The West Country is in mourning following the passing of the longest-serving female head of state in history,

Born on 21 April 1926, Queen Elizabeth was the longest serving monarch in the world and her death has been marked by mass public grief across the globe, as generations mourn her passing. 

Elizabeth was the longest-reigning British monarch, the longest-serving female head of state in history, and was, until her death, the oldest living current monarch. 

When her father, George VI died in February 1952, Elizabeth—then just 25 years old—became the Queen of a total of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and the nation then called Ceylon, as well as Head of the Commonwealth. So her passing will mark, regardless of some of the now republican sentiments in some of those countries, a global state of mourning. 

 She was regarded as the most respected and honourable monarch of any country, and steered the royal family through some of its most turbulent of times. She was also carrying out royal duties alone, becoming a widow, on 9 April 2021, after over 73 years of marriage to Prince Philip, who died at the age of 99. 

 The Queen, called "Lilibet" by her close family, had four children, a total of eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, and for much of her reign, was in perfect health. 

But last year her health started to fail and in October she was ordered by doctors to rest for a month after spending a night in hospital. Then in November, at the very last minute, the royal household announced that she would not be attending the annual Cenotaph Remembrance Service, the first time she had missed it in 22 years.  

She pulled out with palace officials saying she had strained her back and her wreath was laid by Prince Charles, who will now ascend the throne. Earlier this week, she accepted the resignation of the then Prime Minister and appointed the new Prime Minister, the 15th of her reign, while in Balmoral, for the first time. During her 70 year reign the leader of the country has been appointed at Buckingham Palace.

From today there will be an official and formal period of mourning for Queen Elizabeth, who at her coronation became the eighth Queen of England.  

The Queen, who was always praised for her sense of duty and dedication, was renowned for a high volume of official visits, and those included visits to the West Country. She was in the west in October 2020 when she went to the Porton Down military base in Wiltshire, in what was her first public engagement outside of a royal residence since the coronavirus lockdown. She was joined on that visit by her grandson the Duke of Cambridge. 

Previous to that she visited Somerset on March 29, 2019, travelling on the royal train to arrive at Castle Cary and visiting the Hauser and Wirth gallery in Bruton. 

There is a special link between Glastonbury and the Royal Family, with the custom of sending a cutting of a branch of the Holy Thorn to decorate the Royal festive table at Christmas dating back to the 17th century.

 There will now be an official period of mourning, expected to be for 12 days, when preparations will be made for the Queen's funeral. All other parliamentary business will be suspended for 10 days, the flags on the all the royal residences and all offices of state, will be lowered to half mast and the queen's body will be returned to Buckingham Palace and from there moved to the Palace of Westminster, where it will lie in state for three days. 

The state funeral itself will be held at Westminster Abbey, but the Queen is expected to be laid to rest at Windsor Castle, and will be buried in the castle's King George VI Memorial Chapel. 

The Queen's sister, Princess Margaret was buried there in 2002, the same year as the Queen's mother Elizabeth Bowes Lyon and obviously her father King George VI, whose funeral took place at St George's in 1952. 

Within the chapel are the tombs of ten other British sovereigns – the remains of Edward IV, Henry VI, Henry VIII and his third wife Jane Seymour, the beheaded Charles I, George III, George IV, William IV, Edward VII and George V. 

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, the Queen, was not born to take the throne, in a twist of fate the most popular and long-standing royal only took her vows because on December 11 1936, her uncle King Edward the VIII, in a broadcast to the nation, renounced his place in the monarchy. Following the broadcast he boarded a ship to join the twice divorced Mrs Wallis Simpson in France.  

In the most recent changes to the British Monarchy, on November 30, Barbados removed the Queen as its head of state after 55 years and became a Republic.