GREAT BRITAIN: Crowning Glory

Five emperors, a dozen kings and a score of minor dynasts have vanished in the wars, revolutions and other dislocations of the 20th century. Britain's empire, too, is diminished, yet neither hot war nor cold war, nuclear nor social fission has tarnished the bright gold of the British crown. In an age that tends to reject ritual, scoff at virtue and call magic coincidence the crown that was set this week on the head of Elizabeth II was more generally accepted because better understood, better loved because more respected, than it had...

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