Queen Elizabeth sits in Buckingham Palace

Queen Elizabeth II: A lifetime of devotion and service

The funeral of Britain's longest-ruling monarch concludes a life exemplified by a personal motto of "I serve."

This photograph, taken by Annie Leibovitz in 2007, portrays a serene monarch whose official title was Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her Other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
Photograph by Annie Leibovitz / Trunk Archive
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