The Queen Who Defined an Era

The long reign of Queen Elizabeth II was marked by her strong sense of duty and her determination to dedicate her life to her throne and to her people.

Elizabeth, who died on September 8th at ninety-six, led a life made up of privilege and sacrifice, and even those who resented the former acknowledged the latter.

Through tragedy and tumult, Queen Elizabeth II was a model of constancy. Her death will have important repercussions for the monarchy and the future of the United Kingdom.

As Britain remembers and honors Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne, here are some key moments from her long reign and life.

From wartime broadcasts to Christmas Day messages, here are excerpts from some of her best-known addresses.

The monarch’s 70 years on the throne were defined by her conservatism. What happens when a new generation takes over?

She helped obscure a bloody history of decolonization whose proportions and legacies have yet to be adequately acknowledged.

She’s been photographed, painted and graffitied. She’s been struck on coins, cast in iron, silk-screened onto T-shirts and fired onto plates. There’s even a Barbie doll in her likeness.

It’s hard to imagine the monarchs of Saudi Arabia and Thailand selling souvenir tchotchkes in quite the same way.

For many, the Queen is a symbol of perpetual, old-fashioned stability. Yet, she has nonetheless been part of one of the most remarkable chapters of social transformation in British life.

The longest-reigning monarch in British history maintained a “blank slate” onto which her subjects, fellow politicians, and the world could project.

Crowned at the dawn of the TV age, she was defined by her distance as much as her ubiquity.

To provide the United Kingdom with the monarch she felt it needed, Queen Elizabeth II sacrificed an ordinary life and the other things most of us take for granted.

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-serving monarch, who died on Thursday, remained resolutely mum about her political leanings throughout her time on the throne, as her role in her country’s constitutional monarchy decreed.

The daughter of a second son, she got the best start of all—a happy childhood. Then, from her father, struggling with great zeal and small strength, and from her mother, affectionate and serene, she learned the often tiresome tasks of queenship.

The royal biographer Robert Lacey considers Queen Elizabeth II, her legacy, her family history, and her ambivalent relationship with Princess Diana.

She was venerated around the world. She outlasted 12 U.S. presidents. She stood for stability and order. But her kingdom is in turmoil, and her subjects are in denial that her reign would ever end. That’s why the palace has a plan.