(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 15, 2022 Britain's Queen Elizabeth II smiles during a visit to officially open the new building of Thames Hospice in Maidenhead, Berkshire. - Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving monarch in British history and an icon instantly recognisable to billions of people around the world, has died aged 96, Buckingham Palace said on September 8, 2022. Her eldest son, Charles, 73, succeeds as king immediately, according to centuries of protocol, beginning a new, less certain chapter for the royal family after the queen's record-breaking 70-year reign. (Photo by Kirsty O'Connor / POOL / AFP)