Britain mourns Queen Elizabeth as Charles becomes king - Todayville

2022-09-10 02:02:28 By : Ms. Bella Hu

L ONDON (AP) — Bells tolled across Britain on Friday and mourners flocked to palace gates to honor Queen Elizabeth II as the country prepared for a new age under a new king. Around the world, her exceptional reign was commemorated, celebrated and debated.

King Charles III, who spent much of his 73 years preparing for the role, planned to meet with the prime minister and address a nation grieving the only British monarch most people alive today had ever known. He takes the throne in an era of uncertainty for both his country and the monarchy itself.

As the country began a 10-day mourning period, people around the globe gathered at British embassies to pay homage to the queen, who died Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

In London and at military sites across the United Kingdom, special guns fired 96 shots in an elaborate, 16-minute salute marking each year of the queen’s life.

In Britain and across its former colonies, the widespread admiration for Elizabeth herself was occasionally mixed with scorn for the institution and the imperial history she symbolized.

On the king’s first full day of duties Friday, he left Balmoral and flew to London, where he was expected to meet Prime Minister Liz Truss, appointed just this week.

He arrived at Buckingham Palace, the monarch’s London home, for the first time as sovereign, emerging from the official state Bentley limousine to shouts from the crowd of “God save the king!” and “Well done, Charlie!” and the singing of the national anthem, now called “God Save the King.” One woman gave him a kiss on the cheek.

In the evening, he was scheduled to deliver his first speech to the nation as king, at a time when many Britons are facing an energy crisis, the soaring cost of living, the war in Ukraine and the fallout from Brexit.

As the second Elizabethan Age came to a close, hundreds of people arrived through the night to leave flowers outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and other royal residences. Some came simply to pause and reflect.

Finance worker Giles Cudmore said the queen had “just been a constant through everything, everything good and bad.”

At Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, mourner April Hamilton stood with her young daughter, struggling to hold back tears.

“It’s just such a momentous change that is going to happen,” she said. “I’m trying to hold it together today.”

Everyday politics was put on hold, with lawmakers paying tribute to the monarch in Parliament over two days, beginning with a special session where Truss called the queen “the nation’s greatest diplomat.” Senior lawmakers will also take an oath to King Charles III.

Meanwhile, many sporting and cultural events were canceled as a mark of respect, and some businesses — including Selfridges department store and the Legoland amusement park — shut their doors. The Bank of England postponed its meeting by a week.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said, “A part of our lives we’ve taken for granted as being permanent is no longer there.”

But while Elizabeth’s death portends a monumental shift for some, day-to-day life in Britain went on in other respects, with children in school and adults at work, facing concerns about inflation.

Later Friday, Truss and other senior ministers were expected to attend a remembrance service at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Charles, who became the monarch immediately upon his mother’s death, will be formally proclaimed king at a special ceremony Saturday.

After a vigil in Edinburgh, the queen’s coffin will be brought to London, and she will lie in state for several days before her funeral in Westminster Abbey.

Elizabeth was Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and a symbol of constancy in a turbulent era that saw the decline of the British empire and disarray in her family.

The impact of Elizabeth’s loss will be unpredictable. She helped stabilize and modernize the monarchy across decades of enormous social change, but its relevance in the 21st century has often been called into question. The public’s abiding affection for the queen had helped sustain support for the monarchy during the family scandals, but Charles is nowhere near as popular.

“Charles can never replace her, you know,” said 31-year-old Londoner Mariam Sherwani.

Like many, she referred to Elizabeth as a grandmother figure. Others compared her to their mothers or great-grandmothers.

But around the world, her passing revealed conflicting emotions about the nation and institutions she represented.

In Ireland, some soccer fans cheered.

In India, once the “jewel in the crown” of the British empire, entrepreneur Dhiren Singh described his own personal sadness at her death, but added, “I do not think we have any place for kings and queens in today’s world.”

For some, Elizabeth was a queen whose coronation glittered with shards of a stunning 3,106-carat diamond pulled from grim southern African mines, a monarch who inherited an empire they resented.

In the years after she became queen, tens of thousands of ethnic Kikuyu in Kenya were rounded up in camps by British colonizers under threat from the local Mau Mau rebellion. Across the continent, nations rejected British rule and chose independence in her first decade on the throne.

She led a power that at times was criticized as lecturing African nations on democracy but denying many of their citizens the visas to visit Britain and experience it firsthand.

Associated Press writer Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya, and AP journalists from around the world contributed to this report.

