Longest-reigning monarch in British history, Queen Elizabeth II, has died at the age of 96.
Prince Charles, 73, heir to the throne since the age of three, is now king, and will be officially proclaimed so at St James’s Palace in London as soon as practicably possible.
In a statement, Thursday afternoon, Buckingham Palace said: “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and the Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”
Flags on landmark buildings in Britain were being lowered to as a period of official mourning was announced.
Earlier Thursday, there were serious fears and concerns over the health of England’s aged monarch, Queen Elizabeth
In fact, Elizabeth’s doctors on Thursday, September 8, recommended that she should be kept under close medical supervision
Buckingham Palace on Thursday, September 8, reported Queen Elizabeth was currently under medical supervision.
The palace, in its statement on Thursday, noted that this became necessary after the doctors became worried over her health.
The statement read: “Following further evaluation this morning, the Queen’s doctors are concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision.
“The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral.”
It was gathered that Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall travelled to Balmoral where the aged monarch is being attended to, while the Duke of Cambridge is on his way there.
As Queen of the UK and 14 other realms, and head of the 54-nation Commonwealth, Elizabeth II was easily the world’s most recognisable head of state during an extraordinarily long reign.
Coming to the throne at the age of 25, she successfully steered the monarchy through decades of turbulent change, with her personal popularity providing ballast during the institution’s more difficult times.
At her side for most of it, the Duke of Edinburgh remained her “strength and stay” during a marriage that withstood many strains imposed by her unique position.
Despite a family life lived under the often challenging glare of publicity, Elizabeth II remained a calm and steadfast figure, weathering the divorces of three of her children, and the crisis precipitated by the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in a car crash in Paris in 1997.
There were undoubted low points, but the mass outpourings of affection on her silver, golden and diamond jubilees testified to the special place she held for millions. When there was criticism of the institution, it rarely translated into a personal attack on her.
15 prime ministers served her, attesting to her deep knowledge, experience of world affairs and mastery of political neutrality. They stretched back to Sir Winston Churchill, who was still prime minister when she assumed the throne, with resolve and far earlier than she had expected, on the premature death of her father, George VI, in 1952.
That resolve continued to sustain her. In her silver jubilee message in 1977, she said: “When I was 21, I pledged my life to the service of our people, and asked for God’s help to make that vow. Although that vow was made in my salad days, when I was green in judgment, I do not regret nor retract one word of it.”
Often portrayed as old-fashioned, during her reign many steps were taken to keep the monarchy up to date with rapid societal change. Out went debutante “coming out” presentations, in came garden parties, receptions, luncheons, almost weekly “away days” to provincial towns and regular walkabouts, allowing personal access on a vaster scale than ever before.
Out, too, went tax-free status on her private income, and that of the Prince of Wales, though she fought hard until she was convinced public opinion was firmly set against her. The laws on succession were changed, with the abolition of primogeniture, allowing first-born daughters to accede over sons, and those in the line of succession being allowed to marry a Catholic, although not to be one.
She was left bereft at the loss of her lifelong companion, Philip, who died in his sleep at the age of 99 in April 2021 during the Covid pandemic. She sat alone and bereaved in St George’s chapel, Windsor Castle, during the poignant funeral, hugely scaled down because of coronavirus restrictions. The royal couple, married for 73 years, had spent the last months of his life together in lockdown, shielding at Windsor Castle because of their vulnerability to the virus due to their advanced years.
The duke’s death came during one of the most turbulent times for the Queen and her family, when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex quit as senior working royals and decamped to the US to seek freedom and the ability to earn their own money.
Her grandson, Harry with her wife, Meghan further plunged the monarchy into crisis with a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, while Philip was in hospital, in which they accused an unnamed member of the royal family of racism towards their son, Archie, before he was born, and the institution of failing to help the duchess.
Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born on 21 April 1926 at her maternal grandparents’ home at 17 Bruton Street, in London’s Mayfair district, and was not expected to accede to the throne. But at the age of 10, the abdication of her uncle, Edward VIII, over his love for the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, and her father’s rushed coronation as substitute king, changed the path her aristocratic life could have been expected to take.
In 2011, Elizabeth became the first British monarch in a century to visit the Republic of Ireland. The following year, she shook hands in Belfast with the Sinn Féin politician Martin McGuinness, putting aside the personal tragedy of the IRA assassination of “Uncle Dickie”, Lord Mountbatten, her distant cousin and Philip’s uncle.
In 2002, her golden jubilee, her sister, Margaret, and mother, Queen Elizabeth, died within eight weeks of each other. Her relationship to both had been close, as they were among the few individuals in whom she could confide the pressures and frustrations of her position.
As many nations today mourn a queen, one family is mourning a mother of four, a grandmother of eight, and a great-grandmother of 12.