The celebrations of the Queen’s 90th birthday, which will take place at Windsor Castle next week, will have a strong focus on spectacle and entertainment. However, there is a more serious aspect to monarchy — its sacred and spiritual dimension, which arguably stands at the heart of the institution and is its ultimate raison d’étre.
British kings and queens have historically had a spiritual significance and aura which have been just as significant as their constitutional role. Anointed and consecrated at their coronations, they derive their ultimate authority from above rather than below and have been understood in sacramental rather than political terms. Shakespeare captured it when he remarked in Hamlet: “There’s such divinity doth hedge a king.” We may have abandoned as a nation the Stuart concept of the divine right of kings and the belief, still held by a third of the UK population at the time of the Queen’s coronation, that the monarch is specially chosen by God, but royalty still inspires essentially spiritual feelings of reverence, respect and affection.
From the time of her coronation, the Queen has taken her anointing and consecration very seriously and has expressed her understanding of the religious basis of monarchy and the exercise of its spiritual function in a sacrificial commitment to duty and public service and a sure and steadfast Christian faith fortified and nourished through regular church.
A very high proportion of the occasions when the sovereign and other members of the royal family are most visible and have the highest public profile are essentially religious in character — the annual act of remembrance at the Cenotaph, the Royal Maundy service, the Garter service at Windsor, royal weddings and funerals and services of national thanksgiving and remembrance at St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, as well as the well-publicised appearances at holiday times in the parish churches of Sandringham and Crathie, near Balmoral. The fact that we so often see the Queen in the context of a church service reinforces the impression of the monarchy as a sacred as much as a secular institution.
The Queen has reached out to other faiths in her Christmas broadcasts, which have become more spiritual and personal over the years, commending not only the Bible, from which she has frequently quoted, but also the sacred texts of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Sikhism. She has increasingly come to assume the role of “Defender of Faith”, first proposed by Prince Charles in a television documentary in 1994 when he suggested that rather than just defending the Protestant Christian faith, the monarch should stand for faith in more general terms, expressing a sense of the divine and the spiritual dimension of life in an increasingly secular society.
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The Queen’s quiet assumption of this role has interesting implications for the future of monarchy. Like other aspects of the institution, it is profoundly countercultural at a time when polls show that more and more of the British people are non-believers and indifferent to religion. It gives royalty greater significance for those who do have faith, notably Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs as well as committed Protestant and Catholic Christians. It is among these minorities that monarchy, with its traditional sacred associations and symbols, will perhaps find its greatest supporters in the future.
Hopefully, the celebration next week and throughout this summer will help to foster a sense of common identity and belonging in our fractured society. Although it has had its own trials and tribulations over the past 60 years, monarchy remains rather more valued and respected today than many of our other national institutions. This is thanks in no small part to the dedication and demeanour of the Queen but it also reflects its transcendent and spiritual dimension. As Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London, reflects, “the capacity of the monarchy to act as a focus for unity and to point to a realm of shared values, beyond partisan conflict, continues to be impressive.”
It is perhaps too much to hope that in what is becoming a more aggressively secular society, the monarchy can help to re-sacralise as well as re-unite our country. As we celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday, maybe there will also be time to reflect on the deeper and more transcendent aspects of monarchy that the Queen has expressed and lived out throughout her long reign.
The Very Rev Dr Ian Bradley is principal of St Mary’s College, St Andrews University and author of God Save the Queen: The Spiritual Heart of Monarchy