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CNN Live Today
British People Line Streets to Pay Respects to Queen Mother
Aired April 05, 2002 - 11:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The queen mother will lie in state until Monday at Westminster Hall in London. The British people lined the streets to pay their respects this morning, as a military procession bore the queen mother's coffin from St. James Palace. Her bejeweled crown sat atop the casket. The royal matriarch died Saturday at the age of 101.
Andrew Roberts is the author of the book "The Royal House of Windsor." He's also a columnist and contributor for two prominent British newspapers, "The Sunday Telegraph" and "The Daily Telegraph," and he joins us now from London. Andrew, good morning from the U.S. Actually, good evening to you.
ANDREW ROBERTS, "THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Good afternoon.
KAGAN: Give us an idea of what we are going to see on Tuesday in terms of the pomp and circumstance of other British ceremonies that we've witnessed in our lifetime.
ROBERTS: Well, I very much doubt you will have missed anything like it in your lifetime. Certainly, I haven't in mine. It's going to be the grandest state funeral since that of the late king, King George VI, in 1952. It's going to show the full panoply of British pomp and circumstance, and it's going to be a tremendous and astonishing occasion.
KAGAN: And also a celebration of just an incredible life that spanned a century, a little bit more, into this century, and the life of a woman who had no idea she would be queen, even when she married. I think she thought she would live out her life as Duchess of York.
ROBERTS: Well, she actually lived in three centuries, because of course she was born in the twilight of the 19th century. It was an astonishing life. In many ways, she was woman of the century, because of stern refusal to accept totalitarianism, and as you say, she never really expected it. She was forced on to the throne, and some say against her will, at the time of abdication process in 1936, when the king fell in love with an American divorcee, Mrs. Wallis (ph) Simpson. But she took up reigns with her late husband and she did a stupendously good job, and it's really because of that, that the crowds are coming out in their thousands and tens of thousands to celebrate her life.
KAGAN: And not just took on the role of queen, but many say reinvented the royal family.
ROBERTS: That's absolutely it. Yes, she gave the royal family a new impetus, a new sense of togetherness with the people. She was helped in that, of course, by the Second World War, because when the bomb started dropping on London, she, along with Winston Churchill, personified the spirit of defiance against Nazi bombs at the time of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain.
KAGAN: And what does this represent her passing, what does this represent for the royal family? Queen Elizabeth, an incredibly difficult year, and a year was supposed to be a year of celebration, her jubilee. Within seven weeks, she loses her sister, her only sister, and now her mother.
ROBERTS: Yes, it's very sad in that sense, and climatic of course for anybody to lose a parent. But at the same time, this isn't likely really to dim those jubilee celebrations, because they are going to be taking place in May and June. And if anything, I think that British people have a great sense of sympathy for their monarch, who has now reigned over us for 50 years, almost a record-breaking length of time. And if anything, I think this will be more likely to bring people out onto the streets again for the jubilee.
KAGAN: And so, this might strengthen the monarchy rather than weaken it?
ROBERTS: I believe so very much, yes. The monarchy is in a much better position than it's ever been since the death of -- tragic death of Princess Diana back in 1997. Prince Charles, for example, is riding very high in the popularity poll, not that that matters too much in terms of a monarchy. But nevertheless, it's good to see that people are coming around to this man much more than ever they did.
People, although, of course there's no question of abdication in the air, there is a question of what a great king he will make in time, and I think people are just very much more positive about that now.
KAGAN: And just real quickly, before we let you go, you made your life covering the royal family. One moment or image of the queen mother that will stand out that for you symbolizes the woman, and the queen and the queen mother that she was.
ROBERTS: Well, for me, it's her humor, her splendidly underplayed sense of humor. I asked her once, I remember, at a lunch, how it felt to have been an empress, because of course there are no more European emperors anymore or empresses, and she was the last one. In that sense, this really is the passing of an era. And she smiled with twinkling blue eyes, and she said that it was tremendously good fun while it lasted.
KAGAN: Good fun to be the empress. Very good, the British empress.
Andrew Roberts, thanks for sharing those recollections and helping us understand the pomp and circumstance currently taking place and what we'll see in the coming weeks from Britain.
Thank you so much for your time.
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