Queen Elizabeth II (1926)

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926) is the queen regnant of sixteen independent states known informally as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. She holds each crown separately and equally in a shared monarchy, and carries out duties for each state of which she is sovereign, as well as acting ahead, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Duke of Normandy, Lord of Mann, and Paramount Chief of Fiji. In theory her powers are vast; however, in practice, and in accordance with convention, she rarely intervenes in political matters.

Elizabeth became Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952. She is one of the longest-reigning British monarchs. Her reign of 57 years has seen sweeping changes, including the dissolution of the British Empire (a process that began before her accession) and the consequent evolution of the modern Commonwealth of Nations. As other British colonies gained independence from the United Kingdom, she became queen of several newly independent countries. She has been the sovereign of 32 individual nations, but half of them later became republics.

Elizabeth married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in 1947. The couple have four children and eight grandchildren.

Early life

Elizabeth was the first child of Prince Albert, Duke of York(later King George VI), and his wife Elizabeth. She was born by Caesarean at 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair, London, and on 29 May 1926, was baptised in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace by the Archbishop of York, Cosmo Lang. Her godparents were her paternal grandparents King George V and Queen Mary; her aunts, Princess Mary and Lady Elephantine; her great-great-uncle, Prince Arthur, Duke of Co naught and Strathearn; and her maternal grandmother, Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne. Elizabeth was named after her mother, great-grandmother Queen Alexandra, and grandmother Queen Mary, and was called "Lilibet" by her close family.^] She had a close relationship with her grandfather, and was credited with aiding in his recovery from illness in 1929. Her only sibling was Princess Margaret, born in 1930. The two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as "Crawfie". To the dismay of the royal family, Crawford later published a biography of Elizabeth and Margaret's childhood years entitled The Little Princesses. The book describes Elizabeth's love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, and her attitude of responsibility. Such observations were echoed by others. Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as "a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant." Her cousin, Margaret Rhodes, described her as "a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved".

Marriage

Elizabeth married Philip on 20 November 1947. The couple are second cousins once removed through King Christian IX of Denmark and third cousins through Queen Victoria. Before the marriage, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish titles, and adopted the style Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, taking the surname of his mother's family. Just before the wedding, he was created Duke of Edinburgh and granted the style of His Royal Highness.

The marriage was not without controversy: Philip was Greek Orthodox, had no financial standing, and had sisters who had married German noblemen with Nazi links. Elizabeth's mother was reported, in later biographies, to have opposed the union initially, even dubbing Philip "The Hun". In later life, however, she told biographer Tim Heald that Philip was "an English gentleman". The Commonwealth had not yet completely rebounded from the devastation of the war; the Princess still required rationing coupons to buy the material for her gown, designed by Norman Hartnell. Elizabeth and Philip received wedding gifts from around the world. At the ceremony, Elizabeth's bridesmaids were her sister; her cousin, Princess Alexandra of Kent; Lady Caroline Montagu-Douglas-Scott; Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester; her second cousin,Lady Mary Cambridge; Lady Elizabeth Mary Lambart (now Longman), daughter of Frederick Lambart, Earl of Cavan; The Honourable Pamela Mountbatten (now Hicks), Philip's cousin; and two maternal cousins, The Honourable Margaret Elphinstone (now Rhodes) and The Honourable Diana Bowes-Lyon (now Somervell). Her page boys were her young paternal first cousins, Prince and Prince Michael of Kent. In post-war Britain, it was not acceptable for any of the Duke of Edinburgh's German relations to be invited to the wedding, including Philip's three surviving sisters. Elizabeth's aunt, Princess Mary, Princess Royal, allegedly refused to attend because her brother, the Duke of Windsor (who abdicated in 1936), was not invited due to his marital situation; she gave ill health as the official reason for not attending.

Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Prince Charles, on 14 November 1948, several weeks after letters patent were issued by her father allowing her children to enjoy a royal and princely status to which they otherwise would not have been entitled. Though the Royal House is named Windsor, it was decreed through a British Order-in-Council in 1960, that those male-line descendants of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip who were not princes and princesses of the United Kingdom should have the personal surname Mountbatten-Windsor. In practice, however, all of their children have used Mountbatten-Windsor as their surname. A second child, Princess Anne, was born in 1950.

Following their wedding, the couple leased their first home, Windlesham Moor, until 4 July 1949, when they took up residence at Clarence House. However, at various times between 1949 and 1951, the Duke of Edinburgh was stationed in Malta (at that time a British Protectorate) as a serving Royal Navy officer. He and Elizabeth lived intermittently, for several months at a time, in the Maltese hamlet of Gwardamangia, at the Villa Gwardamangia, the rented home of Louis Mountbatten, Earl Mountbatten of Burma. The children remained in Britain.

Reign

Succession

George VI's health declined during 1951, and Elizabeth was soon frequently standing in for him at public events. In October of that year, she toured Canada, and visited the President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, in Washington, D.C.; on that trip, the Princess carried with her a draft accession declaration for use if the King died while she was out of the United Kingdom. In early 1952, Elizabeth and Philip set out for a tour of Australia and New Zealand via Kenya. At Sagana Lodge, about 100 miles north of Nairobi, word arrived of the death of Elizabeth's father on 6 February. Philip broke the news to the new queen. Martin Charteris, then her Assistant Private Secretary, asked her what she intended to be called as monarch, to which she replied: "Elizabeth, of course." Elizabeth was proclaimed queen in the various countries where she had acceded to the throne, and the royal party hastily returned to the United Kingdom. The new Queen and Duke of Edinburgh moved into Buckingham Palace.

In the midst of preparations for the coronation, Princess Margaret informed her sister that she wished to marry Peter Townsend, a divorced commoner sixteen years older than Margaret, with two sons from his previous marriage. The Queen asked them to wait for a year; in the words of Martin Charteris, "the Queen was naturally sympathetic towards the Princess, but I think she thought – she hoped – given time, the affair would peter out." After opposition from the Commonwealth prime ministers, and a British minister's threat of resignation should Margaret and Townsend marry, the Princess decided to abandon her plans.

Despite the death of the Queen's grandmother Queen Mary on 24 March 1953, the Queen's coronation went ahead in Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953, in accordance with Mary's wishes. The entire ceremony was, save for the anointing and communion, televised throughout the Commonwealth, and watched by an estimated twenty million people in Britain, with twelve million more listening on the radio. Elizabeth wore a gown commissioned from Norman Hartnell, which consisted of embroidered floral emblems of the countries of the Commonwealth: the Tudor rose of England, the Scots thistle, the Welsh leek, shamrocks for Ireland, the wattle of Australia, the maple leaf of Canada, the New Zealandfern, South Africa's protea, two lotus flowers for India and Ceylon, and Pakistan's wheat, cotton, and jute.

Silver Jubilee

In 1977, Elizabeth marked the Silver Jubilee of her accession. Events took place in many countries throughout the Queen's associated Commonwealth tour, and included a service of thanksgiving at St. Paul's Cathedral attended by dignitaries and other heads of state. Parties were held throughout the Commonwealth realms, culminating in several Jubilee Days in the United Kingdom, in June. In Britain, commemorative stamps were issued. The Jubilee Line of the London Underground (though opened in 1979) was named for the anniversary, as were several other public locations and spaces, including the Jubilee Gardens in London's South Bank. In Canada, the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal was issued. In 1978, she endured a state visit by the brutal communist dictator of Romania, Nicolae Ceauşescu, but the following year brought two blows: one was the unmasking of Anthony Blunt, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, as a communist spy; the other was the assassination of her relative and in-law Earl Mountbatten of Burma by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

