LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, has died on the age of 96. She had served greater than 70 years on the throne.

“The queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,” Buckingham Palace stated in an announcement Thursday night.

She is straight away succeeded by her eldest son Charles, who now turns into King Charles III. He and different members of the royal household had rushed to Balmoral, the queen’s Scottish property the place she historically spends the late summer time, earlier within the day, because the severity of her situation grew to become clear.

Tributes flooded in from the around the globe Thursday night and flags throughout the U.Okay. have been lowered to half-mast, because the nation ready for an official interval of mourning.

In his first assertion as king, Charles spoke of the disappointment felt by all his household.

“The demise of my beloved mom, Her Majesty the Queen, is a second of the best disappointment for me and all members of my household,” Charles stated.

“We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mom. I do know her loss can be deeply felt all through the nation, the realms and the Commonwealth, and by numerous folks around the globe.”

New U.Okay. Prime Minister Liz Truss — requested to type a authorities by the queen solely two days in the past — addressed the nation from Downing Road Thursday evening.

“Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which trendy Britain was constructed,” Truss stated, in considered one of her first speeches as U.Okay. prime minister. “Our nation has grown and flourished underneath her reign.

“Britain is the nice nation it’s at present due to her … She was the very spirit of Nice Britain, and that spirit will endure.”

Labour Social gathering chief Keir Starmer paid tribute to Britain’s “longest-serving and best monarch.”

He added: “Above the clashes of politics, she stood not for what the nation fought over, however what it agreed upon.”

In Westminster, Home of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle described her demise as a “horrible loss” for the nation.

“For all of us, the queen has been a continuing presence in our lives — as acquainted as a member of the household, but one who has exercised a peaceful and steadying affect over our nation. Most of us have by no means identified a time when she was not there. Her demise is just not solely a tragedy for the royal household, however a horrible loss for us all.”

As a younger princess, Elizabeth first took on public duties through the Second World Warfare, showing on the radio and being appointed considered one of her father’s efficient deputies as counsellor of state. 

She married Philip Mountbatten in 1947, a wedding which lasted till his demise in 2021 and produced 4 kids: Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward. 

She grew to become queen in 1952 after the untimely demise of her father George VI, and went on to change into each the nation’s longest-lived and longest-serving monarch.

She is credited with revitalizing the monarchy, embarking on a seven-month world tour shortly after she took the throne and serving to to safe the transition of the Empire into the Commonwealth of Nations. She traveled extensively within the Commonwealth at the same time as an growing variety of African and Caribbean nations decolonized within the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies. 

The Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties noticed probably the most troublesome durations of her reign as press scrutiny of the royal household intensified with a specific deal with the sad marriage between Charles and Princess Diana.

The recognition of the household dipped within the queen’s annus horribilis of 1992, when Charles and Diana separated and a serious fireplace broke out at Windsor Fortress. 

After Diana’s demise in a automobile crash in 1997 the general public briefly grew to become overtly hostile towards the queen amid an outpouring of grief, earlier than she gave a private tribute to the princess in a televised broadcast.

She has remained a continuing within the lifetime of all Britons and recovered her reputation to change into extra revered than ever, at the same time as recent scandals engulfed the household in recent times. 

In a broadcast to the nation in the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the queen promised there have been higher days forward. Echoing the phrases of a well-known Vera Lynn wartime track, she stated that “we are going to meet once more.”

The queen has been affected by mobility issues over the previous 12 months and vastly lowered her public appearances, together with lacking the state opening of parliament in Might and a service of thanksgiving to have a good time her 70 years on the throne. Simply this week mobility considerations meant the queen needed to appoint Liz Truss as U.Okay. prime minister — the fifteenth of her reign — from Balmoral Fortress in Scotland fairly than London’s Buckingham Palace.

A state funeral will happen at Westminster Abbey in 10 days’ time, which is able to see the nation observe a two minutes’ silence, earlier than the queen is buried at Windsor Fortress. 

Charles will embark on a tour of the U.Okay., beginning with a go to to the Scottish parliament and a service at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.

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