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|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 April 21, 1926, London, England), queen of the uk of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from Gregorian calendar month 6, 1952. In 2015 she surpassed Victoria to become the longest-reigning monarch in British history.
youth
Elizabeth was the elder female offspring of blue blood Albert, duke of York, and his wife, woman Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. because the child of a younger son of King martyr 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 blue blood’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, afterwards academic administrator of Eton College, and had instruction from visiting lecturers in music and languages. throughout warfare II she and her sister, blue blood Margaret Rose, perforce spent a lot of of their time safely off from the London blitz associate degreed separated from their parents, living principally at Balmoral Castle in European country and at the Royal Lodge, Windsor, and Windsor Castle.
Early in 1947 blue blood Elizabeth went with the king and queen to South Africa. when her come back there was an announcement of her betrothal to her distant cousin-german Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten of the Royal Navy, erst Philip of Greece and Denmark. the wedding came about in minster 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 initial child, Prince of Wales (Charles Philip 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 heavy decline, and blue blood Elizabeth drawn him at the Trooping the color and on varied different state occasions. On Gregorian calendar month seven she and her husband embarked on on a extremely eminent tour of Canada and Washington, D.C. when Christmas in European country she and also the duke embarked on in January 1952 for a tour of Australia and New Zealand, however en route, at Sagana, Kenya, news reached them of the king’s death on Gregorian calendar month 6, 1952. Elizabeth, currently queen, directly 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 moved from carriage House to Buckingham Palace, she undertook the routine duties of the sovereign and dispensed her Diamond State gap of Parliament on Nov 4, 1952. Her enthronisation was command at minster on Gregorian calendar month 2, 1953.
starting in November 1953 the queen {and the|and therefore the|and conjointly the} duke of capital created a six-month round-the-world tour of the Commonwealth, including the primary visit to Australia and New Seeland by a regnant British monarch. In 1957, when state visits to varied European nations, she and the duke visited Canada 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 also 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 United Kingdom 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 blue blood of Wales on July 26, 1958, and was so endowed on July 1, 1969. The queen’s different youngsters were blue blood Anne (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise), born August 15, 1950, and created princess in 1987; blue blood St. Andrew (Andrew prince consort Christian Edward), born Gregorian calendar month 19, 1960, and created duke of royal family in 1986; and Edward (Edward Anthony Richard Louis), born March 10, 1964, and created peer of geographic region and Viscount Severn in 1999. of these youngsters have the last name “of Windsor,” however in 1960 Elizabeth determined to make the combined name Mountbatten-Windsor for different descendants not titled prince or blue blood and royal highness. Elizabeth’s initial progeny (Princess Anne’s son) was born on Nov 15, 1977.
the trendy monarchy
The queen appeared progressively conscious of the trendy role of the autocracy, allowing, for example, the televising of the royal house’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, blue blood of Wales, separated, as did blue blood St. Andrew and his wife, Sarah, Lady of York. Moreover, Anne divorced, and a fireplace gutted the royal residence of Windsor Castle. In addition, as the country struggled with a recession, hostility over the royals’ fashion 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 also the vastly widespread Diana additional worn support for the royal family, that was viewed by some as archaic 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 together with her earlier tries at modernizing the monarchy, the queen later on 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 royal house rebounded, and even Charles’s 2005 wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles found a lot of support among nation people. In April 2011 Elizabeth diode the family in celebrating the marriage of blue blood 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 land republic and also the first to line foot in Ireland since 1911. In 2012 Elizabeth celebrated her “Diamond Jubilee,” marking sixty years on the throne. On Gregorian calendar month 9, 2015, she surpassed Victoria’s record reign of sixty three years and 216 days.
In August 2017 Philip formally retired from public life, although he sporadically appeared at official engagements when that. within the meantime, Elizabeth began to scale back her own official engagements, spending some duties on to Prince of Wales and different senior members of the royal house, though the pool of stand-ins shrank when Charles’s younger son, blue blood Harry, duke of Sussex, and his wife, Meghan, Lady of Sussex, polemically selected to provide up their royal roles in March 2020. throughout this period, public interest in the queen and also 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 April 2021. On their fiftieth wedding anniversary, in 1997, Elizabeth had same 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 heavy and knowing interest in government business, except for the normal and ceremonial duties. Privately, she became a keen horsewoman; she keeps racehorses, often attends races, and sporadically visits the Bluegrass State stud farms within the United States. Her money and property holdings have created her one amongst the world’s richest women.
