What made the Queen so good at her job?

Queen Elizabeth II of England (I of Scotland) was very good at her job, but why was this? What are the ideal qualities of a modern constitutional monarch? I stand in a dark shirt and talk.

End photograph by Jazzy Lemon.

It has been pointed out to me that the officers who attempted a coup in Spain in 1981 were 'Civil Guard' and not 'army' as I said. This is a distinction which exists in Spain but not in Britain.

Buy tat (merch):

More videos here:

Lindybeige: a channel of archaeology, ancient and medieval warfare, rants, swing dance, travelogues, evolution, and whatever else occurs to me to make.

▼ Follow me...

My website:

Channel page:

[Luckyfeller]

I "met" the Queen in Sydney in 1992 when I was 11 years old. I was trying to get a better vantage point and pushed some friends out of the way. She called me a "Rude little boy". My claim to fame is that I tell my friends that I am rude, by royal decree.

[dmk_games]

LindyBeige is too modest. He said he was going to paraphrase Boris but then quoted him exactly with an exact impersonation of his voice and mannerisms.

[donnietreece]

Nothing can clear a short-term schedule quite like a Lindybeige video.

[eugeniusmorar]

Can we just take a moment to appreciate, that Lindy combed his hair and didn't even wear BEIGE for Her Majesty

[admiralmacbar]

My Grandfather was an Architect in the British Railways. He met the Queen a few times (one time of which was recieving an MBE for his work in the railways). The first time he met her as far as I recall was at the opening of a new ward in a hospice in Scotland, which he did a lot of charity work for. It was the usual 'how do you do, what do you do' type affair.

A year or two later he's at the opening of a train station and the Queen is there doing her duty. My Grandpa wasn't supposed to be there, and therefore wasn't on the list that the Royal staff would have to brief the Queen on who she's meeting. He joins the end of the line anyway to meet her, and before he can properly introduce himself she says "Oh, how are the people of (The name of the Hospice?)"

My Grandpa prompty stood there agape that she would remember him and what he did, completely unbriefed - a year or two after the fact!

Regardless of your opinion on the Monarchy itself, she was a remarkable person.

[kam_iko]

fun fact from the non-english speaking world: in many countries (in this case, czechia/slovakia), Charles was always Charles, but the moment he became king, his first name was translated and he’s now referred to as Karel III (czech) and Karol III (slovak). same with queen, who was referred to as Alžbeta II (czech/slovak).

[donnietreece]

Absolutely collapsed when you did the Boris impression; thank you.

[faknugget]

My dads aunt & uncle had a cottage on the coast on one of the roads you have to drive on if you want to go to Balmoral estate. He spent many summers at that cottage on holiday and would reminisce about how his uncle kept a bowling green quality lawn and had the most beautiful garden.

Well, one day my great uncle got a knock on the door and it was a very well to do looking gentleman standing there: "sir, her majesty has travelled past your cottage many times on her way to Balmoral and always admired your garden. Recently the gardener for the Balmoral estate has retired and she would like to invite you to take the

He's now 96. Still lives on the Balmoral estate (retired) and has two royal corgi offspring to keep him company.

[cromdevotee]

A great anecdote about the late Queen is the joy she had at opening bridges of all things. She would often go through the 'reject' pile of requests for attendance and would become very cross if there was a bridge to be opened without her.

Another fun fact. The difference between the birthdate of her first prime minister (Churchill, 1874) and her last (Truss, 1975) is 101 years.

[DerekTJ]

When she visited my country Ireland 🇮🇪, its significance wasn't lost on many of us. She shocked us all by speaking in Irish at the state dinner. She wore green too.

[Iain]

Just one detail your Beigeness. She wasn't on Honeymoon when George VI died, she was married in 1947 and the King died in 1952 she was on an official visit to the Commonwealth and headed for Australia via Kenya. She had a very short honeymoon in the UK spending much of it at Balmoral, then Philip was stationed by the Navy in Malta so they spent a lot of time there.

[tbone]

I loved the bit where you said "Could you go for that amount of time without expressing an opinion on ANYTHING? .. I don't think I could" - Mr Lloyd, of course you couldn't, your entire livelihood is you expressing your opinion on EVERYTHING hahaha

[daveyp]

Her Late Majesty shaking McGuinness's hand was not an easy or enjoyable thing, for her, of for us watching. It wasn't until afterwards that I appreciated the genius of it. Not only did she shake his hand, but, of course, HE shook hers. He shook the hand of the reigning Queen of Northern Ireland, in Northern Ireland, in his capacity as a minister of Her government in Northen Ireland. Her shaking his hand was a massive gesture of forgiveness and reconciliation. Him shaking hers was an acknowledgment of sovereignty.

[lomax]

Actually, people DID say a lot of negative things about Queen Victoria during her reign. You touch upon it yourself when you say she retreated from public life. After the death of Prince Albert in 1861 she vanished so completely from view that she was called the "Queen of the Empty Throne." Punch famously published a cartoon of a vacant throne with a "To Let" sign on it. It was only in the latter half of the 1870's - largely due to the influence of Disraeli - that she emerged from hibernation, so to speak, and her popularity returned to former levels as she became the Grandmother of the Nation.

[lenjapita]

In 2013, after the funeral of King Petar Karađorđević on Oplenac in Serbia, I was walking from the church yard towards the parking lot, I stopped to buy a book at the stand, the next minute an elderly gentleman stood next to me and looked at the books. When the salesman tried to say something in broken English I turned and realized I was standing next to Prince Philip. He just smiled, nodded, told the seller he was just looking and left. His security was only one man.
He must have forgotten about it the next day, but to this day I still don't believe that the husband of the Queen of England was standing half a meter away from me.

[socialwetwork]

I'm an American and I look to lindybiege as the leading authority on all things British.

[justlolit]

I was travelling in Morocco by the sahara when the queen died, we had people the next day saying " sorry to heard about your queens death". Until her death never really though of her as my queen, so it quite a new thing to me. I'm from nz.

[rovcanada]

I'm a British-Canadian trucker that operates mostly across the United States, and I have been so humbled by our American cousins over the last couple of weeks, since the death of the Queen. Personally, I expected to hear little jibes and sneers about my 'little queen'. Not at all! The vast majority of flags were at half-mast. At 1st I thought that it was because of 9-11, but I was assured by all that I met that it was out of respect for the late Queen. I have unashamedly held on to my English (erm, ... Scouse) accent, so at every truck stop and hotel I went to, I would be approached by people who had heard my accent. They were so sincere in offering their condolances, that I couldn't help but get a little choked-up. Certainly, a newfound respect for my American cousins.

[innovativeatavist]

It's interesting how many of these positive qualities in a constitutional monarch would be negative qualities in an elected official. I think it goes to show how different the roles of cultural leader are from those of governmental leaders.

[aenorist]

6:20 Causation and correlation.
It just so happens that constitutional monarchy and "good standard of living" both come from the root of "western european country" and the history behind that.
Germany and france are just as well in that club, so are the swiss etc.

Very little to do with a form of government where the best you can hope from the "monarchy" bit is that it is politically irrelevant.