AFTER THE REIGN

On the third anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's death, royal historian DR ELIZABETH NORTON examines her monumental legacy alongside history's other trailblazing female rulers

- Words by Dr ELIZABETH NORTON

T WAS a dull day on September 8, 2022, when my phone began to ring repeatedly. Was I available right now for a telephone interview or a discussion over Zoom?

Could I get to Buckingham Palace, where the world’s major news organisations were assembling in temporary cabins formed in an arc around zealously tended flower beds from Canada Gate to the Mall?

By now Buckingham Palace had informed the world that the health of Queen Elizabeth II, who had recently celebrated her Platinum Jubilee, was failing. Her Majesty, who was the world’s longest-reigning living sovereign and, as far as records allow, the longest-ruling woman in history, died at Balmoral in Scotland later that afternoon with her family around her. The public announcement was made at 6.30pm.

In London, it rained heavily all through the night, but crowds were already gathering at the gilded gates of Buckingham Palace the next morning. Leaving my post in the press area, I walked past the memorial to Queen Victoria, who sits blank-faced, looking away from the seat of the British monarchy.

There were flowers and messages, as well as people - shell-shocked, grieving or simply curious. As the days drew on, the crowds became immense, while people queued for long hours to pay their respects to the monarch in ancient, solid Westminster Hall.

As a royal historian, I have never been so busy, while my work never felt so current or important as I set the Queen within the context of her role as monarch in countless interviews in the days following her death.

When Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952, a woman had never been elected as a head of state or as a head of government anywhere in the world. It was therefore to her predecessors as reigning queens — Victoria, Elizabeth I, but also further afield — that she had to look to for precedents for female power.