The Identity of The United Kingdom under the Ruling of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II

The Identity of The United Kingdom under the Ruling of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth

by Dakota Payette

The Identity of The United Kingdom under the Ruling of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth

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Abstract

My experience for this milestone is to hopefully dive into pre and post World War II Great Britain and see how King George VI change the role of the monarchy and its transition from an Empire to a Commonwealth. I want to see the changes that he made and how those changes impacted Queen Elizabeth II and her early ruling as Queen of the Commonwealth. I previous took a British Empire class at WPI that dived into Great Britain between the American Revolution and Brexit. One memorable piece of the class was writing an essay on The King's Speech, which was about King George VI overcoming his stammer issue. It really got me thinking about how King George VI ruled during his time as king and what changes he made to the monarchy. Queen Elizabeth II was the first and so far only monarch to rule under the changes made by King Charles VI. I want to look at how those changes affected the ruling style between King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II.

Introduction

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As you continue to think about your project milestones, reread the "Goals" narrative on defining project milestones from the HU2900 syllabus. Remember: the idea is to have equip your milestone with a really solid background and then some sort of "thing that you do". You'll need to add in some narrative to describe why you did the "thing that you did", which you'd probably want to do anyway. You can make it easy for your advisors to give you a high grade by ensuring that your project milestone work reflects careful, considerate, and comprehensive thought and effort in terms of your background review, and insightful, cumulative, and methodical approaches toward the creative components of your project milestone deliverables.

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Section 1: The Life and Reign of King George VI

The Life and Reign of King George VI

Location	King George VI and his wife Elizabeth's grave at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle
Photo taken by	Dakota Payette

King George VI did not expect to take to the throne so quickly. He was the second son of King George V, the reigning monarch of England during World War I. George VI fell into the same pattern as his father since both were the younger sibling and were not expected to take the throne. This project will dive into the life of King George VI and look at how he rose to power in England. Once he became King, he had to deal with Nazi Germany and their aggression in Europe and later on World War II. He would face the unprecedented challenge of changing the role of the monarchy as Britain changed from an Empire to a Commonwealth.

Life Before King of England

King George VI was born in 1895 as the second son of King George V, but he was known as Albert until he accessed to the throne. His older brother, who would later become King Edward VII, was the heir apparent as they were growing up. Albert lived in the shadows of his older brother for their entire childhood. Most of the spotlight was on Edward since he was directly next in line for the throne, and their father was already getting old.
It was hard for Albert growing up however, since he was dealing with many different illnesses that hindered his public appearance. Even though he had these illnesses, he still battled against them and tried to display his courage. While he was serving as a naval cadet in Osborne, he came down with a server attack of pneumonia. The illnesses almost made him stop serving as a cadet, but he was able to continue on once he beat the illness. During the early months of World War I, he had to take a leave of absence from duty to get treated for appendicitis. Even still after the appendicitis incident, he wanted to continue on serving in the war. Many other members of the royal family were helping serve for the war efforts and he wanted to help. However, in 1917, injuries and surgery would strike again for him. He was treated for a duodenal ucler, but this would operation would be the last for him.
Once the war was over, Albert realized the importance of staying fit and healthy and keeping in touch with the doctors and nurses who treated him. Keeping involved with medicine was a thing that his father knew the importance of since he was older when he accessed to the throne. King George V knew that he had to stay healthy as long as he was king. With Albert, he was close with the British Empire Cancer Campaign. During his stent in the House of Lords, he led that campaign right up until he took the throne. That would occur in December of 1936, but not in the way many people thought it would happen.
Being the second of two sons, Albert never really imagined he would become king. His older brother would inherit the throne before him and become king. However, Edward insisted on marrying a previously divorced American women. Since the monarch is the head of both England and the Church of England, the monarch could not marry someone who was previously divorced. Edward picked his love over being king, which means he had to abdicate the throne, giving a clear path for Albert to become king.
By the time Albert, now King George VI, took the throne, Edward's short legacy blasted a huge blow to the monarchy. Its public appearance had been damaged by Edward abdicating the throne and leaving it in the hands of a man with a sickly past. The monarchy was unstable as now three different kings had sat on the throne, and that hindered the appearance of the monarch in the eyes of the citizens in the Empire.

