By DANICA KIRKA, JILL LAWLESS and SYLVIA HUI
LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and a rock of stability throughout a lot of a turbulent century, died Thursday after 70 years on the throne. She was 96.
The palace introduced she died at Balmoral Castle, her summer time residence in Scotland, the place members of the royal household had rushed to her aspect after her well being took a flip for the more severe.
A hyperlink to the almost-vanished era that fought World War II, she was the one monarch most Britons have ever identified.
Her 73-year-old son Prince Charles routinely grew to become king upon her loss of life and will probably be often known as King Charles III, his workplace introduced. Charles’ second spouse, Camilla, will probably be often known as the Queen Consort.
The BBC performed the nationwide anthem, “God Save the Queen,” over a portrait of her in full regalia as her loss of life was introduced, and the flag over Buckingham Palace was lowered to half-staff because the second Elizabethan age got here to a detailed.
The impression of her loss will probably be large and unpredictable, each for the nation and for the monarchy, an establishment she helped stabilize and modernize throughout a long time of big social change and household scandals.
In a press release, Charles known as the loss of life of his mom “a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family,” including: “I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world.”
World leaders prolonged condolences and paid tribute to the queen.
In Canada, the place the British monarch is the nation’s head of state, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saluted her “wisdom, compassion and warmth.” In India, as soon as the “jewel in the crown” of the British empire, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “She personified dignity and decency in public life. Pained by her demise.”
British Prime Minister Liz Truss, appointed by the queen simply 48 hours earlier, pronounced the nation “devastated” and known as Elizabeth “the rock on which modern Britain was built.”
Since Feb. 6, 1952, Elizabeth reigned over a Britain that rebuilt from struggle and misplaced its empire; joined the European Union after which left it; and reworked from industrial powerhouse to unsure twenty first century society. She endured by way of 15 prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Truss, changing into an establishment and an icon — a set level and a reassuring presence even for individuals who ignored or loathed the monarchy.
She grew to become much less seen in her closing years as age and frailty curtailed many public appearances. But she remained firmly in charge of the monarchy and on the middle of nationwide life as Britain celebrated her Platinum Jubilee with days of events and pageants in June 2022.
The similar month she grew to become the second longest-reigning monarch in historical past, behind Seventeenth-century French King Louis XIV, who took the throne at age 4. On Tuesday, she presided at a ceremony at Balmoral Castle to simply accept the resignation of Boris Johnson as prime minister and appoint Truss as his successor.
When Elizabeth was 21, nearly 5 years earlier than she grew to become queen, she promised the individuals of Britain and the Commonwealth that “my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.”
It was a promise she saved throughout greater than seven a long time.
Despite Britain’s complicated and infrequently fraught ties with its former colonies, Elizabeth was extensively revered and remained head of state of greater than a dozen nations, from Canada to Tuvalu. She headed the 54-nation Commonwealth, constructed round Britain and its former colonies.
Married for greater than 73 years to Prince Philip, who died in 2021 at age 99, Elizabeth was matriarch to a royal household whose troubles had been a topic of worldwide fascination — amplified by fictionalized accounts akin to TV collection “The Crown.” She is survived by 4 youngsters, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Through numerous public occasions, she most likely met extra individuals than anybody in historical past. Her picture, which adorned stamps, cash and banknotes, was among the many most reproduced on this planet.
But her inside life and opinions remained largely an enigma. Of her persona, the general public noticed comparatively little. A horse proprietor, she not often appeared happier than throughout the Royal Ascot racing week. She by no means uninterested in the companionship of her beloved Welsh corgi canine.
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born in London on April 21, 1926, the primary youngster of the Duke and Duchess of York. She was not born to be queen — her father’s elder brother, Prince Edward, was destined for the crown, to be adopted by any youngsters he had.
But in 1936, when she was 10, Edward VIII abdicated to marry twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson, and Elizabeth’s father grew to become King George VI.
Princess Margaret recalled asking her sister whether or not this meant that Elizabeth would sooner or later be queen. ”’Yes, I suppose it does,‘” Margaret quoted Elizabeth as saying. “She didn’t point out it once more.”
Elizabeth was barely in her teenagers when Britain went to struggle with Germany in 1939. While the king and queen stayed at Buckingham Palace throughout the Blitz and toured the bombed-out neighborhoods of London, Elizabeth and Margaret spent many of the struggle at Windsor Castle, west of the capital. Even there, 300 bombs fell in an adjoining park, and the princesses spent many nights in an underground shelter.