According to Paul Martin, Sr., by the end of the 1970s the Queen was worried that the Crown "had little meaning for" Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Tony Benn said that the Queen found Trudeau to be "rather disappointing". Trudeau's supposed republicanism seemed to be confirmed by his antics, such as sliding down banisters at Buckingham Palace and pirouetting behind the Queen's back in 1977, and the removal of various Canadian royal symbols during his term of office. Martin—along with John Roberts and Mark MacGuigan—was sent to the UK in 1980 to discuss the patriation of the Canadian constitution. The Queen was deeply interested in the constitutional debate, particularly after the failure of Bill C-60, which would have affected her role as head of state. The entire party found the Queen "better informed on both the substance and the politics of Canada's constitutional case than any of the British politicians or bureaucrats".As a result of the constitutional patriation, the role of the British parliament in the Canadian constitution was removed, but the monarchy was retained. Trudeau said in his memoirs: "The Queen favoured my attempt to reform the Constitution. I was always impressed not only by the grace she displayed in public at all times, but by the wisdom she showed in private conversation."

Golden Jubilee and beyond

In 2002, Elizabeth marked her Golden Jubilee as queen. She again undertook an extensive tour of her realms, which began in Jamaica in February, where the Queen called the farewell banquet "memorable" after a power cut plunged the King's House, the official residence of the Governor-General, into darkness. Though public celebrations in the UK were more muted than those that had taken place 25 years earlier, due, in part, to the death of both the Queen Mother and her sister earlier that year, there were street parties and commemorative events in many locales. As in 1977, monuments were named and gifts offered to honour the occasion, including, in Canada, the Golden Jubilee Journalism New Media Centre at Sheridan College, and the Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park.

In 2005, she was the first Canadian monarch to address the Legislative Assembly of Alberta; and, in 2007, the first British monarch to address the Virginia General Assembly. In May 2007, it was reported that the Queen was "exasperated and frustrated" by the policies of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Elizabeth was rumoured to have shown concern that the British Armed Forces were overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, and she was supposed to have raised concerns over rural and countryside issues with Blair repeatedly. Elizabeth did, however, apparently admire Blair's efforts to achieve peace in Northern Ireland. On 20 March 2008, at the Church of Ireland St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, the Queen attended the first Maundy Service held outside of England and Wales.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in 2007, with a special service at Westminster Abbey and private dinner hosted by Prince Charles at Clarence House on 19 November, and, the following day (their actual anniversary) a dinner party with other members of the Royal Family, former and present Prime Ministers, and the surviving bridesmaids and pages from the original wedding party. On 21 November, Elizabeth and Philip travelled to Malta, where a Royal Navy ship that was docked in the vicinity arranged its crew members on deck in the form of the number 60.

Finances

Elizabeth's personal fortune has been the subject of speculation for many years. Forbes magazine estimated her net worth at around US$600 million (GB£330 million), but official Buckingham Palace statements called estimates of £100 million "grossly overstated". Though the Royal Collection is worth approximately £10 billion, it is held in trust for her successors and the British nation, as are Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and the other occupied palaces within the United Kingdom. As with many of her predecessors, Elizabeth is reported to dislike Buckingham Palace as a residence, and considers Windsor to be her home.

Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle are privately owned by the Queen, having inherited them from her father on his death. Along with the Duchy of Lancaster, itself valued in 2005 at £250 million, it transferred a private income to the monarch of £9.8 million in the fiscal year ending in March 2005. Income from the British Crown Estate—with holdings of £6 billion in 2009—is transferred to her British treasury in return for Civil Listpayments. Both the Crown Estate and the Crown Land of Canada—comprising 89% (or approximately 8,885,000 km²) of Canada's 9,984,670 km² area—are owned by Elizabeth in trust for the nation by virtue of her position as Sovereign, and cannot be sold or owned by her in a private capacity.

Religion

Aside from her official religious roles in the United Kingdom, Elizabeth personally worships with the Anglican church. (When in Scotland she worships with the Church of Scotland, in keeping with her constitutional role in that country. She regularly attends Sunday service at Crathie Kirk when in Balmoral.^[) Frequently, the Queen will add a personal note about her faith to her annual Royal Christmas Message broadcast to the Commonwealth, such as in the 2000 edition, wherein she spoke about the theological significance of the millennium marking the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ.