Satchel Paige, possibly America’s greatest pitcher and certainly its greatest philosopher, once said of his deeply lined face, “We seen some sights, it and I.”
Queen Liz saw some sights herself.
When she assumed the throne, her Prime Minister was Winston Churchill, and Stalin was Russia’s evil dictator du jour. Mao Tse-Tung was China’s leader and David Ben-Gurion was Israel’s PM. Harry Truman was President of the USA and Le Grand Charles would not be the President of France for another six years.
In the entire history of our world, only one head of state ever ruled longer, France’s famous Louis XIV, and Liz was even closing in on the Sun King, but now she’ll have to settle for second.
The new king is officially styled Charles III. He already owns a record of his own. No monarch in English history first assumed the throne so late in life. In fact, nobody ever came close. King Chuck broke the previous record by nine years. King William IV, son of Mad King George, ascended to the throne at 64 in 1830. He took over when his older brother died with no living legitimate children. (Although he seemed to have plenty of offspring. Long story for another day.)
I find it hard to believe that if Marilyn Monroe were still alive, she would’ve also been also been 96. They were born in the same year.
Also born within a few weeks, one way or another, of the Queen: Jerry Lewis, Cloris Leachman, Peter Graves, Peter Marshall, Don Rickles, Hugh Hefner, and (still alive) Sir David Attenborough, Alan Greenspan, and Roger Corman.
Yeah, he only had 54 years solo. Mazarin pretty much ruled France for the first 18 years of his 72.
I believe Louis XIV had a regent for a good part of his rule, so she’s the longest “reigning” monarch.
I kinda reject that comparison. Not to quibble, but if you exclude 18 of Louis’s years because he wasn’t actually in charge of anything, then you pretty much have to exclude all 70 of Lizzie’s for the same reason.