Queen Elizabeth is dead
Britain’s longest serving monarch, Queen Elizabeth II has died.
She died at the age of 96, according to Buckingham Palace.
Her death brings to a close a reign that spanned seven decades and made her the most recognized woman in the world.
As monarch, the Queen is automatically granted a publicly funded state funeral. Details for the funeral are expected to be released by the palace soon.
Her eldest son, Charles, immediately became King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his mother. As sovereign, he has the option to take any name he chooses for his reign.
Charles is now King of the United Kingdom
Charles immediately became King upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth.
The Royal family referred to Charles as King in announcing the death of Queen Elizabeth. The tweet referred to Camila as the Queen Consort.
As heir apparent since the age of three, he has been the longest serving heir to the throne in British history.
Upon becoming the sovereign, Charles has the option to take any name he chooses for his reign as King. For example, King George VI’s real name was actually Albert. Two previous monarchs have been called Charles.
Charles had already been taking on some of the Queen’s engagements this year as her health had become enough of a concern for her to cancel some of her commitments, including the State Opening of Parliament.
Both Charles and Prince William had been prioritizing the Queen’s diary over theirs. Both of them had been activated as Counsellors of State, where the Queen delegates her sovereign power for specific purposes, and they were obligated to be even more available for those duties.
The rise of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne
Queen Elizabeth II, who has died age 96 after the longest reign in British history, will be mourned around the globe as one of the last monarchs born to a classic age of European royalty, when kings and queens wielded genuine political power.
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born in 1926, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York.
But she didn’t become heir presumptive to the throne until 1937, when her father was crowned King George VI after the scandalous abdication of his older brother — events dramatized in the Oscar-winning film “The King’s Speech” and hit Netflix show “The Crown.”
Wartime freedoms
As World War II erupted, Elizabeth was quietly groomed for statehood.
While living out the Blitz on London in nearby Windsor Castle, she was privately tutored in matters of constitution by Henry Marten, an eccentric yet respected teacher who reputedly kept a pet raven in his study.
She began taking tentative steps into public life in 1940 when, aged 14, she made her first radio broadcast: a speech to children displaced by the conflict. At 16, she was made an honorary colonel of the Grenadier Guards, a British army infantry regiment.
Princess Elizabeth is pictured in 1945 standing by an Auxiliary Territorial Service first aid truck wearing an officer’s uniform.
Wartime offered her certain freedoms beyond the traditional constraints of royal life.
In 1945 she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service and spent four weeks getting her hands covered in oil and grease as she learned to drive and maintain military vehicles.
When victory was declared in Europe, a uniformed Elizabeth mingled with jubilant crowds outside Buckingham Palace.
Peacetime brought the return of Lieutenant Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, a handsome young naval officer who had, by all accounts, won her heart when she was just 13. The pair married in Westminster Abbey in 1947. Their first son, Charles, was born just over a year later.
