LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II lives on at the Cool Britannia gift shop across the road from Buckingham Palace.
the shop is doing a brisk business in mugs, tea towels and key rings bearing the likeness of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch as the nation marks the centenary of her birth on Tuesday. Well, not so much.
“We still sell more than the king any day,’’ said Ismail Ibrahim, the store’s manager.
The looms over the monarchy after a 70-year reign that saw her evolve from the glamorous young sovereign who cheered Britain during the gloomy post-war years to the beloved national grandmother who rallied the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Still ‘the queen’
When she died in September 2022, had ever known. Even now, mention of “the queen†is more likely to evoke thoughts of Elizabeth than of Charles' wife.
But the passage of time has also tarnished the late queen’s legacy. While she is celebrated as a symbol of tradition and continuity who helped unite Britain as the end of empire, economic struggles and mass migration changed the nation’s perception of itself, revelations about the former Prince Andrew’s links to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have raised questions about why she let the problem fester for years.
“Despite her absence, Elizabeth II remains this key presence whenever we think about the monarchy,’’ Ed Owens, author of “After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?’’ told The Associated Press.
“She’s certainly the most significant figure in the history of the institution in the last 100 years and, I think, therefore deserves probably the attention that’s going to be focused on her in connection with what would have been her 100th birthday.â€
The festivities include a Buckingham Palace reception where will congratulate centenarians who share the late monarch's birthday, and the dedication of a memorial garden at Regent's Park in central London. is already underway.
An unexpected reign
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor wasn’t meant to wear the crown. Born on April 21, 1926, she started her long life not in a castle but at 17 Bruton St., a townhouse in London’s Mayfair district.
As the elder daughter of King George V’s second son, Elizabeth was expected to live the life of a minor royal. Dogs and horses, a country house, a suitable match — a comfortable but somewhat anonymous life — seemed her future.
But destiny intervened. A decade after Elizabeth’s birth, her uncle King Edward VIII abdicated to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Elizabeth’s father became King George VI, thrusting the young princess into the spotlight as heir to throne.
Elizabeth became queen the day her father died on Feb. 6, 1952. Just 25, she heard the news in Kenya and hurried home to take up her duties.
Global ambassador
For decades, she presided over the annual opening of Parliament in crown and ermine robe, hosted banquets for visiting leaders at Buckingham Palace and made thousands of appearances across the U.K., often wearing brightly colored suits of their queen.
She also making more than that helped bolster ties with one-time colonies from India to Tanzania, former enemies Germany and Japan and long-time friends such as the United States.
Late in life, the queen became an internet star when she and James Bond star Daniel Craig used moviemaking sleight of hand to parachute into the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics and to celebrate her
The king recalled his mother's impact on people around the world in a video tribute released Tuesday.
“Millions will remember her for moments of national significance; many others for a fleeting personal encounter, a smile, a kind word that lifted spirits, or for that marvelous twinkle of the eye when sharing a marmalade sandwich with Paddington Bear in the final months of her life,'' he said.
In a world of relentless change, she moved with the times — applauding the nation’s successes and consoling Britons during difficult times, , Robert Hardman, author of “Elizabeth II: In private. In public. The Inside Story,’’ told the AP.
Scandal's shadow
But those accomplishments make her failure to end the scandal surrounding even more glaring.
, questionable business dealings and unsavory friends, Andrew spent 10 years as Britain’s special envoy for international trade and remained a the details of were revealed last year. In an effort to shield the monarchy , Charles fi . He is now known simply as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
“He was problematic and that gave her cause for worry,’’ Hardman said. “But I do think people let him have an easy ride because they thought if they came down hard on him, they might somehow upset the queen. Now that’s partly attributable to her, but partly attributable to others.â€
Besides, her “great achievements’’ far outweighed any errors, Hardman said.
Elizabeth took the throne as a young woman with two small children at a time before jet travel existed and no one had even thought of going to the moon, then remained a constant presence in British public life across generations.
“She just reigned through this vast span of the ages and was as authoritative and loved and respected at the end as she was at the beginning,†Hardman said. “And she was working till the very end, ‘til her last day.â€
As historians debate the queen’s legacy, members of the public are making their own judgements.
Take Sylvie Deneux, and her daughter Clara, who stopped by Cool Britannia during a visit to London from their home in Lille, France.
They praised the late monarch for her elegance and described her as an icon. But when asked about Mountbatten-Windsor, Sylvie Deneux, 49, paused and looked at her daughter. Failing to quickly quash the scandal was a mistake, she said. But Deneux could still muster sympathy for Elizabeth, because she made those decisions as a mother, not as a queen.
“Can we blame her?’’ she asked. “I’m not sure.â€
