LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, has died on the age of 96. She had served greater than 70 years on the throne.
“The queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,” Buckingham Palace stated in an announcement Thursday night.
She is straight away succeeded by her eldest son Charles, who now turns into King Charles III. He and different members of the royal household had rushed to Balmoral, the queen’s Scottish property the place she historically spends the late summer time, earlier within the day, because the severity of her situation grew to become clear.
Tributes flooded in from the around the globe Thursday night and flags throughout the U.Ok. have been lowered to half-mast, because the nation ready for an official interval of mourning.
In his first assertion as king, Charles spoke of the disappointment felt by all his household.
“The demise of my beloved mom, Her Majesty the Queen, is a second of the best disappointment for me and all members of my household,” Charles stated.
“We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mom. I do know her loss might be deeply felt all through the nation, the realms and the Commonwealth, and by numerous folks around the globe.”
New U.Ok. Prime Minister Liz Truss — requested to kind a authorities by the queen solely two days in the past — addressed the nation from Downing Avenue Thursday night time.
“Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which fashionable Britain was constructed,” Truss stated, in one in all her first speeches as U.Ok. prime minister. “Our nation has grown and flourished below her reign.
“Britain is the nice nation it’s as we speak due to her … She was the very spirit of Nice Britain, and that spirit will endure.”
Labour Get together chief Keir Starmer paid tribute to Britain’s “longest-serving and biggest monarch.”
He added: “Above the clashes of politics, she stood not for what the nation fought over, however what it agreed upon.”
In Westminster, Home of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle described her demise as a “horrible loss” for the nation.
“For all of us, the queen has been a continuing presence in our lives — as acquainted as a member of the household, but one who has exercised a relaxed and steadying affect over our nation. Most of us have by no means identified a time when she was not there. Her demise just isn’t solely a tragedy for the royal household, however a horrible loss for us all.”
As a younger princess, Elizabeth first took on public duties throughout the Second World Conflict, showing on the radio and being appointed one in all her father’s efficient deputies as counsellor of state.
She married Philip Mountbatten in 1947, a wedding which lasted till his demise in 2021 and produced 4 youngsters: Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward.
She grew to become queen in 1952 after the untimely demise of her father George VI, and went on to turn out to be each the nation’s longest-lived and longest-serving monarch.
She is credited with revitalizing the monarchy, embarking on a seven-month world tour shortly after she took the throne and serving to to safe the transition of the Empire into the Commonwealth of Nations. She traveled extensively within the Commonwealth whilst an rising variety of African and Caribbean international locations decolonized within the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies.
The Eighties and Nineties noticed one of the vital tough durations of her reign as press scrutiny of the royal household intensified with a specific give attention to the sad marriage between Charles and Princess Diana.
The recognition of the household dipped within the queen’s annus horribilis of 1992, when Charles and Diana separated and a significant fireplace broke out at Windsor Citadel.
After Diana’s demise in a automotive crash in 1997 the general public briefly grew to become overtly hostile in the direction of the queen amid an outpouring of grief, earlier than she gave a private tribute to the princess in a televised broadcast.
She has remained a continuing within the lifetime of all Britons and recovered her reputation to turn out to be extra revered than ever, whilst contemporary scandals engulfed the household in recent times.
In a broadcast to the nation initially of the COVID pandemic, the queen promised there have been higher days forward. Echoing the phrases of a well-known Vera Lynn wartime tune, she stated that “we are going to meet once more.”
The queen has been affected by mobility issues during the last yr and tremendously diminished her public appearances, together with lacking the state opening of parliament in Might and a service of thanksgiving to have a good time her seventy years on the throne. Simply this week mobility considerations meant the queen needed to appoint Liz Truss as U.Ok. prime minister — the fifteenth of her reign — from Balmoral Citadel in Scotland slightly than London’s Buckingham Palace.
A state funeral will happen at Westminster Abbey in ten days’ time, which can see the nation observe a two minutes’ silence, earlier than the queen is buried at Windsor Citadel.
Charles will embark on a tour of the U.Ok., beginning with a go to to the Scottish parliament and a service at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.
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