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At 12, she began her constitutional British and American history lessons with Provost Henry Marten, Eton history teacher, preparing her for the looming task of state considerations.

Thanks to British Pathé film archives, a charming reel has emerged of a bashful Elizabeth, standing on the steps of Eton, watching demurely as her father knights her tutor. The background shows throngs of Eton lads, enthusiastically grinning and jubilantly shoving one another — larrikins in top hats and coat-tails — probably more interested in the female visitors than their teacher’s great honour.

Hugo Vickers’ biography of the Queen Mother shares the anecdote of the eccentric Marten marching up and down the Windsor schoolroom, where the tutor would often ask the bemused princesses, “Is that clear to you gentlemen?”

In the presence of Marten and governess Crawfie, Elizabeth was required to present hour-long lectures, pointing to maps. Apparently, she was “as good as any Eton boy” (Vickers, 2013).

Marten’s publication, the “most used history textbook in the first half of the 20th century”, The Groundwork of British History, identifies his teaching philosophy: to produce “faculties of understanding and reason rather than mere memory; and to make [students] think why things happened and what the consequences were to connect events with their past causes or their future developments” (1912, iii). Given that the Queen was to live through seven decades of political machinations, her history lessons would become invaluable.

Evidently, she became familiar with English literary canonical works — Chaucer, Shakespeare, the Romantics — and she also read Molière and Daudet. The future Queen learned French — to a lesser degree German — and her polished French accent was on display when she addressed, en français, the French Senate in 2004.

Moreover, her religious studies were not neglected; Canon Crawley trained her in Biblical history.

By the time she celebrated her 21st birthday in South Africa, the world heard her BBC radio promise of devoted service to the kingdom and its realms. Her well-rounded education with presumably a focus on rigorous, content-rich curriculum, had shaped her for the onerous task ahead.

To form her logical, well-disciplined grace and poise, she encountered a classical education, one of universal principles with a thousand-year history. In her 1992 Christmas reflection, she admitted to an annus horribilis: “No institution – city, monarchy, whatever – should expect to be free from the scrutiny of those who give it their loyalty and support, not to mention those who don’t.”

Her training had prepared her to accept confronting truths humbly. However, it would be remiss not to acknowledge her blue blood wealth, and her access to many temporal advantages denied to most of her Commonwealth subjects.

A sound education values the “best that has been thought and said”, not 775-roomed palaces nor golden carriages (with Moroccan-leathered seats). Marbled halls do not a moral person make.

And much could be said about the Monarch’s silence on matters that actually mattered. As the British monarch is supreme governor of the Church of England, “Defender of the Faith”, perhaps the United Kingdom and its realms would be left in a very different position had courage and conviction been voiced.

For now, though, her representation is one of composure and kindness searing through traditional class barriers so that, whether in the presence of kings or crowds, she lost not the common touch. Tales of her care and concern for Everyman have emerged in these recent days.

A good education is a virtuous one, valuing that a life best lived is a life lived for others. May thy soul rest in peace, our most sweet and gracious Queen, Elizabeth II.

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By Karina Hepner
Originally published at News Weekly.