Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s Longest-Reigning Monarch, Dies at 96 - Bloomberg
29/10/2022, 08:57
Queen Elizabeth II. Official portrait taken in
1952.Source: Bettmann/Getty Images
Politics Obituary
Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s LongestReigning Monarch, Dies at 96
By Kitty Donaldson and Robert Hutton
8 September 2022, 18:35 BST Updated on 8 September 2022, 19:45 BST
Queen Elizabeth II, whose reign took Britain from the age of steam
to the era of the smartphone, and who oversaw the largely peaceful
breakup of an empire that once spanned the globe, has died. She
was 96.
She died peacefully at her estate in Balmoral, Scotland on the
afternoon of Sept. 8, according to a statement from Buckingham
Palace.
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Queen Elizabeth II with one of her pet corgi dogs at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, in
1952. Photographer: Lisa Sheridan/Getty Images
Ascending the throne in 1952, Elizabeth led the UK through a time of
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political upheaval. She began her reign as head of an empire, albeit
one in decline. By the time of her death, the future of the UK itself
was in doubt, with recurrent calls for independence in Scotland and
Britain’s exit from the European Union leading to renewed tension
in Northern Ireland.
In Pictures: The Historic Life and Reign of Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth became the UK’s longest-serving monarch in 2015, when
she surpassed the record of Queen Victoria, who had ruled from
1837 to 1901. The partner whom Elizabeth described as her “strength
and stay,” Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years, died in April 2021,
at 99.
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Her eldest son, Charles, succeeds her on the throne as King Charles
III.
“We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a
much-loved mother,” he said in a statement. “I know her loss will be
deeply felt throughout the country.”
Elizabeth reached the end of her reign with her popularity
thoroughly rehabilitated after a period of criticism in the 1990s,
which culminated in media-fueled outrage at the family’s muted
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response to Princess Diana’s death in 1997. When she celebrated 60
years on the throne in 2012, the same year London hosted the
Olympic Games, hundreds of thousands of people thronged the
streets of London for four days of Diamond Jubilee events.
Her Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne, took place in
2022. The celebration of her reign was marked with an appearance
on the balcony of Buckingham Palace by a slimmed-down group
comprising direct heirs to the throne and their immediate family.
In another symbolic moment of the continuity of monarchy, her
heir, Prince Charles, and his first son, Prince William, both paid
public tributes to the queen in front of a crowd of tens of thousands
who flooded the area around the palace for a live concert.
One of the biggest challenges during her reign came from the
media’s unrelenting focus on the private lives of her children and
grandchildren.
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Prince Charles, heir to the throne, kisses his mother’s hand after a Cartier Polo Match at
Windsor in 1985. Source: Hulton Deutsch/Corbis/Getty Images
Prince Charles’ wedding to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 was seen on
television by an estimated 750 million people. Archbishop Robert
Runcie, who celebrated the marriage, called it the “stuff of which
fairy tales are made” and the couple quickly had two children,
Princes William and Harry. But within a few years the marriage was
showing signs of strain as Charles and Diana openly snubbed each
other on public outings and soon the tabloids were reporting their
respective infidelities in minute detail.
Queen’s Counsel
The queen reportedly attempted to rescue her son’s marriage and,
with it, the prestige of the crown, urging the couple to stay together
and put on a brave face. She had little sympathy for their emotional
upheavals, according to biographers.
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Nor did the queen have much obvious fondness for the attentionseeking and photogenic Diana, who resisted the conventions of the
court and upstaged Elizabeth.
“She simply did not want anything to do with that impossible girl,”
Martin Charteris, the queen’s former private secretary, told Carolly
Erickson for her 2004 biography, “Lilibet: An Intimate Portrait of
Queen Elizabeth II.”
But Diana’s rapport with the public was storing up problems for
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Elizabeth. Compared with the charismatic princess, the queen
appeared more attached to her pet corgis, her horses and her
palaces than to her subjects. On a chilly November night in 1992,
Windsor Castle, where she had spent part of her childhood, was set
ablaze after a tungsten lamp burned a curtain in the private chapel.
