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What Comes Next for Britain's Third Carolean Age

Sep 19, 2022 | 15:28 GMT

Members of the public file past the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II at the Palace of Westminster on Sept. 16, 2022, in London, England.

Members of the public file past the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II at the Palace of Westminster on Sept. 16, 2022, in London, England.

(Photo Jack Hill - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

What did the second Elizabethan Age mean for the United Kingdom, and what will the third Carolean Age hold for the country? For seven decades, Queen Elizabeth II reigned through wars cold and hot, troubles and tribulations, recessions and retrenchments. Her era began in one geopolitical era -- the beginning of the Cold War and the end of the age of empire -- and finished as another major war returns to Europe. Her legacy is one of preservation -- of holding together not just the monarchy but the Commonwealth -- amid a great unraveling of traditional British power. Now that the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth fall to Elizabeth's son, King Charles III, can her legacy be secured, or is the loss of her personality too much to maintain the political sinews of the United Kingdom's superpower heritage?...

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