Queen Elizabeth, who reigned longer than any British monarch, dies at 96
LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II, who wasn’t expected to ascend to the throne when she was born but went on to become the longest-lived and longest-reigning monarch in British history, has died at her summer residence in Scotland. She was 96.
Her death Thursday came after a number of recent health scares, including a bout with COVID-19, trouble walking and an overnight hospital stay. Family members — including Prince Charles, her eldest son and heir to the throne — rushed to her side at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday after doctors “concerned for Her Majesty’s health” ordered her to remain under their supervision.
“The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement posted on social media and, following tradition, on a placard at the gate of the palace in Central London.
Then, in a nod to the seamless transfer of power from monarch to monarch, the statement added: “The King and The Queen Consort” — a reference to Charles and his wife, Camilla — “will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”
The new King Charles III, 73, in a later statement called his mother’s death “a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family,” adding that the loss would be felt “by countless people around the world.”
The queen’s death ended a remarkable 70-year rule that saw 14 prime ministers come and go, from Winston Churchill to Boris Johnson, and witnessed the transformation of postwar Britain from an outsized imperial power into a modest European nation. Her reign was so long that most of Britain’s 68 million people have known no other sovereign — including her 15th prime minister, Liz Truss, whom the queen formally invited to become premier only on Tuesday.
“Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built,” Truss said in a brief address outside 10 Downing St. “Our country has grown and flourished under her reign. Britain is the great country it is today because of her. ... It is a day of great loss, but Queen Elizabeth II leaves a great legacy.”
During Elizabeth's time on the throne, the class system continued to thaw, manners and morals were revolutionized, the Beatles rocked a generation, a stolid British industry gave way to high-flying finance and Britons stunned the world by voting to leave the European Union. A once-insular island became
