The Queen: Would She Consider Abdication or Retirement?


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Thanks, RP. So basically, in the event of The Queen being incapacitated to carry out her State functions, the Duke of Edinburgh, or if not living, their eldest child would be empowered to act as a kind of Power of Attorney (to put it in commoner terms)?

No, Prince Charles would become Regent, provided Parliament agreed The Sovereign was unable to carryout her duties of State due to health. A Regency can only occur with an Act passed by Parliament.

The Prince Regent would be empowered to carryout the duties and responsibilities of State set forth in the Act, including but not limited to, assenting to legislation, dissolving Parliament, calling up the military, having the right to be consulted, granting honours and creating new Peers.
 
I hope that the Queen will remain in good health in both body and mind, for the remainder of her life. As such she would continue to be Queen Regnant.

If the Queen would live a long life, taking after her mother, we can expect to see the Queen reigning for many more years to come.

Because of her senior age, and health problems associated with old age, we can expect the Queen to carry out fewer duties and official engagements, and have engagements delegated to other members of the Royal Family.

It is good to antipicate any problems as regards to Regency, already covered in existing legislation. If the unthinkable happens, in the event of any incapacity to rule, I hope that the Government would have the foresight to legislate or arrange for any Regency in the place of the Queen.
 
Two-thirds of adults in Britain do not want their current monarch step down, according to a poll by YouGov. 68 per cent of respondents think Queen Elizabeth II should not abdicate in favour of Prince Charles.

Britons Flatly Reject Queen’s Abdication: Angus Reid Global Monitor

Source: YouGov
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,566 British adults, conducted from Dec. 20 and Dec. 27, 2007. No margin of error was provided.

At least it is a couple more than the 1000 they normally use and can hardly be considered an accurate portrayal of 'adults in Britain' I was also surprised that they have not put a margin of error, which if you think this poll was taken over the festive period, would be essential.

It could well have been - 921 respondents were drunk, 372 had hangovers, 1 understood the questions and 272 hit the wrong key! :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
thanks for the link, skydragon.I don't find the result creditable as well. what's the proportion of the genders among these adults? What's their educational level? What are their exact age group? What are their political preference? and many many questions about these 1566 adults.

about the topic, I know the Queen probably will never think about adication or retirement because she intends to keep her promises. However from my personal view, I would rather she would for her own son's sake. If Prince Charles takes the role of King, Prince William will speed up his preparations as the future king. Also, we will never need to guess whether there will be a King Charles III --- King George VII or not. However it is always up to the Queen's own idea. I would think the idea of the monarch retiring at 80 or 85 is not a very bad idea because depsite the adibication for the heir the monarch can be still the advisors to the new monarch.And an heir like Prince Charles would not be troubled by the thought of an unpredictable future and his final postion in history.
 
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I cannot see the Queen abdicating. I can see her turning over most of her duties to Prince Charles and really slowing down in the future. I think she's starting along that road now. I would think that the thought of abdication for the Queen is abhorrent and she would not seriously consider it.
She's got this thing about her perceived Duty and she will not be deterred. Nor should she. I like that she true to herself.
 
I think so too Reen.
I also think that Prince William will rule longer than his father. Given the length of the Queen Mum's life and assuming her daughter will also enjoy a long life, I'd say that Charles will be a very old man before he becomes King.
Lexi
 
Since the abdication of the late King Edward VIII which brought huge embarassment and disgrace ot the British Royal Family as well as Britain, I think The Queen would not repeat the act and will reign as long as she is able too. Only death or ill health can separate The Queen and the throne. I read it somewhere that The Queen has promised her grandmother, the late Queen Mary, her father, the late King George VI and her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother that she will be Britain's Head of State until her death.
 
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Only death or ill health can separate The Queen and the throne.

I don't even think ill health would separate her and the throne. I think that if, God forbid, that should ever happen, there will be a regency in her name.
 
Since the abdication of the late King Edward VIII which brought huge embarassment and disgrace ot the British Royal Family as well as Britain, I think The Queen would not repeat the act and will reign as long as she is able too. Only death or ill health can separate The Queen and the throne. I read it somewhere that The Queen has promised her grandmother, the late Queen Mary, her father, the late King George VI and her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother that she will be Britain's Head of State until her death.

I think she will. She believes that to be her duty.
 
Since the abdication of the late King Edward VIII which brought huge embarassment and disgrace ot the British Royal Family as well as Britain, I think The Queen would not repeat the act and will reign as long as she is able too. Only death or ill health can separate The Queen and the throne. I read it somewhere that The Queen has promised her grandmother, the late Queen Mary, her father, the late King George VI and her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother that she will be Britain's Head of State until her death.

She said as much in her 21st-birthday broadcast, when she pledged her whole life to the service of her country and people.
 
IMO, we would all be kidding ourselves if we thought that Queen Elizabeth II would abdicate. She is Queen until she dies. And I for one like that about her. She takes her position very seriously and very reverently which are, to me, wonderful qualities.
 
I know that Her Majesty pledged that she would not. However, my own personal feelings have been that if she was ever to tire from her position and everyday duties whether it be from fatigue or being feeble minded, then she should abdicate or at least have Prince Charles in place as Prince Regent.

Now, after viewing the Barbara Walters special and seeing how quick-witted and nimble she really is has left no doubt in my mind that she is very capable of holding her own to the very end.

So with that being said...Long live the queen! :queenelizabeth:
 
HRH would never abdicate. I could envision her in a mosh pit before I could imagine her giving up the throne.
 
