Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s Longest Reigning Monarch, Dies At 96

London/New Delhi:

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest serving monarch, has died at 96. She reigned for 70 years.

Her eldest son, Charles, 73, has succeeded as king, in accordance with centuries of protocol.

The royal household – King Charles, grandsons William and Harry and their households – have gathered at her Balmoral retreat within the Scottish highlands, the place she spent her final days.

The UK celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee to mark 70 years of service to the nation with grand occasions in June.

In 2015, Queen Elizabeth grew to become the longest-serving British monarch, surpassing her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria. This yr, she grew to become the world’s second longest reigning monarch.

As UK celebrated her Platinum Jubilee milestone with royal parades, road events and pageantry, the Queen thanked the nation in a letter, saying that she had been “humbled and deeply touched”.

“Relating to how one can mark 70 years as your Queen, there isn’t a guidebook to observe. It truly is a primary,” she wrote.

The Queen missed a few of the occasions due to her well being, and Prince Charles and second in line Prince William attended them. She did seem on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on the finish of the Jubilee Pageant.

For many of her topics, she was the one monarch that they had ever recognized, that includes on stamps, banknotes and cash, and immortalised in common tradition.

She lived by way of a few of the largest royal scandals – from the divorce of Charles and Diana to her second son Prince Andrew’s alleged hyperlinks to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and Harry and Meghan quitting royal life.

However she was witness to a few of the most eventful moments in fashionable historical past, from the assassination of US President John F Kennedy, to the moon touchdown, the autumn of the Berlin wall and the Covid pandemic. She noticed 14 Prime Ministers of UK throughout her reign, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss. In a primary, she appointed Liz Truss in Balmoral in Scotland as she was too in poor health to return to London.

Her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, died in April 2021, simply weeks wanting his one hundredth birthday.

A picture of the Queen sitting alone within the quire of St. George’s Chapel throughout his funeral, resulting from COVID protocol, moved the world.