When Queen Elizabeth II was born on April 21, 1926, her grandfather King George V dominated 1 / 4 of the Earth’s inhabitants. By the point she died on September 8 at age 96, not solely had Britain’s place on the earth reworked, however the world itself had modified past recognition. But for many of that near-century of tumult — together with 70 years on the throne — the queen was a reassuring fixed, each a residing hyperlink to a vanished nationwide previous and an emblem of continuity in a shifting world.

Elizabeth lived and reigned longer than another British monarch. In her lifetime, Britain not solely misplaced an empire however fought not less than seven main wars and skilled socialist governments, damaging strikes, runaway inflation, and a pandemic. Her first prime minister, Winston Churchill, charged with the twenty first Lancers on the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, armed with solely a sword and a pistol. Present British Prime Minister Liz Truss was not but born when she got here to the throne. Vanishingly few Britons now keep in mind a pre-Elizabethan age.

Regardless of embodying an apparently out of date system of values, Elizabeth not solely succeeded in protecting the British monarchy on the coronary heart of the nation’s collective identification, however she additionally preserved its reputation. Her private approval rankings over the ultimate years of her reign remained solidly round 70%, far greater than any elected politician within the Western world.