DECRYPTION – Elizabeth II accompanied her country in the profound transformation that followed the Second World War. Particularly in the rise of its international cultural power.
Washington Correspondent
At the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953, Winston Churchill hailed the start of a “new Elizabethan era”. The return of “God Save the Queen” as the national anthem reminded her of her own youth, under the reign of another sovereign, Victoria. The impression of the “Old Lion” was premonitory. Seventy years later, Elizabeth II has become the third queen to leave her name to a momentous period in British history.
The first of these great sovereigns had been Elizabeth Ire. By the 16th century, the “Virgin Queen” (so nicknamed for her celibacy rather than her chastity) had given her small island kingdom in northwest Europe the foundations of her future power. The defeat of the Spanish Armada and the expeditions of the explorer corsairs, Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh, then marked the beginning of England’s maritime domination. Shakespeare and Marlowe give a language destined for planetary influence its…
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