Some of the castle’s grandest rooms were gutted.
Annus Horribilis
The uninsured castle required tens of millions of pounds’ worth of
repair, which the British taxpayer was in no mood to pay: The queen
was already under pressure for being tax-exempt. Shortly after the
fire, Buckingham Palace announced that both she and Charles
would pay taxes on their private incomes.
The Windsor fire came to symbolize the litany of misfortunes
— including the divorces of two of her other adult children — that
befell the queen in a year she would later describe as an “annus
horribilis.”
Journalist Andrew Morton published a tell-all biography of Princess
Diana, with help from the princess herself. Another of the queen’s
daughters-in-law, Sarah Ferguson, was photographed tanning in the
company of a doting lover and Charles and Diana finally announced
the end of their marriage.
When Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, along
with her lover, Dodi Al Fayed, a high-profile Egyptian billionaire’s
son, an impression began to take hold of the queen as a heartless
figure, cut off from the public’s concerns.
‘Show Us’
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While the
entire
country went
into
mourning,
the queen
remained at
her summer
residence
at Balmoral
Castle in
Scotland and
initially
resisted calls
for a flag to be
flown at halfstaff over
Buckingham
Palace. “Show
us you care,”
urged the
headline in
the Daily
Express
newspaper.
“Speak to Us,
A fireman accompanies the queen as she tours the scene of a major
fire at Windsor Castle on Nov. 21, 1992. The uninsured castle required
tens of millions of pounds’ worth of repair. Photographer: Gillian
Allen/AP Photos
Ma’am,”
pleaded the Mirror. “Not one word has come from the royal lip, not
one tear has been shed in public from a royal eye,” the Sun wrote.
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The queen — who had been staying with her grandsons after the
death of their mother — finally returned to London five days after
the princess’s death, and delivered a televised address. She
described Diana as “an exceptional and gifted human being” who
had “made many, many people happy,” though she stopped short of
expressing personal affection for her late daughter-in-law.
The Royal family look at the flower tributes placed outside Balmoral Castle in September 1997
following the death of Diana. Photographer: Mathieu Polak/Sygma/Getty Images
Over time, Charles’s mistress, Camilla Parker-Bowles, emerged from
the shadows and was accepted at court. When they married, almost
eight years after Diana’s death, the queen was present at a service of
blessing in Windsor Castle and hosted a reception for
them, although she didn’t attend the civil ceremony. In a sign of
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Camilla’s full acceptance into royal life, the queen said in 2022 she
should be named queen as Charles’ consort.
Early Years
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born on April 21, 1926, in the
London district of Mayfair. Initially unable to pronounce her given
name, she called herself Lilibet, a nickname that became widely
used by close relatives.
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A young Lilibet, as she was known, with two corgis at 145 Piccadily, her London home in
1936. Photographer: Lisa Sheridan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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“She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an
infant,” Winston Churchill, later to be the queen’s first prime
minister, said of the two-year-old Princess Elizabeth after a visit to
her parents. Schooled at home by tutors, little Lilibet was, according
to governess Marion Crawford, “very lovable” and fond of horses.
Elizabeth was 10 years old when her life was transformed.
Her uncle, Edward VIII, gave up the crown so that he could marry
Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee, and Elizabeth’s father,
Prince Albert, reluctantly became King George VI. The family moved
to Buckingham Palace and Elizabeth, his first-born, was suddenly
heir to the throne. Her memories of the abdication reportedly
reinforced her strong sense of public duty, which later became a
hallmark of her reign.
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Princess Elizabeth talking with her father, King George VI, in 1946. Photographer: Lisa
Sheridan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Wartime Life
During World War II, the king refused to send Elizabeth and her
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sister Margaret to Canada, keeping them instead in royal residences
outside the capital. When Nazi bombers pounded the East End of
London in September 1940, the royal couple visited the victims.
