Queen Elizabeth II died yesterday at the age of 96. She was the longest-reigning monarch in British history, and the presiding figure over a period of profound change. Almost nobody alive remembers a world without her.
The Queen’s death was announced by Buckingham Palace at 6.30pm; her family had travelled to Balmoral earlier in the day as her condition worsened. A vast crowd quickly appeared at Buckingham Palace as the notice of her death was posted at the gate, and there was an immediate outpouring of grief in the UK and throughout the Commonwealth countries where she was also queen. Her death led Le Monde, El País, the New York Times, Argentina’s Clarín, and Japan’s Asahi Shimbun.
While the accession of King Charles III will naturally be viewed by some as a moment to examine the constitutional question of how Britain should best be ruled, few extend their view of the institution to a woman who has been a touchstone of stability and comfort in an era of turbulence.
She viewed her life as defined by service. In her silver jubilee message in 1977, she said: “When I was 21, I pledged my life to the service of our people, and asked for God’s help to make that vow. Although that vow was made in my salad days, when I was green in judgment, I do not regret nor retract one word of it.”
The Guardian’s live blog will continue covering events as they unfold this morning. In today’s newsletter, Nimo Omer and I take you through some of the coverage of the Queen’s death, and the extraordinary life that preceded it.
The Queen’s life, family, historic significance – and the days ahead
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Yesterday: ‘The worst had come to pass’
Just three days ago, the Queen met Liz Truss and formally asked her to form a government and become the 15th prime minister of her 70-year reign. While she appeared frail, and was forced to conduct the meeting at Balmoral rather than Buckingham Palace for the first time, she was photographed shaking hands with Truss and smiling.
But on Wednesday, she was unable to attend an online meeting of the privy council, and yesterday, Buckingham Palace released a statement noting that doctors were “concerned for Her Majesty’s health”. In the House of Commons, Liz Truss and Labour leader Keir Starmer were handed notes and left the chamber. Her close family immediately travelled to Balmoral to be at her side.
Ben Quinn has a timeline of how events unfolded; this video shows how broadcasters around the world reported the news. Dan Sabbagh’s account of the day captures how a mood of uncertainty, mysterious protocol, and the anxious study of newsreaders’ ties gave way to grief: “For a few hours, in public, it was unclear what was happening. But in private, the worst had come to pass.”
Shortly after 6.30pm, a notice was posted on the railings of Buckingham Palace saying that the Queen had died peacefully in the afternoon. The BBC’s Huw Edwards “looked and sounded close to tears” as he broke the news, Dan writes. “‘A few moments ago, Buckingham Palace announced the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,’ [Edwards] said, and he repeated the announcement several times, as if the news was too much to be taken in at a single telling.”
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The days ahead: national mourning and flags at half-mast
Caroline Davies’ news piece explains that Prince Charles, heir to the throne since the age of three, is now King Charles III, and the Duchess of Cornwall is now Queen Consort. They will return to London today, where Charles will meet with Liz Truss; he will be officially proclaimed at St James’s Palace as soon as possible. The country now enters a period of national mourning before Britain’s first state funeral for 50 years.
This piece explains “Operation Unicorn”, the contingency plans in place in the event of her death at Balmoral. Caroline also has an explanation of what to expect now, and the mechanics of events leading up to the funeral at Westminster Abbey, with flags at half-mast, football matches cancelled, and a special parliamentary sitting on Saturday for MPs to pay tribute and swear allegiance to the new king. For a deeper explanation of the extraordinary apparatus that exists around the succession, see this 2017 piece by Sam Knight.
The Queen’s presence is embedded in British life on coins and bank notes, stamps and postboxes, in royal warrants and the national anthem. Robert Booth explains how that will change in ways fast and slow.
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The reaction: ‘In spirit, she stood amongst us’
The political tributes to the Queen were led by the new prime minister, Liz Truss, who called her “the rock on which modern Britain was built”. She said she was “the very spirit of Great Britain, and that spirit will endure”. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said: “For the vast majority of us, the late Queen has been simply the Queen. The only Queen. Above all else, our Queen.” He added: “For 70 years, Elizabeth II stood as the head of our country. But, in spirit, she stood amongst us.”
Former party leaders also paid tribute in their own style. Boris Johnson called it “our country’s saddest day” and said that everybody would feel “a deep and personal sense of loss”. Jeremy Corbyn said that his thoughts were with the Queen’s family as well as those mourning her around the world, and added: “I enjoyed discussing our families, gardens and jam-making with her.” The responses of many other public figures are collected here.