As Princess Elizabeth, she made her first public broadcast in 1940 when she was 14, sending a wartime message to youngsters evacuated to the countryside or abroad.
“We children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage,” she stated with a mix of stoicism and hope that may echo all through her reign. “We are trying to do all we can to help out gallant soldiers, sailors and airmen. And we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well.”
In 1945, after months of campaigning for her mother and father’ permission to do one thing for the struggle effort, the inheritor to the throne grew to become Second Subaltern Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor within the Auxiliary Territorial Service. She enthusiastically realized to drive and repair heavy automobiles.
On the evening the struggle resulted in Europe, May 8, 1945, she and Margaret managed to mingle, unrecognized, with celebrating crowds in London — “swept along on a tide of happiness and relief,” as she advised the BBC a long time later, describing it as “one of the most memorable nights of my life.”
At Westminster Abbey in November 1947 she married Royal Navy officer Philip Mountbatten, a prince of Greece and Denmark whom she had first met in 1939 when she was 13 and he 18. Postwar Britain was experiencing austerity and rationing, and so avenue decorations had been restricted and no public vacation was declared. But the bride was allowed 100 additional ration coupons for her trousseau.
The couple lived for a time in Malta, the place Philip was stationed, and Elizabeth loved an almost-normal life as a navy spouse. The first of their 4 youngsters, Prince Charles, was born on Nov. 14, 1948. He was adopted by Princess Anne on Aug. 15, 1950, Prince Andrew on Feb. 19, 1960, and Prince Edward on March 10, 1964.
In February 1952, George VI died in his sleep at age 56 after years of sick well being. Elizabeth, on a go to to Kenya, was advised that she was now queen.
Her non-public secretary, Martin Charteris, later recalled discovering the brand new monarch at her desk, “sitting erect, no tears, color up a little, fully accepting her destiny.”
“In a way, I didn’t have an apprenticeship,” Elizabeth mirrored in a BBC documentary in 1992 that opened a uncommon view into her feelings. “My father died much too young, and so it was all a very sudden kind of taking on, and making the best job you can.”
Her coronation occurred greater than a 12 months later, a grand spectacle at Westminster Abbey considered by tens of millions by way of the still-new medium of tv.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s first response to the king’s loss of life was to complain that the brand new queen was “only a child,” however he was gained over inside days and ultimately grew to become an ardent admirer.
In Britain’s constitutional monarchy, the queen is head of state however has little direct energy; in her official actions she does what the federal government orders. However, she was not with out affect. She as soon as reportedly commented that there was nothing she may do legally to dam the appointment of a bishop, “but I can always say that I should like more information. That is an indication that the prime minister will not miss.”
The extent of the monarch’s political affect sometimes sparked hypothesis — however not a lot criticism whereas Elizabeth was alive. The views of Charles, who has expressed sturdy opinions on every little thing from structure to the setting, would possibly show extra contentious.
She was obliged to fulfill weekly with the prime minister, they usually usually discovered her well-informed, inquisitive and updated. The one doable exception was Margaret Thatcher, with whom her relations had been stated to be cool, if not frosty, although neither girl ever commented.
The queen’s views in these non-public conferences grew to become a topic of intense hypothesis and fertile floor for dramatists like Peter Morgan, creator of the play “The Audience” and the hit TV collection “The Crown.” Those semi-fictionalized accounts had been the product of an period of declining deference and rising superstar, when the royal household’s troubles grew to become public property.
And there have been loads of troubles throughout the household, an establishment often known as “The Firm.” In Elizabeth’s first years on the throne, Princess Margaret provoked a nationwide controversy by way of her romance with a divorced man.
In what the queen known as the “annus horribilis” of 1992, her daughter, Princess Anne, was divorced, Prince Charles and Princess Diana separated, and so did Prince Andrew and his spouse, Sarah. That was additionally the 12 months Windsor Castle, a residence she far most well-liked to Buckingham Palace, was severely broken by fireplace.
The public cut up of Charles and Diana — “There were three of us in that marriage,” Diana stated of her husband’s relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles — was adopted by the shock of Diana’s loss of life in a Paris automotive crash in 1997. For as soon as, the queen appeared out of step together with her individuals.
Amid unprecedented public mourning, Elizabeth’s failure to make a public present of grief appeared to many to be unfeeling. After a number of days, she lastly made a televised tackle to the nation.
