A chara, – The pageantry of the funeral cortege of Queen Elizabeth from Buckingham Palace to Westminster was impressive. And disturbing.
As she was supreme commander of all the military forces of the kingdom for over 70 years (albeit with authority delegated to the prime minister and the defence secretary), the military participation may appear fitting. But the military event, with the coffin transported on a gun-carriage and members of the royal family in military uniform for the funeral, was so totally overwhelming as to present an image which dominates almost all else, including Queen Elizabeth’s community and reconciliation activities. The pageantry raises the spectre of brutal end-of-empire conflicts which marred the reign of Queen Elizabeth: actions taken in her name, even if she had little power to change them. It reminds peoples around the world who were subjugated by Britain that British military power has not gone away.
Talk of an “imperial family” tries to conceal this. One does not form a family by violence and maintain it by subjugation. Nor does a claim that Britain’s civilising mission around the world has been a triumph eliminate the record.
Even medicine was made to serve. An article by Anna Greenwood of the University of Nottingham (The Lancet, September 3rd, 2022) concludes: “Medicine was far from neutral and was wielded as an instrument of colonial hegemony, with all its dangerous assumptions.”
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Caroline Elkins of Harvard University, author of Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire (2022), writes: “The issues demanding sharper focus are how and why extraordinary coercion, endemic to the structures and systems of British rule, was deployed, and what methods Britain used to cover it up.”
British historian Stuart Laycock in his 2012 book All the Countries We’ve Ever Invaded: And the Few We Never Got Round To, reports in a survey of 200 of the world’s countries that, in one shape or form, Great Britain has invaded all but 22 of them.
This is not a personal attack on Queen Elizabeth. She was part of the system and culture. Similar criticisms can be made of other political powers, including in our contemporary world.
The question now for King Charles III is whether he and his successors will take steps to break the mould and address the dark side of the historical record candidly.
It would be good to see far less military pomp at the funeral on Monday of a woman for whom many have great affection. – Is mise,
PÁDRAIG McCARTHY,
Dublin 16.