Queen Elizabeth II has died. Her passing marks the end of an extraordinary era.

Listen to this story being read by Claire Murphy, here. 

Today, the world's second Elizabethan age came to an end.

It was marked by a statement issued by the new King, Charles, on Thursday, September 8 at 6.30pm local time, in which Buckingham Palace confirmed that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

“The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family.

“We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world.

“During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held."

A statement from His Majesty The King: pic.twitter.com/AnBiyZCher

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) September 8, 2022

During her record 70-year reign, the monarch welcomed 15 British Prime Ministers and 16 Australian ones. She ruled through natural disasters, geo- political turmoil, acts of terror, and a lethal pandemic. Through the advent of technologies from television to the internet. Through great human feats, from the scaling of Mount Everest (just weeks after her coronation) to space flight.

Throughout it all, the Queen was a constant; a symbol of continuity in a period of dizzying change. The only British monarch most people alive today have ever known.

As her silhouette is replaced on coins and banknotes, as the words of Britain's anthem are changed and the monarchy scrambles to modernise in her absence, that is how many will remember Elizabeth II. A steady hand and cool head. One that carried the crown with grace and a strong sense of duty, despite not being born to wear it.

On September 6, just a few days ago, she held an audience with new British Prime Minister Liz Truss, where she invited her to form the next government. The Queen broke with the tradition of meeting the new Prime Minister at Buckingham Palace, after needing to remain at Balmoral Castle due to mobility issues. 

It was her last public outing. 

What happens now Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth has passed away? The Quicky explains. Post continues below.

The Queen pictured this week with Liz Truss. Image: Getty. 

From princess to future Queen.

Born on April 21, 1926, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was the eldest child of Prince Albert, Duke of York, and Elizabeth, Duchess of York.

Affectionately nicknamed 'Lilibet' by her family (after her early struggles to pronounce her own name), Princess Elizabeth was raised alongside her younger sister, Margaret — who was by many accounts, the more gregarious of the pair. The elder, though "jolly" according to the girls' governess, had a responsible, disciplined nature.

In fact, when Elizabeth was just two, future Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was a close friend of her parents, remarked that she "has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant."

Princess Elizabeth (centre) with her sister and parents. Image: Getty. 

As a member of the royal family, young Elizabeth was always destined for a life of duty and immense privilege, but come 1938 her path was dramatically altered by her uncle, King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne to marry the woman he loved — a divorced American named Wallis Simpson.

Overnight, Elizabeth's father became King, and she the heir presumptive to Britain's dwindling empire.

Love and war.

When Elizabeth was just a teen, World War II fell across Europe and the Pacific. Like large swathes of London, Buckingham Palace was struck by bombs dropped by Axis forces, and while her parents stayed behind as a symbol of solidarity with their subjects, the Princess and her sister were evacuated to Windsor Castle.

Come the final year, when she turned 18, Elizabeth eagerly enlisted in the Auxiliary Territorial Service — the women's branch of the British army — where she was trained as a driver and vehicle mechanic. (Even into her 90s, the Queen was routinely photographed behind the wheel at her beloved Scottish Estate in Balmoral.)

In a rare interview given to the BBC in 1985, the Queen recalled celebrating victory day with other Brits, by slipping anonymously into crowds and walking "miles" through central London: "I remember [Margaret and I] were so terrified of being recognised. So I pulled my uniform cap well down over my eyes," she said, recalling "lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, and all of us were swept along by tides of happiness and relief... I think it was one of the most memorable nights of my life."

Princess Elizabeth demonstrating her ATS training to her mother. Image: Getty. 

It was during the war years that Elizabeth fell for Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark. 

They'd met twice before, but it was during a lunch at the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth in 1939 that the Princess is said to have developed a fascination with the towering naval cadet. While the conflict pulled him to the Mediterranean and Pacific, the young pair corresponded by letter and a mutual affection took hold.

