The reign of Elizabeth II officially ended this Thursday, September 8 in the afternoon. At 96, after having spent more than seventy years dedicating her life to an entire people, the sovereign died “peacefully in his Balmoral residence“, surrounded by her family.
If the British were expecting it more or less (the queen had experienced several health problems including hospitalization in recent months), the announcement came as a shock. Especially since two days earlier, on Tuesday September 6, Elizabeth II received Liz Truss, whom she had appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. If the snapshot of this meeting had shown the queen a little weakened, with bruises on her hand, her smile did not suggest that she would die two days later.
Iain Greenshields, a clergyman, was one of the last people to see Elizabeth II alive. In a video message posted on Twitter, he paid tribute to him before revealing to The Times having spent the last weekend with the sovereign. Despite his fragile health, he was far from suspecting (like everyone else) the drama that would be played out the following week: “My visit was fantasticdid he declare. The queen’s memory was intact, she made a lot of jokes, she was really very funny.”