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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has died, ending a historic 70-year reign. She was 96.
The Queen died at Balmoral, her beloved palace within the Scottish Highlands, which was bought by her great-great-grandfather Prince Albert for Queen Victoria in 1852. She was surrounded by her kids and grand-children.
Prince Charles, her eldest son, succeeds her.
The Queen’s dying comes just below 18 months and after that of her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who died on April 9, 2021.
Earlier this 12 months, the Queen celebrated her Platinum Jubilee, which commemorated a record-breaking 70 years on the throne. In a uncommon private assertion to mark the event of her accession, she mentioned: “It’s a day that, even after 70 years, I nonetheless bear in mind as a lot for the dying of my father, King George VI, as for the beginning of my reign.”
Celebrations started on Feb. 6, which is the day she formally acceded to the throne, and carried on into June, when she appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the primary day of an extended Jubilee weekend, with the British public getting an additional public vacation to have fun.
Nevertheless, the monarch didn’t attend subsequent Jubilee occasions, together with a concert in her honor that includes Adam Lambert and Queen, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Sir Elton John, after experiencing discomfort throughout the Trooping the Color parade on the primary day of the celebrations. She made a short look on the Sunday on the conclusion of the festivities.
On 6 Sept., she formally appointed the U.Okay.’s newest Prime Minister, Liz Truss, in a ceremony at Balmoral. Historically a brand new Prime Minister is appointed at Buckingham Palace, within the capital, however the venue was modified as a result of Queen’s “mobility issues,” the palace mentioned in an announcement. In images launched of the occasion the Queen was proven utilizing a strolling stick however smiling as she shook Truss’s hand. The next day she was compelled to cancel an viewers with ministers after being suggested to relaxation by her medical doctors.
The Queen, who acceded to the throne in 1952, was the world’s oldest reigning monarch. In 2015, she additionally grew to become the longest-reigning British sovereign of all time, surpassing the earlier file set by Queen Victoria.
She holds the file for the second-longest reigning monarch of all time after France’s Louis XIV, who was on the throne for 72 years.
Throughout her reign, the Queen noticed 15 British prime ministers serve below her, starting with Winston Churchill, and met 13 of the final 14 U.S. presidents, from Harry S. Truman via to Joe Biden, in addition to numerous heads of state internationally. (The one U.S. president she didn’t meet was Lyndon Johnson.)
Princess Elizabeth was not anticipated to change into a queen when she was born to the Duke and Duchess of York on April 21, 1926 in Mayfair, London. When her uncle, Edward VIII, abdicated in 1936 over his relationship with American divorcee Wallis Simpson, Elizabeth’s father was declared King George VI, shifting the then 10-year-old princess into the direct line of succession. (Edward VIII’s abdication has been portrayed on display in movies together with Oscar-winning “The King’s Speech,” starring Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter, and in Madonna’s biopic of Wallis Simpson, “W.E.”)
In 1947 Princess Elizabeth married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, with whom she had 4 kids: Charles, Prince of Wales and Anne, Princess Royal, had been each born earlier than she acceded to the throne, adopted virtually ten years later by Prince Andrew, Duke of York and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, who had been born whereas she was queen.
On Feb. 6, 1952, King George VI died all of a sudden on the age of 56 from a coronary thrombosis and Princess Elizabeth, then on a tour of Kenya, acceded to the throne, changing into Queen Elizabeth II. Her coronation in Westminster Abbey the next 12 months was the primary in British historical past to be televised.
Whereas she continued to undertake her royal duties till the very finish of her reign, in the previous few years of her life she was restrained by her well being, utilizing a strolling stick and sometimes, in line with native reviews, a wheelchair, though she was by no means seen publicly with the latter.
In February 2022, an announcement from Buckingham Palace to royal reporters confirmed that the Queen had contracted COVID-19. “Her Majesty is experiencing delicate chilly like signs however expects to proceed gentle duties at Windsor over the approaching week,” mentioned an announcement from the palace. “She’s going to proceed to obtain medical consideration and can observe all the suitable tips.” Nevertheless, she appeared to make a full restoration.
The Queen grew to become a cultural staple throughout her lengthy and eventful reign. She was probably the most photographed girl in historical past – gracing the quilt of Time journal at age three, the primary of a number of such appearances – and was depicted on the massive display, the small display, the stage, in music, and in artwork.
She is the principle topic of the Netflix authentic sequence “The Crown,” which follows the Queen from the Forties to trendy occasions and examines her relationship with the assorted prime ministers who led Her Majesty’s Authorities in addition to different figures, each inside the Royal Household and outdoors it. Over the present’s six seasons, every of which covers roughly a decade in her life, she has been portrayed by three totally different actors: Claire Foy, who received a Golden Globe for her portrayal, and Olivia Colman, who received each a Golden Globe and an Emmy, and Imelda Staunton, who will painting the queen in her 70s and 80s throughout the present’s fifth and sixth (additionally believed to be its last) season. Season 5 will premiere on Netflix in November 2022.
