As people remembered the monarch’s 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II’s death on Thursday generated a rush of comments online from all facets of society. Fans and committed observers of the monarchy, however, experienced the event more intensely than others in the internet groups that are exclusively devoted to the Queen.
Insider spoke with the owner of a well-known royals-watching blog and two moderators of Reddit pages dedicated to the royal family and British monarchy after the news of Queen Elizabeth II’s passing broke to get their reactions and learn how the historic event is being discussed among the internet’s most devoted monarchy-watchers.
Some of the Queen’s biggest fans online were ‘shocked’
There are multiple Reddit pages that focus on discussing Britain’s Royal Family and the history of the monarchy. Kervin, a 28-year-old from New York who’s a moderator of nine subreddits related to royal families and monarchies—including r/monarchism, which has 37,000 members, a page dedicated to monarchical vexillology (flags), and Spain’s monarchy, among other related topics—told Insider they felt “nothing but shock” and didn’t think the Queen would have died so soon.
“We literally did a platinum jubilee, spirits were so high,” Kervin said, adding that they’ve been following the Queen since they were in their sophomore year of high school. “I absolutely cannot express just how shocked I am,” they said.
A 22-year-old who moderates r/royalfamily, a Reddit forum with over 17,000 members centered around discussing Britain’s royalty, told Insider the Queen’s death was “such sad news” and gave condolences to the rest of the family.
“I have been following the royal family for almost 5 years now,” the user said. “Since Meghan and Harry got engaged.”
The top post on that subreddit, a notification of the Queen’s death, was packed with comments expressing sadness and praising the monarch’s legacy. “My mom texted me and I cried in the middle of teaching a phonics lesson,” one user wrote. “She’s always been the queen.”
Getrude Daly, the operator of a popular royal-watching blog called Gert’s Royals, told Insider that they were “obviously very sad to hear about the Queen’s death.”
“She’s been everywhere, met everyone important or famous, and lived through so many historical events,” said Daly, whose Twitter account for the blog has amassed over 17,000 followers and shares updates about the family’s status and happenings. “With a 70-year reign, she has been monarch for the entirety of most people’s life.”
Royals and monarchy pages adapt to King Charles III
While many celebrities, brands, and politicians mourned Queen Elizabeth II, multiple Twitter users and meme accounts went viral with posts that appeared to mock her, or criticized her reign in connection with Britain’s history of colonization and domination of other countries.
Kervin, who has been monitoring the conversations across the nine royalty-related reddit pages they manage, said they’ve seen mostly favorable and admirable attitudes toward the Queen.
“Some are showing the awkwardness of saying ‘God save the King’ because we are so used to hearing ‘God save the Queen,’” Kervin said. “Others are showing how much worst [sic] King Charles III will be for the Monarchy and how impossible it will be to out shine Queen Elizabeth.”
Kervin said they have seen a number of people celebrating the Queen’s death—often using a crab emoji as part of an internet trope referencing a video of happy, dancing CGI crustaceans.
But those detractors are “often quickly targeted by the more ardent Royalists” on the Reddit pages, Kervin said.
Similarly, Daly said they communicated with numerous people about the Queen after her death was announced, and that the reaction and consensus about her life was uniformly positive.
“Many people have no real interest in the royals,” Daly said. “But they knew who the Queen was.”