After 6 hours of medical supervision, this afternoon, the royal family confirmed that the longest-living monarch, Queen Elizabeth, has died. As ABC news says, "She was such a popular monarch...this is truly the end of an era."

People in the UK are creating a crowd at Buckingham Palace, paying their respects to the longest-living monarch.

History of the Queen

As a child

Born in April of 1926, her father, King George VI, had an interesting education plan. She was educated by private tutors, who taught her music and French, and was a girl guide, which is the British version of Girl Scouts. She attended multiple racehorse events. Out of school, she was influenced a lot by nannies, but her mother, Princess Elizabeth, was by far the greatest influence. She taught her the Christian faith as well as told her all about being a princess. During World War II, they were separated. While the Princess lived in Buckingham Palace, she moved to Windsor Castle. This was a really sad time for her, as her mother was very dear and close to her. After World War II, she and her mother and father left for a trip to South Africa. The reason why this trip was so important was that she announced her engagement to Prince Phillip, her third cousin and a lieutenant of the Royal Navy. Although the family disliked the engagement because of the lack of wealth and foreign blood, she was determined to convince the family. Before she was queen, they had one child; Charles, the Prince of Wales.

Coronation

While the health of King George VI, her father, was rapidly declining, a temporary transfer of power was issued; Elizabeth was now in charge. They traveled to Australie and New Zealand, making a rest stop in Kenya in 1952. However, On February 6, 1952, King George died of lung cancer; Queen Elizabeth is the new leader of Britain. Although she was already queen for 1 year, her formal coronation was in June of 1953.

First decade

In her first decade, she was still settling into the new duties. She started bonding with the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and also worked on the resolution of the Suez Crisis. At the time the monarchy was also facing backlash from the press, so she worked on developing her image for the people, starting a Christmas broadcast for Britain. Also, she and Charles had two children; Andrew, born in 1960, and Edward, born in 1964. Also, Charles, their first son, was officially instigated as the Prince of Wales, being the king in the making.

Later on

Queen Elizabeth's first milestone, her silver jubilee, was held in 1977 in honor of being on the throne for 25 years. She has as history.com says, "a punishing schedule" to travel, introducing Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia.

The new generation

In 1981, Prince Charles found a wife, Diana Spencer. The couple had two sons, William and Harry, but the marriage quickly imploded, causing major embarrassment. In 1992, Queen Elizabeth's 40th year on the throne, she gave a speech, touching on the topic of the family "Annus Horribilis". Both Charles and Diana and Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah Ferguson, separated, while Princess Anne and her husband, Mark Phillips, divorced.

Yes, even more conflict.

The same year, a fire broke out at Windsor Castle, but even with the public idea of using government funds, she agreed to pay taxes on her income. A few other monarchs had done this, but it was not required by British law. In 1996, Charles and Diana divorced, but Diana was still extremely popular in public. Her death after the divorce still lead to shock and grief, even though she was no longer in the royal family. This also triggered an outraged royal family, and the public now saw paparazzi as ill-treating people, and would never forget the death of the "People's Princess."

Modern popularity

After all the tragedies faced by the family, popularity was returning in the first decade of the 21st century. In 2002, the Queens Golden Jubilee was underway. However, with the death of her mother and sister earlier in the year, they threw the ideas out of the window. In 2005, the queen enjoyed public support when Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles. In her seventh decade on the throne, there was yet ANOTHER wedding for Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011. The new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have three children to this day; George born in 2013, Princess Charlotte born in 2015, and Prince Louis born in 2018. Later on, Prince Philip stepped down from duties in 2017, at 96. 3 years later, in 2021, he died at 99. However, we still have more celebrations. In May of 2018, Prince Harry wed Meghan Markle, a divorcee who was embraced by the royal family as a resemblance of how modern the monarchy has become. They had a son, Archie Windsor in 2019, and a daughter Lilibet Diana Windsor in 2021. Rumors also spread around that Queen Elizabeth would step away and let Prince Charles take the throne, but it was a partial transfer of power. In 2017, she dedicated some of her royal duties, such as attending the royal Remembrance Day ceremony, to the heir of the throne.

The end

Until her peaceful death today, she remained a consistent monarch, and kept up with her official duties and public appearances, along with spending time with her horses and dogs.

Long live the Queen.