Elizabeth Windsor Becomes Queen Elizabeth II, 1952

2025-02-03T14:16:29-06:00February 3, 2025|HH 2025|

Elizabeth Windsor Becomes Queen Elizabeth II, February 6, 1952

Poets, populaces and historians all have remained captivated by the ancient paradox of monarchy, of privilege burdened with duty, of symbolic might above judicial power, of a “Divine” inheritance over an elected figurehead.


Official coronation portrait of Queen Elizabeth II of England (1926-2022)—per her request, her coronation gown was embroidered with the floral emblems of all the nations over which she reigned

Some amongst these have suggested that monarchy is an obsolete institution in our modern age. That too, is an ancient fascination—the idea of abolishing it for good. What replaces it is the question, one that as Americans we feel we have in many ways solved, our system being based on the Biblical concepts of checks and balances. The judges of old whom God appointed before His people begged for a king that they might be like other nations. Yet while we have a revolving figurehead of executive power, in England there has been one dominant personality who, for over half a century, steadfastly represented the old ideals of devotion, duty and decorum in such rapidly degrading times.


Elizabeth in 1933

Elizabeth Windsor was England to many of us for all of our lives. Criticized at times as outdated, as slow to respond in a crisis, as emotionless and demure to a fault, she kept and represented in her reign all the steady and restrained attributes so offensive to a reactionary world. Combined, it is essential to note, she did with unflinching grit, devout faith and a quiet capacity for diplomacy.


King George VI (1895-1952)

Her inheritance of the throne being indeed hereditary, Elizabeth’s reign began with a deep personal tragedy—the death of her beloved father, King George VI (known to close friends as Bertie). A man of rare ability who was admired by his nation, his wife and his two daughters, he was an anomaly of familial success in monarchy. He inherited the throne from his brother, Edward VIII, who infamously gave up his duty as king to marry a three-time American divorcée, thus burdening his younger brother George with a role he was neither born nor prepared for, yet embraced with grace and fortitude. It was George VI who steered England through the Second World War, not as a distant monarch but as a man who walked the streets of bombed-out London again and again to minister to his people.


King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, 1936


The Queen and Princess Elizabeth (far right) speak with paratroopers as they prepare for D-Day, May 19, 1944

Heir to such a legacy of sacrifice and humble leadership, when her time came to step into the role, Elizabeth Windsor lived her life as a paragon of the old ideal. Even before the crown passed to her she served her country during WWII in the army as a mechanic for the Auxiliary Territory Service, and gave her famed Commonwealth Speech on her 21st birthday in which she pledged herself to the course she would then maintain for a reign of 70 years.


Princess Elizabeth in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, April 1945

She was, in fact, representing her ailing father on a tour of Kenya—accompanied by her husband, the future Prince Phillip, then titled the Duke of Edinburgh—when she received the news that the king had died. Gone in his sleep, after a battle with lung cancer, the crown was now passed to his twenty-five-year-old daughter. Her tour was immediately abandoned, a black dress procured so that her first public appearance en route to the airport might be in proper mourning garb, and her ruling name settled upon—she chose to continue on as Elizabeth.


Engagement portrait of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, September 18, 1947


A formal wedding portrait of Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten with members of the royal family, November 21, 1947

Upon arriving in England, she was received by the man who had been her father’s friend and comrade during Britain’s darkest hour, newly re-elected Prime Minister Winston Churchill. At a spry 77 years of age, he was back in power and took to guiding the young Queen in her duties with fatherly investment. Himself experiencing a second showing of faith by the people who had re-elected him, Churchill went on to polish his already dazzling legacy of exceptional oratory with a most honoring eulogy given for the late king, one that memorialized him fittingly and looked forward to the young queen’s reign with a hope she would go on to prove well-placed.


Prime Minister Winston Churchill (center)—an ever-present influence during both King Edward’s reign as well as the early days of Queen Elizabeth’s—with The King, Queen, and Princesses Elizabeth (left) and Margaret (right), on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, May 8, 1945


Winston Churchill making an “eve of poll” tour and speech, February 23, 1949

When the death of the King was announced to us yesterday morning there struck a deep and solemn note in our lives which, as it resounded far and wide, stilled the clatter and traffic of twentieth-century life in many lands, and made countless millions of human beings pause and look around them. A new sense of values took, for the time being, possession of human minds, and mortal existence presented itself to so many at the same moment in its serenity and in its sorrow, in its splendour and in its pain, in its fortitude and in its suffering.


