Queen Elizabeth II
68 years ago today (February 6,
1952) Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II. After a long illness, her
father, King George VI of Great Britain and Northern Ireland died in his sleep
at the royal estate at Sandringham. Princess Elizabeth, the oldest of the
king’s two daughters and next in line to succeed him, was in Kenya (then a
British Colony) at the time of her father’s death; she was crowned Queen Elizabeth II on June 2, 1953,
at age 27.
Queen Elizabeth, born on April
21, 1926, and known to her family as Lilibet, was groomed as a girl to succeed
her father. She married a distant cousin, Philip Mountbatten, on November 20,
1947, at London’s Westminster Abbey. The first of Elizabeth’s four children,
Prince Charles, was born in 1948. From the start of her reign, Elizabeth
understood the value of public relations and allowed her 1953 coronation to be
televised, despite objections from Prime Minister Winston Churchill and others
who felt it would cheapen the ceremony. Elizabeth, the 40th British monarch
since William the Conqueror, has worked hard at her royal duties and become a
popular figure around the world. She is patron of over 600 organizations and
charities. In 2003, she celebrated 50 years on the throne, only the fifth
British monarch to do so. In 2017, she became the first British monarch to
reach a Sapphire Jubilee (65 years on the throne.) She is the longest-lived and
longest-reigning British monarch as well as the world's longest-reigning queen
regnant and female head of state, the oldest and longest-reigning current
monarch and the longest-serving current head of state.
The queen’s reign, however, has
not been without controversy. She was seen as cold and out-of-touch following
the 1996 divorce of her son, Prince Charles, and Princess Diana, and again
after Diana’s 1997 death in a car crash. Additionally, the role in modern times
of the monarchy, which is largely ceremonial, has come into question as British
taxpayers have complained about covering the royal family’s travel expenses and
palace upkeep. Still, the royals are effective world ambassadors for Britain
and a huge tourism draw. Today, the queen, an avid horsewoman and Corgi dog
lover, is one of the world’s wealthiest women, with extensive real-estate holdings
and art and jewelry collections.
Not only is Queen Elizabeth II
the Queen of the United Kingdom, but she is also the separate Queen of the 16
Commonwealth realms: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Barbados,
Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts
and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands,
Tuvalu, and the United Kingdom. All 16 Commonwealth realms are members of the
Commonwealth of Nations, an intergovernmental organization of 53 member states.
Elizabeth II is also the Head of the Commonwealth.
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