Buckingham Palace was also hit by German air raids.
The Princess changes a car tire during her military service in the war in 1944. Photographer:
Universal Images Group/Getty Images
In 1945, with the war drawing to a close, Elizabeth Windsor was
allowed to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch
of the British army, as a second lieutenant, becoming the first female
member of the royal family to be a full-time active member of the
services. She took a six-week course in driving and vehicle
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maintenance, learning to steer convoy trucks and strip engines.
Once the war
was over, the
princess
made clear
she was in
love
with Prince
Philip of
Greece,
whom she
had met in
1939 when
the royal
family
Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in
Westminster Abbey, London, on their wedding day, in
1947. Photographer: Bert Hardy/Hulton Royals Collection
visited Dartmouth Naval College. The two were betrothed in July
1947 and married four months later at Westminster Abbey. Philip
became Duke of Edinburgh. Charles, the heir to the throne, was
born a year later.
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Becoming Queen
In the years following the war, the British Empire was starting to
come undone. India shook off British rule in August 1947, Burma,
now known as Myanmar, won independence in 1948,
and Ireland declared itself a republic in 1949. In 1952, on a trip
to Kenya, Princess Elizabeth learned of her father’s death. She
immediately flew back to Britain, to be greeted as queen by
Churchill as she disembarked from her plane.
Elizabeth was crowned in Westminster Abbey in June 1953 in a
televised ceremony, a first for the monarchy, that was watched by
more than 20 million people, half of Britain’s adult population.
While the monarch’s role was a largely ceremonial one and
Elizabeth had next to no say in government matters, she met each of
her prime ministers once a week for a confidential discussion of
which no record was kept, giving her a unique perspective on the
life of her nation. Her final premier, Liz Truss, was invited to form a
government in a meeting at Balmoral Castle on Sept. 6.
In those weekly meetings, the queen listened to concerns over
domestic and foreign policy, trawled through daily red boxes of state
briefings, and helped smooth diplomatic relations by hosting world
leaders. She also kept up a busy schedule of events, including
opening ceremonies and meetings with people across the UK and
elsewhere, as well as regularly touring Commonwealth countries.
In her initial years as sovereign, the queen forged close ties with
Churchill. “Like her father, and her grandfather, she was a natural
conservative,” wrote biographer Kenneth Harris.
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1969 Documentary
Churchill had served her father, George VI, during the war years,
and Elizabeth and her prime minister frequently exchanged
admiring letters, according to Churchill biographer Martin Gilbert.
As the 1960s unfolded, with the empire disintegrating, social change
gripped Britain. The royal family made a conscious attempt to
demystify its image, with the queen, Prince Philip and their children
featuring in a fly-on-the-wall television documentary in 1969. They
were seen for the first time doing everyday things, such as eating
dinner and having a picnic.
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The BBC film a documentary titled ‘Royal Family,’ broadcast in 1969. The queen lunches with
Prince Philip and their children Princess Anne and Prince Charles at Windsor Castle. Source:
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
While the intention was to present a more modern, informal view of
the family, it also opened the door to wider television and press
coverage of their activities which over the following years sparked
controversy. The monarchy has historically been tinged with an aura
of mystery, and as Victorian journalist and economist Walter
Bagehot put it: “We must not let in daylight upon magic.” Harris
wrote that while the royal family “must rely on the media,” he also
said that “beyond a point, the members of the royal family do not
want publicity.”
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In the Silver Jubilee year of 1977 the decline in deference was
illustrated by the release of a single by the English punk band the
Sex Pistols called “God Save the Queen.” The record had a defaced
picture of the monarch on its cover and contained the lyrics, “God
save the queen, the fascist regime.” The BBC banned its staff from
playing it on air.
