The preferred residence. Good morning from london on a day of history and a day of great change. This is stjamess palace, in the heart of london, a stones throw from Buckingham Palace where thousands of people have made their way since the death was announced of her majesty the queen late on thursday afternoon. Queen elizabeth ii, the countrys longest reigning monarch, a constant presence in the lives of the people of this nation. Hers was a life marked with selfless duty and dedication. The focus until now has been at balmoral where she passed away, and at Buckingham Palace where huge crowds have been gathering. But today the focus changes to st jamess palace. The palace has been the residence for Kings And Queens of england for over 300 years. And it was the official residence of the sovereign until the reign of Queen Victoria, when Buckingham Palace became the preferred residence. When the queen passed away, her eldest son charles immediately became king. And today, on this historic
She reigned for almost three quarters of a century as the world changed around her. She was a symbol of unity in good times and bad. Successful because she knew her unique place and she understood it. The act of being there, of being. You know, a. A continuing. Reference point of stability and endless duties is something that i think is. Is of the greatest importance. It was really about service and her definition of service, and that was a lifetime. Literally 24 7, 365 days of the year. It was never something you could turn off and turn on. It was there all the time. It is so strange to almost everyone in this countryl that she is no longer queen. It will take a long while to come to terms with that. I declare before you all, that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great imperialfamily to which we all belong. As Queen Elizabeth ii, she reigned over more than 135 Million People and, as head of the commonwealth, a third
was wise enough, particularly after the death of diana, to learn how to move the monarchy forward incrementally. and she was much more in touch in a personal way with people, and you know, so i think, you know, she s always been incredibly wise and she has never gone out she never went out sort of over her skis. she always sort of had almost a sixth sense of knowing not to be too far ahead of where the public was. but yet, to bring them along when it was necessary, and i think in terms of the transition now, she has particularly, it s notable that over the past months, when or month when charles was up in balmoral, he was with her many days, and i think it s it s important to remember that she has given him many tutorials on leadership, and at one point, he said, we learn by observing, and he s obviously learned by doing as well. but she has, as her father did before her, you know, she has provided a model and a guidebook, in a way, for him to reign. kate williams,
welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper in washington, d.c. for 70 years her subjects and her fans have been saying, god save the queen but this afternoon, queen elizabeth ii, longest ruling monarch in british history died at the age of 96. the royal family confirmed the news just about 90 minutes ago saying that the queen died peacefully at balmoral castle in scotland. moments ago her son charles, now king charles iii released a statement saying in part, we mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished, sovereign and a much-loved mother. he loss will be deeply felt by countless people around the worlds. we expect king charles to make an address tomorrow. moments after the official announcement this afternoono afternoon the flag over buckingham palace was lowered to half-staff. a similar scene unfolding at the queen s other homes including windsor castle. the official notice was posted on the gates of buckingham palace reading, the queen died peacefully at balmoral this aft
we have extensive live coverage up. there you see the president of the united states, president biden is at the british embassy right now paying his respects. he s signing the book of condolences at the british embassy in washington. you see him there with the british ambassador to the united states, karen peterson, the first lady of the united states, dr. jill biden as well. we ll monitor what the president is doing at the british embassy. we anticipate he ll be seeing something about queen elizabeth, expressing condolences, paying his respects to the united kingdom, to the british monarchy. live coverage coming up. i want to bring in max foster who is at buckingham palace watching all the history unfold for us. max, truly, truly significant moments unfolding. the longest serving head of state in the world, longest serving monarch in british history, something people are struggling to take in even though we knew the inevitable would be coming at some point. the crowds behi