Follow AP coverage of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii

Danica Kirka, Jill Lawless And Sylvia Hui, The Associated Press

Europe struggles to cope with Russia gas shutoffs

The Queen, longest-reigning monarch in British history, dies at 96: Buckingham Palace

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By David Mchugh in Frankfurt

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe is facing an energy crisis that is squeezing ordinary people’s finances and in just a few weeks could mushroom into rolling blackouts and factory shutdowns. Already, many economists say a recession is on the way.

The cause: Russia has choked off the supplies of cheap natural gas that the continent depended on for years to run factories, generate electricity and heat homes. That has pushed European governments into a desperate scramble for new supplies and for ways to blunt the impact as economic growth slows and household utility bills rise.

On leaders’ plate right now: how to cushion the blow to the poor, who are hit the hardest by higher electricity, gas and food bills, and how to calm electricity and gas markets that have gone haywire, with fluctuating price increases of more than tenfold.

Here is the latest on Europe’s efforts to avoid a total energy disaster:

DID RUSSIA CUT OFF GAS TO EUROPE?

Just about. The crisis deepened when Russia’s state-owned exporter Gazprom said the main pipeline to Germany would stay closed, blaming an oil leak and claiming the problems could not be fixed because of sanctions barring many dealings with Russia.

European officials say it’s energy blackmail, aimed at pressuring and dividing the European Union in retaliation for supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. The halt in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline means Russian gas shipments have fallen 89% from a year ago.

There’s still some Russian gas flowing to Europe through a pipeline passing through Ukraine into Slovakia, and another crossing the Black Sea to Turkey and then to EU member Bulgaria. Russia started cutting back gas as early as last summer, before the war in Ukraine started. That sent gas prices sharply higher. Then Gazprom cut off a number of European countries, further surging costs.

Given Russia’s slow constriction of supplies since last summer, officials are saying Europe needs to be ready fo r zero Russian gas this winter.

WHY IS RUSSIAN GAS SO IMPORTANT?

For decades, Europe depended on Russia for cheap gas. Without it, high energy prices are threatening to cause a recession this winter through record inflation that leaves consumers with less to spend as costs rise for food, fuel and utilities.

A complete cutoff could deal an even heavier blow to an already troubled economy.

Besides heating homes and generating electricity, gas is used to fire a range of industrial processes that most people never think much about — forging steel to go into cars, making glass bottles and pasteurizing milk and cheese.

Companies warn that they often can’t switch overnight to other energy sources such as fuel oil or electricity to produce heat. And as everyone searches for alternate supplies, fuel oil and coal also have risen in price.

In some cases, equipment that holds molten metal or glass is ruined if the heat is turned off, and over the longer term, energy-intensive businesses may simply give up on Europe.

IS THE PROBLEM JUST ABOUT HIGH NATURAL GAS PRICES?

No. Electricity prices also have skyrocketed because gas is a key fuel to generate power. To make matters worse, other sources of power have lagged for reasons not connected to Russia.

Drought has undermined hydroelectric power from rivers and reservoirs. France’s fleet of 56 nuclear power plants is running at half-strength because of shutdowns over corrosion problems in key pipes and repairs, updating and safety checks. A heat wave limited use of river water for cooling power plants, and lower water levels on Germany’s Rhine River reduced supplies of coal to generators.

In a role reversal, France is talking about sending natural gas to Germany, while Germany is exporting electricity to France. Usually it’s the other way around.

Analysts at Rystad Energy say Europe could face a serious electricity shortage as soon as this month. This winter, a worst case of cold weather, low wind generation and a 15% cut in gas use “would prove very challenging for the European power system, and could lead to power rationing and blackouts.”

WHAT IS EUROPE DOING TO EASE THE CRISIS?

Europe has lined up all the alternative gas supplies it could: more liquefied natural gas, or LNG, that comes by ship from the United States and increased pipeline gas from Norway and Azerbaijan. Germany is keeping coal plants in operation that it was going to shutter to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The 27-nation EU has approved a plan to reduce gas use by 15% by next March, roughly the amount experts say will need to make up for the loss of Russian gas.

National governments have bailed out utilities forced to pay exorbitant prices for Russian gas and doled out cash for hard-hit households. Public buildings are adjusting thermostats and turning off lights to save energy.

Now, EU officials say it’s time to intervene in energy markets that Russian President Vladimir Putin has broken. The EU has proposed putting a price cap on Russian gas imports to limit painful energy inflation and reduce the amount of money flowing from Europe into Russia’s war chest. Another measure would put a ceiling on energy companies’ windfall profits and use that money to support households and businesses.

