She served us well! ELIZABETH’S LONG LEGACY

Through good times and bad, celebrations and challenges, the history-making monarch reigned with composure and grace

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The Queen’s later years were partly dominated by royal matters, from State Openings of Parliament to greeting heads of state, royal visits and the inevitable Red Boxes of papers, but more so by family.

Some family events were gloriously happy, some worrying, some sad, some terrible. Throughout, the Queen took it in her stride.

In 1996, she turned 70. It was low-key, even if special commemorative coins were issued. Charles and Diana, plus Andrew and Sarah, had divorced, and the royals were keeping their heads down.

A year later, turmoil erupted when Princess Diana was tragically killed in a car crash in Paris. Initially insisting on the family staying at Balmoral, the Queen and her advisors badly misjudged the mood of large sections of the British public. She was effectively forced to return to London, fly the Buckingham Palace flag at half-mast and make an extraordinary TV appearance praising the “People’s Princess”.

Popular pressure also forced Princes William and Harry to make their grief public by walking behind their mother’s funeral hearse. Some argue that Harry never got over the trauma and this led him to rejecting his role decades later.

The Queen shed a tear later that year when her beloved Royal Yacht Britannia was decommissioned. And there was physical pain in 1998 when she had to have her left hip replaced.