Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom greets well-wishers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center mission control in 2007.
ELIZABETH II reigned from 1952 to 2022 — at seventy years, longer than any other British monarch. Aided by her much-loved (and mischievous) husband Philip of Greece, whom she married in 1947, in a changing world Elizabeth remained “a steady and sane oracle amongst all the deliriums of mankind”,* and history rewarded her.
In 1958 Empire Day became Commonwealth Day as the former Empire continued to dissolve peacefully. The Troubles in Ireland, which began in 1968 and in 1979 took the life of Philip’s uncle Louis Mountbatten, ended in 1985 with the Anglo-Irish Agreement. In 1975, the UK entered into the European Economic Community [EEC], which, as it developed into the European Union, threatened the sovereignty of Parliament and the Crown, but with ‘Brexit’ in 2020 the danger receded. And in 2014, after a brief flirtation with independence, Elizabeth’s beloved Scotland voted to remain in the UK.
In addition to such matters of State, Elizabeth faced a series of family bereavements and embarrassments with a dignity that only increased the public affection in which she was held. At her passing on September 8th, 2022, her subjects felt the loss keenly. Elizabeth was succeeded by her eldest son, who became Charles III.
* See George Santayana on The Englishman.
Précis
The reign of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest of any British monarch, was marked by a series of dramatic upheavals, many of which threatened both Parliament and the Crown. When she died in 2022, all had come to nothing, at least for the time being; and the public said farewell to her with an outpouring of genuine affection. (57 / 60 words)
