The United Kingdom mourns its sovereign. Queen Elizabeth II has died at the age of 96. The sovereign herself passed away in Balmoral, Scotland, where she was resting for a few days. Shortly before, her doctors had expressed their “concern” about her state of health. The queen had canceled a videoconference meeting on Thursday, on the advice of her doctors.
The past few months have been difficult for the monarch, who was largely absent from her platinum jubilee last June and whose health has continued to decline.
The first alert dates back to October 21, 2021, when the queen had to be hospitalized to undergo preliminary examinations, before returning to Windsor Castle “at lunchtime,” says Buckingham’s press release. This announcement had the effect of an earthquake on the other side of the Channel, where we are not accustomed to such hospitalizations, the sovereign having shown to the end an impressive vitality for her age.
Despite the death on April 9 of Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years, she continued to fulfill many official commitments on a daily basis. A few days earlier, the sovereign had appeared with a cane, which caused numerous comments in the press.
“I declare before all of you that my whole life, whether long or short, will be dedicated to your service and to the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong,” he had promised the British on April 21, 1952.
In fact, the queen has rarely shied away from official engagements. Before the last few months, when the queen had to give up many commitments, due to “mobility problems”, she held her position until old age.
Record longevity on the throne
Elizabeth II, who on September 9, 2015 broke the record for longevity on the throne of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, was not always this little old lady with sheepskin hair and colorful outfits.
Born on April 21, 1926, Elizabeth was not destined to rule. Even if Winston Churchill, who met her when she was only two years old, found in her “an air of authority and an amazing ability to think for a girl.” She’s certainly third in line for the throne, but she probably never would have ascended the throne if her uncle, the Prince of Wales, who became Edward VIII, hadn’t abdicated for the beautiful eyes of a divorced American, Wallis Simpson. In reality, he was largely isolated from the crown due to her sympathies for the Nazis.
poor health
It is therefore Elizabeth’s father, the shy Albert, who ascends the throne under the name of George VI. Suffering from a speech impediment, he is the particular “stuttering king” immortalized in the film. The speech of a king. But George VI, a monarch in failing health, died suddenly on February 6, 1952, while Elizabeth was on an official trip to Kenya. The young woman acceded to the throne on February 6, 1952. She was crowned at the age of 25, on June 2, 1953. And at the same time she became the sovereign of the Commonwealth, which includes 16 countries.
She is already married to Prince Philip of Greece, her distant cousin – both are descendants of Queen Victoria – whom she married on November 20, 1947. During the war she enlisted in the army. Having become a second lieutenant, she learned mechanics. This is also where he caught the driving bug, which never left her. The story goes that Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia experienced the shock of his life when the Queen showed him around the Balmoral estate in Scotland behind the wheel of her Land Rover in 2003.
Prince Charles, the eldest of their four children, was born in 1948. The Queen gave birth to Anne in 1950, then Andrew in 1960 and Edward in 1964. Charles, Prince of Wales, was, from birth, destined to succeed To the queen.
During her long reign, Elizabeth rubbed shoulders with 15 prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, met all the French presidents of the Fifth Republic, and lived through all the events of the second half of the 20th century, from the Suez crisis to the fall of the Berlin Wall through the Falklands War. But she did more than experience some of these historical events. According to former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, the Queen would have had “a great behind-the-scenes role” in ending apartheid in South Africa.
She is also the ruler of the “million miles”, as the Telegram. The British newspaper counted his official visits and pleasure trips to 117 countries around the world, obviously including the Commonwealth countries, during his 69 years on the throne. In 1986, she was the first British sovereign to visit China.
horses and corgis
Modern without really anticipating modernity, Queen Elizabeth II sent her first email in 1976 from a military base, and her first tweet in 2014, from the Science Museum. Her coronation in 1953 was televised around the world. She also shows her interest in television by visiting numerous filming locations, such as the one in game of Thronesor, more recently, that of the very British series Coronation Street.
We know little about her in the end, since she has always applied to the letter the very British motto: “Never explain, never complain”. We know her love of horse racing, she rode horses until the end of her life, and her inordinate love for corgis. She owned more than thirty during her reign.
horrible year
Emblematic of her country, she really only had power on paper. She head of the armies and of the Anglican Church, she would have had, in theory, the power to oppose laws and dissolve Parliament. Which, of course, she never did. Elizabeth II has always maintained the greatest political neutrality. Buckingham Palace even seized the press watchdog after the Sun titled on March 9, 2016: “The queen backs Brexit”.
However, impartial, he always closely followed the affairs of the country, examining every morning, throughout his reign, notes, reports and bills from the Commonwealth countries. Every week he met with the British prime minister to discuss domestic and international affairs, liaising by phone, during the lockdown. A quote appreciated by politicians, such as David Cameron, who explained in 2014 to the daily mail that this weekly meeting helped him “solve the problems”. She added: “She started with Winston Churchill and literally listened to everything.” Tony Blair assured a columnist for sky news, never having managed to see through the Queen’s political views. “She has to have it, everyone has it, even those who think they don’t. But getting involved in a subject like that just isn’t in her DNA.”
Untouchable, literally and figuratively, the queen has always been quite an enigmatic character. She only came out of her legendary reserve to qualify the year 1992 as “annus horribilis”. “1992 is not a year I will look back on with great pleasure,” she said with even a slight understatement. And for good reason: In March, Andrew and Sarah Ferguson split, in April, her daughter Anne divorced her husband Mark Phillips, and in November, Windsor Castle was burned down. It is also the year of the separation of Carlos and Diana. However, the queen was not at the end of her troubles.
conspiracy theory
When Diana died on August 31, 1997, all the flags of the institutions were lowered to half-staff, with the exception of those of Buckingham Palace. The queen, then at Balmoral, refuses to return to London despite the people’s request. A reaction that lowered her popularity rating (53% of Britons want her to abdicate immediately). She then reproaches him for her coldness. Biographer Ingrid Seward recently revealed that Elizabeth II immediately thought of the conspiracy thesis upon learning of the accident. Her first – surprising – words were: “Someone must have greased her brakes.”
On April 21, 2016, he celebrated his 90th birthday. Good foot, good eye and at the height of his popularity. This party was followed by other important celebrations for the English: the Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and the Olympic Games of the same year, where Elizabeth II appeared, very fit, arm in arm with Daniel Craig, the last James Bond to date.
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in early June 2022 was the Queen’s last major appointment with the British. For four days, throughout the country, the British celebrated their sovereign, who appeared only twice on the balcony of Buckingham. A compact crowd rushed out on Sunday June 5, 2022, the last day of the celebrations, to cheer the queen.
The British must now prepare for after Elizabeth II. Charles, who has been waiting for his turn for more than 60 years.
Source: BFM TV
