I was in Front Royal, Va., the other day when King Charles and Queen Camilla came to town as part of America’s 250th birthday celebration. Preparations were extensive. The police and Secret Service were visible in abundant force, waist-high metal barriers ran down four blocks of Main Street for the parade planned for the day, and eight-foot-high barriers surrounded that part of town, blocking entry of casual passersby to the planned festivities.
At 7 a.m. that morning I walked to the security entrance for the celebration and found about 40 people gathered. When I returned at 9:30 with two friends, a 34-year-old Scotswoman and her husband, those numbers had swollen into the thousands. The line of people seeking admission – men, women, and a battalion of children – snaked down Royal Avenue and onto a side street, weaving from block to block. Certain we wouldn’t get anywhere near the security gates, we headed for a coffee shop, marveling that so many would show up in hopes of seeing a British monarch, even for just a few short minutes.
My British friend was especially astounded, thinking that the American infatuation with royalty had evaporated with the death of Princess Diana in 1997, and asked why this was so. I speculated that the press had continued feeding the American hunger for news and gossip about the royals, their lives and their scandals. Movies like “The Young Victoria” and “The King’s Speech,” along with television series like “The Tudors” and “The Crown” have also embellished the monarchy with romance and a fairy-tale charm. Her husband added that a fascination with the antiquity and traditions of the royal family might account for the infatuation and the turnout that morning.
I found myself mulling over our conversation later, and it struck me that it was more than just tradition; it was the authority of tradition which enchanted and drew those thousands to Main Street that day.
“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors,” G. K. Chesterton wrote in “Orthodoxy.” “It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.”
In the last century, and particularly in the past 60 years, some in our American culture were a part of that oligarchy, taking pick and shovel to custom and long-held beliefs. The definitions and customs of basic institutions like marriage and family – and even the meaning of male and female – were uprooted. The traditional ways and means of formal education have gone through reform after reform, yet ignorance and illiteracy continue rising. Biblical morality has given way to relativism, leaving so many people, and our society as a whole, confused and unnourished by the chopping up of tradition and its authority, by which I mean its inherent wisdom.
However messy their lives, the royals represent ages-old traditions, something which many are longing for today. We see this yearning for the old ways and conventions expressed in the desire of some women to remain at home, raise children, and become traditional wives – “tradwives” being the ugly name affixed to them these days. Increasing numbers of young Catholics are attending the old Latin Mass, and young Protestants are looking for churches which water the soil of the soul with sola scriptura and true biblical creeds. Homeschooling parents and classical schools understand that a student versed in the traditional “3Rs” – reading, writing, and arithmetic – possess the tools to master any subject. In part because of its refocused emphasis on creating real warriors rather than cultural ones, the U.S. military is now attracting thousands more recruits into its ranks.
By turning back to tradition, these men and women, the great majority of them in their 20s and early 30s, aren’t looking for a graveyard. They’re looking for solid ground on which they might plant their feet while they turn their eyes toward the future.
While the royals sometimes say or do foolish things, they appeal because they are the living, breathing embodiments of tradition.
Jeff Minick is a father of four and grandfather to many. A former history, literature, and Latin teacher, Jeff now writes prolifically for The Epoch Times, American Essence Magazine, and his Substack.
This culture article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News. To comment on this article, please email [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News.
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