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 a multicultural magnet, and extraordinary technological advances swept even an ancient monarchy into the television and the internet age, with an Instagram account and a dedicated royal-watching channel on YouTube.
In the midst of it all was the woman whose diminutive figure was instantly recognizable in her simple but impeccably tailored suits, sensible shoes and slightly old-fashioned hats. Indefatigable in dispatching her official duties, she traveled the length and breadth of Britain, and around the globe, to meet the subjects of her kingdom and commonwealth, who turned out by the millions to see her. At home at Buckingham Palace, she received crowned heads, presidents and international luminaries, hosting state dinners replete with pomp and circumstance and the glitter of fabulous jewels. Since 2016, she even managed to rule the new world of streaming services as the subject of the Netflix series The Crown. One of the most expensive television series in history, it has won 21 Emmys and the hearts of American viewers, many of whom were previously unaware of Elizabeth’s remarkable career.
Her dedication to her royal duties flagged only slightly toward the very end of her life, as more assignments and trips were delegated to her heirs. Even then, few Britons ever entertained the mortality of their long-serving monarch before news broke in late 2021 of an overnight hospital stay for tests and then a doctor-ordered two-week rest.
By then, she had recently become widowed after 73 years of marriage to Prince Philip. At his funeral in 2021, television cameras beamed images around the world of a small, black-clad nonagenarian sitting by herself in her grief, less an exalted figure than a bereft and lonely one. Subsequent photos of her looking more hunched and using a walking stick underlined the increasing frailty of a monarch whose upright bearing had seemed part of her job.
In many ways, she was a quintessentially upper-class “county” Englishwoman at heart, unassuming and reserved, most comfortable roaming her country estates with her horses in their stables and her dogs at her heels.
Her children, including the new Charles III, and other “minor royals” have all seen the tawdry details of their private lives splashed in the tabloids. Not so Elizabeth, who in spite — or because — of her sense of stately aloofness was easily the most popular member of the royal family.
There were the occasional missteps, such as the palace’s sluggish response to the national upwelling of grief upon the death of Princess Diana in a car accident in 1997. During harder times too, voices grumbled about the millions of pounds in taxpayer money spent on supporting the glamorous lifestyles of princes, princesses and assorted hangers-on of an undemocratic, hereditary institution.
Nonetheless, public admiration and affection for her grew in warmth and intensity as the years wore on, uncorked — like the many bottles of Champagne — during lavish celebrations marking the notable anniversaries of her reign: a silver jubilee in 1977 (for 25 years), gold in 2002 (for 50), diamond in 2012 (for 60) and a platinum jubilee in June to mark 70 years on the throne. “Now that everything else in our society seems to shake and dissolve around us, this element of secure continuity in our affairs must seem even more precious,” the staunchly royalist Daily Telegraph wrote in an editorial for the silver jubilee.
Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at age 96 after serving more than seven decades on the throne.
April 21, 1926: Born Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary in Mayfair, London, the first child of the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, later called the Queen Mother.
Dec. 10, 1936: Elizabeth becomes heir-apparent to the throne after her uncle King Edward VIII abdicates and her father becomes king.
Oct. 13, 1940: Elizabeth makes first public speech at age 14 on the BBC Children’s Hour to reassure children who had been separated from their parents during the Blitz.
1945: Elizabeth is made a Subaltern in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, serving for Britain during World War II.
Nov. 20, 1947: Elizabeth marries Prince Philip Mountbatten of Greece and Denmark at Westminster Abbey.
Nov. 14, 1948: Prince Charles, now Prince of Wales, heir-apparent to the throne, is born.
Aug. 15, 1950: Elizabeth’s second child and only daughter, Anne, the Princess Royal, is born.
Feb. 6, 1952: Elizabeth becomes queen upon the death of her father George VI.
June 2, 1953: Crowned in a grand coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey. She sets out on a tour of the Commonwealth, visiting places including Bermuda, Fiji, Tonga, Australia, and Gibraltar.
Feb. 19, 1960: Elizabeth’s third child, Prince Andrew, is born.
March 10, 1964: Elizabeth’s fourth child, Prince Edward, is born.
May 1965: Elizabeth makes a historic visit to West Germany, the first German visit by a British monarch in 52 years.
1977: Elizabeth celebrates her Silver Jubilee, which marks 25 years on the throne.
1992: Elizabeth has what she describes as an “annus horribilis,” or a “horrible year.” The year sees marriages for three of her four children end. Also that year, a fire damages Windsor Castle. Public outcry over the cost of repairs amid a recession prompts the queen to volunteer to pay income taxes.
Aug. 31, 1997: Princess Diana dies in a car crash in Paris. Under public pressure to demonstrate her grief, Elizabeth makes an unprecedented television broadcast in tribute to Diana’s memory.
2002: Elizabeth marks 50 years of reign with her Golden Jubilee. The year also sees the deaths of Elizabeth’s mother and her sister, Margaret.
Dec. 20, 2007: Elizabeth becomes the longest-living British monarch, overtaking Victoria.
May 2011: Elizabeth makes a historic visit to Ireland — the first visit by a British monarch since Irish independence.
2012: Elizabeth marks 60 years of her reign with a Diamond Jubilee.
Sept. 9, 2015: Elizabeth surpasses Queen Victoria and becomes the longest-serving monarch in British history.
June 11, 2016: Britain celebrates Elizabeth’s official 90th birthday with three days of national festivities.
Feb. 6, 2017: Elizabeth becomes the first British monarch to celebrate a Sapphire Jubilee, marking 65 years on the throne.
March 2020: Elizabeth and Philip move from Buckingham Palace in London to Windsor Castle at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
April 9, 2021: Prince Philip, Elizabeth’s husband of 73 years, dies at age 99.
Oct. 20, 2021: Elizabeth spends a night in a London hospital undergoing health tests. She cancels major engagements in subsequent months, on doctors’ orders to only undertake light duties.
Feb. 6, 2022: Elizabeth becomes first British monarch to reach a Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years as sovereign.
June 2022: Elizabeth makes limited public appearances during a four-day holiday weekend celebrating her Platinum Jubilee.