British people in Utica mourn Queen Elizabeth: ’We’ve only known there to be a queen’

Queen Elizabeth II’s death at age 96 will have lasting ramifications across the world. Her 70-year reign marked a pillar of stability in the British monarchy.

But on Thursday, British people living in Utica and local experts on England’s history and public affairs were united by one shared emotion: shock.

Chris Carter, 19, of Birmingham in England, heard that doctors were concerned about the queen’s health on Thursday before he went into a class at Utica University where he’s an exchange student from Aberystwyth  University in Wales. Just before class ended, texts from back home started rolling in with the news of her death.

“It was how sudden, how out of the blue it came really,” he said. “She was doing her job on Tuesday; she met the new prime minister.”

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It’s just been so long, Carter added, since anyone had experienced a change in the monarchy in Great Britain. It will take some getting used to.

Douglas Edwards, a native of Sussex in England and a professor of philosophy at Utica University, echoed that sense of strangeness.

“I was just talking to my parents (in England) and I think everyone’s in a bit of a state of shock,” he said.  “She was just such a permanent fixture of British life. You could never really imagine a situation without her.

“It’s kind of weird now to talk about having a king. For my whole life and my parents’ whole life, we’ve only known there to be a queen.”

Here’s what local experts had to say about the impact of Queen Elizabeth’s death:

R.M. Douglas, Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of History at Colgate University in Hamilton

“It is one of these moments of transition,” said Douglas, who has written about British history, particularly Parliament. “She seemed to be around for almost forever, certainly for the whole of most people’s living memory.”

The queen’s death will have ramifications throughout the Commonwealth, in which many nations have long had “equivocal” relationships with both Great Britain and the monarchy, he said.  “It may be a moment,” Douglas said, “when some of the bonds that have held the Commonwealth together will begin to loosen.”

“Even for people like myself who are not instinctive enthusiasts for the monarchy,” continued Douglas, who is Irish, “I think she will be regarded as somebody who did a difficult job about as well as it could be done in the modern era.”

The queen, he added, seemed to embody some of the best elements of British character: self discipline, a sense of beauty and a willingness to stay out of political fights.

“She may, in many respects, be the last of a dying breed or a dying generation,” Douglas concluded.

Alan W. Cafruny, Henry Bristol Professor of International Affairs at Hamilton College in Clinton

“I think the main takeaway that I have is that Elizabeth II was a major force of stabilization and stability in the United Kingdom — 70-odd years, really, spanning from World War II right up until the present time,” said Cafruny, who just returned three days ago from England where he gave a speech on political and economic developments in the European Union at King’s College in London.

The British are facing two intersecting crises — an economic one with a recession, rising interest rates and skyrocketing energy prices, and a political one with a new prime minister pursuing policies that, Cafruny claimed, will intensify inequality, he said.

“All of those factors are going to create a lot of anger and conflict within British society,” he predicted. “So her death comes at a very significant and perilous time for Great Britain.”

But he predicted that the official 10 days of mourning, and all the pomp and circumstance of the funeral, will distract the population from these troubles.

“Republicanism (which favors abolition of the monarchy),” Cafruny noted, “had a significant base of support in the ‘60s and 70s, but I think that has diminished a lot in the last couple decades. And it’s possible that it could resurface, especially in the context of hard times.”

Douglas Edwards, associate professor of philosophy, Utica University

“I think whatever your views about the monarchy are, it’s sad news,” said the Sussex native who moved to the United States in 2014. “She was an incredible public servant. She has an unrivaled time as queen and I think, whatever your views about these things, you can appreciate the things she’s done over the course of her life.”

Edwards isn’t sure, he said, about just how things will change without the queen who held a lot of symbolic power, if not real, political power. Her image was completely intertwined with citizens’ daily lives in so many ways, he said, such as on stamps, coins and other official documents that people see regularly.

He’s not sure how long it will take for King Charles’ image to replace the queen’s, he said. But Charles is a more divisive figure than the queen, he noted.

“I don’t know what the appetite is these days in Britain for reform of the monarchy,” Edwards added. “I think a lot of people have wondered what would happen when the queen died and how that would impact popular perception of the monarchy.”

The COVID-19 pandemic made England feel farther away than it did before for Edwards, and now he says he feels very far away from big events in his homeland.

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Queen Elizabeth’s death brings shock to British people living in Utica