King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, 1939

The King was greatly loved by all his peoples. He was respected as a man and as a prince far beyond the many realms over which he reigned. The simple dignity of his life, his manly virtues, his sense of duty—alike as a ruler and a servant of the vast spheres and communities for which he bore responsibility—his gay charm and happy nature, his example as a husband and a father in his own family circle, his courage in peace or war—all these were aspects of his character which won the glint of admiration, now here, now there, from the innumerable eyes whose gaze falls upon the Throne…

The last few months of King George’s life, with all the pain and physical stresses that he endured—his life hanging by a thread from day to day, and he all the time cheerful and undaunted, stricken in body but quite undisturbed and even unaffected in spirit—these have made a profound and an enduring impression and should be a help to all.


Wedding portrait of Prince Albert, Duke of York (future King George VI) and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, April 26, 192


King George VI (center) with British troops in Holland, October 13, 1944

He was sustained not only by his natural buoyancy, but by the sincerity of his Christian faith. During these last months the King walked with death as if death were a companion, an acquaintance whom he recognized and did not fear. In the end death came as a friend, and after a happy day of sunshine and sport, and after “good night” to those who loved him best, he fell asleep as every man or woman who strives to fear God and nothing else in the world may hope to do…


Queen Elizabeth II in 1953

Now I must leave the treasures of the past and turn to the future. Famous have been the reigns of our queens. Some of the greatest periods in our history have unfolded under their sceptre. Now that we have the second Queen Elizabeth, also ascending the throne in her twenty-sixth year, our thoughts are carried back nearly four hundred years to the magnificent figure who presided over and, in many ways, embodied and inspired the grandeur and genius of the Elizabethan age. Queen Elizabeth II, like her predecessor, did not pass her childhood in any certain expectation of the Crown. But already we know her well, and we understand why her gifts, and those of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh [later “Prince” Phillip] have stirred the only part of the Commonwealth she has yet been able to visit. She has already been acclaimed as Queen of Canada.


Philip and Elizabeth on their honeymoon


Queen Elizabeth with her husband Prince Philip, daughter Princess Anne, and son Prince Charles (now King Charles III), 1957

We make our claim too, and others will come forward also, and tomorrow the proclamation of her sovereignty will command the loyalty of her native land and of all other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire. I, whose youth was passed in the august, unchallenged and tranquil glories of the Victorian era, may well feel a thrill in invoking once more the prayer and the anthem, “God save the Queen!”
—Winston Churchill’s broadcasted tribute to King George VI


Prime Minister Winston Churchill (seated) with his son and grandson, dressed in their finest for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

The Legacy of President William McKinley, Born January 29, 1843

2025-01-27T11:42:50-06:00January 27, 2025|HH 2025|

The Legacy of President William McKinley, Born January 29, 1843

In his inaugural address on the 20th of this month, President Trump vowed to return the name of “Mount McKinley” to the highest elevation in North America. Under President Obama, the mountain’s Presidential name was revoked back to its native Alaskan name, Denali—something requested by a group of the native population in the state since the 1970s.


Located in Alaska, Denali—officially Mount McKinley—is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet above sea level, and is also the tallest mountain in the world from base-to-peak on land, measuring 18,000 ft, with a topographic prominence of 20,194 feet.

So who was President McKinley, our 25th President? What legacy did he leave that would earn him such a singular memorial, and what special interest might our current President have in singling him out for commendation?


