Word: sovereigns
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...centuries of jurisdictional thrust and parry have reduced the crown's prerogatives. Elizabeth II, though ostensibly sovereign over everything and everyone British, may not publicly express any political sentiment, nor refuse to sign any bill of Parliament, even though it should require the abolition of monarchy. Yet what the crown has given up in authority, it has gained in public affection. Said Sir Winston Churchill last week: "A great battle is lost; Parliament turns out the government. A great battle is won; crowds cheer the Queen...
...Queen knelt at the altar, kissed the Holy Bible and made her solemn oath: "The things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep. So help me God." With a golden pen she signed a copy of the oath, the only formal contract between Sovereign and subjects. The Moderator of the Church of Scotland presented her with the Bible. "[It] is the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is wisdom; this is the royal law; these are the lively oracles...
...Archbishop laid in her hands the Sovereign's Sword-to "do justice, stop the growth of iniquity, protect the holy Church of God . . . restore the things that are gone to decay, maintain the things that are restored, punish and reform what is amiss, and confirm what is in good order." The Queen took the Sword, advanced with it to the altar and offered it to God. Turning, she stole a glance at the royal gallery, where her 4-year-old son Prince Charles, in a white silk suit, watched enraptured. She paused and returned to the chair...
Geoffrey, Archbishop of Canterbury, was first to kneel at her feet. He placed his hands between his Queen's and spoke for the Established Church: "I will be faithful and true, and faith and truth will bear unto you, our Sovereign Lady . . . Defender of the Faith." Next came Philip, her husband, first peer of the realm. "I, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, do become your liege man of life and limb, and of earthly worship: and faith and truth I will bear unto you, to live and die against all manner of folks. So help me God." The Duke touched...
...Foreign Office once blamed the relative lack of appeal of this country's public service on the fact that Americans can hold no titles of nobility. "An English civil servant will slave for forty years," he said, "just so he may someday be tapped on the head by his Sovereign." This ingrained avoidance of the trappings of royalty may also explain why Americans whose memories do not reach back to 1936 are somewhat bewildered at the British Commonwealth's preoccupation with the Coronation. The island that has lived so long on austerity, boiled, seems ready to burst. People in countries...