Queen Elizabeth II

1926 – 2022 · Generation XXXVII · Queen of the United Kingdom (r. 1952–2022) · House of Windsor

Elizabeth II reigned for seventy years and 214 days, longer than any other British monarch. She was born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary on 21 April 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, the London home of her maternal grandfather, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York. Her father was the second son of George V, so there was little expectation that she would ever reign. She and her younger sister, Margaret, born in 1930, were taught at home by governesses, and within the family she was always “Lilibet”.

That changed in December 1936, when her uncle Edward VIII abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson. Her father became George VI and the ten-year-old princess became heir presumptive, and Henry Marten, the Vice-Provost of Eton, was brought in to tutor her in constitutional history. She spent most of the Second World War at Windsor Castle. Her first radio broadcast came in 1940, when at fourteen she spoke on the BBC’s Children’s Hour to other children sent away from the cities for safety. In February 1945 she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service and trained as a driver and mechanic. On her twenty-first birthday in 1947, while touring southern Africa with her parents, she broadcast a promise that her whole life, “whether it be long or short”, would be given to the service of the Commonwealth.

On 20 November 1947 she married Philip Mountbatten in Westminster Abbey. Born a prince of Greece and Denmark, he had served in the Royal Navy throughout the war, gave up his foreign titles before the wedding and was created Duke of Edinburgh. Their son Charles was born in 1948 and their daughter Anne in 1950. Andrew followed in 1960 and Edward in 1964.

By 1951 George VI was gravely ill and Elizabeth was often standing in for him. Early in 1952 she and Philip set out for Australia and New Zealand by way of Kenya, and it was in Kenya, on 6 February, that she learned her father had died. At twenty-five she was queen of seven independent Commonwealth countries. Her coronation in Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953 was the first to be televised, and some 27 million people in Britain watched while another 11 million listened on the radio. Later that year she and Philip began a seven-month journey through thirteen countries, which took her to Australia and New Zealand, where no reigning monarch had set foot before.

She reigned as a constitutional monarch while the empire of her childhood became the Commonwealth. More than twenty countries in Africa and the Caribbean gained independence in the 1960s and 1970s, and she remained Head of the Commonwealth throughout. Fifteen British prime ministers served her, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, whom she appointed at Balmoral two days before her death, and across all her realms she was advised by more than 170. Only rarely did a political choice fall to her personally. In 1957 and 1963, when the Conservatives had no formal way of choosing a leader, she had to commission Harold Macmillan and then Alec Douglas-Home, and both decisions drew criticism. Her state visits carried weight of their own: China in 1986, the first by a British monarch, Russia in 1994 and the Republic of Ireland in 2011, the first state visit there by a British monarch.

The monarchy’s low point came in the 1990s. In November 1992 she called the year her “annus horribilis”. Her son Andrew had separated from his wife, her daughter Anne had divorced, a large fire had broken out at Windsor Castle, and newspaper estimates of her personal fortune had fed republican sentiment. Days later the government announced that she would pay income tax from 1993, and in December Charles and Diana formally separated. When Diana was killed in Paris in August 1997, the family stayed at Balmoral and said nothing in public, and no flag flew at half-mast over Buckingham Palace. Many people were dismayed. The Queen came back to London and spoke to the nation live on television the day before the funeral, after which most of the anger subsided.

Her standing recovered. On 9 September 2015 she overtook Queen Victoria as the longest-reigning British monarch. Philip died in April 2021 after 73 years of marriage, and pandemic rules meant she sat alone at his funeral. By the time of her Platinum Jubilee in 2022, mobility problems kept her from many public events. She died at Balmoral Castle on 8 September 2022, aged 96. No monarch had died in Scotland since James V in 1542. After a state funeral in Westminster Abbey, where she had been married and crowned, she was buried with Philip in the King George VI Memorial Chapel at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Her eldest son succeeded her as Charles III.

Place in the family

Queen Elizabeth II was a great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
Queen Elizabeth II was the elder of 2 children of King George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon recorded in this archive.
The archive records 27 of her descendants, across 3 generations.

Images

Princess Elizabeth in Auxiliary Territorial Service uniform, standing in front of an ambulance, April 1945 (Ministry of Information official photographer, public domain)
Opening the Borders Railway in Scotland on 9 September 2015, the day she became the longest-reigning British monarch (Scottish Government, CC BY 2.0)
On the balcony of Buckingham Palace with her family after the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, 5 June 2022 (Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street, CC BY 2.0)

One of 53 people of House of Windsor (from 1917) in this archive. The present house — it renamed itself Windsor in 1917, setting aside the German title Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Line of descent: Owen Tudor → Edmund Tudor → King Henry VII → Margaret Tudor → King James V of Scotland → Mary Queen of Scots → King James I → Elizabeth Stuart → Sophia of Hanover → King George I → King George II → Frederick Prince of Wales → King George III → Edward Duke of Kent → Queen Victoria → King Edward VII → King George V → King George VI → Queen Elizabeth II.

Parents

King George VI (1895 – 1952)
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900 – 2002)

Siblings

Margaret Windsor (1930 – 2002)

Partners

Married Philip Mountbatten (1921 – 2021) in 1947 — 4 children together

Children

King Charles III (1948 – )
Anne, Princess Royal (1950 – )
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (1960 – )
Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh (1964 – )

Life

1926 — Born
1947 — Married Philip Mountbatten
1952 — Elizabeth accedes to the throne on the death of her father, George VI.
1953 — Until 1954: Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip embark on a 6 month world tour including Australia and New Zealand
1957 — Queen Elizabeth addresses the United Nations and opens the 23rd Canadian Parliament
1959 — Queen Elizabeth tours Canada and the United States
1986 — Queen Elizabeth II celebrates 60th birthday.
2002 — Queen Elizabeth II marks her Golden Jubilee of 50 years of rule. Deaths of Queen Mother and Princess Margaret.
2006 — Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 80th birthday.
2007 — Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip celebrate 60 years of marriage
2007 — Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever reigning British monarch
2011 — Queen Elizabeth II visits Dublin in the first state visit to the Republic of Ireland by a reigning British monarch.
2012 — Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Diamond Jubilee of 60 years since her accession to the throne.
2012 — Queen Elizabeth II opens the London 2012 Olympic Games
2015 — Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest ever reigning British monarch surpassing her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria.
2016 — Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 90th birthday.
2022 — Died
2022 — Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Platinum Jubilee of 70 years since her accession to the throne.
2022 — Death of Queen Elizabeth II aged 96 years

Sources

Elizabeth II · Wikipedia
Early life and education · The Royal Family (royal.uk)
Queen Elizabeth II’s Accession and Coronation · The Royal Family (royal.uk)
Queen Elizabeth II’s Life and Reign · The Royal Family (royal.uk)
Elizabeth II · Westminster Abbey