Transformation of The United Kingdom and The Crown into a Commonwealth

King George VI had a rough start his reign due to the fact that his older brother abdicated. It was not a good start for him at all. The other bad part about him coming into power was the impeded issue of Germany which was gaining great power under Adolf Hitler. Germany was a scary threat to the rest of the world, and war would eventually break out in 1939. Britain wouldn't be harmed during the first year of the war, but that changed in 1940 with the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe would terrorize London and the surrounding areas between the beginning of September of 1940 until the end of November.
The United Kingdom and the rest of the Allied Powers would prevail on May 8th, 1945, when Adolf Hitler committed suicide and Germany surrendered. It was a celebratory day all over Europe. Victory in Europe marked a great change in England, however. After going through two world wars in a span of 30 years, the wars had taken a toll on all the empires in Europe. England's Empire was no stranger to this as they started to lose global power while the United States and Soviet Union rose. In response to this decline in power, England had to to change its position internally.
England changed from an Empire to a Commonwealth for the better. In definition, the British change from an Empire to a Commonwealth of Nations was a long term effect of what happened during the American Revolution. King George VI realized this after the World War II when India and South Africa started to rise in power. The British could no longer control other nations that were part of their Empire. If they did keep the Empire going, they ran the risk of repeating what happening in the American Revolution. He realized that instead of keeping the countries in their Empire separate from the outside world, it would hurt them in the long run as other countries started to develop. It would be better for them to have the ability to work alongside the United States with their new Commonwealth of Nations.
The break up of the Empire and transition into a Commonwealth of Nations was the first time since the English Civil War in the 1650s where England was no longer an Empire. Oliver Cromwell tried to set up a provisional government with no monarch, but it wouldn't last after his death. Now that England was no longer an Empire, the monarch was no longer the King or Queen of the Empire. Instead, the head of state title was change to the Head of the Commonwealth. Back in the British Empire, the Kind or Queen was the head of everything, but in the Commonwealth, they held little power. That power had been transferred to the Houses of Parliament and different new Cabinet positions while the King or Queen had become nothing more than a remembrance of the past.
The Commonwealth, however, is not a political alliance of nations. Instead, it's a collection of nations formed out of the ashes of the old British Empire. Countries can leave the Commonwealth if they would like to. It was more practical for Britain to transform into a Commonwealth because of the situation in India. India and Pakistan shared land borders with Communist Asia and were becoming more independent. It would be better for them in the long run to join the Commonwealth, so that is exactly what they did when the British Empire collapsed.
A scenario for this was drawn up in 1917 when dominions of the Empire came together, and they stated that if the Empire should collapse, they would create a new constitution that "made it no longer constitutional for the King to act for the Dominions, or for the United Kingdom Parliament to legislate for them, without their advice and consent." Even though they had agreed to this back in 1917, it didn't stick well with South Africa and Canada when the time came for the creation of the Commonwealth. They, along with Australia and New Zealand, didn't like the feeling of being tied to a written constitution for creating the foundation of the Commonwealth. They would rather see the Commonwealth be a collection of nations that had the freedom to come and go as they please. King George VI acknowledged these terms with the countries who were once part of the Empire.
England had formally transitioned from an Empire to a Commonwealth in 1949. King George VI would be the last British Emperor of India and the first Head of the Commonwealth. The United Kingdom is at the head of the Commonwealth, and since 1949, many members have joined. In total, there are 52 member countries that are a part of the Commonwealth, and there are 18 countries from Africa, 13 from the Americas and Caribbean, 11 from the Pacific. seven from Asia, and three from Europe (including the United Kingdom). The major countries that are a part of the Commonwealth include Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Section 2: The Life and Reign of Queen Elizabeth II

The Life and Reign of Queen Elizabeth II

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Queen Elizabeth II is the longest reigning monarch in English history and around the world. She took the throne after her father, King George VI, passed away in 1952 after a long battle with illnesses. She was the first monarch to inherit the title Head of The Commonwealth from her father. Her reign as Queen of England and Head of the Commonwealth has been very fortunate for the whole of England.

