Elizabeth II Dies: Britain's Longest-Reigning Monarch

Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on September 8, 2022, after seventy years on the throne, the longest reign in British history and among the longest of any monarch in the modern world. She had ascended to the crown in 1952 at age twenty-five, while on a visit to Kenya, learning of her father George VI's death from her husband Philip. Over seven decades she served as head of state through the Cold War, decolonization, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Falklands War, the end of apartheid, the September 11 attacks, Brexit, and a global pandemic. She worked with fifteen British prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, whom she appointed just two days before her death. Her passing triggered Operation London Bridge, the meticulously planned protocol for the transition of the monarchy that had been rehearsed and updated for decades. Charles, Prince of Wales, immediately became King Charles III, the oldest person ever to assume the British throne at seventy-three. The lying-in-state at Westminster Hall drew hundreds of thousands of mourners who queued for up to twenty-four hours through the streets of London. Her funeral at Westminster Abbey was watched by an estimated four billion people worldwide, making it the most-viewed broadcast event in human history. Representatives from nearly every nation on earth attended. Her death forced a global reckoning with the Commonwealth's colonial legacy and the future relevance of constitutional monarchy in the twenty-first century.