Elizabeth II Dies After Seventy Years on the Throne

Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday 8 September 2022 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, at the age of 96. She had reigned for 70 years and 214 days, longer than any other monarch in British history, and her eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales, succeeded her as King Charles III. Only days before her death she had carried out one of the central duties of the sovereign, appointing Liz Truss as the fifteenth Prime Minister of her reign.

Born in London on 21 April 1926, Elizabeth was the elder daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York. Her future changed in 1936, when the abdication of her uncle, Edward VIII, made her father King George VI. She married Prince Philip, later Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey on 20 November 1947. On 6 February 1952, while she was in Kenya, she learned that her father had died, and she returned home as Queen. Her coronation took place in the Abbey on 2 June 1953.