A new twist for September 11: 63 years & 217 days' Reign of Queen Victoria to be surpassed then...
Nirvana
aka BUBBA ` ` South Carolina, USA Veteran
According to my calculations, September 10 of next year will mark the day that Queen Elizabeth's reign will match the time-span of Queen Victoria's, the longest-reigning English/British monarch. Victoria's reign (from 20 June 1837 through 22 January 1901) was 63 years & 217 days in duration. Elizabeth II acceded to the throne on 6 February 1952. Counting forward 63 years and 217 days from that date, one lands on Sept 10, 2015.
English history has always been of great interest to me. Peter Acroyd's histories are particularly wonderful, well written, and engrossing. So, Elizabeth's new milestone will be a celebration for me. Let all the piety-fringed, money-grubbing haters of things they don't understand celebrate the death-and-destruction-that-someone-has-to-atone-for of Sept 11, 2011 focus on their thing ——but I'll celebrate England and the UK and its Queen!
This coming year also marks the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta, and I can't wait to see more about the June 15th holiday next year. It is to the English and British peoples that the world owes the modern stirrings of democracy. It's a very naughty world, but at least democracy keeps the powerful from calling all the shots (They may call most of them, but at least not every little thing!). It's funny, though, that in less than 300 years the "rights" of nobles assented to in the Magna Carta were all gone again due to the King assuming complete Lordship over the Land: Henry VIII reigned supreme. But the continued arrogance of the Stuarts who succeeded him resulted in a Civil War that brought an end to the King. However, under Cromwell, the problem of a corrupt centralized power did not abate; it took a restored monarchy to begin to restore democratic principles. The process is slow and uneven and continues still to this day. And I see the Monarch of Britain as a Bright Star in this Progress.
I await next year's celebrationS.
Comments
Sept 11, 2015 is the day Elizabeth the II will have been in reign longer than Victoria, should Elizabeth II live that long.
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It's likely she will, knowing her mother's longevity....
I'm a total Anglophile.
Just thinking about the death of the English Monarch used to be Treason!
Shame her Russian relatives were murdered in the Russian revolution... I have just watched the Mandela movie with my 10-year old son (twice this week as it goes)
Countries call up people for national service, but I believe in contrast everyone should be incarcerated for a year to gain perspective on their life - the world may change for the better then.... Or maybe not!
I understand the uniqueness of Queen Elizabeth II's celebration, but I would not quite describe the people who conmemorate the death of so many innocent people in such tragic circumstances as September 11 in the terms you chose.
Goodness, I missed that. Surprised nobody reported it actually, it's certainly understandable if someone had flagged it...