This is a true story. When I was a kid around 9-10 we lived in Europe for a couple years. For various reasons, even though we weren't in England I went to a British-style school, you know we were all divided into Houses and we had blazers and ties and all that. Anyway, one day we were told that the Queen of England was coming to the country! And we were all going to go see her.

Now I had no idea who the Queen of England was or what it was like to behold her. The only context I had for royalty was, you guessed it, Cleopatra in the Asterix comic. Of course I knew the Queen of England wouldn't be rolling sphinx-style. But I figured she'd be on a throne on a platform carried by a bunch of guys, maybe those guys in red coats with big puffy black hats. Obviously there'd be a couple bagpipes going, and a big hefty guy in front saying "Make way! Make way for THE QUEEN!" Oh yeah no doubt she'd be throwing pennies out to us, and I was really excited about that. No, she was going to be holding a huge threatening scepter so probably she'd have a couple guys throwing the pennies from huge bags they carried, yeah that made sense. There'd be guards with those spears with axes on them and diplomats and court ladies and who knows what else. Wow, me and my friends were all pretty excited.

Anyway the day comes and we all get on buses and go to this place and line up along an outdoors walkway. It's pretty sunny there and we're starting to wilt in our blazers and ties. But still, we agreed, even tho we were forced to just stand there it was better than being in Latin class. And maybe they were going to get us something to drink, look, there's a little old lady walking down the line talking to people, maybe she's asking if we want snacks or something.

No. After a while we realized -- that little old lady WAS the Queen of England! There was no throne, no platform, no guards, no bagpipes, no pennies. Still, she seemed nice, she stopped and exchanged pleasantries with a couple of us and just kept walking down the line. So that was my encounter with English Imperial Might. Years later during the Covid lockdown she gave a really nice speech that I found pretty moving, and I had a better understanding of the role of modern royalty. I still kinda wish they'd thrown out pennies though. And I thought about it every time I re-read "Asterix and Cleopatra."