Her official title was, “Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.” 

Here in the states, we tend to view British royalty with skepticism – a waste of money, medieval nonsense, or simply irrelevant. It is not. 

Queen Elizabeth died at the age of 96 on Thursday, September 8, 2022. She was the longest reigning monarch in the history of Great Britain. Her son is now His Majesty King Charles III.

Elizabeth was on safari in Kenya on February 6, 1952. At sunrise, an eagle flew directly over her head as she was watching a hippopotamus drink. It was almost the exact time her father, King George, VI died in his sleep four thousand miles away in Norfolk. 

Even before St. Edward’s Crown^[1] was placed on her head at her 1953 coronation, she, along with her sister, were stabilizing forces, broadcasting messages of strength and hope to the bombed and displaced during World War II. 

For seven decades, she has provided a sense of stability, order, decorum, and calm rationality in a world of upheaval, change, and turbulence. America is the weaker without such an influence.

^[1] Named for Edward the Confessor, an 11^th century Anglo-Saxon monarch, the crown is nearly five pounds of solid gold, encrusted with gems and upholstered with purple velvet and ermine. It was manufactured in 1661, for the coronation of Charles II.