LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II, whose seven-decade reign made her the one sovereign that the majority Britons had ever identified, died on Thursday at her summer season property in Scotland, thrusting a bereaved nation right into a momentous transition at a time of political and financial upheaval.
The queen’s demise at Balmoral Fortress, introduced by Buckingham Palace at 6:30 p.m., elevated her eldest son and inheritor, Charles, to the throne. He’s Britain’s first king since 1952, taking the title King Charles III.
At 96, visibly frail, and having survived a number of well being scares, the queen had been within the twilight of her reign for some years. However information of her demise nonetheless landed with a thunderclap throughout the British realm, the place the queen was a revered determine and an anchor of stability.
In itself, the queen’s demise is a watershed second. But it surely additionally comes at a time of acute uncertainty in Britain. A brand new prime minister, Liz Truss, has been in workplace for less than three days, following months of political turmoil within the British authorities. The nation faces its gravest financial threats in a era, besieged by inflation, hovering power payments and the specter of a chronic recession.
The demise of Elizabeth units in movement a royal transition extra sophisticated than any change in prime ministers. It will likely be meticulously choreographed in its rituals, however what sort of monarchy it’s going to produce is a thriller. At 73, Charles is the oldest individual to grow to be monarch in British historical past — a well-recognized determine, to make certain — however one who has made clear he desires to rework the character of the royal household.
“The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,” the palace mentioned in a stark, two-line assertion affixed to the entrance gate of Buckingham Palace. “The King and Queen Consort will stay at Balmoral this night and return to London tomorrow,” it mentioned, referring to Charles and his spouse, Camilla.
The announcement got here after an anguished vigil of a number of hours, following a lunchtime assertion by the palace that the queen had been positioned below medical supervision. Relations rushed to her facet at Balmoral Fortress, suggesting this was no strange medical disaster however that the tip was close to.
Information of the queen’s decline started circulating as Parliament was debating an emergency support bundle to guard Britons from large will increase in fuel and electrical energy payments. After a senior minister whispered in her ear, Ms. Truss rose to go away the chamber. Hours later, clad in black, she emerged from Downing Road to pay tribute.
“Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which trendy Britain was constructed,” Ms. Truss mentioned. “She was the very spirit of Nice Britain, and that spirit will endure.” Ms. Truss concluded by swearing fealty to the brand new monarch, disclosing for the primary time that he can be often called King Charles, slightly than by one other title, as is a monarch’s prerogative.
“God save the king,” Ms. Truss declared.
The brand new king mentioned in an announcement, “We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and much-loved mom. I do know her loss will likely be deeply felt all through the nation, the realms and Commonwealth, and by numerous individuals world wide.”
Tributes additionally poured in from world wide. President Biden and his spouse, Jill, mentioned in an announcement that the queen was “the primary British monarch to whom individuals all world wide might really feel a private and instant connection.” Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, mentioned she had embodied the “continuity and unity” of the British nation for over 70 years.
As nightfall fell on London, massive crowds started to collect in entrance of Buckingham Palace, echoing the mass demonstrations of grief after the information that Princess Diana had been killed in a automobile accident in Paris in 1997.
Others lingered on avenue corners, gazing information updates on their telephones. In South London, Tiana Krahn alluded to Britain’s mounting issues, saying the queen’s demise got here on the “worst potential second in historical past.”
“We’re going to see some loopy falling aside,” she added. “There was one thing stable about that, about figuring out that she was in cost.”
A lot of those that crowded pubs on Thursday night described being at a loss as to how they need to really feel. “I don’t assume individuals world wide realized simply how good she was,” mentioned one buyer, Jeff Nightingill. “It’s like dropping your grandmother. My spouse will likely be in tears once I get residence tonight.”
The queen’s demise had not one of the terrible suddenness of Diana’s. The stark language within the palace’s assertion on Thursday was extremely uncommon and left little doubt of the gravity of the state of affairs.
By midafternoon, the queen’s kids and several other of her grandchildren had converged on Balmoral, a sprawling Nineteenth-century fort within the Scottish Highlands the place the queen and her household have lengthy spent their summers.
Charles and Camilla had been staying in a royal residence not removed from Balmoral, and he was reportedly paying common visits to his mom. Her daughter, Princess Anne, was additionally in Scotland already.
A Royal Air Drive jet carried a number of different members of the royal household to the close by metropolis of Aberdeen, the place they boarded a motorcade to Balmoral. That included her two different sons, Andrew and Edward, and Prince William, the eldest son of Charles, who’s now the inheritor to the throne.