William McKinley (1843-1901), 25th President of the United States

America’s “Gilded Age”, as it has been dubbed, was overseen by multiple Presidents, but under McKinley it escalated to an ambitious and controversial degree. Under his extremely popular administration our country was returned to the Gold Standard and rescued from a severe economic slump, the Philippines were purchased, Puerto Rico and Guam were gained by treaty, and the annexation of Hawaii as a state was begun. The United States entered into the Spanish-American war under his Presidency, a war declared by Congress in response to Spain’s own declaration of war on the U.S., in turn a response to our ultimatum. The resulting war was an outcome greatly desired by the popular newspapers of the day and his cabinet members, far more than by McKinley himself. The battleground was the little island of Cuba, then a Spanish dominion, and for a third time in our nation’s history we defeated a heavyweight European power and distinguished our military might as that of a global superpower. The validity of the war’s instigation and pretenses have been strongly debated, but the conflict would result in our near constant and often contentious involvement with Cuba ever since, including our bases on their soil at Guantanamo Bay.


Annexation of Hawaii announced in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 14, 1898


Aerial view of the US fleet at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 1927

As one of America’s most successful businessmen before his bid for the Oval Office, McKinley’s Presidency was marked by a keen interest in trade. This was manifest in his use of tariffs, a measure producing significant economic growth. By his second term—cut short by assassination—William McKinley had achieved an incredible success by overhauling national finances and even establishing certain committees to sort and oversee tariff profits, so great was the new influx.


Chief Justice Melville Fuller (left) swears in William McKinley (center) for his first term as President; outgoing President Grover Cleveland stands at right


1900 reelection poster with the theme that McKinley has returned prosperity to America

As the last American President to have been a veteran of the War Between the States (he served under another future president, Rutherford B. Hayes), McKinley pursued the erasure of all vestiges of Reconstruction in the nation, with a personal vision of and support for the “reconciliation monument” in Arlington Cemetery, its carvings beautifully depicting scenes of the past strife and the unity since gained by goodwill and mutual respect on both sides. Under President Biden, those DEI committees who oversaw the forcible removal of our historic landmarks under the pretense of their causing offense had this symbolic monument to national harmony torn down by bulldozer, and the grave of its sculptor—Jewish veteran of the Civil War, Moses Ezekiel—desecrated in the process.


McKinley in 1865


Confederate Monument, Arlington National Cemetery


Moses Jacob Ezekiel (1844-1917), Confederate veteran and sculptor

William McKinley won a second term in the year 1900, with Americans’ good faith in his past conduct placing him securely at the helm of government as a new century dawned. His Vice President was the energetic and controversial Theodore Roosevelt, a reforming visionary of such ambition that his own Republican Party bosses tucked him into the Vice Presidency as recourse for keeping him out of any more functional public office. Under McKinley, Roosevelt’s passion for American Expansion would be moderated and restrained, it was assumed, and the Vice Presidency was considered an extremely safe bet. That is, until September 6, 1901, when President McKinley chose to visit the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York, an event celebrating innovation and progress in American industry.


Reelection campaign poster for the 1900 US Presidential election, picturing incumbent President William McKinley and Vice Presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt

As a grounded man, one keen never to lose his connection with his fellow citizens who elected him, McKinley was generous with his time and person during such events, and on this day he took time to make his way down a waiting line, shaking the hands of those waiting to greet him. Among them was a man with a bandaged arm, one Leon Czolgosz, who turned out to be concealing a revolver under the wrapping, and upon being greeted by McKinley, fired two shots point blank into the President’s abdomen. Czolgosz was tackled to the ground, beaten and restrained by the crowd while secret service men rushed to evacuate the President. McKinley was said to have remained calm despite the dire turn of events, his concerns turning from his own condition to that of his wife Ida: “Be careful how you tell my wife!” he charged the men, as she had a history of fragile health and was prone to seizures.


Mugshots of Leon Czolgosz after his arrest for shooting President McKinley


McKinley entering the Temple of Music on September 6, 1901, shortly before the shots were fired


President McKinley greeting well-wishers at a reception in the Temple of Music minutes before he was shot

McKinley would languish in and out of consciousness for eight days, one bullet lodged deep and irretrievable, and the unmistakable symptoms of infection taking over. He was heard to sometimes recite the words of his favorite hymn, “Nearer My God to Thee” as he lay dying.


