BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Borneo Bulletin/Asia News Network): Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has become the world’s longest reigning monarch since the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II who previously held the title.
Queen Elizabeth II who ruled for over 70 years, died on Sept 8 in Scotland at age 96.
The Sultan became the Crown Prince in 1961 at the age of 15 and ascended the throne on Oct 5, 1967, a day after the voluntary abdication of his late father Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien.
Sultan Hassanal has ruled the nation for nearly 55 years. With it saw the continuation of the royal genealogy that dates back 600 years when Sultan Muhammad Shah, the first Islamic Sultan of Brunei, held the throne.
Queen Elizabeth II’s reign of 70 years and seven months was the longest of any British monarch in history.
King Charles III, is now proclaimed the new King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The second longest reign of living monarchs, is now occupied by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark who ascended the throne in 1972 at the age of 32.
The third longest is Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf, who ascended to the throne at the age of 27 after his grandfather passed away in 1973.
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