Presidents, prime ministers and monarchs around the world also spoke, with some of their remarks collected in this piece. Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, said the Queen “defined an era” and noted that after 9/11, she had told Americans: “Grief is the price we pay for love.” Barack Obama said that he and his wife, Michelle, were “awed by her legacy of tireless, dignified public service”. He remembered that she had welcomed the couple “to the world stage with open arms and extraordinary generosity”.
Among the many others to mark her passing were the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who spoke of his “deep sadness” at the news, and Jamaica’s prime minister, Andrew Holness, who said: “We join our brothers and sisters in the Commonwealth in mourning her passing, and pray for the comfort of the members of her family, and the people of the United Kingdom.” In New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern said she was woken by a police officer’s flashlight before 5 in the morning: having gone to bed reading of the Queen’s ill health, “when that torchlight came into my room I knew immediately what it meant,” Ardern said. “I am profoundly sad.”
Guardian reporters spoke to mourners as they gathered to mark the Queen’s passing. At Balmoral, in the lashing rain, Severin Carrell heard from Tina Ferry, who had driven from the coastal town of Peterhead. “It’s a moment in history; it’s like Diana,” she said. “You will always remember where you were when it happened. I hope she hasn’t suffered.” And at Buckingham Palace, Ed, who was laying a bouquet at the gates, told Geneva Abdul: “Through all the turmoil, all the changes that we have experienced, she’s like one constant that you can rely on. So I thank her for that.”
In Sydney, Ben Doherty writes, the sails of the city’s Opera House will be illuminated for two nights in Her Majesty’s honour. He spoke to Ross Harris, who was paying tribute nearby and remembers the Queen when she and Prince Phillip came to his primary school in 1977. “They set the example for others in terms of work and giving to others,” Harris said.
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Her life: ‘Largely unknown – and unknowable’
It is hard to read Stephen Bates’ remarkable obituary and not conclude that however surreal and anachronistic the machinery around the Queen could appear, the person at the centre of it was a figure of profound importance whose centrality to Britain’s sense of itself, for good or ill, never really went away.
Bates writes that the Queen “was an integral part of the country and its institutions: one of the best-known women and national leaders in the world, photographed, painted, filmed, depicted, lauded – and occasionally ridiculed – from the time she became heir to the throne, at the age of 10, in 1936, to the end of her life”.
Her most remarkable feat, he says, was to “remain largely unknown – and unknowable”: “Even devoted monarchists knew of her only at second hand, as a cipher, a still, small, largely silent, smiling figure, bound by her sense of duty and service, surrounded by turmoil and hubbub.” As well as the obituary, you can see a beautifully put together timeline of the Queen’s reign here.
You needn’t be an ardent monarchist to find the artefacts of her life fascinating, and moving – a history of a single woman which also stands as one version of the history of her era. This selection of pictures shows her at every stage from a toddler in 1927 to the last published picture of her, taken at Balmoral when she met Truss earlier this week. This video of the Queen in her own words captures how utterly public she was bound to be, the haziness of the line between her own crises and those of the nation, and her defining sense of duty.
The Queen also had a sense of humour: this video captures some of it, from offhand quips with world leaders to sketches with Paddington and Daniel Craig. This anecdote about a meeting with two American tourists, from former royal protection officer Richard Griffin, has been doing the rounds on social media – and it’s well worth 90 seconds.
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Her family: a life bound up in love and obligation
If all of our lives are defined by the soap operatics of our own flesh and blood, few families are so inextricably bound together as the Windsors – whatever some of them might occasionally wish. The Queen’s story ran from the abdication of her uncle – which made her father king and her heir to the throne – through her long marriage to her beloved husband, Philip. She endured Charles and Diana’s divorce and Diana’s subsequent death, the crisis brought about by Andrew’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and the psychodrama of Harry and Meghan’s exit from the UK.
Caroline Davies’ piece about the Queen’s relationship with Philip gives a sense of perhaps the most deeply intimate relationship of her life, and quotes her former private secretary, Lord Charteris, who once said: “Prince Philip is the only man in the world who treats the Queen simply as another human being. He’s the only man who can.” And this piece highlights another of her deep familial loves: her corgis, the “moving carpet” that preceded her as she navigated Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
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Her significance: ‘She was woven into the cloth of our lives’
The Queen’s reign began with optimism over a youthful monarch presiding over a “new Elizabethan age”; for some, it ended with a sense that she was the last monarch tied to Britain’s vexed imperial past, and leaves a country which counted on her for reassurance about its place in the world.
