On conflict, failed marriages: Notable quotes of Britain's Queen Elizabeth
Britain's Queen Elizabeth, who died on Thursday aged 96, never gave an interview during her 70-year reign, but her regular public speeches sometimes gave an insight into her private thoughts. Here is a selection of extracts from speeches, addresses and contributions to documentaries given by the queen.
"It's inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you, a successor to the kings and queens of history. I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice. But I can do something else. I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations."
- First televised Christmas broadcast in 1957.
- Wartime broadcast with her younger sister, Princess Margaret, October 13, 1940.
- Speaking to the BBC in 1985 about joining street celebrations for VE Day in London in May 1945.
- Speech on her 21st birthday, April 21, 1947, broadcast on the radio from Cape Town.
- Speech on her Coronation Day, June 2, 1953.
"Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and of disagreements."
- Speech to heads of state aboard the royal yacht Britannia, October 1989.
- Speech in the City of London, November 1992 after a fire at Windsor Castle and the failure of three of her children's marriages.
- Televised address following the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in Paris, September 1997.
- Tribute to her husband Prince Philip in speech to mark their Golden wedding anniversary in London, November 20, 1997.
"That consent, or the lack of it, is expressed for you, prime minister, through the ballot box. It is a tough, even brutal, system but at least the message is a clear one for all to read. For us, a royal family, however, the message is often harder to read, obscured as it can be by deference, rhetoric or the conflicting currents of public opinion. But read it we must."
- Speech on November 20, 1997, at Banqueting House in London.
"Even Prince Philip has decided it's time to slow down a little – having, as he economically put it, 'done his bit'."
- Christmas broadcast in 2017.
"We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again."
- Televised address on April 5, 2020, after outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But for me, in the months since the death of my beloved Philip, I have drawn great comfort from the warmth and affection of the many tributes to his life and work – from around the country, the Commonwealth and the world.
"His sense of service, intellectual curiosity and capacity to squeeze fun out of any situation – were all irrepressible. That mischievous, enquiring twinkle was as bright at the end as when I first set eyes on him."
- Christmas broadcast 2021
- Message on Feb 6, 2022, to mark the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne.
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