Absent presence: Mourning the Queen on Gibraltar National Day

Abstract

What does it mean to declare loyalty to the Crown? This article explores the politics of loyalty and the potency of monarchy's set‐apart quality. It does so from the vantage point of Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory the Queen had not visited since 1954 as the British government sought to avoid reigniting tensions with Spain. However, under the conditions of this absent presence, a particularly intense form of loyalty has emerged in Gibraltarians’ articulation of their relationship with their Queen. Against the ethnographic foreground of the cancellation of Gibraltar National Day events in the wake of the Queen's death, I explore how the mourning process demonstrates an intimacy that also enacts specific political intentionality.