It is all change in the United Kingdom.

No other period in history has had such a profound effect upon the people of this country than the period that began with the swearing in of our shiny new prime minister, Liz Truss.

Normally, the monarch’s acceptance of the new prime minister took place at Buckingham Palace in London, but there was “concern” for the health of the other Liz, Queen Elizabeth II. So, with great reluctance, the people behind the scenes decided that Ms Truss should travel to Balmoral, the royal castle in Scotland, for the ritualistic meeting between Her Majesty and the prime minister.

There is no video of the event, but some photographs; and when those photographs were released later in the day (September 6), they were shocking.

Just three months on from the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, Queen Elizabeth had looked the picture of health back in June in comparison with the tiny, frail stick insect that stood before her 15th prime minister. The arm that reached out to shake Ms Truss’ hand was covered in purple bruising, a clear sign of “mottling,” which occurs when the heart is unable to pump blood to the vital organs in the body. The monarch’s face was puffy but smiling, and the final photo of the Queen, standing alone in front of the fireplace, was the saddest and most shocking of all. It was indeed clear that the end was nigh.

Quite how nigh it was came as a shock to both the Royal Family and to the country as a whole. Initially, the Queen’s children and grandchildren continued life as normal, perhaps burying their heads in the sand in respect of just how seriously ill their matriarch and the country’s head of state was. As someone who has gone through the death of a parent, as I’m sure one, if not both, of my readers have as well, I can’t blame the Royal Family for this, because I did the same thing, too, when my mother died.

Within 48 hours of the meeting of with Liz Truss, Queen Elizabeth II, head of state of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth for 70 years and 214 days, was dead. As a news reporter said on the day of the Queen’s death, she was the rock upon which modern Britain was built. Three out of every four people in Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the rest of the Commonwealth, did not know of life with any other monarch except Elizabeth.

I am no monarchist. I instinctively find the idea of an hereditary monarchy abhorrent. Why should we curtsey and call someone “Sir,” or “Ma’am,” just because someone else has decided that these people should be born into a higher position in a society than me? Nobody bows and scrapes in front of me just because I can play Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird”?

But I also love history – and, in the case of England, Great Britain, Northern Ireland, France, Germany, Spain – indeed, just about any civilised or uncivilised society in the history of the world, has or has had some form of monarchy at its head. Some nations have replaced their monarch with a president, i.e. they have become a republic, but that president is still treated with the same degree of reverence we give to royalty, so what’s the difference? Ah yes, it’s the fact that they were voted into office, no matter how corrupt the election process was, they still had an election process.

And if you love history, you’ve got to deal with a history of various monarchies, and monarchic dynasties. No matter how disgusted you might feel about the idea of it all, you have to deal with it, because you cannot change the past by hating it. I know – I’ve tried.

Anyone with a pulse will know that for the 10-day period of “official mourning”, the United Kingdom came to a virtual standstill. Well…that’s not strictly true, life did carry on to a certain degree, I still got my Morrison’s shopping delivered, went to the dentist, and so on, but let’s say life continued but with a black tie on.

On Monday 19th September 2022, an extra Bank Holiday was declared in the UK, ostensibly to allow the public to watch the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on the telly. And watch it they seem to have done – 28 million of us, that’s almost half the country – watched the funeral according to preliminary viewing figures. That would be equivalent to about 150 million in the United States, or 800 million in China. I haven’t heard those kind of viewing numbers since the Morecambe and Wise Christmas TV specials in the 1970s.

So now we have a new sovereign, King Charles III, the first with that moniker since the father/son team in the 17th Century. Charles’ first namesake is remembered in our history as being the only monarch to have been beheaded by his subjects as a traitor for proclaiming the Divine Right of Kings and, for 11 years at least, England (and Scotland and Wales) became a republic.

In 1660, however, Charles II returned and the monarchy was restored – with some changes, of course, which eventually led to the monarch’s current status as a constitutional one; seen more as a figurehead and used more or less as a mascot for state occasions rather than being one who actually made any meaningful decisions on how the country is run. The monarch merely gives his or her assent to the decisions made by the government of the day. But the monarch is still in his or her position by birth-right, you still have to bow and scrape, but you know who’s really in charge.

At no other time in the history of these islands has there ever been a change of prime minister and a change of monarch within 48 hours of each other.

These are indeed extraordinary times, and while King Charles III still looks a little like a rabbit in the headlights, not being sure and being guided as to what to do next, Liz Truss has hit the ground running, and has made it abundantly clear as to who she is going to cut taxes for, and who she is going to send into abject poverty with rising oil prices, rising cost of living, and longer and longer queues for medical appointments at NHS hospital, for which she will pretend that she can do nothing.

We know who really is in charge, don’t we? x