Their engagement was announced in 1946 and the wedding followed on November 20, 1947, in a display of ceremony and excess not seen in Britain in years. 

The 21-year-old bride arrived at Westminster Abbey in the Irish State Coach, wearing a 3-carat diamond engagement ring on her finger, with 91 choristers ready to serenade her and 2,000 guests (including Heads of State and royalty) waiting to witness the occasion.

The ceremony was broadcast via BBC Radio to more than 200 million people around the world, uniting people across seas and borders in celebration.

Princess Elizabeth's dress featured a 4.5-metre silk tulle train. Image: Getty. 

In separate letters to the Princess' parents, the newlyweds wrote of their excitement about their future together.

"[We] behave as though we had belonged to each other for years!" the bride wrote. "Philip is an angel—he is so kind and thoughtful." 

Prince Philip questioned whether "cherish" was enough to express his feelings toward his new wife.

"[She is] the only 'thing' in this world which is absolutely real to me," he wrote, "and my ambition is to weld the two of us into a new combined existence that will not only be able to withstand the shocks directed at us but will also have a positive existence for the good."

There were, of course, many shocks to come. The first fewer than five years later.

The dawn of a new Elizabethan age.

In February 1952, the couple was in Kenya on a Commonwealth tour when the Princess' aides received a dispatch from London.

It was Prince Philip who relayed the tragic news to his wife: her beloved father, King George VI, had died due to a blood clot in his heart.

Elizabeth, stunned and grieving, acceded the throne of Great Britain and the Commonwealth, which then represented more than one-fifth of the world's population. 

She was 25 years old. 

The Royal Family on the balcony at Buckingham Palace after Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. Image: Getty. 

The coronation took place on June 2, 1953, at Westminster Abbey with an audience of millions watching via the new medium of television. 

It was hailed by her own sister, Princess Margaret, as like a "Phoenix-time" for post-war Britain: "Everything was being raised from the ashes."

Then Prime Minister Winston Churchill echoed that sentiment: "She is also heir to all our united strength and loyalty. She comes to the Throne at a time when a tormented mankind stands uncertainly poised between world catastrophe and a golden age.

"Let us hope and pray that the accession to our ancient Throne of Queen Elizabeth II may be the signal for such a brightening salvation of the human scene." 

The private life of a public figure.

Queen Elizabeth II was the most widely travelled British monarch in history, having made more than 270 international trips during her reign. 

She was also the most visible.

With the stiff (and many argued, archaic) institution chafing against the freewheeling spirit of the 1960s and 70s, the Palace worked to humanise the royal family. 

The Queen brought her subjects closer than any predecessor had done, actually walking among and engaging with crowds on her various tours and at public events — now a regular practice for British royals. 

In 1969, she and Prince Philip also invited television cameras into Buckingham Palace for the first time to record a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the domestic life of them and their four children, Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward. 

Though tightly controlled by Prince Philip, the resulting film, Royal Family, offered an unprecedented glimpse behind the palace walls and contained headline-making revelations, such as the fact that the Queen stored food in Tupperware.

According to the BBC, the two-hour long film was viewed by a global audience of more than 350 million at the original time of airing, but it was then buried away in the BBC archive, reportedly by Royal decree. It hasn't been broadcast in decades.

The Royal family at Windsor in 1969. Image: Getty. 

Despite this new level of public access heralded by Her Majesty, the Palace has remained a largely closed-door institution. It's only through the odd interview or insider leak that the public was able to get a sense of the monarch.

Among the most common observations made about her was that she has an impressively sharp wit, supposedly inherited from her mother. 

According to author Thomas Blaikie, during one of Her Majesty's famous Buckingham Palace Garden Parties for members of the public, the Queen was chatting with a guest when the woman's mobile phone started ringing. "You’d better answer that," the Queen quipped. "It might be someone important."