Perhaps most important in the short term, Europe has managed to fill 83% of its storage for winter with the help of LNG and diminished consumption because of high prices.

Storage levels have kept rising even after the Nord Stream 1 cutoff, raising hopes Europe can weather the storm. Gas prices have fallen to their pre-cutoff level, although they are still painfully high.

WHAT’S RUSSIA’S GAME?

Even as gas sales dwindled, skyrocketing prices helped maintain Russia’s income from those sales. Oil and gas imports were initially exempt from sanctions because Europe was dependent on Russian energy. Europe has banned Russian coal and will ban most Russian oil at the end of the year.

Russia’s revenue from fossil fuel exports reached 158 billion euros from February to August, according to the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

But oil has tended to be the Kremlin’s main moneymaker, and unlike gas in fixed pipelines to Europe, can be sold worldwide by tanker. And the gas relationship with Europe may be gone for good — and with it, any influence it might have brought.

“The gas flows from Europe no longer play a role in my calculations,” German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said. “The only reliable thing from Russia are lies.”

So if Putin thinks he has any leverage from gas, time is running out for him to use it. This week, he threatened to cut off energy supplies completely to the West in response to price caps.

“Russia has lost nothing now that it hadn’t lost already … this winter is the last chance to use the gas weapon, successfully or not,” tweeted Janis Kluge, an expert on the Russian economy at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada and the Commonwealth, ascended the throne as much by a twist of fate as by the grace of God.

As the daughter and granddaughter of men who were not first in line to the throne, Elizabeth was once destined for a life of relative regal obscurity.

Instead, she became one of the world’s most famous women at the age of 25, when her father’s death in 1952 made her England’s sixth ruling queen and longest-reigning monarch.

She lived her early years in an intimate family atmosphere free from any hint of future royal responsibilities.

“Seldom can a royal child have enjoyed so simple and normal an early upbringing,” commented the Guardian newspaper in 1952.

Elizabeth died Thursday at the age of 96.

Buckingham Palace announced hours earlier that the Queen had been placed under medical supervision because doctors were concerned for her health.

Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, along with his wife, Camilla, and sister, Princess Anne, were with the Queen at Balmoral Castle, her summer residence in Scotland. Other members of the royal family, including Charles’ sons, Princes William and Harry, were said to be en route.

The Queen had increasingly handed over duties to Charles and other members of the Royal Family in recent months as she recovered from a bout of COVID-19, began using a cane and struggled to get around.

Born April 21, 1926, at 17 Bruton Street in London’s Mayfair district at the home of her maternal grandparents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore, the golden-haired, blue-eyed first granddaughter of King George V and Queen Mary grew up in a household where doors were never slammed in anger.

“We want Elizabeth and her sister Margaret to have happy childhoods, which they can always look back upon,” said her mother.

Thus it was as the child of a country gentleman, rather than as a potential future monarch, that Elizabeth lived at Bruton Street, at White Lodge in Richmond Park, and at 145 Piccadilly, the house taken by her parents, near Hyde Park.

“In the days of my childhood,” she recalled, “the sun seemed always to be shining.”

Some happy moments were spent in the tall house on Piccadilly, with its top-floor nursery and Elizabeth’s “stable” of three dozen toy horses.

When she was four, a sister Margaret Rose — the Rose was later dropped — was born in ancient Glamis Castle in Scotland.

“I’ve got a baby sister,” Elizabeth is reported to have exclaimed joyfully. ‘‘I’m going to call her Bud.” Asked why she chose the nickname, she replied: “Well, she’s not a real rose yet, is she? She is only a bud.”

The two girls frolicked happily together, Elizabeth’s seriousness and sense of appropriateness an engaging contrast with Margaret’s ingrained mischief.

They spent many hours in the ‘Little House’ (Y Bwthyn Bach), a gift from the people of Wales. This was a miniature of a real dwelling faithful in detail down to boxes of matches and baking powder in the tiny kitchen drawers.

Despite the presence of servants and governesses, it was their mother who played the most important role in bringing up the two princesses. Insisting on personal oversight of every detail, the woman later lovingly known as the Queen Mother excluded influences that might set Elizabeth and Margaret apart from other children.

Elizabeth studied languages, particularly French and German, and took special lessons in constitutional history from the late Sir Henry Marten, provost of Eton.

She made her first broadcast at 14.

“It was perfectly done,” wrote South African novelist Sarah Millin in her diary. “If there are still queens in the world a generation hence, this child will be a good queen.”