An artist’s portrayal of McKinley’s assassination by Leon Czolgosz

He passed on September, 14, 1901, becoming the third US President at the time to be killed by assassination, and mourned en masse by the whole nation. His murderer was tried swiftly: he proudly confessed to the act, citing his anarchist convictions as motivation. Whether operating on his own initiative or spurred on by those who disliked McKinley’s policies, the assassin would prove an archetype for many such perpetrators going into the 20th century, a similar act sparking the horrors of World War One a mere fourteen years later.


Theodore Roosevelt pays his respects at the casket of President McKinley


William McKinley (left) and Theodore Roosevelt (right) together, circa 1899, during McKinley’s first term as President, and before Roosevelt was his VP

Theodore Roosevelt took over the reigns of power and served out McKinely’s term, ultimately overshadowing his more moderate predecessor in nearly every way. Under Roosevelt’s leadership, America was thrust headlong into a stalwart new age, one that adhered to much of McKinley’s good intentions while aggrandizing his policies to such a degree that the Roosevelt administration could be understandably accused of American Imperialism—an accusation that has caused ongoing debate amongst Constitutionalists regarding what it means to adapt in a world where American territories are now spread to the other side of the globe.


Theodore Roosevelt being introduced as President by the New-York Tribune, September 22, 1901, after assuming office following McKinley’s assassination

Fellow-Citizens:
In obedience to the will of the people, and in their presence, by the authority vested in me by this oath, I assume the arduous and responsible duties of President of the United States, relying upon the support of my countrymen and invoking the guidance of Almighty God. Our faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our fathers, who has so singularly favored the American people in every national trial, and who will not forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and walk humbly in His footsteps.

—Opening line of President McKinley’s first inaugural address, given March 4, 1897


William McKinley as memorialized on the $500 bill

Inauguration Day Addresses

2025-01-22T13:21:40-06:00January 22, 2025|HH 2025|

Inauguration Day Addresses

Some of the greatest instances of American oratory have come forth on Inauguration Day, spoken by men chosen by their countrymen to guard our Constitution and represent our collective will. Like so many of our traditions, it was begun by our nation’s first President, the inimitable George Washington, and done so of his own accord—like his example of a limited, two-term Presidency, and the swearing of the oath upon the Bible. The tradition of a public inaugural address has been adopted by each of his successors. Representing the eras and ideologies of passing times, a President’s first speech to the nation has come to represent in large part the spirit of the age in which he was elected, along with the goals of his administration, embodying on a global stage Van Til’s principle of “culture is religion externalized.”


Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017—President Trump’s first inauguration

Just as the young King Josiah of the Bible gathered his people together and read to them from the lost Book of the Covenant and pledged to follow God’s Law and tear down the high places of His enemies, so it is customary for all leaders of Christian countries to come before their peoples and rededicate themselves and their dependents to the King of Kings in whose hands the heart of rulers is like clay.


King Josiah hearing God’s Law for the first time, after it was lost for several generations

The following excerpts are drawn from three different inaugural addresses, each well received, representing their giver’s intentions and the forthrightness of their moral codes. In each—from the first address given at the birth of our nation, to the second at the dawning of modernity, and the third amidst the strife of the Cold War—there is the connecting thread of gratitude for our exceptional inheritance and submission to the God of Nations, while appealing for a continuation of His favor on us all.


Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017—President Trump’s first inauguration, aerial view

Saving comes from the Lord Most High, and blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord and the people He has chosen for His own inheritance. Our rulers are directly appointed as methods of blessing or judgement upon us all, and in a republic such as ours, with the precious and greatly-threatened right of self-determination, these secured four years to come are cause for gratitude and rejoicing as well as renewed incentive for pressing the crown rights of Christ into every realm. If He is for us, who can be against us?


