Queen Elizabeth II reigned for over 70 years. Her life was one of duty and service. She will be dearly missed
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born in 1926
She became Queen in 1952, and was crowned a year later, in 1953
Together with Prince Philip, they raised four children, and went on to have eight grandchildren, as well as twelve great-grandchildren
The Queen had an enduring love for corgis, and had over 30 of them throughout her life
Elizabeth II was the first British monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee. She marked 70 years of her reign in 2022
Here are some of the most powerful tributes to Queen Elizabeth II that public officials, celebrities, and people from all over the world have shared
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Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, passed away in 1952 while she was in Kenya together with Philip. She returned to London, now, as Queen. "It was all a very sudden kind of taking on and making the best job you can," she said. At the age of 27, she was crowned at Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953. An estimated TV audience of over 20 million people tuned in for her coronation.
Throughout her reign, the Queen saw the coming and going of 15 prime ministers. From the legendary Winston Churchill to the newly appointed Liz Truss.
What follows next has been clear for those in-the-know for, seemingly, forever. There is a secret plan, ‘London Bridge,’ for the days following the Queen’s death. Nearly every single step has been carefully planned out, steeped in tradition. The Guardian has extensively written about this in 2017.
“For a time, she will be gone without our knowing it. The information will travel like the compressional wave ahead of an earthquake, detectable only by special equipment. Governors general, ambassadors and prime ministers will learn first. Cupboards will be opened in search of black armbands, three-and-a-quarter inches wide, to be worn on the left arm,” The Guardian writes.
“Screens will glow. There will be tweets. At the BBC, the ‘radio alert transmission system’ (Rats), will be activated—a cold war-era alarm designed to withstand an attack on the nation’s infrastructure.
All news organizations will scramble to get films on air and obituaries online. At the Guardian, the deputy editor has a list of prepared stories pinned to his wall. The Times is said to have 11 days of coverage ready to go. At Sky News and ITN, which for years rehearsed the death of the Queen substituting the name ‘Mrs Robinson’, calls will go out to royal experts who have already signed contracts to speak exclusively on those channels. ‘I am going to be sitting outside the doors of the Abbey on a hugely enlarged trestle table commentating to 300 million Americans about this,’” one expert told The Guardian.
At age 73, King Charles III has now become the head of the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent countries and 2.4 billion people. He will be the head of state for 14 of these countries, as well as the United Kingdom, writes the BBC.
Though Charles III immediately became King upon his mother’s passing, he will most likely officially be proclaimed monarch on Saturday, at St. James’ Palace in London. The formal coronation will happen sometime later, though it is at this point unclear, when. Queen Elizabeth II had succeeded her father in February of 1952, but she was only crowned in June 1953.