The Queen was also known to have had a keen interest in politics, courtesy of her private weekly audience with the various British Prime Ministers to serve during her reign (no record of these meetings was kept, and the PMs were trusted to keep their discussions entirely confidential). She remained — as protocol dictates — strictly politically neutral, but developed a particularly close affinity for Winston Churchill, who was the incumbent when she took the throne.

When Churchill died in 1965, she broke royal protocol and entered the church ahead of his family (she is typically the last to enter the room at a function), as a sign of respect for them and for him.

Annus horribilis and the future of the crown.

The final decade of the 20th Century proved particularly trying for the Queen, and the reputation of the royal family as a whole. 

In 1992, three of her four children (Charles, Anne and Andrew) ended their marriages, and a fire at Windsor Castle destroyed 100 rooms. In a speech marking the 40th anniversary of her accession to the throne that year, the monarch gave a rare display of emotional honesty, describing the year as her 'Annus horribilis'.

But the damage done to the institution that year paled in comparison to that which followed the death of Prince Charles' former wife, Princess Diana, in 1997. The young aristocrat — arguably the most popular member of the royal family — was killed in a car crash in Paris when paparazzi pursued her chauffer-driven car into a tunnel at high speed. 

While millions mourned, the Queen's response was perceived as slow and detached (five days passed before she publicly acknowledged the tragedy), which only added weight to Diana's previous public comments about the pitfalls of "the royal machine" and apparent resistance to her among the "establishment". 

Anti-monarchist sentiment soared.

The Queen with Princess Diana and Prince Charles in 1982. Image: Getty. 

The new millennium had also not been without its challenges for the Queen.

Her youngest son, Prince Andrew, became embroiled in a damaging legal and public relations battle over his association with convicted child sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein, which included allegations the Prince had slept with an underage girl.

Then, her grandson Prince Harry — who, along with his elder brother and future king, Prince William, was heralded as the great white hope of the tiring monarchy — announced his decision to step back from royal duty and start a new life in North America with his Californian wife, former Suits star, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

Amid it all, Her Majesty lost the man she described as her "constant strength and guide", Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who died on April 9, 2021, at the age of 99. 

A photo shared by the Queen at Prince Philip's funeral. Image: The Countess of Wessex. 

Married for more than 73 years, Queen Elizabeth became the only sovereign to have celebrated a diamond wedding anniversary.

In June, the Queen celebrated another milestone: her Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne.

"When it comes to how to mark 70 years as your Queen, there is no guidebook to follow. It really is a first. But I have been humbled and deeply touched that so many people have taken to the streets to celebrate my Platinum Jubilee," she said in a statement at the time.

Unfortunately, the monarch was absent for much of the celebrations, only appearing in public for around 27 minutes across the four days of festivities. 

"The Queen greatly enjoyed today's birthday parade and flypast but did experience some discomfort," Buckingham Palace said in a statement, announcing she would miss the National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral. 

The Queen celebrates her Platinum Jubilee with members of the royal family. Image: Getty.  

The Queen's final years were marked by a gradual winding back of her duties; a reflection of her deteriorating health. But she continued to work in whatever capacity she was able, including hosting Zoom meetings with foreign dignitaries.

Her death came after a period of ill-health that saw her absent from many of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations earlier this year.

The formal plan enacted by the Palace and government after her death — known by the codename Operation London Bridge — is already underway. The Queen will be given a state funeral, which is expected to take place 12 days after her death. Details have not yet been released regarding the coronation of her eldest son, Prince Charles, aged 73.

As the Prince of Wales becomes King, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, takes on the title of Queen consort, after the Queen offered her blessing in February. 

With Her Majesty's death, Charles inherits a throne that has never been more accessible, more scrutinised, or had its relevance more questioned. 

While he won't have as many decades in which to overcome these challenges and forge his legacy, he will do so on the foundation of his mother's - a woman and leader who will go down as one of the defining figures of our lifetime.

Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia.