In Elizabethan England, “the verge” was an area of legal jurisdiction, defined as the territory within a twelve-mile radius of the body of the Queen, wherever she happened to be. Thus, a sort of legal, royal “aura”.
Does anybody know if the verge still exists in the present day, at least in (legal) theory?
I have no idea, though I do think it sounds splendid.
But on the subject of her Maj ER I it does sound, as the young people say, that ‘she had her sh*t together’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X7ev2aks3g
ER II is hymned by A. Motion the bard of Lemsip.
So that was why Good Queen Bess was known as ‘the verging queen’!