George Washington’s first inaugural address, given in New York, April 30, 1789:

“Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years—a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated…


George Washington’s first inauguration, New York, April 30, 1789

…Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being Who rules over the universe, Who presides in the councils of nations, and Whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States…”


Federal Hall, New York City, site of George Washington’s first inauguration, portrayed here—this building was demolished in 1812

Theodore Roosevelt’s second inaugural address, March 4, 1905:

“My fellow-citizens, no people on earth have more cause to be thankful than ours, and this is said reverently, in no spirit of boastfulness in our own strength, but with gratitude to the Giver of Good who has blessed us with the conditions which have enabled us to achieve so large a measure of well-being and of happiness. To us as a people it has been granted to lay the foundations of our national life in a new continent. We are the heirs of the ages, and yet we have had to pay few of the penalties which in old countries are exacted by the dead hand of a bygone civilization. We have not been obliged to fight for our existence against any alien race; and yet our life has called for the vigor and effort without which the manlier and hardier virtues wither away. Under such conditions it would be our own fault if we failed; and the success which we have had in the past, the success which we confidently believe the future will bring, should cause in us no feeling of vainglory, but rather a deep and abiding realization of all which life has offered us; a full acknowledgment of the responsibility which is ours; and a fixed determination to show that under a free government a mighty people can thrive best, alike as regards the things of the body and the things of the soul…


Teddy Roosevelt’s second inauguration at the East Front of the US Capitol, Washington, DC, March 4, 1905

Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirk neither. We have become a great nation, forced by the fact of its greatness into relations with the other nations of the earth, and we must behave as beseems a people with such responsibilities. Toward all other nations, large and small, our attitude must be one of cordial and sincere friendship. We must show not only in our words, but in our deeds, that we are earnestly desirous of securing their good will by acting toward them in a spirit of just and generous recognition of all their rights. But justice and generosity in a nation, as in an individual, count most when shown not by the weak but by the strong. While ever careful to refrain from wrongdoing others, we must be no less insistent that we are not wronged ourselves. We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. We wish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid. No weak nation that acts manfully and justly should ever have cause to fear us, and no strong power should ever be able to single us out as a subject for insolent aggression…


Panoramic of Teddy Roosevelt’s second inauguration at the East Front of the US Capitol, Washington, DC, March 4, 1905

…Though the problems are new, though the tasks set before us differ from the tasks set before our fathers who founded and preserved this Republic, the spirit in which these tasks must be undertaken and these problems faced, if our duty is to be well done, remains essentially unchanged. We know that self-government is difficult. We know that no people needs such high traits of character as that people which seeks to govern its affairs aright through the freely expressed will of the freemen who compose it. But we have faith that we shall not prove false to the memories of the men of the mighty past. They did their work, they left us the splendid heritage we now enjoy. We in our turn have an assured confidence that we shall be able to leave this heritage unwasted and enlarged to our children and our children’s children. To do so we must show, not merely in great crises, but in the everyday affairs of life, the qualities of practical intelligence, of courage, of hardihood, and endurance, and above all the power of devotion to a lofty ideal, which made great the men who founded this Republic in the days of Washington…”

 

John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, January 20, 1961:

“We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom—symbolizing an end as well as a beginning—signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forbears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.


John F. Kennedy being sworn in as 35th President of the United States at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, DC, January 20, 1961

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty…


John F. Kennedy giving his inaugural address

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.


President John F. Kennedy and his wife, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, arrive at the Inaugural Ball the evening of JFK’s inauguration

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”

Elizabeth I Is Crowned Queen of England, 1559

2025-01-22T12:22:35-06:00January 22, 2025|HH 2025|

Elizabeth I Is Crowned Queen of England, January 15, 1559

“This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes” was the psalmic response of twenty-five-year-old Elizabeth Tudor when, knelt under the old oak at her childhood home Hatfield House, a messenger informed her that by the ordinances of Providence and the death of her last living relative, she had become monarch of the great nation of England. She was crowned on January 15, 1559 and reigned until her death in 1603—a total of forty-four years and one hundred twenty-seven days.


Hatfield House, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England

The sixteenth century saw bitter upheaval in custom and religion throughout Europe as well as many thrilling expansions in science and exploration. Wars of religion unseated old monarchies, the invention of mass publishing spread the word of God like wildfire amongst average men and women, and the Biblical tenants of the Reformation infused a boldness in prince and commoner alike to sever all loyalty to the Pope in Rome and his corrupted prelates. In such momentous times, when the inherency of God’s authority and the sacred availability of His precious Scriptures were under attack—when by almost wholesale agreement all other kings and princes of Europe committed themselves to stamp out those who testified of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone—there was raised up a woman, of all unlikely candidates, to be chief Defender of the Faith. Isolated, underestimated, and repeatedly assailed like her nation, Elizabeth Tudor would prove not only a bastion of Protestantism for the believers of Europe to rally behind, but a formidable adversary for any who would dare test her resolve.


