Queen Elizabeth II and US President Joe Biden at Windsor Castle on June 13, 2021 in Windsor, England.
Pool/Max Mumby/Getty Images
President Joe Biden is ordering flags to be flown at half-staff to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth.
The queen “was more than a monarch,” he said. “She defined an era.”
Flags will be lowered at the White House, military bases, and naval vessels.
Saying she “defined an era,” President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered that US flags be flown at half-staff to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
Elizabeth, who died Thursday at the age of 96, “was more than a monarch,” Biden said in a statement. “In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her.”
Out of “respect” for her memory and seven decades as the formal head of the British state, Biden proclaimed that flags be lowered at the White House and other federal buildings, including foreign embassies, as well as military bases and naval vessels.
The president first met Queen Elizabeth in 1982 when he was a US senator from Delaware. He and First Lady Jill Biden met her again in June 2021. At the time, Biden told reporters that the monarch “reminded me of my mother in terms of the look of her and just the generosity.”
In his statement on Thursday, Biden said the queen “led always with grace, an unwavering commitment to duty, and the incomparable power of her example.” She was a stateswoman, he continued, “of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States.”
In keeping with custom, the queen’s body will lie in state at Westminster Hall for four days. Her funeral, which could attract upwards of one million people, will take place within 10 to 14 days.
With her passing, Elizabeth’s oldest son, Charles, is now the King of England. At a climate change conference last November, Charles and Biden shook hands and discussed “the importance of global cooperation” in tackling the threat of global warming, according to a statement from the White House.
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