The dent in her recognition was transient. She was by now a type of nationwide grandmother, with a stern gaze and a twinkling smile.
Despite being one of many world’s wealthiest individuals, Elizabeth had a status for frugality and customary sense. She was often known as a monarch who turned off lights in empty rooms, a rustic girl who didn’t flinch from strangling pheasants.
A newspaper reporter who went undercover to work as a palace footman strengthened that down-to-earth picture, capturing photos of the royal Tupperware on the breakfast desk and a rubber duck within the tub.
Her sangfroid was not dented when a younger man aimed a pistol at her and fired six blanks as she rode by on a horse in 1981, nor when she found a disturbed intruder sitting on her mattress in Buckingham Palace in 1982.
The picture of the queen as an exemplar of extraordinary British decency was satirized by the journal Private Eye, which known as her Brenda. Anti-monarchists dubbed her “Mrs. Windsor.” But the republican trigger gained restricted traction whereas the queen was alive.
On her Golden Jubilee in 2002, she stated the nation may “look back with measured pride on the history of the last 50 years.”
“It has been a pretty remarkable 50 years by any standards,” she stated in a speech. “There have been ups and downs, but anyone who can remember what things were like after those six long years of war appreciates what immense changes have been achieved since then.”
A reassuring presence at dwelling, she was additionally an emblem of Britain overseas — a type of comfortable energy, persistently revered regardless of the vagaries of the nation’s political leaders on the world stage. It felt solely becoming that she attended the opening of the 2012 London Olympics alongside one other icon, James Bond. Through some film magic, she appeared to parachute into the Olympic Stadium.
In 2015, she overtook her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria’s reign of 63 years, seven months and two days to grow to be the longest-serving monarch in British historical past. She saved working into her tenth decade, although Prince Charles and his elder son, Prince William, more and more took over the visits, ribbon-cuttings and investitures that type the majority of royal duties.
The lack of Philip in 2021 was a heavy blow, as she poignantly sat alone at his funeral within the chapel at Windsor Castle due to coronavirus restrictions.
And the household troubles continued. Her son Prince Andrew was entangled within the sordid story of intercourse offender businessman Jeffrey Epstein, an American businessman who had been a good friend. Andrew denied accusations that he had intercourse with one of many ladies who stated she was trafficked by Epstein.
The queen’s grandson Prince Harry walked away from Britain and his royal duties after marrying American actress Meghan Markle in 2018. He alleged in an interview that some within the household -– however pointedly not the queen -– had been lower than welcoming to his spouse.
She loved sturdy well being properly into her 90s, though she used a cane in an look after Philip’s loss of life. In October 2021, she spent an evening in a London hospital for exams after canceling a visit to Northern Ireland.
A couple of months later, she advised visitors at a reception “as you can see, I can’t move.” The palace, tight-lipped about particulars, stated the queen was experiencing “episodic mobility issues.”
She held digital conferences with diplomats and politicians from Windsor Castle, however public appearances grew rarer. The queen withdrew from fixtures of the royal calendar, together with Remembrance Sunday and Commonwealth Day ceremonies, although she attended a memorial service final March for Philip at Westminster Abbey.
Meanwhile, she took steps to organize for the transition to come back. In February, the queen introduced that she needed Camilla to be often known as “Queen Consort” when “in the fullness of time” her son grew to become king. It eliminated a query mark over the position of the lady some blamed for the breakup of Charles’ marriage to Princess Diana within the Nineteen Nineties.
May introduced one other symbolic second, when she requested Charles to face in for her and skim the Queen’s Speech on the State Opening of Parliament, one of many monarch’s most central constitutional duties.
Seven a long time after World War II, Elizabeth was once more on the middle of the nationwide temper amid the uncertainty and lack of COVID 19 — a illness she got here by way of herself in February.
In April 2020 — with the nation in lockdown and Prime Minister Boris Johnson hospitalized with the virus — she made a uncommon video tackle, urging individuals to stay collectively.
She summoned the spirit of World War II, that very important time in her life, and the nation’s, by echoing Vera Lynn’s wartime anthem “We’ll Meet Again.”
“We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return. We will be with our friends again. We will be with our families again. We will meet again,” she stated.
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Associated Press writers Gregory Katz and Robert Barr contributed materials earlier than their deaths.
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Follow AP protection of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii
Source: www.bostonherald.com”