The queen’s relationship with Margaret Thatcher, who became
Conservative prime minister in May 1979, was described in the press
as cool, though Thatcher denied that in her memoir “The Downing
Street Years.”
Two Women
“Of course, under the circumstances, stories of clashes between
‘two powerful women’ were just too good not to make up,” Thatcher
wrote. She instead emphasized the queen’s “formidable grasp of
current issues and breadth of experience.”
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The queen attends an event at London's Claridge’s Hotel to celebrate former British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher’s 70th birthday, in 1995. Photographer: Tim Graham/Corbis/Getty
Images
When Thatcher died in 2013, Elizabeth joined the mourners in
London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, the first time she had attended the
funeral of a British prime minister since that of Churchill in 1965.
By the turn of the millennium, the popularity of the royals was
recovering from the dark days of the 1990s and a new generation of
the family was also starting to come on the scene. William and Harry
were drawing more media attention, which intensified when William
started dating Catherine Middleton, whom he had met at St.
Andrews University. The queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations in
2002, to mark 50 years on the throne, drew bigger crowds than
expected.
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The eventual royal wedding in 2011, marked by a national holiday,
signaled that the rehabilitation was close to complete. William and
Kate, who came across as a down-to-earth couple in tune with the
times, had helped soften the memories of Charles and Diana’s
indiscretions. The birth of their son, George, in July 2013, also
delighted the public. Two other children followed.
New Generation
As William and Kate, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, took
on more public roles, the queen scaled back, saying at the end of
2016 that she would give up some of her charity work.
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, by contrast, decided to
give up their duties as working members of the Royal Family and
move to the US. Markle, whose mother is Black, said in an interview
with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021 that an unnamed senior royal
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had asked how dark her unborn son’s skin color would be,
prompting a rare public response from the queen, who said the
issues raised by the couple would be taken very seriously. The
Palace also battled to contain a controversy over Prince Andrew’s
friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with a legal
settlement eventually reached in February 2022 after he had
stepped down from royal duties. He was also stripped of military
ranks and royal patronages, although the queen demonstrated her
fondness for her second son by giving him a prominent position at
Prince Philip’s memorial service.
With the end of Elizabeth’s reign, the British establishment loses a
figure who has been able to connect each of her prime ministers
with Churchill and the wartime spirit which has become a key part
of the national identity.
David Cameron, the 12th premier to serve under Elizabeth, said that
he valued their weekly audiences as an opportunity to draw on “her
knowledge, her commitment, her time-tested wisdom” and “an
abundance of what I would call ‘Great British common sense,’ the
ability to cut through the fuss and see what really matters.”
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Spirit of Fun
She was also known for a quiet sense of mischief. According to one
widely reported anecdote, when out walking near Balmoral, she ran
into a couple of American tourists, who failed to recognize her but
were delighted to learn she had a house nearby. “Have you ever met
the queen?” they asked. “No,” she replied, before pointing at the
plainclothes policeman accompanying her. “But he has.”
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Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales watch the Braemar Highland Games
in Scotland, in 2010. Photographer: Chris Jackson/Getty Images
That spirit of fun was on display once again at the London Olympics
in 2012. The opening ceremony featured the queen in her first movie
role, in a short film in which she was met by James Bond
actor Daniel Craig at Buckingham Palace. “Good evening, Mr. Bond,”
the queen said, before she was apparently taken by helicopter and
parachuted in to the Olympic Stadium — a stunt for which she had a
stand-in.
“You don’t have to tell her something twice,” said the
director, Danny Boyle. “She picks it up straight away, about cameras
and angles. She is a good actor.”
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In 2022 the Queen delighted the British public when she performed
a skit with a CGI version of Paddington Bear. In the sketch, the
monarch showed her sense of humor by “revealing” that she kept a
marmalade sandwich in her handbag, the snack favored by the
fictional bear.
(Updated with statement from King Charles III. An earlier version of this
story corrected a picture caption to remove reference to “annus
horribilis.”)
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