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Modern world’s longest-reigning monarch’s death prompts outpouring of grief

‘The Queen is dead’, the four words the British people had long braced themselves to hear, when it came, still came with a shock. Wave after wave of grief plunged the nation into mourning as the death of their beloved monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, at the age of 96, was formally announced by Buckingham Palace with the going down of the sun on Thursday evening.

The statement said: ‘The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this evening.’

Only two days earlier on Tuesday, she had been seen by the public on TV news, gaunt and shrunk to a quarter of her size but still on her feet, scrupulously attending to her royal duties in welcoming new Tory leader Liz Truss and formally inviting her ‘to form Her Majesty’s Government as Prime Minister’. It was the lasting testament to her indomitable will to put duty first.

Her long reign spanned 15 Prime Ministers, the first being Winston Churchill. He had been born in 1874. Liz Truss, born 101 years later in 1975, was to be her last.

When Elizabeth became Queen at the age of 25 in 1952, Churchill, then 77, had his doubts whether she would make the grade. According to his historian Kate Williams, he was sceptical. “He said she was too young, she was just a child, and he wasn’t the only person who thought that. She had to prove herself.”

History will, no doubt, note she proved Churchill wrong. Her death prompted an immense outpouring of grief not only among her subjects in her sceptred isle where she reigned as queen but also among the peoples in far flung lands where she had been admired and loved as a truly wonderful human being with an endearing charm the world had seldom seen. Whatever misgivings they may have had over Britain’s imperial past, it were laid aside as they joined the rest of the free world to grieve the death of one who had captivated their hearts.

DEATH OF A MONARCH LOVED BY ALL: Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022

Grief had laid siege on the House of Windsor but before it was let to invade every town and hamlet, to roam freely spewing gloom and sorrow over every mountain and vale, a pre-planned operation, codenamed ‘London Bridge is down’, came into effect, shortly after noon on Thursday. The phrase was used to communicate the death of the Queen to the prime minister and key personnel, and to secretly set the funeral plan into motion before announcing it officially.

Covert steps were taken to prepare the British people to hear the worst, to be told their beloved queen was dead. But the British instinct had already sniffed something was wrong, terribly wrong.

BRITAIN’S NEW SOVEREIGN: King Charles the III

All day, rumours are rife that the Queen is unwell. In England’s House of Commons, Prime Minister Liz Truss is passed a note written on yellow paper by her grim-faced Chancellor, Naadhim Zahawi. She leaves the chamber. So does Opposition leader Keir Starmer after receiving a similar note from his deputy. The first murmur that something is astir, comes just after midday in Parliament. ‘A lot of glum faces,’ one reporter tweets. It is 12. 21pm in London.

At 12:34pm, the Twitter account of Britain’s royal family shares a statement from Buckingham Palace. It is 29 words long: “Following further evaluation this morning, the Queen’s doctors are concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision.” The statement adds, “The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral.” In the understated language of royal announcements, this is akin to breaking the fire alarm glass.

As speculation abounds it is also announced that Prince Charles and Camilla, and the rest of the queen’s children Anne, Andrew and Edward are on their way or have arrived at Balmoral, the Scottish Castle where the queen is residing. William and Kate follow. The dread worsens when it is also reported, so is the family black sheep, Harry but, thankfully, without his wife, the detested Megan.

The BBC suspends its regular programmes at around 1.30pm. Veteran broadcaster Huv Edward, his voice heavy with gravitas, is on the screen wearing a sombre black suit and black tie. Its significance is not lost to many viewers. The screen’s caption simply reads: The Queen’s health.

To cap it all, a double rainbow appears over Buckingham Palace. Mystic watchers say it portends the death of the householder and provides a stairway to heaven. It is also rumoured that a piper is summoned to Balmoral. Fears grow that the queen may have finally given up the ghost.

At 6.41pm, the Royal Family website, in a brief statement, announces the Queen’s death and thereafter goes blank. The BBC interrupts its programmes for an official news bulletin. An emotional yet composed Edward breaks in to state: “A few moments ago, Buckingham Palace announced the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The Palace has just issued this statement, it says the Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon.”

Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, Supreme Governor of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith was dead.

Exactly to a day seven years ago, the Queen, then 89, created a royal record by becoming the longest-reigning British monarch of all time, surpassing Queen Victoria’s 63 year and 7 month reign on September 8, 2015. After the death of Thailand’s king on October 13, 2016, who reigned for 70 years and 126 days, she became the modern world’s longest-reigning monarch when she celebrated her diamond jubilee on June 5 this year.