Helen Mirren additionally memorably performed the British monarch within the 2006 movie “The Queen,” written by “The Crown” creator Peter Morgan and directed by Stephen Frears. The movie was set within the aftermath of Princess Diana’s dying, a low level for the British royal household, and received Mirren a finest actress Oscar for her efficiency. Mirren went on to play Elizabeth once more within the West Finish and on Broadway, within the stage hit “The Viewers.”
The monarch was additionally depicted in “Spencer,” performed by Stella Gonet – the movie stars Kirsten Stewart as her daughter-in-law Princess Diana – whereas the Queen’s early childhood was portrayed in Oscar-winning movie “The King’s Speech.” The 2015 movie “A Royal Evening Out” supplied a fictionalized glimpse of the evening Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret had been allowed secretly to slide out of Buckingham Palace to affix the crowds celebrating V-E Day on the streets of London in 1945.
In 2016, the Queen was a personality in “The BFG,” Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the e-book by Roald Dahl and “The Bare Gun: From the Information of Police Squad!” additionally tackled the British monarch — actually. Within the 1988 comedy, Leslie Nielsen’s character makes use of a operating deal with to avoid wasting the Queen from what he wrongly believes to be an assassination try. The actor who performs her within the movie, Jeannette Charles, has made a profession of royal impersonation, standing in as Elizabeth in about 20 films and TV applications over a 40-year interval.
In animated type, the Queen in her Cinderella-like royal coach survived an tried theft of her crown within the 2015 movie “Minions” and a rear-ending by Homer Simpson in a 2003 episode of “The Simpsons” (titled “The Regina Monologues”). She wasn’t so fortunate in a 2012 episode of “Household Man,” during which a high-speed chase of her carriage ends in a royal fatality, and in 2007 an episode of “South Park” sparked outrage after it confirmed her dying by suicide on the throne. She additionally made an look in Gary Janetti’s short-lived animated comedy “The Prince,” which ran for one season on HBO Max.
In 2022, the Queen delighted viewers around the globe by guest-starring in a video with Paddington Bear. Within the skit, which was filmed at Windsor Fortress and broadcast earlier than the Platinum Jubilee live performance, Paddington is invited to the Queen’s abode for tea the place chaos ensues. At one level, the bear provides Her Majesty a marmalade sandwich fished out of his hat, as he tells her: “I at all times preserve one for emergencies.” In response, the Queen replies, “So do I” and opens her purse to drag out a marmalade sandwich of her personal. The 2-minute video shortly went viral, with the Queen’s great-grandchildren, Prince George and Princess Charlotte proven within the viewers responding with pleasure to the clip.
The cameo echoed her 2012 look on the London Olympics when the Queen appeared in a pre-recorded video proven on the opening ceremony. Within the clip, she greets Daniel Craig (in character as James Bond) at Buckingham Palace earlier than he escorts her to a ready helicopter. They’re proven flying over London in the direction of the Olympic stadium earlier than Craig and the Queen seem to leap out of the chopper with parachutes strapped to their again. Because the video was being performed within the stadium an actual helicopter appeared within the sky and two figures – one clad in a regal peach costume – parachuted out. With good timing, the Queen then appeared in individual on the ceremony in an similar costume earlier than taking her seat within the stadium to the sound of untamed cheers.
Regardless of her occasional cameos and innumerable public appearances, the Queen remained an enigma to her topics, intentionally cultivating an air of splendor and thriller. She by no means gave a single interview throughout her lifetime and maintained an aloofness in an age of over-sharing and public emotion, even because the lives of her personal kids — and grandchildren — got here to resemble a actuality present, with lurid particulars of their relationships and scandalous antics often making headlines within the British tabloids.
All of which made her uncommon expressions of sentiment all of the extra significant though it additionally, now and again, alienated her from the general public. In 1992, throughout her annual televised Christmas Day speech, she memorably declared that 12 months to be an “annus horribilis.” It had been a tumultuous 12 months throughout which three of her kids separated from their spouses – Prince Charles from Diana, Prince Andrew from Sarah Ferguson and Princess Anne from her husband Mark Phillips – whereas Windsor Fortress was badly broken in a hearth.
A fair decrease level for the monarchy got here 5 years later, following Diana’s dying in a automotive crash in Paris. Through the outpouring of grief that adopted, the Queen was accused of being chilly and unfeeling and it took virtually a decade for the royal household’s reputation to rebound.
However rebound it did, significantly the Queen’s, who generated an virtually common respect and gratitude around the globe as she continued to meet her duties as head of state and nationwide image into her tenth decade of life.
“On the subject of how you can mark 70 years as your Queen, there isn’t a guidebook to observe,” she mentioned in a letter addressed to the British public in 2022. “It truly is a primary. However I’ve been humbled and deeply touched that so many individuals have taken to the streets to have fun my Platinum Jubilee.”
“Whereas I’ll not have attended each occasion in individual, my coronary heart has been with you all; and I stay dedicated to serving you to one of the best of my means, supported by my household.”
Queen Elizabeth II is survived by her 4 kids, eight grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren, the youngest of whom was born in 2021.
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