Between Insignificance and Importance: The Commonwealth Headship in Contemporary History

Abstract

Harshan Kumarasingham’s chapter focuses on the institution of the British monarchy in conceptions of empire and Commonwealth. In addition to showing the importance of the Commonwealth to Queen Elizabeth II as a constitutional person and personality, Kumarasingham uses debates about the status of the monarch to illustrate different attitudes displayed by constituent members of the Commonwealth, old and new. By showing the centrality of the institution of the monarch to the United Kingdom as well as its erstwhile empire, Kumarasingham reminds us of ties that bind Commonwealth to British history rather more closely than much British historiography acknowledges and encourages scholars to renew an understanding of shared Commonwealth constitutional traditions by employing multi-perspectival—and more egalitarian—vantage points.