FINAL DESTINATION: The Queen, now plain Elizabeth, without crown or sceptre, alone on her last journey, heading into a tunnel with the light of heaven shining at end (Courtesy The Guardian, UK)

Not bad for one of whom Churchill had — when she was 26 and newly crowned — expressed doubts whether she would last the course as Queen. Only Louis XIV of France had reigned longer with a 72 and 110 day reign from 1643 until 1715. In the modern age, Elizabeth had proved a stayer.

But Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was never born to be queen but to play second fiddle to her Uncle Edward’s progeny. But the Fates had laid other plans in store.

Her father’s elder brother, Edward, ascended to the throne on January 20, 1936 as King Edward the VIII. But before the year was out, on December 11, he abdicated his throne for the love of a woman, American Catholic divorcee, Wallis Simpson, whom Britain’s unwritten constitution forbade him to wed and make her his queen. The choice was simple: the throne or Wallis. He chose Wallis. The heart has his reasons, he later wrote in his autobiography after marrying Wallis and, perhaps, rueing the day.

This sudden quirk of fate brought his brother George, the spare in the royal lineup, reluctantly to the throne. This fortuitous change in circumstance led Princess Elizabeth, still only 10 — who had hitherto been allowed to live a normal carefree life, playing with her dolls and toys with her younger sister Margret — to be plucked out from the nursery and, following a strict regimen, groomed to be Queen.

Three years later, she meets Phillip, the man who will soon take her hand in marriage and, as husband, be the rock of Gibraltar in her reign as queen until his death last year, two months short of his 100th birthday. And something else happens to create a lasting impression in Elizabeth’s mind when she meets him next, 5 years later.

Cadets in rowing boats escort the royal yacht, the Victoria and Albert, when it sails from Dartmouth. But Philip continues rowing in its wake long after the others had dropped out, turning round only when ordered to by the increasingly exasperated King, who refers to him as “a bloody fool”.

Meeting him for the first time, she had been reserved, she had been shy but is now smitten by his zest for life and adventure. Infatuation starts to brew. And when World War II breaks out and Phillip is serving aboard ship, and fighting for king and country, the king’s daughter and he starts exchanging letters.

After the courtship of over a year, the couple eventually marry in 1947 on November 24, an occasion which, despite the surrounding austerity following a triumphant but devastating war, calls for national celebrations. Elizabeth is only 21. Phillip 26. They have two children, shortly after, Charles and Anne, with Andrew and Edward still to follow. She has entered the happiest period in her life.

In 1952, the young couple, leaving the children at her parents’ castle with the royal nanny, are on wildlife safari holiday in the bush of Africa. On the night of February 6th, Elizabeth is awoken from her tree-top bed in Kenya to be gently told by her husband that her father had passed away. He was only 57.

She undergoes a metamorphosis even as a worm does when it turns butterfly; and the young 26-year-old woman, who had climbed onto her tree-top nest to sleep will now step down from it as Queen of England.

Her new Royal status in 1952 also makes her Queen of Ceylon. And Queen of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, of Barbados, the Bahamas, Jamaica and over 10 other nations. She also became Head of the Commonwealth of Nations, a position she held until her death this Thursday.

Since then, Britain has lost many of her Empire’s crown jewels as nations were granted their independence, freed from the colonial yoke. For Elizabeth, too, life has not been the same. It is the day she lost her own freedom and became shackled to the trappings of the British monarchy. But she has borne the chains resolutely and discharged her onerous royal duties with equal aplomb.

No fort nor moat, no castle wall nor turret guarded night and day by an order of knights can keep inveigling sorrow from laying siege on the human heart; and Elizabeth, Queen of England had her fair share of tragedy.

Sorrow comes ever scarlet to the royal breast as it comes blood red as the bloodiest rose that ever blew unseen to the unknown hearts of her 65 million subjects. Queen Elizabeth was no different, no stranger to tragedy. But unlike the masses, who can give vent to their suffering and weep in public without notice, she had to make an appointment to keep her tryst with tears. ‘Grief’, as she once philosophically said, ‘is the price of love’.

But through it all she remained strong. Resolute in will not to abdicate for fear it would cheapen the monarchy where only death would find its successor. It’s her lasting sterling integrity that made her such an extraordinary human being.  More than her jewelled crown, it was this evergreen laurel, earned from years of selfless duty that won Elizabeth the world’s admiration, respect and love.

On the day following her death, The Times’ back cover carried a quotation from the Queen’s Christmas broadcast in 1957, the first to be televised: “I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else: I can give you my heart and my devotion to all these old islands, and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.”

The heart she gave captured the peoples’ love and provoked grief in their own when it finally ceased to beat.

Now with her death ending her reign, the reign of her eldest son, Charles, begins. On Saturday, the Accession Council was summoned to St. James Palace to officially proclaim their new sovereign: King Charles the III.

May the Queen, bless her soul, rest in heavenly peace.

And as British tradition hails: The Queen is Dead, Long Live the King.