Edward VI and the Pope: An Allegory of the Reformation—This Elizabethan work depicts the handing over of power from Henry VIII, who lies dying in bed, to Edward VI, seated beneath a cloth of state with a slumping pope at his feet. In the top right of the picture is an image of men pulling down and smashing idols. At Edward’s side are his uncle the Lord Protector Edward Seymour and members of the Privy Council.

She would prove to be the last Tudor monarch, dying unmarried and childless by choice with her throne passing to her Scottish cousin, but her ascendancy to the throne in the first place was wonderment indeed, as she herself testified.


A rare portrait of a young Elizabeth prior to her accession, painted for her father in c. 1546 when she was around 13

She was born the second living child and daughter of the notorious Henry VIII and his second wife, the famously beheaded Anne Boleyn. Herself a champion of Protestantism and William Tyndale’s new English translation of the Scriptures, Anne Boleyn had fallen out of favor with her husband the king after failing to provide him with a male heir. She was given a mock trial on fabricated evidence of incest and summarily executed, leaving behind her daughter, little Elizabeth, who would face a childhood replete with repeated instances of disinheritance and fickle favor from her father the king and his many subsequent wives.


A heavily illuminated Tyndale Bible


Elizabeth’s parents, King Henry VIII (1491-1547) and Anne Boleyn (c. 1501 or 1507-1536)—Anne was executed within three years of Elizabeth’s birth

Upon her father’s death, Elizabeth’s brother—the boy king Edward VI—ruled for a time until he died of illness. The crown then passed to Elizabeth’s elder sister—the staunchly Catholic Mary Tudor—whose zeal to undo their father’s break with Rome and his establishment of the independent Church of England resulted in the public burnings of over 400 English Protestants, including the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer and the bishops Latimer and Ridley, thus earning her the moniker “Bloody Mary”. Bishop Latimer’s last words as the flames licked at the stake to which he and Ridley were tied are unforgettable: “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley…we shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as shall never be put out.”


King Edward VI of England (1537-1553), Elizabeth’s Protestant half-brother and predecessor to the throne


Queen Mary Tudor or “Bloody Mary” (1516-1558), Elizabeth’s Catholic half-sister and predecessor to the throne

That candle was given the security to blaze into a beacon on a hill upon the death of Bloody Mary and the crowning of the last living Tudor: Elizabeth I. Amongst the many achievements of her rule was great economic growth, religious tolerance and the flourishing of the arts and sciences. She oversaw the establishment of a Protestant Church of England in a form that lasted for centuries, the colony of Virginia was settled in her name and England’s dominion of the New World thus bravely begun, and the providential defeat of the Spanish Armada by her navy would firmly establish Elizabeth alongside England’s most celebrated wartime monarchs.


Elizabeth I in her coronation robes

Preparing for the great invasion which this unprecedented Armada threatened, Elizabeth famously rode out to where the River Thames meets the Strait of Dover at Tilbury, and there reviewed her troops who were readying to defend their homeland against a Catholic invader. She gave a speech there, written down many years later along with reports of her dressed in armor and astride a white warhorse, which has since through the ages become emblematic of a stand, not just by England but by Christendom, against those who seek to invade, impose and destroy.


One of three versions of the famous “Armada Portrait” of Elizabeth I, commemorating the defeat of the Spanish Armada, depicted in the background; Elizabeth’s hand rests on the globe, symbolising her international power

“My loving people,
We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery. But I assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people.

Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust.

I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm: to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.

I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you on a word of a prince, they shall be duly paid. In the mean time, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your conduct in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over these enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.”


Elizabeth I was interred in Westminster Abbey, in a tomb shared with her half-sister, Mary I. The Latin inscription on their tomb, Regno consortes & urna, hic obdormimus Elizabetha et Maria sorores, in spe resurrectionis, translates to “Consorts in realm and tomb, here we sleep, Elizabeth and Mary, sisters, in hope of resurrection”.

