Why Are European Monarchs Turning Their Backs On Christianity?

Europe’s monarchs used to speak of Christmas as custodians of a civilisation. Decades ago, their season allocutions were full of Christian feeling, as well as patriotic love; it is no surprise, then, that their speeches formed a central part of national life at Christmas, with families calibrating dinners and celebrations so they could be sitting reverently in front of the telly by the time the monarch was ready for the much-anticipated speech. Parents and children would listen in awed silence—such was the respect that monarchy inspired in Europeans of just a few decades ago, in days that were no less turbulent, frenetic, and technology-obsessed than our own.