Queen Elizabeth II talks to guests at an evening reception for members of the Diplomatic Corps at Buckingham Palace on December 11, 2019, in London, England.

Queen Elizabeth II talks to guests at an evening reception for members of the Diplomatic Corps at Buckingham Palace on December 11, 2019, in London, England. WPA Pool via Getty Images / Victoria Jones

Queen Elizabeth II Dead at 96

King Charles III succeeds Britain’s longest-serving monarch and most prominent global leader.

This story was updated at 2:17 p.m.

Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday in Scotland, ending her 70-year reign as one of the world’s most visible diplomats. 

She is succeeded as monarch by her son, now King Charles III, a Royal Navy veteran who is expected to maintain the queen’s bullish position on the need to combat climate change. Last year, Charles urged the world to adopt a “warlike footing” and launch a “military-style” effort to fight rising global temperatures.  

“The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,” the Royal Family announced on Twitter. “The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”

Elizabeth’s death at 96 comes just days after she met with Liz Truss, the 16th prime minister to serve during the queen’s tenure. 

“She was the very spirit of Great Britain and that spirit will endure,” Truss said Thursday. “Today the crown passes as it has done for more than 1,000 years.” 

“God save the king,” said the prime minister.

As monarch, the queen does not have the political power held by senior elected officials, such as the prime minister or members of Parliament. She never weighed in publicly on Brexit, the UK’s most fraught foreign-policy move of the past decade.

But she played a major role in global relations as arguably the United Kingdom’s most prominent stateswoman, and has spent her 70 years as monarch traveling more than 1 million miles to visit countries where she is head of state as well as other allies. She has visited 117 of the 195 countries, according to The Telegraph.  

She met 13 American presidents, starting with Harry Truman on her first visit to Washington in 1951 as princess, just three months before the death of her father. In 1957, Dwight Eisenhower hosted her first state visit as queen. Last year, she met with Joe Biden in London.

Leaders rushed to offer their condolences on Thursday, and praised the queen for her leadership during numerous historic events beginning with the aftermath of World War II. 

“In her 70 years on the throne, she bore witness to the most consequential events that our world has ever seen and helped foster the close and important relationship that the United States shares with the United Kingdom,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said in a statement.  

Her role as a senior stateswoman has earned her praise from many in the diplomatic corps. 

“Her majesty is very well-informed; she is aware of what's happening in the world. So that is why most of the diplomats, not only me, love her. She is a lovable person. And she understands everything,” Khaled Al Duwaisan, the Kuwait ambassador to the United Kingdom, said in June. 

In 1986, she became the first British monarch to visit China, a crucial visit to strengthen ties between the two nations after the United Kingdom agreed that Hong Kong would be returned to China in 1997 after the expiration of a 99-year lease. In February, Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated the queen for her 70-year rule and called for a closer relationship between Beijing and London. 

Her diplomatic victories continued into her old age. In 2011, Queen Elizabeth became the first British monarch to visit Ireland nearly a century after Dublin declared independence from the United Kingdom. The Irish president returned the visit in 2014

"She's been astonishingly effective as a diplomat and as a statesperson. It's a great argument against possibly retirement because she's certainly managing her advanced years astonishingly well,” Ninian Mellamphy, a professor emeritus at Western University in Canada, said after the visit. 

The queen joined the British Army when she turned 18 during World War II, earning the nickname “Princess Auto Mechanic” for her service as a vehicle mechanic. She was the last living head of state to serve during World War II, according to the National World War II Museum

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.