Louis XIV of France has the record now at 72 years. He started at age 5 and had regents until age 14.
She’s at 70 years now. I’m sure she knows these numbers. I think this may play a slight role in her not retiring like almost all other European kings/queens. Most step down around age 70 and she’s 96
How many British Royals have retired? I know her Uncle; King Edward abdicated but I can’t recall a British Monarch that retired.
I think as she is primarily a well liked figurehead she sees no reason to retire.
The abdication is still fresh in her mind. No way she retires.
Her mother, the Queen Mum, blamed the abdication for killing her husband, George VI, by the stress it placed on his health.* The abdication was a watershed for the British monarchy. She’s said that she views her coronation oath as a lifetime commitment.
*Personally, I think George’s heavy cigarette habit had more to do with it, but if the Family ties it to the Abdication, so be it.
And what is she retiring from now? She doesn’t seem to be doing too much. Her occasional appearances give her something to do and keep her from just decaying in place.
Edward II, Richard II, and James II are all said to have abdicated.
Edward and Richard died shortly afterwards, while residing in the custody of their successors.
James spent the rest of his life trying to get his throne back.
Edward VIII’s abdication is probably the only truly voluntary abdication in 1,000 years of English/British history.
She’d still need to reign for quite a few years more to surpass King Sobhuza II. Not absolutely impossible, but it would put her well into super-centenarian territory.
popes did not retire until the last one and Francis has said he is retiring too at some point
QEII will continue her exemplary reign for a modern British monarch until her death.
The fact she didn’t retire 25 years ago should have been a good hint.
I agree she won’t abdicate, but there is a bit of a difference. Edward dumped the monarchy on his brother who didn’t want it and wasn’t expecting it. Charles has been expecting to be king all his life, and as unseemly as it is to wish his mother to die he is champing at the bit to do it.
rumor has it she won’t eat food made by Charles or Camilla 
As long as she stays away from Charles’ “Duchy Herbals Detox Tincture” she should be fine.
the idea of an unelected person pretending to run a country is way out of date. By about 300 years. What’s really funny is they got a king from Germany. But in WW 1 they changed name to Windsor so people might not notice they were Germans
Which is why the Queen does not run any country.
All of the kings and queens regnant of Great Britain / the UK since George III have been born in Britain. They aren’t Germans. They’re British by birth, as George III himself proudly stated.
Unless, of course, you agree that your approach also applies in the United States, and no-one born of immigrants in the United States for the past two centuries are Americans, but still have the ethnicity of their ancestors from two centuries ago.
In 1714. The name was changed over 200 years later. What percent of German heritage did they even have in 1917? Who exactly the fuck do you think didn’t notice?
Exactly.
Here’s the direct line since 1760:
George III - born in Britain (Norfolk House, London, 1738)
Victoria - born in Britain (Kensington Palace, 1819), and her father the Duke of Kent was born in Britain (Buckingham House, 1767)
Edward VII - born in Britain (Buckingham Palace, 1841)
George V - born in Britain (Marlborough House, London, 1865)
George VI - born in Britain (Sandringham, Norfolk, 1895)
Elizabeth II - born in Britain (London, 1926).
Clearly, Germans, right?
If German roots did not matter why change the family name during WW 1?
Also if all that matters is where you are born than Boris Johnson is American? Kissinger is German?
Also funny is the reason they got a king from Germany is all the other potential picks were the wrong religion, Catholic.
Because things happen during war, like renaming German shepherds as Alsatians, or French fries as freedom fries. That doesn’t mean the royal family were Germans.
Boris was American, because he was born in the US. Kissinger was German because he was born in Germany. That doesn’t mean a family whose paternal line has been born in the UK since 1738 are Germans.
I haven’t recognized a British monarch since Boudica. I’ll be cold and dead in my grave before I recognize the descendant of some invading Roman or Anglo-Saxon scum!
And, many American cities and towns which were named for Germany or German cities (due to having been founded by German-American immigrants) were similarly renamed during WW I.
There was a lot of anti-German sentiment in the U.S. and U.K. at that time, and it doesn’t mean that the British royal family was trying to hide anything. As @hajario notes, it’s not like changing the name suddenly made the English people forget that their royal family had Germanic roots.