The Queen, Her Majesty, Elizabeth II

 

Queen Elizabeth II was born on April 21, 1926. She was named Elizabeth Alexandria Mary Windsor during her christening. She is the eldest daughter of King George VI, who was still the Duke of York at the time, and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

Princess Elizabeth’s early years as a child were spent at 145, Piccadilly. It was a London house her parents took shortly after her birth, also at White Lodge in Richmond Park. She also spent a lot of time at her paternal grandparents home, the King George V and Queen Mary alongside her mother’s parents, the Earl and Countess Straithmore. 

In 1930, four years after she was born, Princess Elizabeth had a sister, with the birth of Princess Margaret Rose. This nuclear family of four were very close. But the quiet and serene family life was disrupted as a result of the death of her grandfather, King George V in 1936. Princess Elizabeth’s uncle, King Edward VIII, who was the eldest son of King George V ascended the throne. 

However, his reign was short lived as he abdicated at the end of that same year in order to marry the woman he loved, an American divorcée, Wallis Simpson. And so, George VI, Princess Elizabeth’s father ascended the throne instead, which made her next in the succession line. 

Both Princess Elizabeth and her sister, Princess Margaret were both educated by governesses, and during World War II they had to move and lived in Scotland at Windsor Castle. Then in 1944 at the age of eighteen, Princess Elizabeth was made a member of the council of state. She also began to deputize and act for her father in his absence. In 1945, she also received a commission in women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, a year later. 

In 1947, two years later, she embarked on a tour of South Africa with her parents and in November of that same year she was married to her husband, Philip Mountbatten, Prince Of Greece and Denmark who had also been newly designated as the Duke of Edinburgh.  

On a Royal visit to Kenya on February 6, 1952 en route to Australia and New Zealand, Princess Elizabeth and her husband received news of her father’s death and her own accession to the throne.  She was crowned Queen on June 2, 1953 and her coronation took place in Westminster Abbey. She was twenty five years old. 

Queen Elizabeth and her husband, are the parents of four children. They are Charles, Prince Of Wales, born in 1948, who is the heir apparent. Princess Anne born in 1950; Prince Andrew born in 1960 and Prince Edward born in 1964.

They are also grandparents to Peter and Zara born in 1977 and 1981. The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry were born in 1982 and 1984 respectively. Princess Beatrice Of York and Princess Eugenie Of York were born in 1988 and 1990. The Lady Louise Windsor and James Viscount Sewen we’re born in 2003 and 2007 also. 

The Queen and Prince Philip are also now great grandparents to Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis Of Cambridge; Prince Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

Queen Elizabeth is now the longest reigning monarch in the history of British monarchs on the throne,  as she has reigned now for sixty nine years on the throne going by the record of her ascension on February 6, 1952. She has beaten Queen Victoria’s record by five years, who reigned from 1837-1901, sixty four years in all. 

Queen Elizabeth is ninety four years old. 

UPDATE 

Queen Elizabeth II passed in the month of September 2022 after spending 70 years on the the throne, the longest reigning monarch in British Royal history. Her son. the heir apparent, Prince Charles of Wales, ascended the throne as King Charles III immediately after her death. He was coronated on May 6, 2023. Queen Camilla automatically became his queen consort.