King Charles III and the Second Elizabethan Age

King Charles III airs this weekend on Masterpiece, a Shakepearan style historical drama about history that hasn't actually happened yet. We reflect on the end of the second Elizabethan Age and the anxiety about it that has brought about such a drama before its time.

Just a couple of weeks ago, on April 21st, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary turned 91 years old. On June 2nd, just a few weeks from now, we will celebrate the 64th year since her coronation as Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In between these milestones, her husband, Prince Philip, announced that he would begin a planned retirement from royal duties. When someone said to the 96-year-old they were sorry to see him stand down, he noted that at this point he can hardly stand up.

The average life expectancy, as modern medicine becomes ever more sophisicated, has gone from the age of 40 in the 1800s to 50 for a woman in 1900 to 83 in the current century. Elizabeth's father, King George VI, lived to age 57, and only reigned a couple of decades of his life. This is true for the other British monarchs of the 1900s as well, all of whom reigned for 10-25 years apiece (skipping Edward VIII who abdicated and doesn't count). Elizabeth is the longest lived monarch in British history, the longest reining Queen Regent in the world, as well as the world's oldest reigning monarch and the longest-serving current head of state. David Bowie, who passed last year, was five years old when she became Queen. George Michael was born, lived and died never knowing any anthem but "God Save The Queen" and that Queen was Elizabeth. She has, at this point, lived so long that those who were of-age adults and remember the protocols of what to do when a monarch dies and the crown is passed on are all pushing 100. If she keeps it up, she may outlive them too.