Elizabeth Alexandra Mary officially known as Queen Elizabeth II breathed her last today aged 96. Earlier in the day, Buckingham Palace announced that the doctors looking after her health were "concerned” about the Queen’s health.
The queen was under medical observation with the members of the royal family at the Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
Due to medical complications, a meeting for her Privy Council got canceled, and was advised to take a rest. Now with the Queen’s death, Prince Charles is set to take over the throne as the King after long seven decades of service to the British Empire from her mother.
As the world mourns the demise of the queen a look at her journey from where it all started to hold the record of being Britain’s longest-reigning monarch:
Early Life:
Elizabeth, born on April 21st, 1926 in London was the elder daughter of Prince Albert, duke of York, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. Her education was supervised by her mother, who entrusted her daughters to a governess, Marion Crawford.
During World War II she and her sister, Princess Margaret Rose, were made to spend much of their time safely away from the London blitz and separated from their parents.
They spent most of the time during the years when the superpowers were at war, in the Balmoral Castle in Scotland and at the Royal Lodge, Windsor, and Windsor Castle.
In 1947, Princess Elizabeth went with the King and queen to South Africa. Upon their return, the royal family announced her engagement to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten of the Royal Navy, formerly Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, and the two finally tied the knot on November 20th, 1947 in Westminister Abbey.
On the evening of their wedding day, the King conferred the couple with the titles duke of Edinburgh, earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich.
Elevation to the Throne:
In the summer of 1951, the health of King George VI (Elizabeth’s father) started declining and Elizabeth started accompanying her father on all the formal trips and duties. Along with her husband in January 1952 en route to Australia and New Zealand towards Kenya she received information about her father’s demise on February 6th.
Elizabeth now a queen flew back to England. Upon formally moving to Buckingham Palace from Clarence House three months later which mostly passed in seclusion.
Queen Elizabeth took over all the royal duties and carried out her first state parliament on November 4th, 1952. On June 2nd, 1953 her coronation took place at Westminster Abbey, the place of her wedding to Prince Phillip.
In the year 1961 Queen Elizabeth made the first tour by the Royal British to the Indian subcontinent in 50 years besides making trips to commonwealth nations and different parts of the globe with her husband and Duke of Edinburg.
Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburg were blessed with 1 daughter and 3 sons, Prince Charles being the eldest became the apparent heir to Queen and served as the Prince of Wales to date since being named on July 26th, 1958. The Couple’s other three children are Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward.
Inside the British Monarchy:
Elizabeth II, as she is addressed by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
In 2015 she surpassed Queen Victoria to become the longest-reigning monarch in British history.
In August 2017 Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburg officially retired from public life, though continued to appear in official engagements thereafter. By that time Queen started reducing her royal workload to Prince Charles and other senior members of the royal family.
The Queen’s reign briefly remained in controversies after Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex chose to give up their royal roles in March 2020.
It was in 2016 when the popularity from far-off parts of the world grew in the royal family when a Netflix Television series ‘The Crown’ was released detailing the life of Windsors.
After over seven decades of being together with the Queen, Philip died on April 2021 due to a prolonged illness. Because of social-distancing protocols brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the queen sat alone in a pew in St. George’s Chapel (in Windsor Castle) at Philip’s funeral.
This year in June Britain celebrated the Queen’s 70 years on the throne with the “Platinum Jubilee,” a four-day national holiday that included the Trooping the Colour ceremony, a thanksgiving service at St. Paul’s Cathedral, a pop music concert at Buckingham Palace, and a pageant that employed street arts, theatre, music, circus, carnival, and costume to honour the queen’s reign.
On the health front, the Queen has been suffering since October last year and has been staying more in the Scotland-based Balmoral Castle than in Buckingham Palace.
It was from here only that she formally appointed Liz Truss as the new Prime Minister, besides appointing dozens of others during her illustrious seven-decade reign.
Elizabeth will be known as the monarch who has favored simplicity throughout her life besides holding the reputation of taking a planned, serious, and informed interest in government business, aside from the traditional and ceremonial duties.
Her financial and property holdings have also listed her among one of the world’s richest women. More than half the people alive in Britain today have known no other monarch on their throne, their coins, their banknotes, and their stamps.
A modest, even shy girl, she became the most famous woman in the world, the most photographed and depicted human being in history, who met and shook hands with an estimated 4 million people or more during her reign.