In 1939, Elizabeth's parents toured Canada and the United States. As in 1927, when they had toured Australia and New Zealand, Elizabeth remained in Britain since her father thought she was too young to undertake public tours. [23] She "looked tearful" as her parents departed. [24] They corresponded regularly, [24] and she and her parents made the first royal transatlantic telephone call on 18May. [23] Second World War In Auxiliary Territorial Service uniform, April 1945 Princess Elizabeth watches her father, King George VI, at work at his desk in the Royal Lodge, Windsor, April 1942 CREDIT: Hulton Royals Collection Abroad, the Queen was welcomed with something approaching ecstasy, particularly in countries that had dispensed with their own monarchies. During one state visit to France, she happened to mention to her hosts in the Louvre that she had never seen the Mona Lisa. Within minutes, two attendants staggered in with the picture, which they exhibited on bended knees. Rarely did she meet with discourtesy. The King of Morocco kept her waiting for an hour in a torrid desert while he lounged in his air-conditioned caravan; and even India forgot good manners in retaliation for inept remarks on Kashmir by a British foreign secretary who accompanied Her Majesty. The Queen, professional that she was, took it in her stride. In 1936, however, the weight of responsibility suddenly intruded on this blissful period, as a sequence of events brought her to the very steps of the throne. King George V died in January, and in December there was the abdication of her then favourite uncle David, King Edward VIII, and the accession of her father as King George VI. Princess Elizabeth was now Heir Presumptive. Only the birth of a son to her 36-year-old mother, the Queen, could deprive the child of her ultimate destiny.

Co-operation between the households barely existed. Only by chance in 1985 did the Queen discover that her son, about to pay a visit to the Vatican, proposed to attend the Pope’s domestic Mass in his private chapel (though not to take Communion). The Supreme Governor of the Church of England thought this gesture of ecumenism untimely. But with all its formality, their relationship was the least comfortable of the reign. Some put it down to an inevitable tension between two able, strong-minded women; others to a Gladstonian earnestness that provoked a Victorian antipathy. There is also evidence that the Queen, like other rich landowners with a tender conscience – what in the Conservative Party came to be called the “Wets” – was dismayed by the perceived harshness of Mrs Thatcher’s reforming zeal. Above all, the Queen was affronted by the prime minister’s unconcealed dislike of the Commonwealth. Diana could not adjust to a life lived in a worldwide glare of publicity. She was also unsettled by the belief that her husband had never ceased to love Camilla Parker Bowles, the wife of an officer in the Household Cavalry. Misery gave way to despair and so to threats of suicide. That the Queen’s marriage to Prince Philip radiated content for more than 73 years owed much to the restraint and insight of each: more perhaps to the Queen than to her sometimes impatient and irascible husband. He must have realised when he married the daughter of an ailing Sovereign that his own career in the Royal Navy could not continue for long. He was nevertheless resentful when obliged to retire in 1951, and not at all mollified by the rank of Admiral of the Fleet bestowed on him after his wife’s accession. Nor at first did he take well to the role of royal consort that excluded him from all but ceremonial duties, though being pragmatic, he resolved always to help the Queen.

Give AI a Try!

Traditionalists deplored this further erosion of royal power; realists recognised that by relieving the sovereign of a controversial decision, it strengthened the monarchy. One myth which pursued the Queen was that she had accepted Macmillan’s advice with enthusiasm because she felt a personal affinity with Sir Alec Douglas-Home (as he was known after divesting himself of his earldom). It is true that they were both Scottish landowners of ancient lineage with a shared interest in country pursuits and that personal thrift which so often affects the very rich. On Wilson’s retirement, it was the ballot box of the Parliamentary Labour Party rather than the Queen’s prerogative that propelled James Callaghan to Downing Street. Elected leader by 176 votes to Michael Foot’s 133, he required no more than her formal endorsement before taking up office.

