Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth Passes at 96
Her 70-year reign has come to an end…
by JULIA SHORT ★ SEPTEMBER 8, 2022
Queen Elizabeth II, the United Kingdom’s longest reigning monarch, sadly passed away this afternoon at age 96. Her 70-year reign has been something that people all over the world have looked at as an inspiration; for some people, she was the only British monarch of their lifetime.
The Queen stepped into her role in 1952 at the age of 26 after her father King George VI died from lung cancer, and she took it on with grace. She did not have any formal education nor did she attend University. In fact, she had married a man whom the institution did not approve of and was surrounded by (of course) old white men who considered her ill-fit for her reign.
As some may know, she wasn’t born to be Queen. Following her grandfather’s death, her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, was next in line for the throne. He became King but he abdicated the throne before the year was up, thus passing his Kingship to his brother who became King George VI. She was on a safari tour in Kenya when it was announced that she would be taking the throne.
The Queen was rather reserved during the beginning of her reign. As someone who was watched very closely by the entire United Kingdom, she was a woman of the procedure before anything else and remained focused on maintaining the stability and history of the British monarchy. Extremely conservative in her ways, she was even opposed to her coronation being televised (even though it heavily benefitted her in the end).
What is most interesting about her reign, however, is the way she literally watched the world change. She was crowned at about the same time that television was made widely accessible to the public, and her coronation was the first to be televised live. She was Queen during the first moon landing, and as New York Magazine so happily pointed out to me, she was born a decade before the invention of the chocolate chip cookie. The most “modern monarchy,” an oxymoron when you really think of it, was what Queen Elizabeth symbolized during her reign.
While this is a time of mourning for many, some people are left wondering what the next steps are for the infamous British monarchy. And in true royal fashion, there is obviously a detailed procedure in her case of death. In place since 1960, “Operation London Bridge” is a set of protocols that outline what happens between her passing and the formal state funeral.
The day of her death will later be referred to as “D-Day,” with every day after it being referred to as “D+1”, “D+2” and so on. Members of parliament are to be notified of her death first, including the U.K.’s Prime Minister Liz Truss. Senior civil servants will then be notified via email, and then an official statement from the Royal Family will be released to the public. Flags across Whitehall in London are also to be lowered to half-mast out of respect for the passing.
Once the media gets involved, there are strict social media guidelines regarding her passing. Both the royal family’s website and the U.K. government website are to display black banners with a report that states “Non-urgent content must not be published. Retweets are explicitly banned unless cleared by the central government head of communications.” On D+1, the day following her death, Prince Charles, the Queen’s oldest son, will be proclaimed the new sovereign. The Queen’s funeral will be held on D+10, a state funeral is held at Westminster Abbey and there will be a national day of mourning. At midday, the U.K will hold a national two-minute silence.
Her Majesty’s death has saddened people across the globe, as this will be the only Queen most of us will ever see in our lifetimes. However, her impact on the United Kingdom and the world will remain forever rooted in history.