Born in 1926, Elizabeth was the daughter of King George V’s second son and had little expectation of succeeding to the throne until her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated in 1936 to marry the divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. After the death of her father, King George VI, 25-year-old Elizabeth was called upon to assume…
Queen Elizabeth II passed away on September 8 at Balmoral Castle, her residence in the Scottish Highlands. During more than seven decades of rule, she rose to become a dazzling but enigmatic beacon of continuity in the United Kingdom. At 96 years old, she. Buckingham Palace made the announcement of her death, which had unspecified…
Elizabeth II inherited a monarchy whose political power had been progressively eroding since the 18th century, but whose role in the public life of the nation appeared to have grown ever more vital. Monarchs in the twentieth century were expected to undertake ceremonial tasks with appropriate gravitas but yet lighten up sufficiently to share and…