Elizabeth went on her first overseas tour in 1947, accompanying her parents through southern Africa. During the tour, in a broadcast to the British Commonwealth on her 21st birthday, she made the following pledge: Queen Elizabeth II was the elder daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. In 1947 she married Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, who was created Duke of Edinburgh at the time of their marriage; King Charles III is the eldest of their four children. She was crowned in Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953 and celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 2002; her 90th birthday in 2016; her Platinum Wedding anniversary in 2017; and her Diamond and Platinum Jubilees in 2012 and 2022 respectively. The Queen was part of a special family – the Royal Family. Although the Queen has died her son, Charles, will now reign as King Charles III. Why is that continuity important? What does it mean for the country as a whole? The marriage of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle, an American actress of mixed race, was welcomed by the Royal family, the Queen and Prince Philip attending the somewhat unconventional, but undoubtedly popular, wedding in St George’s Chapel in May 2018. The couple became the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the day. Princess Elizabeth & Prince Philip (front row center) pose with other family members as well as members of European nobility after their wedding CREDIT: British Combine/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

In fact, it presented him with an opportunity for Trollopian intrigue on a grand scale, and allowed him, effectively, to choose his successor while dressing up the procedure in what would soon come to be highly questionable constitutional practice. Elaborate inquiries carried out at his behest by senior colleagues, supported by statistics that have been the subject of controversy ever since, persuaded him that the foreign secretary, the 14th Earl of Home, was the party’s “preponderant first choice”. The Queen came to see him in hospital, where he read to her his conclusions and formally resigned office. It was the marriage of the Prince of Wales to the arrestingly beautiful Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 that ultimately inflicted damage on the monarchy. “Here is the stuff of which fairy tales are made,” the Archbishop of Canterbury declaimed at their wedding in St Paul’s Cathedral. The words were to haunt him to the end of his days. The Queen has made sure to keep up with these changes too; for example, with social media accounts for herself and the Royal Family. Queen Elizabeth II with the Duke of Edinburgh, looking out from her Coronation Coach en route to Westminster Abbey, 1953 CREDIT: Fox Photos / Getty Images

Some of the worst weather on record did not deter the Queen, nor did the alternative attraction of the Olympic Torch Relay make any impact on the huge crowds which turned out to greet her, as she criss-crossed the country in a royal progress which began in Leicester in March and came to a triumphant conclusion in the New Forest in July, connecting the monarch in a bond of warmth and affection with her nation – and continuing a tradition observed by her medieval forebears. People stood, often nine or 10 deep, to sing, wave Union flags, cheer and catch a glimpse of that characteristic, sometimes guarded smile, which seemed to suggest that the Queen could not quite believe that such an outpouring of affection and respect was really for her. For she never assumed that public support was hers by right.

Queen Elizabeth II, 1926-2022

When her father died in February 1952, Elizabeth—then 25 years old—became queen of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (known today as Sri Lanka), as well as head of the Commonwealth. Elizabeth reigned as a constitutional monarch through major political changes such as the Troubles in Northern Ireland, devolution in the United Kingdom, the decolonisation of Africa, and the United Kingdom's accession to the European Communities and withdrawal from the European Union. The number of her realms varied over time as territories gained independence and some realms became republics. As queen, Elizabeth was served by more than 170 prime ministers across her realms. Her many historic visits and meetings included state visits to China in 1986, to Russia in 1994, and to the Republic of Ireland in 2011, and meetings with five popes and fourteen US presidents. Baroness Thatcher wrote in her memoirs of the Queen’s “grasp of current issues and breadth of experience”. Her encomium continued: “Although the press could not resist the temptation to suggest disputes between the Palace and Downing Street, especially on Commonwealth affairs, I always found the Queen’s attitude towards the work of the government absolutely correct.” The new Prime Minister, for her part, was equally punctilious: indeed, in contrast to her brusqueness at the negotiating table, deferential to a degree.