A good month to begin a great Royal year

Today, it is exactly one month since the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were married in Westminster Abbey – the first in a series of events that have marked an extraordinary and historic few weeks for the Queen, the institution of monarchy and Britain. The wedding was watched by a billion people around the world, and presented much that is best about this country’s traditions: the pageantry of our state occasions, the smooth and efficient organisation behind them, how our monarchy can unite the nation in deeply felt warmth and optimism. It also showed a Royal Family as comfortable with modernity as it is with tradition: an institution that is able to adjust itself to changing times and to the egalitarian age in which we live. Many of the guests were invited not because of their rank but because of their relationship to the young couple. The Duke was marrying not a member of another royal dynasty or the aristocracy, but an ordinary young woman from the Home Counties whom he first met at university – something that would, until very recently, have been almost unthinkable.

The Queen’s visit to Ireland came next – the first to that country by a reigning British monarch for a hundred years. It turned into an extended reminder of why we should all be very grateful that we live in a society that has Elizabeth Windsor as its head of state. The Queen was able to transcend the deep-seated resentments, indeed hatreds, that have long scarred the relationship between Britain and Ireland, in a way that it is impossible to imagine any partisan political figure being able to do. The Queen lost members of her family to the Troubles. Her visit to the cemetery in Dublin dedicated to “Irish Martyrs” – those who lost their lives fighting the British – was a powerful signal to both countries that the time has come to move on from the grievances of the past.

Then, last week, came the state visit of Barack Obama. The American President had not previously given the impression that he felt any particular warmth or affection for this country, despite the ties of history, language and culture that bind the two nations. But no one who saw Mr and Mrs Obama with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, so obviously at ease in each other’s company and with a clear natural rapport, could doubt that the President flew back to Washington with a new and perhaps unexpected understanding of our country and what makes it what it is. The Queen embodies the continuity and steadfastness to which the British nation aspires – precisely the qualities that Mr Obama has come to appreciate as the core of the relationship he now describes as “essential”.

This has been a month in which the “soft power” of our sovereign has been writ large. It is a good time to pause and reflect on the enormous advantages Britain’s monarchy brings to the country, and the sometimes overlooked sacrifices made by members of the Royal Family.

As we report today, the Government has announced that there will be a four-day weekend to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, beginning on June 2 next year. We hope the months between now and then will develop into an annus mirabilis – one that will delight Her Majesty and reinforce the bonds that tie monarch and subjects together.