Magic in the Daylight

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Squaring off with the responsibility of setting a strong example is still one of the most important of British royal functions. It comes with the crown; it comes with the territory. Queen Elizabeth seems well aware of her symbolic roles, but she has also demonstrated a keen awareness of the force of her favor, a good working understanding of the subtle political interplay that keeps the British monarchy bobbing just above the breaking edge of parliamentary politics. "It is its capacity as a political deterrent, which is not less effective for being unused, that gives the crown, and the nation's confidence in the person who wears it, their real importance," notes British Constitutional Expert Ronald Butt. Unused, perhaps, but certainly not unfelt. Just recently the Queen let Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher know about her shock and regret over the street violence and, according to a very senior government official, expressed her clear wish that "reconciliation" be the objective that all races and religions should strive to achieve.

Charles is expected to continue, and perhaps even slightly increase, his mother's stringent sense of the equilibrium of the monarchy. A few of his subjects are even anxious for him to give it an early start and have begun speculating on the possibility of the Queen's abdicating. As far as the Windsors and those closest to them are concerned, such talk is pure fiction.

"Let's get one thing quite straight," the late Lord Mountbatten said in 1978. "The Queen is not going to abdicate. Everyone would advise her not to, beginning with the Prince of Wales." Last week a source close to the royal family told TIME: "It is a fair assumption that the Queen will continue on the throne for as long as her health permits, and she, with her family's support, feels she has a useful job to do for the state." One member of the immediate family also made it quite clear that Charles will have a long wait—perhaps 20 or 25 years—before he takes the throne.

As the eleven royal coaches roll toward St. Paul's, and an expected 2 million spectators jam the processional route, cheering, shouting, waving flags and banners, the princely bridegroom might still take a fast two-step forward in time, thinking about another occasion on which he will be in such a procession, hearing such cheering. But he will be carrying more years then, and a much graver weight. Better to dwell in the present, when the shadows have been beaten back for a few festive days, and a watching world wants to crown him and his bride with only one wish: Godspeed.

—By Jay Cocks.

Reported by Bonnie Angela and Mary Cronin/London