Jonathan Freedland says that the news “will shake this country very deeply, for reasons we may not fully grasp … She was woven into the cloth of our lives so completely, we had stopped seeing the thread long ago.” And he argues that central to her importance was her status as “the last human link with the war, the last person in British public life who played a role in it … The Queen connected us to the defining event in our modern national life, the event from which we still draw pride and purpose.”
Gaby Hinsliff writes about her presence as a national matriarch: one of those “older women who have managed to become valued for their wisdom and experience, not overlooked once their youth fades; who have arguably earned the right to please themselves, yet choose to offer comfort and counsel to younger generations”.
Polly Toynbee sees her passing matters as part of “the vanishing of an era”. But while “no doubt we will see public mourning on an epic scale”, she suggests that the true nature of the loss will be felt more quietly: “The true mood, I suspect, is a more personal sense of family memories and the passing of private as well as public histories. Reigns are milestones in our lives.”
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King Charles III: ‘a job demanding absolute discretion as the price of survival’
While Charles will not be crowned for several months, he became King at the moment of his mother’s death, and returns to London today. He is likely to address the nation in the days ahead. In a brief message last night, he said that the death of his “beloved mother” was “a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family”.
In a profile to be published later of the King – who at 73, is the oldest new monarch in British history – Stephen Bates reflects on the lifetime of a man who was “endlessly coached for a job that has finally come to him at an age when most men want nothing more than a peaceful retirement”. He notes that whereas his mother was a cypher, Charles’s views and interests – from organic farming and architecture to town planning and education – are well known, and sometimes political.
Robert Booth’s piece about Charles’s accession reports a former aide saying: “He will be focused on the personal and the family, but for the palaces it will be a question of [choosing] the right things to say and do that lead the nation in mourning but also establish the first steps of the new reign.” And Martin Kettle argues that the monarchy “will certainly evolve further under Charles, who is determined to slim down the numbers of working royals and who is also certain to find himself ceasing to be head of state of many Commonwealth countries.”
Bates says that while Charles has a determination to modernise and reform the institution, his instincts “may be hard to reconcile with a job demanding absolute discretion as the price of survival”. The central question, he suggests, is: “Can an elderly sovereign, succeeding an even older one, engage the monarchy with a country whose population is mostly much younger than he is and whose future is with a coming generation, not a departing one?”
The front pages
We have a separate round-up of major UK front pages today – our usual summary follows. This morning’s Guardian front page carries a full-page Cecil Beaton portrait of the late sovereign in full regalia, seated upon a throne on her coronation day. The accompanying words: “Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022”. The photograph is a popular choice: the Times adds “A life in service” on its commemorative wraparound, while the headline on the i like our own paper is simply “Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022” – it notes that “UK has a new king and a new prime minister in 48 hours”. “Our hearts are broken” says the Daily Mail, which uses a different portrait of the young Elizabeth, the same one as the Metro.
Others have more contemporary images of the Queen in her later years. “Thank you” says the Mirror next to a coin-like profile picture in colour. A beautifully soft black and white semi-profile is on the front of the Sun – it says “We loved you, ma’am” – and the Express, which laments “Our beloved Queen is dead”, as well as the Telegraph, which quotes her 9/11 words of comfort to the United States: “Grief is the price we pay for love”. The Times has the same picture on its main front, inside the wraparound, headlined “Death of the Queen”. On the front of the Financial Times, the Queen flashes a gleaming smile as she arrives by coach for the state opening of parliament in 1971. It is subtitled “Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022”.
Five big stories
Energy | Liz Truss announced plans to freeze energy bills for households at an average of £2,500 a year for two years, superseding Ofgem’s energy cap of £3,549. The proposal is estimated to cost at least £150bn.
Climate crisis | The world has been driven to the brink of multiple “disastrous” tipping points, according to a major study. It shows five dangerous tipping points may already have been passed due to the 1.1C of global heating caused by humanity to date.
Inflation | The European Central Bank has hiked its key interest rate across the eurozone by an unprecedented three quarters of a percentage point to 1.25%, an aggressive move to combat inflation.
Politics | The contributions to Liz Truss’s successful campaign were disclosed yesterday, showing that she raised £420,000, with the single biggest donation of £100,000 coming from the wife of a former BP executive.
Ukraine | Ukraine has retaken over 1,000 sq km (390 sq miles) of territory and more than 20 villages, a top general has announced, as troops wage a counteroffensive in the south and the east.
Today in Focus
The life and death of Queen Elizabeth II
After the death of the Queen, Polly Toynbee reflects on her life.
