Queen Elizabeth’s 70-year-rule criticised by historian: ‘Reluctant to innovate’

Queen Elizabeth is celebrating a landmark 70 years on the British throne this year, with Platinum Jubilee celebrations starting this weekend, however a royal historian has said that her reign was ‘cautious’ and ‘reluctant’ to change.

Talking to Express UK, historian Ed Owens said that while the 96-year-old monarch has served the British well for the last seven decades, she has also proven to be ‘backward looking’.

“Let us just look at it from the Queen’s perspective: as an individual, we know that she is very cautious when it comes to innovation, when it comes to change for the sake of change,” he said.

Owens continued: “The Queen has been more backward-looking in that she has sought to marry any change to a sense of continuity and tradition. And I think when she came to the throne as young as she did, she didn't have a fully formed idea of what monarchy should be.”

Highlighting the fact that she was just 25 when she ascended the throne after her father’s death, Owens said: “If anything, the idea of monarchy that she had in her mind when she came to the throne was very much the idea of monarchy that her father had worked to produce.”

He went on to add: “That in turn, was the version of monarchy that had been created by George V, because we've got to remember that George VI had come to the monarchy somewhat reluctantly and unexpectedly… It is like moving into a house and not changing any of the furniture because you don't want to move the furniture.”

“That is how it has been. And Elizabeth II is the same, she has been very reluctant to innovate,” Owens concluded.