Queen Victoria presided over Britain’s Golden Age (1837-1901).
Many people view the post-WWII period as one of decline for Great Britain, with economic difficulties and a loss of colonies. I see Queen Elizabeth’s reign as a Silver Age. Not quite peak performance, but very good.
In 1952, Britain was still somewhat depressed from the war. Since then it’s done pretty well in absolute terms, even if it fell a bit in relative terms.
During Elizabeth’s reign, the UK’s economic performance has been mediocre by Western European standards. But Britain is now a world leader in popular culture, higher education, science, media, finance, and many other areas that will become increasingly important in the 21st century.
I don’t know a lot about her personal qualities, but she certainly handled the glare of modern media with grace and dignity. (British commentators are much more qualified to write on that topic.)
PS. Queen Elizabeth was born and got married at roughly the same time as my mom (who is 96), so I’ve always thought of her as one generation older.
PPS. The first famous person I ever met was Prince Charles, when he visited the University of Chicago around the late 1970s.