The most famous monarch on the planet, the Queen Elizabeth He died Thursday at the age of 96 at his Scottish residence in Balmoral, ushering in an uncertain era for the British crown to which she had dedicated her life.
The Queen died “peacefully” on Thursday followingnoon, Buckingham Palace announced. The flags were lowered above the palace and God Save the Queen played on the BBC.
The disappearance of the sovereign, whose state of health had deteriorated for a year, is sure to arouse immense emotion in the United Kingdom and in the world.
A symbol of stability, having crossed eras and crises imperturbably, she had rubbed shoulders, since the death of her father George VI in 1952, when she was only 25, with Nehru, Charles de Gaulle and Mandela who called her “my friend “.
During her reign, she witnessed the construction and then the fall of the Berlin Wall, and met 12 American presidents.
She had just named her 15th prime minister, Liz Truss, on Tuesday, the occasion for a last photo, frail and leaning on a cane.
His eldest son Charles, Prince of Wales, will succeed him at the age of 73.
Flags at half mast
The death of the sovereign, who had limited appearances for one night in the hospital in October 2021 and had recognized difficulty in moving around, opens a period of national mourning, until her funeral in ten days.
The flags were lowered and the church bells rang to mark the disappearance of the one who, very religious, was also the head of the Anglican Church.
Elizabeth II was at her death head of state of 15 kingdoms, from New Zealand to the Bahamas, which she traveled throughout her reign, always dressed in matching outfits, often in bright colors.
She is above all for the vast majority of her subjects the only sovereign they have ever known, present on banknotes, stamps (which will have to change their face) and subject to the permanent attention of the tabloids.
She preserved the institution despite several crises, including the death in 1997 in Paris of Charles’ ex-wife, Diana, chased by paparazzi. Elizabeth II had been accused of lacking compassion in the face of the immense emotion aroused by the disappearance of “the people’s princess”.
She also remained silent in the face of allegations of sexual assault once morest her son Andrew, who ended it by paying millions of dollars, and remained stoic in the face of allegations of racism once morest the royal family, from her little one. -son Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, whose departure to California was a thunderclap.
The future of the monarchy looks more complicated with Charles, whose popularity is much lower. The British prefer Prince William, now heir to the crown, and his wife Kate.
kingdom unity
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was not destined to become queen when she was born on April 21, 1926. But at the end of 1936, her uncle Edward VIII abdicated, preferring to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American.
Elizabeth II’s father then became King George VI and she became heir to the Crown.
The young princess married at the age of 21 the officer Philip Mountbatten, son of Prince André of Greece, during a sumptuous ceremony which will make post-war United Kingdom dream, still marked by deprivation.
On February 6, 1952, while on a trip to Kenya, she learned of the death of her 56-year-old father. She returned immediately to the United Kingdom, then was crowned on June 2, 1953.
Distant with her four children — Charles, born in 1948, Anne (1950), Andrew (1960) and Edward (1964) Elizabeth II still honored hundreds of commitments each year following 90: inaugurations of all kinds, receptions at Buckingham , presentation of decorations or awards.
Charles will have a lot to do to preserve the attachment of the British to the monarchy, an institution that some consider outdated but whose prestige Elizabeth II had managed to maintain.
He acceded to the throne at a time when the unity of the United Kingdom is cracking, under the effect of Brexit, which has awakened the desire for independence in Scotland and community tensions in Northern Ireland. In the former British colonies that remained kingdoms, criticisms are also strong on the colonialist past and the republican inclinations are reinforced.
Further details will follow.
