Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history, died Thursday. The word came from Buckingham Palace in the late afternoon that the queen had “died peacefully” at the family’s summer retreat at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. She was 96. Her son Charles — who at his mother’s death ascended to the British throne as King Charles III, issued a statement saying that “the death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty the Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world.” The news came only two days after the queen welcomed the newly minted Prime Minister Liz Truss to Balmoral, the first time in the queen’s long reign when the investiture of a new prime minister had taken place somewhere other than at Buckingham Palace. Truss was the 15th prime minister to serve in the 70 years of the queen’s reign, a reign marked by periodic political and economic upheaval, and the more recent traumas of terrorism — in particular the London bus bombings in 2005 — and the covid-19 pandemic and its myriad effects. Her time on the throne also saw social change in Britain and tumult within the royal family itself. And while support for the monarchy has seen its ups and downs, Queen Elizabeth was a widely respected and even revered figure.
