queen elizabeth II

"Londoners". Aye, right.

Looks well worth the 30-hour wait

"your all londoners now"
— the austro-hungarian empire

dynastic rulers always were good at putting aside petty differences like religion or decades-long wars if their own legitimacy were being called into question. solidarity!

i mean the habsburgs literally started the first world war so "always good at" arrives a bit freighted with caveats here

true! i meant to say that my impression is that kings and queens have more in common with each other than with their own subjects regardless of what conflicts those subjects are notionally fighting each other for and they'd get into bed with each other in an instant - sometimes literally - if it meant not having to relinquish even 1% of the privileges they'd amassed

More in common as in they are actually related to each other usually.

... in Europe certainly.

They're mostly above mere nationality... or German, one of the two.

the two main reasons why the pundits of like 1913 were saying there wouldn't be a war were "our royals are all related and our markets favour integration and stability!"

however this wasn't quite correct

personally, I'd find something more fulfilling and less morbid to do than queueing for over 30 hours for a hurried viewing of the queen's box. I mean anything else would be better for your mental health ... bus spotting, making giant ice statues of Hitler, reading every Rothman's football yearbook from '89-99 etc etc

Been there done that... Rothman's Yearbook that is

Do they still do Rothman’s? I think a leaky shed roof finally finished off my late ‘70s editions :(

xp yep, I'm not sure when they finished but my brother has a huge collection of them. And in the pre-internet days they were invaluable for looking up season's from the past and re-living them.

I would mourn *their* passing. I’d probably queue for up to five minutes for a gander at the 1984-85 edition.

now i'm wondering where my grandad's cigarette card albums are

they were informative! without them i wd not know abt ancient lights or the hand of glory

I learned so much about geography and how to recognize nationalities by their names from those Rothman's books. So, yes, I can recognize a Swiss German surname from a German surname from an Austrian surname.

they were such an abrupt mixture: like "superstitions of the world" (interesting!) then you turn the page and it was "the ships of the white star line in 1935" (less so!)

true! i meant to say that my impression is that kings and queens have more in common with each other than with their own subjects regardless of what conflicts those subjects are notionally fighting each other for and they'd get into bed with each other in an instant - sometimes literally - if it meant not having to relinquish even 1% of the privileges they'd amassed

i have a bunch of PG Tips card books that my nan collected the cards for when i was little. just to tie thinks up nicely they include Play Better Soccer, introduced by Don Revie

lol no who are those dudes

xpost

those two shd have done a "parent trap"-style escapade during ww1

nicky boy and george v, the other cuz wilhelm ii was even more of an embarrassing tool than nicky lol

He can take all those medals and throw them in the bin.

Then there's this guy.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c5/1f/08/c51f08dd5e2483b6ca9d735a57f89808.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Kaiser_Wilhelm_II_of_Germany_-_1902%28cropped%29.jpg

Wilhelm II had this stache and when I was studying this guy for leaving cert history, my friend drew him on successive pages of my history book with the moustache curving higher on every page flipbook style - so whenever I hear his name I mentally think (like it’s a sub header): Kaiser Wilhem: Onward and Upward

Even by inbred German princeling standards - which all of them are - Wilhelm was outstandingly boorish and thick.

No less a source than Tatler reports that the Kaiser was considered embarrassing by his own family

On his annual trip to see his British relatives, Wilhelm was reportedly loud and aggressive, with his sense of humour leaving much to be desired. Meanwhile from the other side, it has been speculated that his British relatives mocked his attire, which was not right for the summer-casual aesthetic at Cowes, with its boat shoes and striped blazers.

The kaiser and the future king tried constantly to one-up each other with bigger, faster, flashier boats, with the German nephew desperate to impress his English uncle, who of course was known for his great fleet of naval ships.

In 1896, the kaiser had the biggest yacht yet built, the 121-ft long Meteor II, which he pitted against Edward's Britannia. After it won, the future king retired from racing at Cowes.


