytale feeling about the coronation. What impressed most who saw it was the fact that the Queen herself appeared to be quite overwhelmed by the sacramental side of it. Hence, in the spectators, a feeling of (one hardly knows how to describe it)—awe—pity—pathos—mystery. The pressing of that huge, heavy crown on that small, young head becomes a sort of symbol of the situation of humanity itself: humanity called by God to be His vice-gerent and high priest on earth, yet feeling so inadequate. As if He said “In my inexorable love I shall lay upon the dust that you are glories and dangers and responsibilities beyond your understanding”. Do you see what I mean? One has missed the whole point unless one feels that we have all been crowned and that coronation is somehow, if splendid, a tragic splendour.…
C. S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady (10th July 1953)
Five Popes
I had always associated Queen Elizabeth with Pope John-Paul II, but I discovered that she met the past five Popes:
Lewis on Democracy and Monarchy
Lewis had great respect for Queen Elizabeth, as well as her father King George VI, and defended the monarchy:
There, right in the midst of our lives, is that which satisfies the craving for inequality, and acts as a permanent reminder that medicine is not food. Hence a man’s reaction to Monarchy is a kind of test. Monarchy can easily be “debunked”; but watch the faces, mark well the accents, of the debunkers. These are the men whose tap-root in Eden has been cut: whom no rumour of the polyphony, the dance, can reach—men to whom pebbles laid in a row are more beautiful than an arch. Yet even if they desire mere equality they cannot reach it. Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.
C.S. Lewis, “Equality” The Spectator, CLXXI (27 August 1943), p. 192.
Tolkien’s CBE
Tolkien was also an admirer of Queen Elizabeth II. While Lewis declined his own C.B.E. for fear of appearing political, Tolkien received a C.B.E. for services to English Literature. He shared a few words with Her Majesty before she presented him the award.
Narnia Premiere
The Queen met the cast of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader at the Royal Premiere at the Odeon in Leicester Square:
