Hello everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. On the afternoon of the 8th of September

2022, Queen Elizabeth II died. It feels here in the UK like the end of an era. This was

a one born closer to the start of intercity railway travel in 1830 than to today. She knew

Churchill. She was born into a world in which her grandfather, K.Empra, George V, ruled

over 25% of the Earth's population. It was a world with no computers, no televisions,

no proper understanding of penicillin, DNA. She was older than the UN. She was older than

the peoples of the Republic of China. Although there's some debate, she is regarded the

second longest serving monarch in history, having rained for 70 years, around two years less

than Louis XIV of France, and he cheated because he came for the throne as a small child.

She was born on 21st April 1926. She discovered that she would be Queen on the day that her

uncle, Edward VIII, abdicated and her father was placed on the throne. She served during

the Second World War, so she had veteran of that conflict. She served in the auxiliary

territorial service. She served in uniform. She performed the role of constitutional monarch

hardly putting a foot wrong, even her detractors would admit that she hardly put a foot wrong

for 70 years. I've seen her a couple of times. Once up close, I was in the press of veterans

at the cemetery in Bayer on the 70th anniversary of D-Day, and she walked through the middle

of them in a bright, lime green outfit, hat and dress matching. She was almost luminescent,

and the effect she had on the crowd, the omelette kids, the veterans, the serving, armed forces

personnel. There's like nothing I've ever seen. It's fascinating. She's a woman who's

met so many people of consequence from all over the world, leaders, scientists, rock stars

over the years. She's left behind a gaping hole in British life, the difficult time for

the United Kingdom. As an Anglo-Canadian, I appreciate that I'm hopelessly biased when

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