The man who was in the making for 70 years for this moment will hardly be able to overshadow the 70 years of his mother’s reign, an institution within the institution. For now, it has to win popular support: only a quarter of Britons believed that the Prince of Wales should be the successor to Elizabeth II.
News of the death came at 6:30 pm, exactly six hours after a statement from Buckingham Palace announced that “the Queen’s doctors” were “concerned” about her condition. It was time for her closest family members to fly to Balmoral Castle – Scotland’s summer retreat – and gather at the royal bed, where the 96-year-old monarch “died peacefully”.
It was also the time to prepare the country for the “giant shock”, as the last head of government appointed by Elizabeth II, Liz Truss, said. After the queen’s death, as the tradition of the monarchical system dictates, the first in the line of succession, the eldest son, became the new head of state of the United Kingdom but also, a manifestation of the British singularity, of 14 other independent states.
In October of last year, Isabel II and her eldest son planted a beech tree at the launch of the jubilee campaign, the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of her reign, after having succeeded her father, George VI. (By the way, the British media counts 1500 trees planted by the queen, in ceremonies, all over the world).
From then on, she appeared in public weakened, when she did not cancel her public commitments. On October 12, she was seen for the first time to walk with the help of a cane. That same month, she was admitted to a London hospital overnight, having been advised to “slow down”.
Earlier this year she visited Chelsea’s flower show in a motorized cart. The following month, she was infected with covid, a disease that she later admitted had left her “exhausted”. Buckingham Palace said only that the Queen suffered from “episodic mobility problems”. As the months passed, she moved away from the ceremonies, from the speech (written by the government) that marks the opening of the legislative year to the military parade that marks her birthday.
Elizabeth II’s health declined shortly after the death, in April, of her husband Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, aged 99. As Morrissey sang, in 1986, in the famous theme of The Smiths The Queen is Dead, “Life is very long when you”re lonely”.
Anyone following the debate on the energy crisis in the House of Commons realized that something was not right. Moments before the unusual announcement of the monarch’s medical report, the minister Nadhim Zahawi sat next to the new prime minister and handed her a note. Shortly after, it was the turn of the opposition leader to also be notified. And both left the Chamber. Liz Truss tweeted a message preparing for the worst: “The entire country will be deeply concerned by the news from Buckingham Palace.”
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