IMO, we would all be kidding ourselves if we thought that Queen Elizabeth II would abdicate. She is Queen until she dies. And I for one like that about her. She takes her position very seriously and very reverently which are, to me, wonderful qualities.

Yes, being king/queen in Britain has a different tradition to being king/queen of the Netherlands. The latter title was a creation of the Congress of Vienna for the Prince of Orange, till then reigning prince of part of the Netherlands and by inheritance the reigning governor o the Netherlands. Willem I. had as a soldier actively helped the allies defeat Napoleon and was created king at the Congress. In the last decade of his life, he fell in love with a countess who was not considered his equal, so he abdicated, moved to Berlin and married the lady. Thus the "tradition" of abdication started in The Netherlands.

It's a completely different concept of "kingship" than the one in Britain, which is considered to be "by the grace of God" - so it's up to God to end the reign of the king/queen through death, it's not up to the person to abdicate. While the kingship of the Netherlands still has a lot to do with governing in the old sense, a job to do as long as the holder of the title feels 100% capable but with the idea of retirement and the handing of the job to the next heir in the bloom of his or her life.
 
Hear, hear!!:flowers:


IMO, we would all be kidding ourselves if we thought that Queen Elizabeth II would abdicate. She is Queen until she dies. And I for one like that about her. She takes her position very seriously and very reverently which are, to me, wonderful qualities.
 
HRH would never abdicate. I could envision her in a mosh pit before I could imagine her giving up the throne.
Agreed. :pigsfly:A mosh pit? A mosh pit!!! The mental picture is absolutely stunning.:ROFLMAO: Accurate, but stunning. :whistling:
 
As some of us have said, Her Majest won't abdicated and the reasons, I believe, are very simple. An a abdication in UK, probably will cause a instability in the British Monarch. The republicans can use that as a reason to change the kind of government in England. She wouldn't put in risk the crown and the future of her family.
HM, her entire life, have been Queen. Why abdicate now? I know she's a old lady, but she's a healty woman.
And as we know Windsor's women has a long life. So we will see the Queen for some years more making her New Year's speechs, the Parliament Open and her traditional duties.

[Guys, sorry for the English's mistakes]
 
If even then. QEQM lived to be...what was it..102 or 103?
 
The short answer is no, the Queen will never abdicate. I suspect that as she continues to get older she will hand over many of the public duties to Prince Charles and Prince William but she will never abdicate.

Lets not forget, the Queen was annointed at her coronation. In the christian faith, annointed means to be set aside for life...meaning the Queen was set aside to reign as Queen until the day she dies. The Queen is a strong christian and sees her role as being annointed by God.

The Queen will be monarch until she drops from the throne, dead.
 
Good question. She is too old to keep her work, I think, but the monarchy is her life. If she abdicated, I don't think peolpe would suport anymore. Particulary, I think prince William should be king just after her death/abdication, passing his father.
 
Too old?:eek: She seems to be in fine health and in excellent mental condition.

Good question. She is too old to keep her work, I think, but the monarchy is her life. If she abdicated, I don't think peolpe would suport anymore. Particulary, I think prince William should be king just after her death/abdication, passing his father.
 
Good question. She is too old to keep her work, I think, but the monarchy is her life. If she abdicated, I don't think peolpe would suport anymore. Particulary, I think prince William should be king just after her death/abdication, passing his father.

This is not a choice - there is no election for Monarch in the UK. The throne is inherited, pure & simple, so providing he outlives his mother, Charles will be our next monarch....
 
Honey, sorry to say, but someone who is 80, at least for me, it's completaly old.
 
This is not a choice - there is no election for Monarch in the UK. The throne is inherited, pure & simple, so providing he outlives his mother, Charles will be our next monarch....

Yes, I know, UK is still to tradicional. In Monaco, per exemple, Princess Charlotte gave her rights to the throne for her son, the then Prince Ranier (late Ranier III). I think Charles should to the same. But it's impossible, I know. :nonono:
 
Yes, I know, UK is still to tradicional. In Monaco, per exemple, Princess Charlotte gave her rights to the throne for her son, the then Prince Ranier (late Ranier III). I think Charles should to the same. But it's impossible, I know. :nonono:

It is indeed impossible, as it's not his to give. Only Parliament can change succession, and Charles is not (anymore) a part of parliament at all.
 
Being elderly doesn't mean incompetence, though. My mother and my father-in-law are both in their late 70s, and they can run rings around me!:flowers:

Honey, sorry to say, but someone who is 80, at least for me, it's completaly old.
 
Honey, sorry to say, but someone who is 80, at least for me, it's completaly old.


If she was incapable of doing the essential parts of the job the Parliament would take action and create a Regency (as happened during the reign of George III when he was deemed incapable of carrying our the duties of the King but he was still the king so his son became Prince Regent until his father's death).
 
Good question. She is too old to keep her work, I think, but the monarchy is her life. If she abdicated, I don't think peolpe would suport anymore. Particulary, I think prince William should be king just after her death/abdication, passing his father.


Why do you think William, who has had no experience at royal duties should take away his father's birthright?

Charles has shown that he has what it takes to do royal duties fully as he has been doing them (and that includes standing in for his mother at many of the duties she has to do) for over 40 years.

He has served his country very well as Prince of Wales.

From everything Charles has done as Prince of Wales (except marry the wrong woman, for him, in 1981) what evidence do you have that he can't do the job? Or are you wishing to discriminate on the basis of a person's age?
 
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