Life Before Queen of England

Queen Elizabeth was born in 1926 as the first of two daughters by King George VI. Her sister, Margaret Rose,was born in 1930, but the spotlight was Elizabeth. The family wasn't involved in many royal duties since George was the younger of two brothers, but that all changed when his older brother, Edward VII, abdicated the throne in 1936. That put Elizabeth second in line for the throne, and that is when she realized that life was about to change for all of them.
It was at her father's coronation that she realized just how important she had become. Elizabeth and her sister were now firmly in the spotlight with their father being the King of England.
When it came to education, her and her sister were taught privately by a two tutors, one a French resident by the name of Vicomtesse de Bellaigue who taught the girls French. The other was Sir Henry Marten, who was the Vice Provost of Eton College. Together, these two would help the sister with their education while staying away from the public view. This was decided upon by their mother, who thought it would be better for her daughters to be taught in private rather than be faced with going to public schooling.
With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the sisters lived with their parents in Buckingham Palace, riding out the Luftwaffe in 1940 in central London with everyone else. King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, wanted to stay in central London to keep public moral high during the troubling times. Towards the end of the war, Elizabeth joined Auxiliary Territorial Service, which was the women's division of the British Army. She would stay in England however since her parents wouldn't allow her to travel into mainland Europe.
While the whole of Europe was celebrating victory over Germany, Elizabeth and her family were planning her wedding. Elizabeth had fallen in love with Prince Philip of Greece. He had taken her and Margaret under his protection when he guided them through Royal Navy Academy in Dartmouth. He was her long distant cousin with their only relative being the late Queen Victoria. He ended up proposing to her during the war, but was later told that the ceremony would have to wait until after the war was over. The Royal Family had planned a trip to South Africa during 1947, and Elizabeth and Philip needed to blessings from King George VI before the wedding could be announced to the public.
Elizabeth and Philip, along with Margaret, began shouldering some of the responsibilities that were reserved for the King when his health started to decline in the later 1940s. Eventually, King George VI was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1951 and had to cancel state trips that were planned across the Commonwealth. Being next in line for the throne, Elizabeth and Philip insisted the trip be reschedule so they could go on it. It was eventually rescheduled for the beginning of 1952. The first country that they had planned to visit was Kenya, but they had to cut their trip much shorter than planned. Only a few days into their trip, King George VI died in his sleep. It was a solemn plane ride home from Kenya. Elizabeth was now Queen Elizabeth II, and she was greeted by Lord Woolton, Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, and Winston Churchill when her and Philip returned from Kenya. Her reign as Queen of England and Head of the Commonwealth is a reign that no one expected.

Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and Head of the Commonwealth

Queen Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey on June 2nd, 1953, over a year after the death of her father, the late King George VI. He reign would end up lasting a lot longer than most people would expect, going all the way from her cornination in 1953 until the present day.
Her reign presided over an interesting time for England as the continued their transition from an Empire to a Commonwealth. The Commonwealth had started in 1947, but not many countries had joined the Commonwealth. Still were some connected to the British Empire and joined after the formation of the Commonwealth. The countries that joined after the formation of the Commonwealth during Queen Elizabeth II's reign are listed below in the table.

Countries who joined Commonwealth after 1953

1960	Nigeria	1961	Cyprus, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania	1962	Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uganda
1963	Kenya	1964	Malawi, Malta, and Zambia	1965	Singapore
1966	Barbados, Botswana, Guyana, and Lesotho	1968	Mauritius, Nauru, and Swaziland	1970	Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga
1972	Bangladesh	1973	Bahamas	1974	Grenada
1975	Papua New Guinea	1976	Seychelles	1978	Dominica
1979	Kiribati, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	1980	Vanuatu	1981	Antigua and Barbuda and Belize
1983	Saint Kitts and Nevis	1984	Brunei	1990	Namibia
1995	Cameroon and Mozambique	2009	Rwanda

Section 3: Timeline of Important Events

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In this section, provide your contribution, creative element, assessment, or observation with regard to your background research. This could be a new derivative work based on previous research, or some parallel to other events. In this section, describe the relationship between your background review and your deliverable; make the connection between the two clear.

Timeline of King George VI

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Timeline of Queen Elizabeth II

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Conclusion

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