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 Northern Ireland 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 Gregorian calendar month 6, 1952. In 2015 she surpassed Victoria to become the longest-reigning monarch in British history.
formative years
Elizabeth was the elder girl of blue blood Albert, duke of York, and his wife, woman Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. because the child of a younger son of King Saint George V, the young Elizabeth had very little prospect of acceding to the throne till her uncle, King of England (afterward duke of Windsor), abdicated in her father’s favour on Dec 11, 1936, at which period her father became King King of England and she or he became heir presumptive. The patrician’s education was supervised by her mother, who entrusted her daughters to a governess, Marion Crawford; the princess was additionally grounded in history by C.H.K. Marten, later on academic administrator of Eton College, and had instruction from visiting lecturers in music and languages. throughout war II she and her sister, patrician Margaret Rose, perforce spent a lot of of their time safely far from the London blitz ANd separated from their parents, living largely at castle in European nation and at the Royal Lodge, Windsor, and Windsor Castle.
Early in 1947 patrician Elizabeth went with the king and queen to South Africa. once her come there was an announcement of her betrothal to her distant full cousin Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten of the Royal Navy, at one time Philip of Balkan state and Denmark. the wedding passed off in minster on Gregorian calendar month 20, 1947. On the eve of the marriage her father, the king, presented upon the bridegroom the titles of duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich. They took residence at carriage House in London. Their initial child, Charles (Charles Philip Arthur George), was born Gregorian calendar month 14, 1948, at Buckingham Palace.
Accession to the throne
within the summer of 1951 the health of King King of England entered into a significant decline, and patrician Elizabeth described him at the Trooping the color and on numerous different state occasions. On Gregorian calendar month seven she and her husband started out on a extremely eminent tour of Canada and Washington, D.C. once Christmas in England she and therefore the duke started out in Jan 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, right away 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 disbursed her Delaware gap of Parliament on Gregorian calendar month 4, 1952. Her enthronisation was control at minster on Gregorian calendar month 2, 1953.
starting in November 1953 the queen {and the|and therefore the|and additionally the} duke of capital created a six-month round-the-world tour of the Commonwealth, including the primary visit to Australia and New Sjaelland by a regnant British monarch. In 1957, once state visits to numerous European nations, she and the duke visited North American nation 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 Persian 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 Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and toured overseas within the Pacific Ocean and Australia, in Canada, and in the Caribbean.
On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, her thusn Charles 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 kids were patrician Anne (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise), born August 15, 1950, and created princess in 1987; blue blood Apostle (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 Earl of geographical area and Viscount Severn in 1999. of these kids have the last name “of Windsor,” however in 1960 Elizabeth set to form the combined name Mountbatten-Windsor for different descendants not titled prince or patrician and royal highness. Elizabeth’s initial offspring (Princess Anne’s son) was born on Gregorian calendar month 15, 1977.
the fashionable monarchy
The queen appeared progressively tuned in to the fashionable role of the autocracy, allowing, for example, the televising of the 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 baby-faced variety of challenges. In 1992, a year that Elizabeth remarked because the royal family’s annus horribilis, Charles and his wife, Diana, patrician of Wales, separated, as did blue blood Apostle 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, ill will over the royals’ modus vivendi mounted, and in 1992 Elizabeth, though in person exempt, united to pay taxes on her non-public income. The separation and later divorce (1996) of Charles and therefore the vastly in style Diana more worn support for the royal family, that was viewed by some as antediluvian and unfeeling. The criticism intense following Diana’s death in 1997, particularly once Elizabeth ab initio refused to permit the allegory to fly at half-staff over Buckingham Palace. In line together with her earlier makes an attempt at modernizing the monarchy, the queen later on wanted to gift a less-stuffy and less-traditional image of the monarchy. These makes an attempt were met with mixed success.
In 2002 Elizabeth celebrated her fiftieth year on the throne. As a part of her “Golden Jubilee,” events were control throughout the Commonwealth, as well as 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 house rebounded, and even Charles’s 2005 wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles found a lot of support among British people. In Apr 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 George III to become the second longest-reigning monarch in British history, behind Victoria. additionally in May, Elizabeth created a historic trip to eire, changing into each the primary British monarch to go to Irish people 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 Sep 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 once that. within the meantime, Elizabeth began to cut back her own official engagements, spending some duties on to Charles and different senior members of the 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 allow 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 prohibited 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 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 significant and hip to interest in government business, except for the normal and ceremonial duties. Privately, she became a keen horsewoman; she keeps racehorses, ofttimes attends races, and sporadically visits the American state stud farms within the United States. Her money and property holdings have created her one among the world’s richest women.