The Epiphany Martyrdom of King Wenceslas, 935

2025-01-07T15:19:38-06:00January 7, 2025|HH 2025|

The Epiphany Martyrdom of King Wenceslas, 935

Abeloved and instantly recognizable figure in Christmastime carols and lore—Good King Wenceslas, such as we now know him—was in fact a Duke of Bohemia during his lifetime, and was granted both sainthood and kingship after his martyrdom, in recognition of his singular legacy of Christian probity and benevolence.


The classic Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas” elaborately printed on a cookie tin in 1913, on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England

He lived in what is now modern day Czech Republic during the 10th century. Dubbed the “dark ages” by recent historians, it was a time of extreme testing for Christendom at large and one that made Wenceslas’ role as duke rigorous with the ever-encroaching threats of paganism from within and Islam from the east. To the west of his kingdom the Catholic Church was rending itself apart with petty jealousies, while the legacy of the grand old Roman Empire had continued in the East in the form of the Byzantine Empire. In far off England, King Alfred would stand alone in his island nation, defending the rights and practices of Christianity against the surge of Viking invaders.


King Alfred the Great of England (c. 849-899)


A young Wenceslas with his father, Vratislaus I, Duke of Bohemia, seated (c. 888-921) and mother Drahomíra (c. 877 or 890-934 or 936), standing

Such were the times, and in the midst of them a young boy was made Duke of Bohemia by reason of most of his senior family members having murdered each other to extinction. His Christian grandmother served as regent for a time, taking care to disciple him in the gospels until she too was murdered by Wenceslas’ own mother, who took control of the kingdom and enacted measures against the Christians of the realm. When Wenceslas came of age to rule in his own right at eighteen, the Christian nobles of his country overthrew his mother and—by sending her into exile—put him in control of the government of Bohemia.


Wenceslas’ paternal grandmother, Ludmila of Bohemia (c. 860-921)

As might be expected, this reforming zeal antagonized many of his pagan subjects and outraged his exiled mother who saw opportunity for herself in the public dissension and instigated his brother to overthrow him. On Epiphany morning, while on his way to worship, Wenceslas was waylaid by this brother—later nicknamed “Boleslav the Cruel”—at the church door and there was struck down. Three nobles—Tira, Česta, and Hněvsa—stabbed Wenceslas, before his own brother ran him through with a lance. He died reportedly saying, “Brother, may God forgive you.”


The murder of Wenceslas by his brother “Boleslav the Cruel” and his companions—the nobles Tira, Česta, and Hněvsa—at the church door

Boleslav then took power over Bohemia, but immediately the notoriety of his brother’s virtue grew throughout the nation and then to all of Christendom, with the common people claiming him to be a martyr of the faith. In his premature death before the age of thirty, Wenceslas was able to accomplish what had seemed an impossible task in life. In the words of Dr. George Grant: “his death brought about the complete conversion of Bohemia and the codification of his deeds of mercy as a standard for Christian civic justice and mercy.”


Memorial statue to Wenceslas in St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague, Czech Republic

He is immortalized in the eponymous Christmas carol, written in the mid 1800’s by Christian historian, translator and hymn writer, John Mason Neale. Neale first highlighted Wenceslas in a small history he had written for children on defenders of the faith, then later he either wrote or dramatized an existing Czech hymn about the hero, introducing it into common usage by churches across the west. Reportedly it was even sung by both sides during the Christmas Truce of 1914 during World War One—a prayer lifted up the world over for leaders who establish justice and exercise mercy.

Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing.


‘Tempus adest floridum’—the tune used for ‘Good King Wenceslas’—as it appears in the original 1582 version of the Piae Cantiones


John Mason Neale (1818-1866)—an English Anglican priest, scholar, and hymnwriter—authored ‘Good King Wenceslas’ in 1853

NOTE: due to the antiquity of these events, dates and calendars have since shifted, and it is important to note that the feast of Saint Wenceslas is now held on the September 28 (to mark his martyrdom) in the Czech Republic and elsewhere.

Go to Top