Queen Elizabeth age

February 1952 – Princess Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip, set out on a tour of Africa and Asia in place of her ailing father, King George VI. News of ...

2012 – The diamond jubilee to mark her 60th year on the throne sees four days of celebrations in June along with a nationwide tour. 2013 – Prince William’s wife Kate gives birth to a son, Prince George. Days later, he is forced to step down from royal duties over his links to the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was jailed in 2008 for child sex offences. February 1952 – Princess Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip, set out on a tour of Africa and Asia in place of her ailing father, King George VI. She died peacefully at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, Buckingham Palace announces. It started oith the separation of Andrew and Sarah, and Anne’s divorce from Mark Phillips. 1997 – On August 31, Diana and her millionaire companion Dodi al-Fayed are killed when their car crashes while being chased through Paris by photographers on motorcycles. November 30 – Barbados becomes a republic, meaning the queen is now the head of state of just 15 realms. 1991 – The queen tours the United States and becomes the first monarch to address the US Congress. March 1995 – The queen makes the first address by a British monarch to a South African parliament since 1947. 1977 – The queen marks her Silver Jubilee – 25 years as monarch – with a tour of Commonwealth countries and lavish celebrations in the UK. A look at some notable dates and events in the life and work of the UK’s Queen Elizabeth II.

The question now is what the end of her rule means for the British monarchy. Subjects that have been politely put off for years—out of personal respect for ...

I think it’s a complete misconception to imagine that the monarchy exists in the interests of the monarch—It doesn’t. The death of the queen may play a part, too, in another crucial issue: the continued unity of the United Kingdom. The queen, while she was still alive, persuaded the Commonwealth countries to accept the idea that Charles should succeed her automatically as the head of that organization. The queen was rarely tempted to stray beyond the strict impartiality expected of a British monarch. She feared that Britain seemed to be condoning apartheid in a way that could even lead to the breakup of the association. In Australia, for example, there is likely to be a renewed effort to break the link with the British crown. Since 1992, the queen and Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, have been making voluntary payments of income and capital gains taxes. She also had to contend with growing criticism of the cost to maintain the broader royal family: “The Firm,” as it’s known to its intimates, cost the British taxpayer some A further wrist-slapping for the prime minister followed when Cameron told former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg—within earshot of a camera crew—that the queen had “purred down the [phone] line” when he called to inform her that 55.3 percent of Scots had voted to stay within the union. She was admired by monarchists and republicans alike for her unswerving devotion to duty and her refusal to bend to the faddish expectations of critics. A shocking turn of events—Edward’s abdication and the assumption of the throne by Elizabeth’s father, King George VI—determined Elizabeth’s destiny. One of her reported favorites, surprisingly, was the Labour Party’s Harold Wilson, a middle-class socialist from the north of England who was apparently allowed to smoke his pipe in their meetings.