In 2008, reports emerged via the descendant of a bystander that the future king had punched his nephew, after he laughed at him for losing in a race. As Henry Brasted, son of local yachting specialist William Brasted, told the Daily Gazette: 'Kaiser Bill jeered King Teddy about the result, where straight away King Teddy hit him in the mouth, knocked him down, then stormed into the club.

yeah I remember reading about george v on a state visit to germany, and some german politicians were cringing at his behaviour and privately saying to the members of the british delegation "wish our inbred mofo was as smooth operator as yours is"

and the Ls keep coming

https://twitter.com/i/events/1570067556697784320

damn, that Psalm 139 rendition got me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqm3iJKHpH4

oh, it's a modern composition too: On 14 September 2022, he conducted his choral setting of Psalm 139 (1-18, 23-end) for the reception of the Queen's coffin at Westminster Hall.[4] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_O%27Donnell_(organist)

England rn pic.twitter.com/siYYsmKbL1

— Cameron Williams (@MrCamW) September 15, 2022

“Come and watch the Queen’s funeral at our sex club” pic.twitter.com/KrmP81UrMJ

— GrieveWatch (@GrieveWatch) September 15, 2022

Lol

Interesting how the monarchy is comparatively FAR more disruptive than unions on strike https://t.co/VZyt0cWC7H

— Laurie “Abolish Golf” Charles (@thestuffofmemes) September 14, 2022

Looking forward to those vox pops with stranded travellers

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcuvrGEWYAAl66E?format=jpg&name=medium

lol, this is actually real.

Our dead Queen had no charisma 🤝 Kieth

we have always been at war with vibrancy

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN'S LYING-IN-STATE QUEUE UPDATE, 09:50 AM, 16 Sept

Southwark Park has reached capacity. Entry will be paused for at least 6 hours. We are sorry for any inconvenience.

Please do not attempt to join the queue until it re-opens.

Check back for further updates pic.twitter.com/XMpyhOrme7

— Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (@DCMS) September 16, 2022

why do i feel like they're gaming this to some extent?

https://hl.nwaonline.com/news/2019/aug/25/dq-now-open-20190825/

I think this is worth keeping in mind too. It just feels bad bcz we assume the majority of ppl queueing are Tory and through this government they get their wish.

More people voted Green in England & Wales in the 2019 General Election than are expected to queue and view the Queen’s coffin. It’s a lot of people, but I don’t think it tells us a huge amount about national feeling let alone ideology.

— Tom Gann (@Tom_Gann) September 16, 2022

https://ny.eater.com/2014/5/29/6216399/manhattans-first-dairy-queen-opens-today

xp that's a bit of a bullshit argument, voting is easy. just because people don't want to travel to london and queue for twelve hours doesn't mean they aren't brown-nosed tory monarchists.

The sole protester outside Llandaff cathedral so far - watched by two police officers. pic.twitter.com/bCvrcNlfqu

— steven morris (@stevenmorris20) September 16, 2022

xp the point isn't that there are plenty more bootlickers out there, but that the queue itself is being used as a bullshit argument

just heard Conte joined the crowd outside Buckingham Palace, the sad bastard. Not a good idea to bow to people when you are wearing a syrup our kid!

"Fun, tiring but also exciting!"

8-year-old scout Freddy stayed up all night with his family and we caught up with him just before he reached Westminster Hall to pay his respects to the Queen.#KayBurley wx pic.twitter.com/wDrvs7U0pN

— Kay Burley (@KayBurley) September 16, 2022

when they're interviewing the people who are queuing to see the coffin, or going to see the proclamations of the new king in their town centre and stuff, particularly when they've brought their kids along with them, they say stuff like "I wanted to bring my kids to see this because it's something they'll remember for the rest of their lives", and I agree that before republicans get to down-hearted they should consider that for a lot of people this is less about any kind of fanatic devotion to the monarchy and more about wanting to be part of an historic moment, the fact that it's been so long since we had a change of monarch makes it seem more like an historic moment, like if Halley's comet was going past you might feel inclined to watch it even if you don't particularly care about comets, but because you knew this would be your only chance to see it. Or how you might want to watch as the odometer on your car turns over to a number with lots of zeros.

though of course the next change of monarch is probably going to come around a lot sooner unless Charles lives to be about 150