Prince Harry, who along with his American-born spouse, Meghan, had a bitter rupture with the royal household, made his method to Scotland on his personal, arriving nicely after the queen’s demise was introduced. The couple noticed the queen at Windsor Fortress not too long ago to introduce her to her latest great-granddaughter, Lilibet, who bears the childhood nickname that Elizabeth’s dad and mom gave her.
The reason for the queen’s demise was not identified; the palace has mentioned previously that she has issues with mobility. She recovered from a bout with Covid-19 in February, which she later mentioned had left her exhausted.
With no additional updates after the noon assertion that her medical doctors had been “involved,” there was a mounting sense of portent because the day unfolded. The BBC suspended its common programming to hold steady information protection, its cameras skilled on the iron gates of Balmoral, which swung open periodically as automobiles arrived or left. Heavy rain showers added to the gloom.
The vigil got here after every week that provided a robust reminder of the queen’s function in Britain’s constitutional monarchy. On Tuesday, she met Ms. Truss and her outgoing predecessor, Boris Johnson, each of the Conservative Celebration. In {a photograph}, a smiling, if fragile-looking, queen greeted Ms. Truss earlier than a roaring hearth, a strolling stick in her left hand.
Mr. Johnson, who spoke to the queen on an nearly weekly foundation for his three years in workplace, issued an emotional assertion upon her demise.
“As is so pure with human beings, it is just after we face the fact of our loss that we actually perceive what has gone,” Mr. Johnson mentioned. “It is just actually now that we grasp how a lot she meant for us, how a lot she did for us, how a lot she liked us.”
By custom, the monarch invitations a brand new prime minister to type a authorities after the outgoing one submits his or her resignation. This time, the ceremony, often called kissing arms, was moved from Buckingham Palace to Balmoral on the recommendation of her medical doctors to spare the queen the necessity to journey to London.
Past such formal rituals, the queen was a logo of continuity and fidelity over eight many years. She served as a residing hyperlink to the glories of World Warfare II Britain, presided over its fitful adjustment to a post-colonial, post-imperial period, and noticed it via its bitter divorce from the European Union.
There is no such thing as a analogous British determine who will likely be mourned as deeply — Winston Churchill may come closest — or whose demise will provoke a higher reckoning with the id and way forward for the nation. Her extraordinary longevity lent her a way of permanence that makes her demise, even at a sophisticated age, in some way surprising.
Her steadfastness additionally helped the Home of Windsor climate its personal upheavals. Dignified and dutiful, she managed to rise above the tabloid headlines, whether or not about her troubled sister, Princess Margaret; Charles and his failed marriage to Diana; her second son, Andrew, who settled a intercourse abuse case linked to his ties with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein; or the cleaning soap opera of Harry and Meghan.
One well-documented misstep got here after Diana’s demise, when the queen declined for days to go away Balmoral to hitch within the nation’s grieving. She lastly expressed her sorrow in a televised tackle, talking, she mentioned, as a “grandmother.”
The queen’s declining well being had been a recurring reason behind concern for the previous few years, forcing her to cancel many public appearances, even much-loved occasions like her annual commemoration of Britain’s wartime lifeless.
She had largely retreated to Windsor Fortress, her nation residence outdoors London, although this 12 months she saved to her summer season behavior of decamping for Balmoral, the place she loved strolling on the property’s craggy hills and sylvan dales.
Through the Platinum Jubilee in June, marking her 70 years on the throne, a smiling monarch appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to observe a parade and a Royal Air Drive flyover in her honor. However she skipped a lot of the remainder of the celebrations, together with a gala live performance held in Queen Victoria Sq., in entrance of the palace. She stopped touring outdoors Britain a number of years in the past.
Because the queen receded from public view, Charles took on lots of her public duties, together with the state opening of Parliament and the conferring of knighthoods.
In April 2021, the queen misplaced her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, who died just a few weeks earlier than his one hundredth birthday. At Philip’s memorial service, she sat, masked and alone, in a choir stall at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Fortress, a poignant image of the pandemic’s social distancing restrictions.
Even close to the tip, in her declining state, the queen was a continuing, revered determine within the public lifetime of her nation. Through the depths of the pandemic, she addressed a socially remoted nation, assuring Britons, within the phrases of Vera Lynn’s beloved World Warfare II-era music, that “We’ll meet once more.”
Megan Specia and Emma Bubola contributed reporting.
