List of British monarchs by longevity

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This is a list of British monarchs by longevity since the Union of the Crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1603.

To maintain consistency within the table, the dates of birth and death for each monarch are given in New Style.

Two measures of the longevity are given—this is to allow for the differing number of leap days occurring within the life of each monarch. The first column is the number of days between date of birth and date of death, allowing for leap days; the second column breaks this number down into years, and days, with the years being the number of whole years the monarch lived, and then days after his or her last birthday.

Rank Monarch Date of birth Date of death Longevity
days years/days
1 Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom 21 April 1926 Living 32,073 87 years, 296 days*
2 Victoria of the United Kingdom 24 May 1819 22 January 1901 29,828 81 years, 243 days
3 George III of the United Kingdom 4 June 1738 29 January 1820 29,823 81 years, 239 days
4 Edward VIII of the United Kingdom 23 June 1894 28 May 1972 28,463 77 years, 340 days
5 George II of Great Britain 10 November 1683 25 October 1760 28,108 76 years, 350 days
6 William IV of the United Kingdom 21 August 1765 20 June 1837 26,235 71 years, 303 days
7 George V of the United Kingdom 3 June 1865 20 January 1936 25,797 70 years, 231 days
8 Edward VII of the United Kingdom 9 November 1841 6 May 1910 25,014 68 years, 178 days
9 James II of England 24 October 1633 16 September 1701 24,798 67 years, 327 days
10 George IV of the United Kingdom 12 August 1762 26 June 1830 24,789 67 years, 318 days
11 George I of Great Britain 7 June 1660 22 June 1727 24,485 67 years, 15 days
12 James VI of Scotland 19 June 1566 6 April 1625 21,476 58 years, 291 days
13 George VI of the United Kingdom 14 December 1895 6 February 1952 20,507 56 years, 54 days
14 Charles II of England 8 June 1630 6 February 1685 19,977 54 years, 253 days
15 William III of England 14 November 1650 19 March 1702 18,752 51 years, 125 days
16 Anne of Great Britain 16 February 1665 12 August 1714 18,073 49 years, 177 days
17 Charles I of England 29 November 1600 9 February 1649 17,604 48 years, 72 days
18 Mary II of England 10 May 1662 7 January 1695 11,930 32 years, 242 days

* As of 11 February 2014.

Should HRH The Prince of Wales accede to the throne, he would immediately be ranked 12th.

Were this list to include all British heads of state as well as monarchs, the second ranked name by longevity would be Richard Cromwell, who served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland for 265 days between the death of his father Oliver Cromwell, and the restoration of the Stuart Monarchy. His entry would appear as:

Rank Head of State Date of birth Date of death Longevity
days years/days
2 Richard Cromwell, 2nd Lord Protector 4 October 1626 12 July 1712 31,327 85 years, 282 days

Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II surpassed Victoria as oldest reigning monarch on 21 December 2007, having surpassed George III five days earlier. She celebrated her Diamond Jubilee on 6 February 2012. Should she be reigning on:

  • 10 September 2015, she would surpass Queen Victoria as the longest-reigning British monarch. At that point she would be 32,649 days (89 years, 142 days) old.
  • 6 February 2022, she would celebrate her Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne. At that point she would be 34,990 days (95 years, 291 days) old.
  • 26 May 2024, she would surpass Louis XIV of France as the longest-reigning monarch in European history. At that point she would be 35,831 days (98 years, 36 days) old.

See also

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