Queen Elizabeth II

DOB: 21 April 1926

Known for:  Head of the British Royal Family and the longest reigning monarch in British History

 

Queen Elizabeth was born Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary to Prince Albert, Duke of York and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. At birth she was not expected to become queen despite being a granddaughter of a king as her uncle was still expected to become king and expected to father his own royal linage.

Elizabeth’s parents decided to raise her in relation to the changing times, society was changing and they did not want her to be spoilt or sheltered, they wanted her to understand the struggles of all citizens of Britain and the world. Elizabeth grew close to her grandparents particularly King George V, partly due to the fact that her parents participated in a royal tour during her first year of life. She was known to have a playful side from throwing food at guests at a party to playing the role of groom while the king played as a horse during a game of make-believe.

When 1936 started 9 year old Elizabeth could never have known how this one year would change her life forever. On 20^th January, her beloved Grandfather, King George V past away, her Uncle ascended the throne as King Edward VIII. Initially Elizabeth and her sister Margert had been educated at home by tutors with an agreement with King George V that both girls would attend public school to help them develop further. The new king changed this and insisted that they continue to educated privately so the press intrusion was limited especially as gossip was ripe about his own relationship with Wallis Simpson a divorced, American socialite.

The year of 1936 became a turning point for the British royal family as on the 10^th December King Edward III abdicated the throne when he was unable to marry Mrs Simpson following her second divorce. Edward became the second shortest reign monarch in British history while 1936 when down in history as “The Year with Three Kings”. Elizabeth’s father became king taking his father’s name George to become King George VI hoping that this could stabilise the British and Empire’s citizens after the crazy year as 1936 started with King George and ended with a King George. The affect this would have on Elizabeth is incalculable. She started the year as a Princess in a tight family affectionately called “we four” with a bright future ahead of whatever she desired, to knowing that one day she would become Queen. It is believed the upheaval she experienced then is why she would later promise to serve her country until she died and despite her age is still active in terms of appearances.

Once her father became King, mischievous Elizabeth moved into Buckingham Palace and started learning about her future role. She took lesson at Eton School about constitutional and European history along with other relevant subjects.

Unfortunately, only 3 years later World War II would begin, famously neither Elizabeth nor Margaret were evacuated out of the country with their mother declaring “The children won’t go without me. I won’t leave without the King. And the King will never leave”. Despite this they still spent majority of the war outside London at Windsor Castle, fortunately she was not in Buckingham Palace on 13 September 1940 when the palace was hit with a bomb destroying the chapel, the Queen later saying that she could “look the East End in the face” when she and the King would tour the bombed out areas all over the country to keep spirits up. The whole royal family did their part, for example the King was always seen in military wear, and the Queen expressed care and helped with rebuilding and sheltering people. This helped raise morale with the government doing a study to show that the day the royals visited, production levels were low but the whole week figures would see a substantial increase. Princess Elizabeth even did her part in the early war years by delivering a speech to the children across the country via radio and then eventually becoming a mechanic in the war with the Auxiliary Territorial Service. On VE day the whole royal family appeared 8 times on Buckingham Palace balcony to acknowledge the crowds. Elizabeth and Margaret were even allowed to join the crowds to celebrate that night.

At the age of 13 Princess Elizabeth first started to fall in love with the 18 year old Prince Phillip, having met 5 years earlier at a family wedding. They would exchange letters throughout their early relationship. Immediately after World War II they reconnected and only a year later Philip asked the King for permission to marry his daughter. The King asked that they waited to announce until April 1947 which would have been Elizabeth 21^st birthday, they also hoped that this time feelings over Philip’s German and Nazi connections will lessen allowing him to become a member of the family and accepted by the public. These connection are that 3 out of Philip’s 4 sisters had all married German princes and as Adolf Hitler believed German aristocracy would help to legitimise the Nazi’s cause, all 3 of Philip’s brothers-in-law became high regarded members of the party. Philip himself was never accused of sympathy and was an active member of the British Navy during the entire war. Philip did compromise by using that time to give up his foreign titles, become a British citizen and taken his mother’s family name Mountbatten, which was a anglicisation of the German Battenberg family.

Elizabeth and Philip would get married on 20^th November 1947 and they spent time on the Mediterranean island Malta which allowed Elizabeth to be a Naval wife rather than a princess. One week before their first anniversary they became parents to their eldest son Prince Charles. Princess Anne would be born August 1950, Prince Andrew in February 1960 and Edward in March 1964. Years later a decree was made that any male line descendants that did not hold a title would take the surname of Mountbatten-Windsor, this has been seen recently with the son of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son Archie.

In 1952, Elizabeth’s father’s health took a turn for the worse. George had developed Lung cancer, believed to be due to stress of the war and the abdication not helped by his smoking habit. Despite having lost half of his lungs only a few months earlier, he headed to the airport to see Elizabeth and Philip off on a tour that he had been due to take in 1949. This would be the last time Father and daughter ever see each other as he died a week later. Princess Elizabeth left the country, Queen Elizabeth II returned.

Queen Elizabeth has travelled extensively included to countries that she saw gain independence from the British Empire and become the Commonwealth of Nations. She became the first British monarch in 5 decades to travel to German in 1965. In 1979 a tour of many middle eastern countries including Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia was given worldwide respect due to the conflicts that was in the area at that time. She also became the first monarch to visit Ireland in 2011 for over a century, a century that had seen Ireland gain independence from Britain in a violent and deadly manner.

Over the 65+ years, her Majesty has reigned there has been many difficult times. One of the earliest was the loss of her uncle Lord Mountbatten to a terrorist bombing in 1979, she was credited for taking his children and grandchildren ‘under her wings’ and supporting them through the difficult time. In 1981, blanks were fired at her while she was riding her beloved horse Bernese during the trooping of the colours, the video shows the Queen riding side saddle controlling a horse that was close to bucking and the guards including her son and husband who where riding behind coming up to assist her. She continued the entire parade despite not knowing that they were blanks until after. She has also dealt with an intruder in her own bedroom, it was said that Elizabeth had a friendly and calm conversation until her security arrived.

The Queen has also seen 3 of her 4 children through divorce, 2 of which got remarried. Sadly one of Elizabeth’s former daughters-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in a car accident in 1997 leaving behind young sons who were 15 and 12 years old. The Queen was critizied for not publicly responding to the death until a week later, this is because the whole family including Diana’s sons were away from public at Balmoral in Scotland, the grandmother prioritized her grandsons over the public and the British public felt they were forgotten in a wave of public grief that had never been seen in Britain before.

The Queen has reigned over many years, overseeing many different eras in Britain. The Britain in 1952 is very different to Britain in 2020 and the Queen has kept a cool head over the years to give Britain a consistent and confident head to place the crown on as it goes forth into the future, Brexit and beyond.

Learn more about Queen Elizabeth in
The Crown	The Queen: Elizabeth II and the Monarchy by Ben Pimlott	The Queen
A TV Show that goes through Queen Elizabeth decade by decade and tells of various events throughout her time on the thrones.	An updated biography of the Queen up until her Diamond Jubilee. His original biography focused on telling the life of the person behind the crown.	A film by Stephen Frears that tells the story of the week that immediately follows the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and the effect it has on the Queen.