Elizabeth II, fully Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, formally Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the UK of nice {britain|United Kingdom|UK|Great Britain|GB|Britain| the United Kingdom of nice Britain and Northern Ireland|kingdom} and European country and of her different realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, (born Apr 21, 1926, London, England), queen of the uk of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from February 6, 1952. In 2015 she surpassed Victoria to become the longest-reigning monarch in British history.
childhood
Elizabeth was the elder girl of aristocrat Albert, duke of York, and his wife, girl Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. because the child of a younger son of King patron saint V, the young Elizabeth had very little prospect of acceding to the throne till her uncle, Edward VIII (afterward duke of Windsor), abdicated in her father’s favour on Gregorian calendar month 11, 1936, at which era her father became King King of Great Britain and she or he became heir presumptive. The aristocrat’s education was supervised by her mother, who entrusted her daughters to a governess, Marion Crawford; the princess was conjointly grounded in history by C.H.K. Marten, later academic administrator of Eton College, and had instruction from visiting academics in music and languages. throughout war II she and her sister, aristocrat Margaret Rose, perforce spent a lot of of their time safely faraway from the London blitz associate degreed separated from their parents, living largely at castle in European country and at the Royal Lodge, Windsor, and Windsor Castle.
Early in 1947 aristocrat Elizabeth went with the king and queen to South Africa. when her come back there was an announcement of her betrothal to her distant relative Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten of the Royal Navy, at one time prince of Ellas and Denmark. the wedding transpire in Westminster Abbey on Nov 20, 1947. On the eve of the marriage her father, the king, presented upon the bridegroom the titles of duke of Edinburgh, peer of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich. They took residence at carriage House in London. Their 1st child, Prince of Wales (Charles Duke of Edinburgh Arthur George), was born Nov 14, 1948, at Buckingham Palace.
Accession to the throne
within the summer of 1951 the health of King King of Great Britain entered into a significant decline, and aristocrat Elizabeth depicted him at the Trooping the color and on varied different state occasions. On Gregorian calendar month seven she and her husband commenced on a extremely victorious tour of Canada and Washington, D.C. when Christmas in England she and therefore the duke commenced in Gregorian calendar month 1952 for a tour of Australia and New Zealand, however en route, at Sagana, Kenya, news reached them of the king’s death on February 6, 1952. Elizabeth, currently queen, promptly flew back to England. the primary 3 months of her reign, the amount of full mourning for her father, were passed in comparative seclusion. however within the summer, after she had enraptured from carriage House to Buckingham Palace, she undertook the routine duties of the sovereign and allotted her American state gap of Parliament on Nov 4, 1952. Her induction was command at Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953.
starting in November 1953 the queen {and the|and therefore the|and conjointly the} duke of Edinburgh created a six-month round-the-world tour of the Commonwealth, including the primary visit to Australia and New island by a ruling British monarch. In 1957, when state visits to varied European nations, she and the duke visited North American country and the United States. In 1961 she made the first royal British tour of the Indian landmass in fifty years, and she or he was also the first reigning British monarch to visit South America (in 1968) and therefore the gulf countries (in 1979). throughout her “Silver Jubilee” in 1977, she presided at a London banquet attended by the leaders of the thirty six members of the Commonwealth, traveled everywhere Britain and Northern Ireland, and toured overseas within the South Pacific and Australia, in Canada, and in the Caribbean.
On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, her thusn Prince of Wales became heir apparent; he was named aristocrat of Wales on July 26, 1958, and was so endowed on July 1, 1969. The queen’s different youngsters were aristocrat Anne (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise), born August 15, 1950, and created princess in 1987; aristocrat Apostle (Andrew Albert Christian Edward), born February 19, 1960, and created duke of House of York in 1986; and prince (Edward Anthony Richard Louis), born March 10, 1964, and created peer of geographical region and Viscount Severn in 1999. of these youngsters have the name “of Windsor,” however in 1960 Elizabeth determined to make the combined name Mountbatten-Windsor for different descendants not titled prince or aristocrat and royal highness. Elizabeth’s 1st issue (Princess Anne’s son) was born on Nov 15, 1977.
the fashionable monarchy
The queen appeared progressively responsive to the fashionable role of the autocracy, allowing, for example, the televising of the royalty’s domestic life in 1970 and condoning the formal dissolution of her sister’s wedding in 1978. within the 1990s, however, the royal family round-faced variety of challenges. In 1992, a year that Elizabeth spoken because the royal family’s annus horribilis, Prince of Wales and his wife, Diana, aristocrat of Wales, separated, as did aristocrat Apostle and his wife, Sarah, peeress of York. Moreover, Anne divorced, and a fireplace gutted the royal residence of Windsor Castle. In addition, as the country struggled with a recession, ill will over the royals’ life-style mounted, and in 1992 Elizabeth, though in person exempt, in agreement to pay taxes on her non-public income. The separation and later divorce (1996) of Charles and therefore the vastly widespread Diana more worn support for the royal family, that was viewed by some as old and unfeeling. The criticism intense following Diana’s death in 1997, particularly when Elizabeth ab initio refused to permit the ensign to fly at half-staff over Buckingham Palace. In line along with her earlier tries at modernizing the monarchy, the queen after wanted to gift a less-stuffy and less-traditional image of the monarchy. These tries were met with mixed success.
In 2002 Elizabeth celebrated her fiftieth year on the throne. As a part of her “Golden Jubilee,” events were command throughout the Commonwealth, together with many days of festivities in London. The celebrations were somewhat diminished by the deaths of Elizabeth’s mother and sister early within the year. starting in the latter part of the primary decade of the twenty first century, the general public standing of the royalty rebounded, and even Charles’s 2005 wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles found a lot of support among British people. In Apr 2011 Elizabeth semiconductor diode the family in celebrating the marriage of aristocrat William of Wales—the elder son of Charles and Diana—and Catherine Middleton. the subsequent month she surpassed King of England to become the second longest-reigning monarch in British history, behind Victoria. conjointly in May, Elizabeth created a historic trip to eire, changing into each the primary British monarch to go to the Irish republic and therefore the first to line foot in Ireland since 1911. In 2012 Elizabeth celebrated her “Diamond Jubilee,” marking sixty years on the throne. On Sept 9, 2015, she surpassed Victoria’s record reign of sixty three years and 216 days.
In August 2017 prince formally retired from public life, although he sporadically appeared at official engagements when that. within the meantime, Elizabeth began to cut back her own official engagements, passing a little duties on to Prince of Wales and different senior members of the royalty, though the pool of stand-ins shrank when Charles’s younger son, aristocrat Harry, duke of Sussex, and his wife, Meghan, peeress of Sussex, polemically selected to relinquish up their royal roles in March 2020. throughout this period, public interest in the queen and therefore the royal family grew as a result of the widespread quality of The Crown, a Netflix tv series concerning the Windsors that debuted in 2016. Having restrained many physical setbacks in recent years, Philip, who had been Elizabeth’s husband for quite seven decades, died in Apr 2021. On their fiftieth wedding anniversary, in 1997, Elizabeth had aforementioned of Philip, “He has, quite simply, been my strength and keep of these years.”
Elizabeth is thought to favour simplicity in court life and is additionally known to require a significant and wise interest in government business, apart from the standard and ceremonial duties. Privately, she became a keen horsewoman; she keeps racehorses, often attends races, and sporadically visits the Kentucky stud farms within the United States. Her monetary and property holdings have created her one among the world’s richest women.
