Who was Queen Elizabeth?
Queen Elizabeth II, born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from February 1952 until her recent passing in 2022. When her father, King George VI, died of a heart attack in 1952, the 25 year old Elizabeth instantaneously became Queen of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka). Queen Elizabeth was served by more than 170 prime ministers across her realms, and has reigned for a total of 70 years and 214 days - the longest of any British monarch, and the longest verified reign of any female sovereign in history. The Queen's' state funeral, held on September 2022, was the the first state funeral in Britain in a long time, since that of Winston Churchill in 1965 after the world war.
Princess Elizabeth
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, was born in Mayfair London, on April 21, 1926 as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, the late King George VI, and Queen Elizabeth. Princess Elizabeth was privately educated at home and began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service at the age of 17 and making her first solo public appearance on a visit to the Grenadier Guards of which she has been appointed Colonel the previous year. Based on a published biography of Elizabeth and her only sibling Margaret in the book The Little Princesses, "Lilibet" as what she was called by her close family, was described as a lover of horses and dogs, and was very orderly with an amazing attitude of responsibility towards others. The greatest Briton of all time, the late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill described the young Princess Elizabeth as quite a character, having an air of authority and reflectiveness within her, which was astonishing.
Second World War
When Britain entered the Second World War in September 1939, Lord Hailsham suggested that the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret be evacuated to Canada to avoid the scary frequent aerial bombings of London by Hitler's Luftwaffe planes. Instead, the royal family decided to stay together at Balmoral Castle in Scotland and eventually moved to Windsor, where the 14-year old Elizabeth made her first radio broadcast, comforting children who had been evacuated from the cities, stating "We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers, and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well." As Elizabeth was approaching her 18th birthday, with a sense of duty stronger than ever before, the British parliament changed the law to allow her to serve as one of five Counsellors of State, in the event of her father's incapacity or absence abroad, and was also appointed as honorary junior commander, at the women's branch of the British army, where she also trained to work as a driver and mechanic. At the end of the war in Europe, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret mingled and celebrated incognito with the crowds in the streets of London on Victory in Europe Day, in 1945.
Accession and Coronation as Queen
When then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip had just returned to their Kenyan home at Sagana Lodge after a tour of Australia and New Zealand, Philip received word of the king's death, and was immediately tasked with the responsibility of breaking the news to the new queen. Elizabeth chose to retain her regnal name and was proclaimed Queen throughout her realms, hastily returning to the United Kingdom and moving into Buckingham Palace with Prince Philip. As the new Queen, Elizabeth instituted new practices which included meeting ordinary members of the public, and overseeing the hastened decolonisation process of Africa and the Carribean, giving back independence to 20 countries from Britain, weakening the country's ties to it's former empire but opening a new door into the European Community, a goal which was achieved in 1973. Elizabeth was crowned on June 2, 1953 in Westminster Abbey, wearing a gown embroidered with the floral emblems of the Commonwealth countries on her instruction, and was the first coronation to be televised to the world.
Sharp Mind and Wits
Elizabeth met her future husband, Prince Philip Mountbatten of Greece and Denmark in 1934, exchanging letters with him in her teenage years and eventually marrying him on November 20, 1947 at Westminster Abbey when she was 21 years old. The couple gave birth to four children named Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward, wherein Charles III has become the current King of the United Kingdom and 14 other realms, after Queen Elizabeth's passing in September 2022. Queen Elizabeth was a talented and accomplished equestrian, loving horses so much since a young age, which has been recently found out to have contributed to her famously sharp mind and wits. Close friends and acquaintances have also shared many stories about the Queen having a sharp wit and dry sense of humor, often seen and photographed laughing and enjoying a good joke in public.
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