Although her actual power was minimal and her seven-decade reign symbolic, Queen Elizabeth II was a marker of a bygone historical era. She ascended to the throne in 1953 and assumed the role of a fighter and cheerleader during the postwar rebuilding period of economic stress and growing commonwealth upheaval. Though she didn’t coin the phrase “Keep calm and carry on,” Elizabeth embodied it. She was not just a survivor but a symbol of British endurance and perseverance, blazing her unique path as head of the British monarchy until her death Thursday at age 96.
Elizabeth also reigned amid the steady dismantling of the British empire, when nations as diverse as Egypt and Argentina openly defied the notion of British military supremacy. The “troubles” in Northern Ireland and persistent efforts by Scottish nationalists to withdraw from the United Kingdom only added to the image of a monarchy losing the respect of its people. If it fazed Elizabeth, she never let on publicly.
Perhaps her biggest challenges were posed by her own family members. She effectively forced Prince Charles — now King Charles III — into a marriage not of his choosing with Diana Spencer. Although she bore him two sons, Diana was not the focus of his affections. He carried on a persistent and increasingly public affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, a married woman. That led to a scandalous royal divorce, followed by the paparazzi hounding of Diana until her death in a car crash. Elizabeth’s unemotional handling of Diana’s death and failure to recognize the princess’s enormous global popularity marked one of the low points of her reign.
