The end of the Elizabethan age

The Queen’s fragile smile in the official photograph released as she waited to appoint Liz Truss as her 15^th Prime Minister carries even more meaning now. Her Majesty clearly knew there would be no 16^th and after a turbulent summer it must have come as a relief to know that the country was about to move from a caretaker premier to a full-time one. Her audience with Ms Truss would prove to be the last significant act of a monumental reign lasting 70 years. And it meant that in her final days she could look back on the improbable promise she gave her future subjects on the occasion of her 21^st birthday in 1947 and know she had fulfilled it in every respect.

‘I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service,’ she had said, never imagining that just five years later she would take over as monarch and reign for seven decades.