After 60 years, British monarchy remains "job for life"

By Anna Tomforde Feb 2, 2012, 2:06 GMT

London - From the moment she was called upon to accede to the British throne at the age of 25, there was no doubt in the mind of Queen Elizabeth II that hers would be a job for life.

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

The news that her father, King George VI, had died in his sleep in England reached Princess Elizabeth during a safari holiday at Kenya's famous Treetops Hotel - literally around the treetops - during the night of February 6, 1952.

'For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into a tree one day a Princess, and after having what she described as her most thrilling experience, she climbed down from the tree next day a Queen,' wrote a fellow-traveller in the visitors' book.

But for Elizabeth, the gravity of her task seemed clear. '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.

Sixty years on, royal observers agree that Elizabeth began her reign as she was to continue it - with a strong sense of duty, stoical commitment and unshakeable faith.

Queen Elizabeth is currently the longest-serving monarch after Queen Victoria, her great-great-grandmother, who reigned for more than 63 years - and could be on course to beat her record.

Seemingly in good health, the queen, a mother of four and wife to Prince Philip for 64 years, shows no sign of slowing down.

The monarch has seen a dozen 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.

'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.

The Daily Telegraph once went as far as calling her a 'superstar.'

'Her behaviour, from moments of the gravest national crisis to when a weeping tot presents her with a dead-head bouquet, is always nothing less than impeccable,' the paper wrote.

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

As young princesses, Elizabeth and her younger sister 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 mechanic and army truck driver.

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 support was needed in particular during the late 1980s and 1990s, when the 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.

Years of scandal and controversy surrounding Charles' affair with Camilla Parker Bowles were ended when he finally married his mistress in 2005.

The marriage marked the slow revival of the royal family's fortunes, which reached new heights with the fairytale wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in April, 2011.

'The comforting thing about the queen is that she hasn't changed at all', said commentator Chancellor, something that would explain the continued support of a steady 70 per cent of Britons for the monarchy.

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

'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.