During preparations for her coronation in 1953, the young Queen was asked if she wanted to incorporate a break into the intense three-hour ceremony, with the weight of St Edward’s Crown upon her head. “I’ll be all right,” she replied. “I’m as strong as a horse.”
So she was. On the day itself and during her decades on the throne, the Queen’s constitution did not let her down, allowing her to fulfil her role in our own almost without interruption.
Her fine health, until extreme old age, was the foundation for her greatest achievement. Her physical and mental constancy in the face of turmoil, allied to her sheer longevity, allowed her to become a living symbol of continuity and endurance that Britain needed.
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