Queen Elizabeth Was Nearly a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, But She ‘Didn’t Want’ the Honor: ‘Thank You, But No Thank You’

Mar. 15, 2025

Queen Elizabeth stands on the Buckingham Palace balcony during the Platinum Jubilee on June 5, 2022 in London, England.Photo: Frank Augstein - WPA Pool/Getty

There was once talk ofQueen Elizabethreceiving the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize — but she wasn’t interested in winning it, according to a senior courtier.

The late Queen, who died on Sept. 8, 2022 at age 96, was in talks to receive the honor because of her work “transforming and expanding the Commonwealth,”The Daily Mailreported.

It has remained “an abiding mystery why the late Queen missed out,” according to the outlet, but the reason may be rather simple: Her late Majesty apparently wasn’t interested in it.

“They were politely told, ‘Thank you, but no thank you,’ ”The Daily Mailreported, citing a senior courtier.

Queen Elizabeth at the British Airways Headquarters in 2019.Getty Images

Getty Images

In 2018, a campaign for Queen Elizabeth to win the Nobel Peace Prize was reaching an apex, withThe Telegraphreporting that senior political figures believed the Queen should be recognized for her then-66 years of service to the Commonwealth since taking the throne on Feb. 6, 1952. (She’d ultimately serve a record-breaking 70 years before her death in 2022.)

The matter was being taken so seriously thatThe Telegraphreported at the time that the proposal to nominate the Queen was likely to be on the table at the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, with the smaller Commonwealth countries leading the charge.

TheCommonwealthis a voluntary association of 56 independent and equal countries that is made up of 2.7 billion people globally. The Commonwealth’s roots go back to the British Empire, but today any country can join, with the last two countries to do so being Gabon and Togo in 2022.King Charles, who as monarch is now the head of the Commonwealth, recently attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2024 in Samoa alongside wifeQueen Camilla.

Queen Elizabeth speaks at the formal opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the ballroom at Buckingham Palace in London on Apr. 19, 2018.Shutterstock

In 2018, Labour MP Frank Field “was one of many ministers” to support the idea of Queen Elizabeth receiving the honor.

“Over 60 years, if the Queen’s determined diplomacy in keeping the Commonwealth alive and functioning — which is a model of how a multitude of nations around the world can police themselves — doesn’t qualify her for a Nobel Prize, it is difficult to think what more anyone can do,” he said.

TheNobel Peace Prize, given annually, is awarded to a person for having “done the most of best work for fraternity between nations, but the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses,” according to the United Nations, and previous winners have includedBarack Obama,Jimmy Carter,Mother Teresa,Martin Luther King Jr.andNelson Mandela.

The Guardianpraised Queen Elizabeth’s “determined diplomacy” in “keeping the Commonwealth alive” during the 2018 nomination campaign, calling the monarch the Commonwealth’s “guiding spirit.”

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“No one will ever know a fraction of what she does behind closed doors, using her soft power to influence relations between Commonwealth members and between Britain and the Commonwealth,” historian Ashley Jackson told the outlet, emphasizing that the Queen helped the Commonwealth become “a multi-racial society of independent nation states.”

Nobel Peace Prizes aren’t given after a person’s death, so Queen Elizabeth is no longer eligible for the honor, according toThe Guardian.

Known for her humility and modesty, “I don’t think people will really realize until she’s gone the extent to which she is just part of the national landscape,” royal biographer Robert Hardman, author of the bookQueen of Our Times: The Life of Queen Elizabeth II, told PEOPLE about six months before her death.

“She is such a reassuring figure. When you have moments of uncertainty, there’s that sense that the wheels aren’t going to fall off, that the country will still be there tomorrow — as long as there’s still a flag flying above Buckingham Palace,” he said.

source: people.com