Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history, died on Thursday. She was 96 years old.
Nicknamed “the Steadfast” by her biographer Douglas Hurd, the queen dutifully served her country and territories for 70 years. For many in Britain, Elizabeth II was the only living monarch they had ever known—providing a serene and reassuring presence during times of national upheaval and change. During her reign, the queen navigated the decline of the British Empire and delicately modernized the monarchy to fit contemporary culture—updating royal traditions, opening Buckingham Palace to the public, and breaking with legal precedents to voluntarily pay income tax. Shortly before her death, the queen welcomed Liz Truss, the UK’s new prime minister to her Balmoral estate. During their meeting the monarch formally asked Truss to form a new government following Boris Johnson’s resignation two months prior. Unwaveringly dedicated, Queen Elizabeth maintained a busy social schedule through her ninth decade, fulfilling 341 engagements at 89 years old. Sir Kenneth Scott, who served the queen for three decades, described the queen’s unrelenting schedule for Vanity Fair, writing, “her long experience in the job has helped her to deal with every kind of situation with calm efficiency.”
Even the queen’s 90th birthday was marked with a marathon of obligations—including a special St. Paul’s church service, a Patron’s Lunch, a portrait session with Vanity Fair contributing photographer Annie Leibovitz, a visit with President Barack Obama at Windsor Castle, and the annual Trooping the Colour festivities. (In an era of terror attacks and horrific gun violence, the queen was resolute in her decision to buck bulletproof vests and other precautions to sit in an open-air carriage while greeting those who turned up to wish her a happy birthday. The show of fearlessness is even more impressive knowing that blanks were shot at the queen while she was riding horseback during the 1981 Trooping the Colour birthday celebration.)
While she had a stiff upper lip, the queen also exhibited a playful sense of humor on certain occasions, such as appearing with Daniel Craig in a James Bond spoof that played before the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Olympics in London. Asked about the impending birth of Prince George in 2013, the queen joked that she did not mind whether the grandchild was a boy or girl as long as he or she arrived before she left for vacation. Sir Kenneth Scott recalled another instance of humor when, while visiting a shop in Scotland, a customer told the monarch that she looked just like the queen. “How very reassuring,” she is said to have responded.
Born in 1926 to the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the future monarch showed a sense of decorum even at an early age. Winston Churchill, who met Elizabeth when she was only two years old, famously said that the child possessed “an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant.” Nicknamed “Lilibet” by her close family members, Elizabeth was thrust in direct line to the throne when her uncle Edward VIII abdicated, her father inherited the throne, and she became the heir presumptive.
At 14, during World War II, Elizabeth made her first reported public speech, during a radio broadcast for BBC’s Children’s Hour. In it, she shared her sympathy and reassuring words with the children of the nation who had been evacuated from their cities—showing, even at that young age, tremendous poise.