Ages

The second Elizabethan age has ended

Most of the U.K.’s 68 million people or, indeed, an estimated 94% of the people on the planet have known no other person on the British throne but Queen Elizabeth II, who died Thursday at age 96. Many are unprepared to confront the sudden profundity of death.

“And when peace comes, remember it will be for us, the children of today,

to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place,”

– Elizabeth, age 14, on the occasion of her first radio address, speaking to young people displaced by World War II.