\nElizabeth was not born to be queen \u2014 her father was the second son of King George V.\u00a0 As the oldest child of Prince Albert, the Duke of York,\u00a0 and the Scottish aristocrat Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Duchess of York, she was destined for extreme privilege enjoyed in relative obscurity. All this changed in 1936 when her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated so he could marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson.<\/p>\n
Her father, a shy man who suffered from a bad stutter, was then thrust onto the throne to become King George VI.\u00a0 With that, carefree \u201cLilibet,\u201d as she was known to some of those closest to her, became heir to the throne.<\/p>\n
At the age of 13, she met Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark (later Philip Mountbatten), a dashing Naval officer and her third cousin. They began exchanging letters and years later were engaged, the union caused some controversy in royal circles at the time because of his relative poverty and status as an outsider.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n <\/p>\n<\/em> Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip enjoying a walk during their honeymoon in Hampshire, England, on 24th Nov. 1947.Topical Press \/ via Getty Images file<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n\nAt the outbreak of World War II, her parents stayed in London, a hugely symbolic gesture at the time that was taken despite the German \u201cBlitz\u201d bombing campaign hitting Buckinham Palace. Then a teenager, Elizabeth and her younger sister, Princess Margaret, were among the 3 million people evacuated from cities to the countryside.<\/p>\n
It was\u00a0 at Windsor Castle just outside London that the young heir gave her first public speech, a radio address during BBC\u2019s Children\u2019s Hour that was intended to boost national morale.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth was just as well-known for her family\u2019s ups and downs. Her \u201cannus horribilis\u201d in 1992 saw a string of scandals related to her children,including that of Charles and his then-wife, Princess Diana, capped with a devastating fire at Windsor Castle. Five years later, the queen and the royal family were accused of being unemotional, and even disrespectful, following Diana\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Those allegations were echoed after Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, left the royal family to live in California amid a flurry of accusations against the regal \u201cfirm,\u201d including of racism, by one unnamed member.<\/p>\n
And another of Elizabeth and Philip\u2019s\u00a0 sons, Andrew, would be stripped of his titles following his friendship with the late financier and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and his own now-settled lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse, which he has denied.<\/p>\n\nThrough it all, her long marriage to Philip is thought to have been very happy, and many pictures showed the couple laughing together.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has a wicked sense of humor. She loves jokes, as Prince Philips did of course,\u201d said McAndrew, the royal commentator. \u201cPhilip came very unstuck with it,\u201d she said, referring to a number of jokes made by him that were deemed in poor taste or even racist, but the queen has \u201calways been much more careful.\u201d<\/p>\n
What next?<\/h2>\n With the queen\u2019s death, the U.K. will now enter into mourning and at least 10 days of carefully choreographed pageantry that has been in the planning for years, codenamed \u201cLondon Bridge\u201d by Buckingham Palace, the government and law enforcement. The events will dominate radio and television broadcasts, newspaper front pages and conversations over water coolers and backyard fences for days.<\/p>\n
Large crowds are expected to pay their respects as she lies in state in Parliament to lie in state. World leaders will begin arriving in the U.K. to pay their tributes before the queen\u2019s state funeral at Westminster Abbey. She will be buried in Windsor Castle, the home of Britain\u2019s kings and queens for more than 1,000 years.<\/p>\n
Next comes the unknown.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n <\/p>\n<\/em> Queen Elizabeth II attends an audience with the President of Switzerland Ignazio Cassis at Windsor Castle on April 28, 2022 in Windsor, England.\u00a0Dominic Lipinski \/ WPA Pool via Getty Images file<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n\nCharles is far less popular than his mother, a hangover from his mutual infidelity and divorce from Diana, and a public persona seen by many as divisive. Unlike the queen, whose popularity is based on her discreteness and impartiality, Charles has been caught up in a number of political controversies, such as writing letters to government ministers in an attempt to influence policy \u2014 verboten now he has become the country\u2019s politically powerless constitutional monarch.<\/p>\n
The future of the Commonwealth is also in doubt. This group of 56 member states is seen as a voluntary successor to the British empire, but recently there have been calls among its Caribbean members for Britain to pay reparations because of the crown\u2019s historical links with the slave trade. Last year, Barbados ditched the British<\/p>\n
monarch of its head of state, and others, including Jamaica and even Australia have signaled they may one day follow.<\/p>\n
In Britain, however, the queen\u2019s death will be mourned both for who she was and the era she represented.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s probably a lot of us born into Elizabeth II\u2019s reign who didn\u2019t grow up as red hot monarchists,\u201d the historical author and royal commentator Sarah Gristwood said. \u201cBut particularly in the past few years, when the world has been going through such turmoil, with Covid and uncertainty and mistrust in the political establishment, she has taken on even greater importance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The queen\u2019s enduring popularity was ultimately down to her \u201cepitomizing and standing for the rest of us\u201d despite all her enormous wealth and privilege, Gristwood added. For many, watching her life\u2019s ups and downs was like seeing \u201cown human dramas on a much more public, much more ceremonial stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the end of an era and hugely significant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Credit: CNBC News<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queen Elizabeth II,\u00a0whose\u00a070-year reign\u00a0spanned wars, a pandemic, 14 presidents and the winding down of Britain\u2019s vast empire, has died. Her eldest son, Charles, is now king. \u201cThe queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,\u201d the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[2338],"coauthors":[25],"class_list":{"0":"post-11708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest-news","8":"category-top-news","9":"tag-queen-elizabeth-ii"},"yoast_head":"\nQueen Elizabeth II, Britain\u2019s longest serving monarch dies at 96 - The Daily Leaks<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n