Seeing the Queen's death through American eyes

Holly Baxter on national anthems and mummified corgis

It's amazing how Americans think British people take monarchical tragedy personally. On the day of the announcement of Queen Elizabeth II's death, my husband and I were hit with a deluge of messages from our American friends.

“How are you doing after the tragedy?” One friend asked me half-jokingly) over brunch a couple of days later. It took me a while to even realise what he was talking about. I cycled through family members and friends in my mind none of whom had come a cropper recently, as far as I knew before concluding that he meant the Queen. Later, questions about the corgis came thick and fast: were they really going to be executed? (No.) Did the Queen actually say she didn’t want them to outlive her? Yes, although it seems the tone was more “because I love my dogs so much” rather than “because I want them killed, mummified and preserved in my tomb as companions for the afterlife”.) Is there a chance they might end up with the world’s most controversial royal and the Queen’s reportedly favourite son, Prince Andrew? (Yes as we found out later).

Many Americans have a lot of affection for the British royal family, or at least for the Queen. They know about Princess Diana and about Harry and Meghan and their children Archie and Lilibet. They’re fuzzier on Kate, William and Charles, having not been summarily bombarded with information about their every move by tabloids since the 1990s (who could forget Waity Katie”?).