Britain's Queen Elizabeth, its longest-reigning monarch, died on Thursday (September 8) just months after her Platinum Jubilee.
In June 2022, a four-day event in Britain celebrated Queen Elizabeth's 70 years on the throne. Around the time of those celebrations, Reuters asked several royal experts and senior figures how her record-breaking reign would be remembered, how she would go down in history and how Elizabeth II undertook the job of being queen.
Below are their quotes edited for length and clarity.
ON HER ROLE AS MONARCH
"I think the queen's played a blinder in terms of her position as a constitutional monarch," Anna Whitelock, Professor of the History of Monarchy at London's City University, told Reuters, saying the queen had been true to the promise she made when she was just 21 years old in her first address to the Commonwealth.
At that time, she said: "I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong."
'She's not got involved in politics. We barely know her. I mean, she's the most charismatic sort of photographed most famous woman in the world, but she's also very enigmatic ... I think being able to stay above politics, but seen as relevant and respected has been really important,'' said Whitelock, ahead of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in June, 2022.
Kehinde Andrews, author and professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University, said her achievements depended on how one views the role of queen.
''If a good job of being queen is to represent white supremacy and to represent that link to colonialism, then yeah, I think she's done a very good job,'' he told Reuters.
While Baroness Valerie Amos, Master of University College Oxford, and order of the garter (oldest order of chivalry in Britain) said when it comes to bringing communities together that the ‘queen has had a lifetime of engagement not just with h Commonwealth countries …but people from many different countries across the world.’
‘‘She's someone who's just about seen everything, I think, and has negotiated that with a huge amount, I think, of patience and consistency,’’ Amos told Reuters.
Elizabeth ascended the throne aged 25 on Feb. 6, 1952, on the death of her father George VI, inheriting dominion over a Britain emerging from the ravages of World War Two, when rationing was still in place and Winston Churchill was prime minister, as well as other nations spread across the globe.
Since then presidents, popes, and prime ministers have come and gone, the Soviet Union has collapsed, and Britain's own once mighty empire has dissipated, replaced by a Commonwealth of 54 nations which Elizabeth was instrumental in creating.
ON THE SECOND ELIZABETHAN REIGN
Life for everyday people changed a lot during her reign too, and it is this that stands out for royal biographer Penny Junor.
''I think history will look back at this second Elizabethan age and see a period of enormous change, our society has changed dramatically during the 70 years of her reign,'' she told Reuters.
Elizabeth's reign has often been compared - sometimes unflatteringly - to that of her namesake whose 44 years on the throne in the 16th century is regarded as England's Golden Age, when the economy grew, the country's influence expanded, and William Shakespeare and other writers flourished.
"Some people have expressed the hope that my reign may mark a new Elizabethan age," the queen said in her 1953 Christmas broadcast.
"Frankly, I do not myself feel at all like my great Tudor forbear."
Having never given an interview or made her personal views on political issues known, the queen's own assessment of her reign - the longest in British history - was hard to ascertain.
A senior royal aide told Reuters ahead of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in June, 2022, that she would have regarded her legacy as a matter for others to judge.
''I think historically, when we look back at this, I don't think we will be that kind to this queen'," Andrews said.
Recognising her lack of power in comparison to Elizabeth I, Andrews said the queen had simply ''just parroted whatever position the government has taken.''
Constitutional historian David Starkey once said there would be no second Elizabethan age, as the queen did not regard her role as being the embodiment of history but merely a job.
"She has done and said nothing that anybody will remember. She will not give her name to her age. Or, I suspect, to anything else," Starkey wrote in 2015.
"I say this not as criticism but simply as a statement of fact. Even as a sort of compliment. And, I suspect, the queen would take it as such. For she came to the throne with one thought only: to keep the royal show on the road."
Such an assessment, though, does not do justice to how she performed her role and moved with the times during an age of seismic change, said Matthew Dennison, historian and author of a recent biography of the queen.
"I would argue that it is virtually impossible in 21st century Britain for any one person to embody the aspirations, the anxieties, the identities of what is an immensely disparate society," he told Reuters.
Dennison said the fact that she did not allow herself to express opinions publicly meant she avoided giving offence and alienating people, maximising her potential to be a ''national representative.''
HOW SHE WILL BE REMEMBERED AND THE END OF AN ERA?
Constitutionally, the British sovereign now has few practical powers and is expected to be non-partisan. However, Dennison said the queen had enormous soft power, which he said was immensely valuable to national life.
''I hope that she will be remembered as somebody who, in terms of public service, was a very good person. I think there is great goodness in such an extraordinary glittering inheritance that somehow doesn't turn your head, but appears on a daily basis to remind you of the value and privilege of service,'' he told Reuters ahead of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in June, 2022.
While Amos said her legacy will be ‘wisdom’, ‘experience’ and ‘calmness in the face of adversity’.
‘I think a lot of us will remember when she spoke about COVID and its impact on us as a country and as a society. And she has done that at various points during her reign. I think these are the things that will live with us all going forward.’
SUCCESS
And, finally, did the queen achieved the primary goal of any monarch? Yes, says Anna Whitelock:
''The definition of success for any monarch over time is to preserve the monarchy and ensure the succession... And that's what she's done. She's maintained the monarchy through a period of unprecedented change, and she's also ensured a line of succession ... And I think of that she would be incredibly proud," she said ahead of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in June, 2022.