An eagle-eyed social media user shared the news today that the Queen has reached a special milestone in her reign of the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Adrian Hilton, who lectures in politics, philosophy and political theology, took to Twitter on Sunday to share his observation. His tweet read: "Just to say, today the Queen moved up a notch in the table of the world's longest reigns, surpassing that of Franz Joseph I. God Save the Queen."
The Queen attended church in Norfolk this weekend
He shared a screenshot from Wikipedia, which showed a table depicting the longest-reigning monarchs of all time. Queen Elizabeth II was listed at number five, alongside her birth date, 21 April 1926, and the date her reign began, 6 February 1952 (her coronation took place the following year).
The table also listed the length of her reign so far: 67 years, 354 days. As the table showed, that puts her behind only Louis XIV of France, who reigned from 14 May 1643 to 1 September 1715, Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who acceded to the throne in 9 June 1946 and died on 13 October 2016, Johann II Liechtenstein, who reigned between 12 November 1858 and 11 February 1929 and K'inich Janaab' Pakal, who reigned from 29 July 615 to 31 August 683 in the seventh-century Mayan city-state of Palenque.
MORE: The Queen attends church with daughter Princess Anne following ill health last week
The British monarch passed the impressive milestone on Sunday
While she may not be the longest-reigning monarch in history, the Queen is the longest-reigning current monarch, followed by Hassanal Bolkiah, who has reigned Brunei for 52 years and 107 days so far. The 93-year old didn't change her plans to mark the occasion but she did attend church on Sunday morning with her daughter, Princess Anne.
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The royal pair went to the morning church service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, Norfolk which will be a relief to royal watchers following the Queen's illness earlier in the week. The monarch was unfortunately forced to cancel her annual meeting with the Sandringham Women's Institute on Thursday because of a cold, and she hadn't been seen in public since.
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