The generations that preceded her had never expected to rule.

Her grandfather was not the first-born son and only became heir apparent, and later George V, after the death of his elder brother. Elizabeth’s father was a second son and not expected to reach the throne. But in 1936 came the unexpected abdication of King Edward VIII who gave up his throne “for the woman I love” — Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American divorcee. That put Elizabeth’s father on the throne as King George VI.

Elizabeth herself came to the throne in similarly impromptu, if less dramatic, fashion.

When her father died at Sandringham on Feb. 6, 1952, she was 6,500 kilometres away in the African jungle, on the first leg of what was to have been a five-month tour.

It was the first time a sovereign acceded to the throne while abroad in the Commonwealth.

She flew back to London. In her declaration of accession at St. James Palace, she said: “My heart is too full for me to say more to you today than that I shall always work … to uphold constitutional government and to advance the happiness and prosperity of my people, spread as they are all the world over.’’

The year that followed was busy. She opened Parliament, presided over state functions at Buckingham Palace and signed up to 100 documents a day.

The climax in pomp and pageantry came on Coronation Day, June 2, 1953, the same year in which she also formally became Queen of Canada. Six kings and seven queens attended as Elizabeth drove to Westminster Abbey in a gilded coach and dedicated herself to her people in the world’s oldest state ceremonial.

It was the most-seen coronation in history. Only a few hundred could crowd into the ancient abbey, but millions watched on television and a colour motion picture film was shown around the world.

One of the largest crowds in London’s history acclaimed Elizabeth when she rode through the ancient, rain-drenched streets after the long ceremony. Later, at Buckingham Palace, she made six balcony appearances as her subjects celebrated far into the night.

For many, it was reminiscent of a ceremony six years before when a slim, grave-faced girl in white stood in the sanctuary of the abbey with a handsome sailor bridegroom, Philip Mountbatten.

There were conflicting stories about how the two met, but there was no conflict over the contention that this was a love match.

Marion Crawford, Elizabeth’s governess for 17 years, said the young princess was 13 at the first meeting and that she was most impressed by the 18-year-old Philip’s capacity for tucking away plates of shrimp.

Later they corresponded and, during one of Philip’s wartime leaves from the Royal Navy, went to a theatre together.

His red sports car was increasingly seen parked outside the palace and it was said that when he first asked the King for Elizabeth’s hand, the couple was advised to wait.

One obstacle was the fact that Philip had been baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church. Before the marriage, he was received into the Church of England.

King George VI named Philip Duke of Edinburgh before the marriage took place, and early in 1957 the Queen made her husband a prince of the realm.

The Queen and Prince Philip had two children before and after she succeeded to the throne. Charles, the future Prince of Wales and heir to the throne, was born in November 1948, followed by Princess Anne in 1950, Prince Andrew in 1960, and Prince Edward four years later.

When the couple marked their 50th wedding anniversary, Philip discussed the secret to their union.

“I think the main lesson that we have learnt is that tolerance is the one essential ingredient in any happy marriage,” he said. “You can take it from me that the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.”

The Queen announced the death of her “beloved husband” at the age of 99 with “deep sorrow” on April 9, 2021.

Marital stability proved elusive for most of the Queen’s children, and the sensational media coverage of the Royal Family’s romantic woes proved some of the most trying and best-remembered moments of her reign.

Three of her children, Charles, Anne and Andrew, divorced, often under messy circumstances.

The split between Prince Charles and his wife Diana in the 1990s marked a particularly painful time for the Royal Family, with revelations about their ill-fated marriage filling Britain’s notoriously salacious tabloids.

It emerged that Diana had battled anorexia during the marriage and was desperately unhappy at her husband’s ongoing affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Diana’s death in 1997 was a tragedy that marked another period of strain for the Royal Family as even the Queen’s perceived lack of public grief was vexing to some of her subjects.

The initial reaction was seen as a rare misstep in judging the public’s mood, but by 2002 the monarchy witnessed a revival as Elizabeth marked her Golden Jubilee, becoming only the fifth British monarch to reign for 50 years.

She matched another historical milestone in 2012 by becoming the second monarch to celebrate a diamond jubilee, and made history alone in 2015 when she succeeded her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria as the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

Earlier this year, she became the first monarch to celebrate a platinum jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne.

Charles was front and centre throughout the festivities as he stood in for his mother and demonstrated he was ready to take on her mantle.

The Queen’s public appearances during the jubilee were brief but symbolic, underscoring three pillars of her reign: a personal bond with the public, strong links to the armed forces and support for the Commonwealth, a group of 54 nations with former colonial ties to Britain.

