Queen Elizabeth II, whose reign took Britain from the age of steam to the era of the smartphone, and who oversaw the largely peaceful breakup of an empire that once spanned the globe, has died. She was 96.
She died peacefully at Balmoral on the afternoon of Sept. 8, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace.
In another symbolic moment of the continuity of monarchy, her heir, Prince Charles, and his first son, Prince William, both paid public tributes to the queen in front of a crowd of tens of thousands who flooded the area around the palace for a live concert. “She simply did not want anything to do with that impossible girl,” Martin Charteris, the queen’s former private secretary, told Carolly Erickson for her 2004 biography, “Lilibet: An Intimate Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.”
When Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, along with her lover, Dodi Al Fayed, a high-profile Egyptian billionaire’s son, an impression began to take hold of the queen as a heartless figure, cut off from the public’s concerns.While the entire country went into mourning, the queen remained at her summer residence at Balmoral Castle in Scotland and initially resisted calls for a flag to be flown at half-staff over Buckingham Palace.
In 1945, with the war drawing to a close, Elizabeth Windsor was allowed to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British army, as a second lieutenant, becoming the first female member of the royal family to be a full-time active member of the services. She took a six-week course in driving and vehicle maintenance, learning to steer convoy trucks and strip engines.
In those weekly meetings, the queen listened to concerns over domestic and foreign policy, trawled through daily red boxes of state briefings, and helped smooth diplomatic relations by hosting world leaders. She also kept up a busy schedule of events, including opening ceremonies and meetings with people across the UK and elsewhere, as well as regularly touring Commonwealth countries.
In the Silver Jubilee year of 1977 the decline in deference was illustrated by the release of a single by the English punk band the Sex Pistols called “God Save the Queen.” The record had a defaced picture of the monarch on its cover and contained the lyrics, “God save the queen, the fascist regime.” The BBC banned its staff from playing it on air.
The eventual royal wedding in 2011, marked by a national holiday, signalled that the rehabilitation was close to complete. William and Kate, who came across as a down-to-earth couple in tune with the times, had helped soften the memories of Charles and Diana’s indiscretions. The birth of their son, George, in July 2013, also delighted the public. Two other children followed.
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