By Adesina Soyooye
It was long expected. It took so long. But finally, the Prince of Wales, Charles, who is the first child of Queen Elizabeth II and her late husband the Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh has officially become the King of Britain. Many had expected the Queen to step down for Charles due to old age.
She never did. She was strong, even though in the past several years, Prince Charles was representing her in a number of official duties.
But on Thursday, September 9, 2022, Queen Elizabeth passed on in the afternoon. She was aged 96 years and reigned as Queen for 70 years.
Charles is to be known as King Charles the III.
Earlier on Thursday, the new Prime Minister of Britain, Liz Truss, had expressed fears over the health of the Queen. Buckingham Palace also issued a statement.
The Queen’s last official duty was two days earlier when she received Truss in audience, and asked her to form the Government.
The Queen incidentally did not die at the Buckingham Palace. She passed on in Scotland at the Balmoral Castle. By her death bed were the new King Charles III, his wife Camilla and his first son, Prince William who will one day become the King.
Britain has declared a 10-day mourning period and thousands of people have trooped out towards the Winsor Castle and the Buckingham Palace to mourn.
The young Elizabeth was crowned Queen at the age of 25 years on the premature death of her father, the king, who was in his 50s.
The new King is 73 years old. He was first married to the hugely popular Princess Diana with whom he had two sons, Princes William and Harry. He and Diana divorced and he later married Camilla.
Diana died in a ghastly lone vehicle accident 25 years ago.