On the final day of the event, she joined other senior members of the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch a flyby by 70 military aircraft and wave to supporters who filled the street below. Later, she took part in a beacon lighting ceremony at Windsor Palace, the culmination of events that spanned the Commonwealth.

Charles and Camilla travelled to Canada in May as part of the celebrations of the Queen’s platinum jubilee.

Canada was a popular destination for the Queen since her first visit here in 1951 as a princess.

In 2010, the Queen made her 22nd trip to Canada with a nine-day stay that included an address that hailed Canada’s modern development.

“In my lifetime Canada’s development as a nation has been remarkable,” she said.

“This vast, rich and varied country has inspired its own and attracted many others by its adherence to certain values. Some are enshrined in law, but I should imagine just as many are simply found in the hearts of ordinary Canadians.”

Her visits usually attracted big, admiring crowds — with the exception of a tour in Quebec City in 1964. Noisy knots of demonstrators, mostly college-aged youths, chanted and sang demands for independence as the Queen and her husband rode through the streets. Police compounded the turmoil by charging the crowd, truncheons swinging. Thirty-two people were arrested.

The Queen continued to tour Canada frequently and her visits sometimes became embroiled in the controversies surrounding Quebec’s role in the Canadian federation. In 1990, for instance, her Canada Day visit to Ottawa and what is now neighbouring Gatineau, Que., was seen by some as an insult to Quebec.

The visit had been timed to celebrate the ratification of the Meech Lake accord, which was meant to address many of Quebec’s constitutional concerns. As it turned out, the accord officially died a few days before her visit to the capital. Although pro-sovereigntist sentiment within Quebec was running high, the Queen’s visit continued as planned, without violence.

“Knowing Canadians as well as I do,” she said, “I cannot believe that they will not be able, after a period of calm reflection, to find a way through present difficulties.”

Many of the Queen’s visits coincided with major national events: in 1967, for the country’s Centennial and Expo 67; in 1976, for the Montreal Olympics; in 1982, for the signing of the Constitution; and in 1992, briefly, for Canada’s 125th anniversary.

The Queen’s calm acceptance of personal hazards — whether travelling or at home — was an inheritance from her father, who firmly refused to leave London during the worst of the bombing in the Second World War.

During the war, she served as an army mechanic.

On the 75th anniversary of D-Day in June 2019, the Queen noted that when she attended the 60th-anniversary commemoration, many thought it might be the last such event as she expressed her affinity with those who lived through the war.

“But the wartime generation–  my generation – is resilient,” she said.

“The heroism, courage and sacrifice of those who lost their lives will never be forgotten,” she said. “It is with humility and pleasure, on behalf of the entire country – indeed the whole free world – that I say to you all, thank you.”

Later in her reign, the Queen navigated the Royal Family through allegations of racism made by her grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan in a television interview in the United States, where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex live after stepping away from their royal duties.

Meghan, who is biracial, said an unidentified member of the Royal Family had raised “concerns” about the colour of her baby’s skin when she was pregnant with her son, Archie.

“The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning,” the palace said in a statement in March 2021. “While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.”

When Princess Elizabeth acceded to the monarchy on the early death of her father in 1952, Winston Churchill, who was then prime minister, described her as “a gleaming figure who providence has brought to us at a time when the present is hard and the future is veiled.”

In a publicity-conscious era, one of the Queen’s most ticklish problems was how to strike a balance between reserve and familiarity.

There were occasional complaints from newspapers and broadcasters of difficulty in obtaining royal news. Some felt — on the other hand — that too close an interest was being shown in the personal affairs of the Royal Family by the energetic British press.

The Queen was known to have an intense distaste for any probing into her private life. Her character was forceful, some said somewhat Victorian, and there was speculation that this may have been responsible for much of the royal reticence.

But Elizabeth, partly because of the period during which she ruled, ushered the Royal Family into a new era of 24-hour news cycles and the television age.

At a luncheon to mark her 50th wedding anniversary in 1997, the Queen indicated that the Royal Family had learned from its mistakes, a poignant message as it came just a couple of months after Diana’s death.

Noting that a hereditary monarchy only exists “with the support and consent of the people,” she acknowledged that was sometimes difficult to read for an institution so steeped in tradition, unlike politicians who get their consent clearly through the ballot box.

“For us … the message is often harder to read, obscured as it can be by deference, rhetoric or the conflicting currents of public opinion. But read it we must,” she said.

– With files from the Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022.

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