Queen Elizabeth at 80 sees monarchy as 'a job for life'

By Anna Tomforde Apr 19, 2006, 16:03 GMT

London - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, who turns 80 on Friday, could be described as a superwoman.

She has spent more than two-thirds of her life on the throne, is a mother, a wife with nearly 60 years of marriage, and enjoys respect all over the world.

After 54 years on the throne, and seemingly in good health, the queen shows no sign of slowing down. For Prince Charles, at 57 her eldest son, the waiting goes on.

The monarch has seen nine prime ministers come and go and lived through the collapse of the British Empire, the Cold War, the first moon landing, the creation of the European Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Through all of this, she has always personified tradition and stability while at the same time remaining a source of mystery and intrigue.

'There is no one in the country more familiar to us than she is. But we have little idea of what she really is like. This means we are free to endow her with whatever characteristics we would like her to have', said journalist Alexander Chancellor about the queen's staying power.

Royal observers agree that Elizabeth began her reign as she was to continue it - with an enormous sense of duty, stoical commitment and unshakeable faith.

It was at Sagana Lodge, near Nairobi in Kenya, where Princess Elizabeth, just 25, was given the news on February 6, 1952, that her father, George VI, had died in his sleep that morning.

'She sat upright at her desk, accepting her destiny. Her feelings were deep, deep inside her,' reported her private secretary at the time.

Overnight, Princess Elizabeth had become queen. 'I pray that God will help me discharge worthily this heavy task that has been laid upon me so early in my life,' she said at the time.

But already much earlier, in 1936, when her uncle, Edward VIII, abdicated over his intended marriage to American divorcee Wallis Simpson, and Elizabeth's father became king, it had been clear that the young princess' life would change forever.

'Does that mean that you're going to be queen?' her younger sister, Princess Margaret, inquired. 'Yes, I suppose it does,' Elizabeth replied. 'Poor thing,' was Margaret's comment.

In 1947, in a message to the Commonwealth during a visit to South Africa, marking her 21st birthday, Elizabeth showed the same acceptance and determination.

'I declare before you that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.'

If the sudden and premature death of her beloved father shaped Elizabeth, so did her experience of World War II, royal watchers believe.

As young princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret spent the war years at Windsor Castle, where they remember retreating to the dungeons below as Luftwaffe bombers screamed overhead, royal biographer Jennie Bond recorded.

Elizabeth, keen to 'play her part in the war effort', persuaded her parents to allow her to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service, which she finally did in April 1945, serving as a a mechanic and army truck driver.

In a broadcast to the empire, soon after the outbreak of war, she had said: 'When peace comes, remember it will be for us, the children of today, to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place.'

In November, 1947, Elizabeth, in a fairytale wedding at Westminster Abbey, married her distant cousin, the dashing Prince Philip of Greece, whom she had met - and by all accounts fallen for - ten years earlier during her father's coronation.

The Duke of Edinburgh, of Greek, Danish and German descent, has, despite turbulences in their long-lasting marriage, always been the queen's 'rock'.

That was needed in particular during the late 1980s and 1990s, when the British monarchy was plunged into a series of scandals and crises that culminated in the divorce of three of the queen's four children.

In 1992, when the unrelenting scrutiny of the royals was at its peak, and the separation of Prince Charles from the late princess Diana was announced, the queen said the year had turned out to be her 'Annus Horribilis.'

Worse was to come with the death of Diana, in 1997, and personal criticism of the queen, seen then by 72 per cent of the population as being 'out of touch' for not joining in the public grief for Diana.

Acting quickly to contain the damage, the queen, at the urging of Tony Blair, her 10th prime minister, lowered the flag on Buckingham Palace to half-mast and agreed to a state funeral for the princess.

Similar pragmatism, or acceptance of the inevitable, eventually prevailed in the long years of scandal over Charles' affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, whom he married in 2005.

Three years earlier, in 2002, the Queen had lost her mother, the 'Queen Mum', at the age of 101, and her sister, Princess Margaret, within a few weeks.

By the middle of that year, millions of Britons turned out to celebrate the queen's 50th jubilee.

'The comforting thing about the queen is that she hasn't changed at all', Chancellor explained the continued support of a steady 70 per cent of Britain's for the monarchy.

The queen, he said, made Britons feel secure, and even those who opposed could 'find nothing for which she deserves punishment.'

It is, perhaps then, the knowledge, or fear of change, that keeps the queen secure in her job.

'For so long as she lives, we will be spared the constitutional crisis that will one day confront us. Long may she reign', Chancellor said.