Hi dear Panpanpan,
We consider the Queen and the Governor General of Canada who is her representative in Canada as another layer of authority that can be calledupon in extreme circumstances, if needed, to cause certain governmental things to occur or not to occur. The need would be exceptionally rare, but the provision is there if need be.
The Queen or representative cannot act here of their own free will. They only would do it if something has gone dreadfully wrong in parliament or with
the government. It would be done only after consultation with high authorities
in Canada. It is a sort of safety valve. Our governmental system has many checks and balances and this is one of them.
So far as reverencing royalty is concerned, for many people it is a little like
an interest in famous movie stars. People from the USA are far more interested
in British royalty than are Canadians. That is odd because they got rid of the
British and royalty during their Revolutionary War at the end of the 1700's. It
seems they still wish for a little old tradition and fairy-tale glamour.
Diana Princess of Wales won the average person's respect because of her courage.
She was willing to embrace people with AIDS when this was not done. This set
an example and reassured others that it was safe to talk with and touch, people
with AIDS. Before that they were more or less treated as pariahs. She did many other very compassionate things that were high examples and brought her the love of the general populations. As her working activities were reported all over
the world she became a leader of conscience. For instance, she took a stand against land mines. So far as her personal life was concerned people were also interested, but I think that was that family's own business. They, like most families, had a lot to live through, and they had to do it in the public spotlight.
The fascination with living royalty's personal lives is part of the movie star
adulation.
So far as glamour is concerned, Diana became an advertisement for British fashion. She brought trade abd colour to England, just as the red phone boxes, the red double decker busses and Big Ben did. They all represented a certain appeal of that kingdom.
The King and Queen of England, the present Queen's parents, very courageously stayed in London during the Battle of Britain and all through WWII. They went out
and mixed with their people to give them courage and to help to set an example
of bravery. The present queen and her sister served in the British military, repairing vehicles and acting as a driver, and wearing the usual uniform of persons of their rather low rank. They actually did the work. This was not pretend war service, as it all happened while bombs were falling all over the place. This courage and ability of their royalty to rally the people's spirits and keep up
their courage was invaluable to the country. It was also a good lesson to the
whole British Commonwealth of nations. The English had a lot to do with our form of parliamentary government, which has worked well for us.
The history of British royalty is colourful. That is one reason for interest in
it. Another reason for me is that it is possible to look at a line of
many generations of people of the same lineage, and see how their lives played out from generation to generation. Some were stupid. Some were wise. Some were
avaricious. Some were forced to marry. Some had many wives. How did they respond to various pressures? How did England get out from under the thumb of the
Pope? Who inherited appearance and qualities from forefathers. That in itself
is a very interesting study, and gives an example of how we all inherit characteristics that skip generations or spread out into our wider family members whom we may never meet, but who look and act much like us.
English foreign policy has had effects all around the world. Also, their kings
and queens are a way of maintaining mental markers to which to attach various facts of the histories of their times. Royalty were always so prominent with lives and actions fully and intimately documented, so there is very little hidden in
lives, decisions and the effects of their actions on their lives and times. These are some of the reason I find English history interesting. For instance, I
attach the beginning of tobacco use to the time of Elizabeth I and the formation
of the Church of England (Anglican) to the time of Henry VIII, father of Elizabeth I. Elizabeth I used every wile and trick in her brilliant woman's brain to
keep her country out of war, and during her reign of about 50 years the English
were not involved in wars. This was an astonishing accomplishment. Her father
Henry VIII depleted the English treasury. Elizabeth I, more like her grandfather in that way, left England with a full treasury and a superb navy that became the reason for English dominance of the seas, and ultimately for its empire. She
maintained a royal court that encouraged all kinds of talent and brimmed with accomplishment. Elizabeth I of England is one of my personal heroes.
The father of the present queen was a shy man who never thought he would become
king, and was glad of that. His brother the Duke of Windsor abdicated the throne because he insisted on marrying an American divorcee; suddenly the shy brother
became king. The shy brother and his loving Scottish wife were the ones who rallied their people during WWII while the brother seems to have been friends with
Nazis and his reputation is somewhat marred as research goes on.
How did these families originally become royalty? Well, Henry VII is said to have plucked the crown from a thorn bush after he beat the Plantagenet king in battle. He was an able commander, and a man with brains, which is why he was able
to continue the kingship. He could handle money and he was something of a tightwad. His accounting abilities filled the English treasury, so that it was full
to overflowing when he died, and was succeeded by his son Henry VIII, who spent
most of it. These Henrys and Elizabeth I and so on were Tudor monarchs.
Present British monarchs are of German descent. Their name was anglicized to Windsor for political reasons, as you can imagine, since there were two world wars
with Germany in the 1900s involved.
I am not a royalist. I didn't even go downtown in Niagara Falls to see the Queen and Prince Phillip pass by on tour in Canada, but I do think that there is plenty of reason for me to be interested in British history, quite apart from the fact that "Good Queen Anne" of England was the one who allowed my German Palatine
seventh great-grandparents, the Kasts, and others in the same difficulties to escape dire famine and religious persecution in Germany, and to come to British North America at the opening of the 1700's. On documents preserved in the British Museum, London, they are listed as being in the third party of Palatines at St
. Catherine's (London, England) June 2, 1709 and arrived by English ship in New
York in 1710. Many people here in North America have ancient roots that somehow
entwine with England's, France's, Holland's, and even Spain's, as do my own. More recent roots of newercomes here are from many other places, but may still have British influence entwined. For instance the Ukrainians who were known as Sefton's settlers were settled in our prairie provinces because that vast, rich and difficult part of our land needed to be populated, and Lord Sefton had ascertained that Ukrainian "men in sheepskin coats" were a good hardy stock that would
be able to withstand weather conditions there, and prosper. And so it has happened exactly as expected.
North American history is heavily entwined with the histories of French, Dutch,
Spanish and British explorers and colonizers on this continent. Happenings here
were affected by those country's battles and behaviours elsewhere in the world.
For instance, my sixth great-grandfather was killed in the Battle of Bloody Pond in Upper New York State during The French and Indian War. That is what it is
known as in the USA, but in Europe it is called the Seven Years War and there were many battlefront in many parts of the world. My sixth great grandfather's death there ultimately caused a whole cascade of events, that took my ancestors to the British side agains the French in the American Revolutionary War, and brought them ultimately to Canada as refugees from that Revolution.
As I research my ancestry I see the surnames of thousands of people I've known in my long life. Names of teachers, neighbours, fellow students, friends, politicians, merchants, and everyone else imaginable. That is because we allcame from the same areas of the world, and there is much more blood interrelationship that anyone could ever imagine. This is still going on as
newcomers to the country marry into people with old names from other regions, and the building of a vast and inter-related world family goes on here in this very mixed race country and continent.
So, if one day one of your children marries a Canadian or US citizen and has a family their children will find themselves with roots in all these heritages and
histories, just as I have. If they care to look. The same goes for your wonderful heritage. A North American marrying one of you will share your
ancestral roots and qualities. It really is quite wonderful, you see. :-)
All this history you mentioned in your post, while unknown and meaningless to other parts of the world or to those who don't know anything much about their own
ancestry may seem meaningless. To those vast numbers of descendents and partakers in the British form of government in the world it means a lot.
With warm affection, Mary
