Queen Elizabeth II to be Britain’s longest reigning monarch

Elizabeth is set to claim the crown from Victoria, after 63 years and seven months

It’s roll over Victoria, and tell Elizabeth the news next week, as the current Queen of England makes history by becoming Britain’s longest reigning monarch.

Elizabeth will claim the crown on September 9th when her reign, which began 63 years and seven months ago at the age of 25, continues.

Victoria, who would go on to achieve immortality as the figurehead of the EastEnders’ favourite public house, notched up 23,226 days, 16 hours and 23 minutes as head of the British state.

Queen Elizabeth should be allowed a schooner of sherry to celebrate her royal longevity.

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To mark the occasion, Queen Elizabeth will break her traditional summer holiday at Balmoral in Scotland, to open the new Scottish Borders Railway and take a steam train ride on the new £294 million (€410m) railway.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand is actually the world's longest reigning monarch. The 87-year-old, who rose to the throne in 1946, is a reclusive king who is rarely seen in public.

Ireland seems to have catapulted Queen Elizabeth from zero to hero following her enthusiastically received four-day visit in May 2011.

It was the first time Queen Elizabeth had visited the Republic and the first time a British Monarch had done so since Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather, King George V, in 1911.

How time heals wounds.

The 2011 visit paved the way for deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, to meet and shake hands with the Queen of England on a royal visit there in 2012.

It was "the right thing to do at the right time and for the right reasons", the party's leader Gerry Adams would say.

New Elizabethans

So what have the new Elizabethans ever done for us?

Arguably, Queen Elizabeth II has actually done very little for anyone. She is a figurehead who keeps her own counsel and has never threatened Britain’s great unwritten constitution.

She has kept out of spats about architecture (unlike son Charles) and never said anything out of line (unlike husband Phillip).

Queen Elizabeth II has watched as the British Empire shrank, listened for twice as long to Tory prime ministers as to Labour ones and held steadfast to her love of corgis and stallions.

Arguably, she has rebooted royalty in the UK.

A Diana-shaped blip aside, Elizabeth II has given the British public what they wanted. Until now.

It will be interesting to see if she feels able to comment on the humanitarian crisis that her country is facing. She has been long reigning over them, after all.

Maybe it is time for Elizabeth II to be glorious. That might make her happy.