Royalists slam historian David Starkey as 'venomous' for claiming the Queen had 'done and said nothing that anyone will remember'

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Historian David Starkey has been branded a 'venomous old queen' amidst a barrage of criticism after claiming Her Majesty The Queen has 'done and said nothing that anyone will remember'.

With just over a week to go until she is declared our longest reigning monarch, Mr Starkey claims Queen Elizabeth II's era will go down in history with more of a whimper than Victoria's industrial bang.

In a provocative article for Radio Times, the 70-year-old said: 'She has done and said nothing that anybody will remember. She will not give her name to her age. Or, I suspect, to anything else.

'I say this not as criticism but simply as a statement of fact. Even as a sort of compliment. And, I suspect, the Queen would take it as such. For she came to the throne with one thought only: to keep the royal show on the road.'

However, royalists have condemned his comments, claiming he must be 'fishing for work' and criticising him for 'shooting one's mouth off'. 

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Historian David Starkey (right) has been criticised by royalists after claiming The Queen (pictured left in July at the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain flypast)  has 'done and said nothing that anyone will remember'

David Starkey has faced criticism on Twitter for his comments, with one branding him a 'venomous old queen'

Writing on Twitter, Scott Nelson said: 'I used to like David Starkey but these days he's nothing more than a venomous old queen.'

David John Scott added: 'To David Starkey: The power to influence quietly can be better than shooting one's mouth off.'

Another royalist, David Jones, wrote: 'David Starkey is wrong. The reason Queen Elizabeth is popular is because she is neutral, Victoria was too political.'

And David Smithard said: 'David Starkey is clearly fishing for work again, how long since you been on the beeb Dave? You'd think a CBE would get you more work #HRH.'

It came after the historian wrote the controversial article in which he assessed the long-term effect of the Queen's era as she approaches her landmark 63rd anniversary on September 9.

He noted that as she acceded to the throne in 1952 she said to councillors, 'My heart is too full for me to say more to you today than that I shall always work as my father did.'

The university of Kent visiting professor, who is most closely associated with the Tudors, added: 'The Queen sees being monarch not as something grand, like being the embodiment of history. Nor, heaven forbid, as something glamorous, like being a film star. No. It is a job. It is as ordinary and humdrum as that.

'The job requires you to do various things: to wear outlandish clothes and baubles; to parade in public; to be painted and photographed more times than your subjects have had hot dinners; to make endless speeches and to meet all sorts and conditions of people. 

Queen Victoria (pictured above) presided over and defined an era of staggering change and progress

'All of which, because it is your job, you do. Even though you are not at all gregarious – indeed, are rather shy – and are not, as Elizabeth has said more than once, with increasing vehemence, "an actress". 

'But you do it uncomplainingly for six decades and with one or more still to come. For it is a peculiarity of the job of monarch that there is no such thing as retirement. Your job contract is with God, for life. Or so the Queen believes.' 

Her dutiful, calm approach is far from that of the 19th Century Queen, who Starkey says, 'gave her name to this age of boundless energy and became its symbol.

'Her image was on every stamp of the wondrous new postal service and her bust or statue on every public building of the ever-vaster British Empire,' he wrote.

'Victoria was and remains universally, instantly recognisable: Victoria. Empress of India. Grandmother of Europe. 

'Fixed forever in phrase and fable, from "How unlike the home life of our own dear Queen" to the (possibly apocryphal) "We are not amused".

He notes that Queen Elizabeth II's great achievement instead has been the survival of the monarchy itself, overcoming growing republicanism and the backlash around the death of Princess Diana to see her becoming more popular than ever.

He added: 'Though we trust the day will be far away – we can already write the Queen's epitaph: "Her monument is the monarchy".'

When the Queen (pictured on her Coronation Day on June 1953) acceded to the throne she vowed to continue her father George VI's work

The Queen meets her fans on a walkabout outside St Paul's Cathedral during her Silver Jubilee in 1977

Queen Elizabeth II is set to become Britain's longest-reigning monarch next month, surpassing the record of her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria around 5:30pm on September 9 after 23,226 days, 16 hours and roughly 30 minutes on the throne.

The exact moment at which the 89-year-old monarch will reach the milestone is hard to pinpoint, as the precise time of her father king George VI's death in his sleep in 1952 is not known.

However, the queen will not indulge in fanfare or celebrations, marking the occasion with just another public engagement - this time opening a new railway line in Scotland.