On September 8, 2022, the longest-reigning and the longest-lived monarch in the British history, Queen Elizabeth II, passed away peacefully at her Scottish estate due to old age ailments, after reigning for 70 years. Queen Elizabeth II was ascended to the throne at Westminster Abbey, London, on June 2, 1953 after the death of her father, King George VI, on February 6, 1952.
Career
Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born on April 21, 1926, in Mayfair, London, to the Duke and Duchess of York. Her uncle, Edward VIII, was abdicated from the throne in December 1936 for marrying the twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson. This led to Elizabeth’s father, George VI, becoming the king and at the age of 10, Elizabeth was named to become the heir to the throne. In 1939, when Britain was at war with Nazi Germany, she was educated privately at home. After turning 18 years, Elizabeth spent five months with the Auxiliary Territorial Service and learned driving skills. She began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. During the war, she fell in love with Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, who was serving in the Royal Navy. They got married at Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947. Prince Philip was then given the title of Duke of Edinburgh. They had four children—Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.
Ups and Downs
After her father’s death, she became queen of seven independent commonwealth countries—the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). As a constitutional monarch, she also saw major political changes such as the Troubles in Northern Ireland, devolution in the UK, decolonisation of Africa, UK’s accession to the European Communities, withdrawal from the European Union.
Though she faced occasional republican sentiment and media criticism of her family, support for the monarchy remained consistently high throughout her lifetime.
Apart from grand celebrations of silver, golden, diamond, and platinum jubilees in 1977, 2002, 2012, and 2022 respectively, she also faced some very turbulent times, such as breakdown of her children’s marriages, numerous scandals for the royal family in the year 1992, referred to as annus horribilis (a horrible year), death of her former daughter-in-law, Diana, and the devastating fire in the Windsor Castle, the private residence of the queen, etc.
When Elizabeth II came to the throne, the British Empire was in terminal decline. However, when she died, Britain was a modern multicultural nation, reinvigorated by migration largely from Commonwealth countries, including India. It was under her reign as the queen that most of the old-world order had changed. After her becoming the queen, she witnessed many changes, such as the end of the British Empire overseas, cultural revolution in the 1960s, which led to metamorphosis from a gloomy post-war capital into a bright post-war economic boom. Keeping the affection of the British people for royalty largely intact was one of her achievements.
Her commitment to the commonwealth was a constant and she had visited every commonwealth country at least once. Served by 15 prime ministers during her reign, she became UKs longest-reigning monarch in 2015, surpassing the 63 years of Queen Victoria.
On April 5, 2020, she delivered a rare broadcast to reassure the UK which was battling coronavirus and its prime minister was in the hospital. Her health started deteriorating after the death of her husband, Prince Philip, who died at the age of 99, on April 9, 2021. Before her death, on September 5, 2022, the queen appointed Liz Truss as her 15th prime minister at Balmoral, and accepted Boris Johnson’s resignation.
On September, 10, 2022, Prince Charles, the eldest of Queen Elizabeth’s four children, was formally proclaimed king in a ceremony. King Charles III, aged 73, is the oldest person to have ever ascended the British throne.
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