Queen Elizabeth’s 70-year reign made her the longest reigning British monarch to ever live, with billions of people across the globe knowing exactly who she is.
While her reign, which began in 1952 when her father King George VI died, was long and lasted right up until her death in September 2022, she wasn’t technically the longest serving monarch in the world.
This is because Louis XIV of France, who reigned between 1643 until his death in 1715, was on the throne for 72 years, having taken the title of King when he was just a few months shy of five-years-old.
He then held the position of King, with the nickname Sun King, right up until his death in 1715, just four days shy of his 77th birthday.
Although based on the dates he is the longest serving monarch, one royal historian believes this is not actually the case.
This is because King Louis ascended the throne when he was a child, which meant his mother Queen Anne ruled by proxy until he was a teenager.
According to Tatler, in a letter to The Times, royal historian and biographer Hugo Vickers wrote: “In Louis XIV’s reign, there was a regency between May 14, 1643, and September 7, 1651, until he reached the age of 13
“Hence, while he may have been king the longest, our Queen is unquestionably the longest actively reigning monarch in the world.”
While their reigns were in very different time periods, both the late Queen and Louis XIV had one thing in common by becoming the monarch unexpectedly and at a much younger age than anticipated.
For Queen Elizabeth, she was in Kenya with Prince Philip when she found out she was now head of the UK and Commonwealth at the age of 25 following her father King George VI’s death.
The King, who was 56 at the time, had failed to recover from a lung operation and died in his sleep on February 6 1952 at Sandringham.
At the time of her ascension, Queen Elizabeth had two young children and lived a relatively ordinary life at Clarence House.
For King Louis XIV, he was also placed on the throne earlier than expected just before he was five-years-old when his father King Louis XIII died from tuberculosis.
Both the late Queen and King Louis XIV reigned until their deaths.
