Queen Elizabeth II: Why a Royal British Icon Captured Media—and Hearts—Around the World

PARIS – In France, where monarchs repeatedly were overthrown and replaced with republics, the lights on the Eiffel Tower went dark to mark the passing of a queen. The news media here, as most everywhere, has given constant coverage of the tributes and the state funeral in Britain.

As in so many places around the world, flags were lowered to half-staff on official buildings in homage to Queen Elizabeth II. Parisiennes and visitors from other countries lingered at the British Embassy to pay their respects, take photos and lay flowers under a giant outdoor photo of the late queen.

“To you, she was your queen,” declared French President Emmanuel Macron in a video message to the British people after he visited their embassy here to pay his respects. “To us, she was ‘The Queen.’ ”

He spoke movingly of her “great affection for the French people” and how she had learned the French language, loved French culture and visited this country 13 times, more than she had any other nation in Europe. “She captured our hearts.”

Similarly, as she did with millions across the globe, this petite, regal woman captured the hearts of many Americans--as well as the 13 U.S. presidents she met during her long reign, from dancing with Gerald Ford to charming the Obamas and riding her horses, among her favorite pastimes, with Ronald Reagan. American media, from cable programing to newspapers and online sites, have devoted hours to coverage of the long farewell to the queen in the U.K.

Is the global media besotted by royalty? And nearly two and a half centuries after Americans launched a revolution and fought a war to break away from British crown, why is it that Americans--like the French, the Europeans and even, oddly enough, many descendants in former colonies of imperial Britain, from India to Africa--remain so fond, fascinated and fawning about the royals and royalty in the U.K.?

Minutemen in New England rose up in 1775 against King George III, the late queen’s great, great, great grandfather, and yet, there lingers among many of their descendants a kind of deep respect, if not outright affection, for the queen. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden flew to London for the state funeral Monday.

Part of it is the fact that Queen Elizabeth II lived to 96, did her job expertly, loved her work, protected the ‘firm’ and promoted the royal brand during seven decades. We know so much about her life and the long-running soap opera of her family perhaps better, at times, than our own families. The queen showed up seemingly everywhere in her travels, she represented common values, and she was a royal fixture of continuity, constancy and comfort for the British in times of celebration or sorrow, war and turbulence. Her diligent work ethic and ruling style helped champion and preserve what is widely viewed as the world’s greatest monarchy.

“Every interview I give on the royals poses this question,” observed Laura E. Nym Mayhall, author and associate professor of history at Catholic University of America, “and I usually trot out the same explanations: we love a good soap opera; we love princesses and the notion of ‘happily ever after;’ we envy a political system in which head of state and head of government are separate, and head of state doesn’t stir up controversy (this last one especially in the wake of Trump); she’s a living link to the Second World War, and thus, the embodiment of the Special Relationship.

“Just last week, though, I told my husband that the headline of an article I should write would be: British historian acknowledges she has no clue why Americans love the Queen.’ The wall-to-wall coverage is bonkers,” she told me, noting that she was primarily an historian of Edward VIII, not a scholar or fan of the monarchy.

“I’m starting to think that perhaps Americans have a larger percentage of people who crave autocracy — give us a boss we can’t fire,” added Mayhall, whose expertise includes modern Britain, political culture and British cinema, among other subjects, “Or is it an internalized white supremacy, where we don’t ‘see’ the Queen’s whiteness as such and are happy to have her rule over us?”

Media coverage in many parts of the world has been similarly wall-to-wall, most of it favorable and nostalgic. To most minds, the late queen reigned well and benevolently for more than 70 years. To be sure, not everyone agrees. Many people don’t care about royalty. Understandably, plenty of citizens from former British colonies have had harsh words for her and the monarchy since she passed at her beloved Balmoral residence in Scotland. But so many also praised her for presiding over an era when the British Empire was dismantled. She helped build and promote a Commonwealth of independent nations who chose to be members.

Another reason for our interest and affection—at least, those of us who inexplicably were glued to the TV coverage of her passing--is how steadfastly and regally she ruled. She represented history and the roots of British descendants. She bore her sorrows with a stiff upper lip in stoic English fashion. She steadily and dutifully performed her service to the British people, holding fast to royal traditions, pomp and pageantry that go back more than 1,000 years.

And another factor, for sure, is the fascination many around the world have with celebrity in general in this era of billionaires, movie stars, social media and other modern influencers. The monarchy seems an anachronistic institution against that tableau, yet people are endlessly fascinated with wealth, power, splendor and riches, and those who have them.

Clearly, the royals were among those who set the standard. Many of us common folks, right across the planet, enjoyed visiting the U.K. and watching the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, the royal ceremonies and jubilees, and the ancient traditions that continue there today. Our children’s books are filled with stories of kings and queens. Our Disney movies brim with tales of princes and princesses, dukes and earls.

Finally, the royals may reflect for many of us the feelings of our own families—the joy of a birth, the shock of a divorce, the grief over a death—as we watch their lives that seem to play out on the public stage on a grander scale. We see them and reflect on our own lives, taking some comfort that we are all, at some level, the same.

As descendants of revolutionaries, many Americans remain ineffably enamored of aspects of the historic millennia-long monarchy we left behind. My late mother devoured the news of the royals in her magazines, always commented on the queen’s dresses and jewelry, and even rose at 4 a.m. to drink mimosas with a friend and watch the royal weddings.

President Biden, who once said, as did Donald Trump before him, that the queen reminded him of his own mother, has spoken affectionately about the late queen. Biden noted that she defined an era and her “legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world.”

Speculation is on now, too, about how King Charles III, the longest heir apparent in British history and the oldest to assume the throne, will fill his mother’s beloved royal shoes. British commentators said the public, for now, will be rooting for the new king, moved by his sorrow over the devastating loss of his mother. “There will be more Shakespeare and fewer horses,” quipped one. Royal watchers will be watching.

Indeed, the royals are a family, and they are in mourning now. In his first public remarks after becoming king, a grief-stricken Charles III, his eyes misting, thanked his mother poignantly for her love and service, and commended her spirit, quoting the Bard, “May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”