Elizabeth II, fully Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, formally Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the uk of nice {britain|United Kingdom|UK|Great Britain|GB|Britain|United Kingdom of nice Britain and Northern Ireland|kingdom} and Northern Ireland and of her alternative realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, (born Gregorian calendar month 21, 1926, London, England), queen of the uk of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from Feb 6, 1952. In 2015 she surpassed Victoria to become the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

childhood

Elizabeth was the elder girl of patrician Albert, duke of York, and his wife, woman Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. because the child of a younger son of King martyr V, the young Elizabeth had very little prospect of acceding to the throne till her uncle, King of England (afterward duke of Windsor), abdicated in her father’s favour on Dec 11, 1936, at which era her father became King King of Great Britain and she or he became heir presumptive. The aristocrat’s education was supervised by her mother, who entrusted her daughters to a governess, Marion Crawford; the princess was additionally grounded in history by C.H.K. Marten, later academic administrator of Eton College, and had instruction from visiting academics in music and languages. throughout warfare II she and her sister, aristocrat Margaret Rose, perforce spent a lot of of their time safely faraway from the London blitz associate degreed separated from their parents, living largely at Balmoral Castle in Scotland and at the Royal Lodge, Windsor, and Windsor Castle.

Early in 1947 aristocrat Elizabeth went with the king and queen to South Africa. once her come back there was an announcement of her betrothal to her distant relative Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten of the Royal Navy, erst Prince Philip of Balkan nation and Denmark. the wedding befell in minster on Gregorian calendar month 20, 1947. On the eve of the marriage her father, the king, given upon the bridegroom the titles of duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich. They took residence at rig House in London. Their initial child, Prince Charles (Charles Duke of Edinburgh Arthur George), was born Gregorian calendar month 14, 1948, at Buckingham Palace.

Accession to the throne

within the summer of 1951 the health of King King of Great Britain entered into a significant decline, and aristocrat Elizabeth delineate him at the Trooping the color and on numerous alternative state occasions. On Oct seven she and her husband started out on a extremely productive tour of Canada and Washington, D.C. once Christmas in England she and therefore the duke started out in January 1952 for a tour of Australia and New Zealand, however en route, at Sagana, Kenya, news reached them of the king’s death on Feb 6, 1952. Elizabeth, currently queen, directly flew back to England. the primary 3 months of her reign, the amount of full mourning for her father, were passed in comparative seclusion. however within the summer, after she had enraptured from rig House to Buckingham Palace, she undertook the routine duties of the sovereign and administrated her First State gap of Parliament on Gregorian calendar month 4, 1952. Her investiture was command at minster on Gregorian calendar month 2, 1953.

starting in November 1953 the queen {and the|and therefore the|and additionally the} duke of capital created a six-month round-the-world tour of the Commonwealth, including the primary visit to Australia and New Seeland by a powerful British monarch. In 1957, once state visits to varied European nations, she and the duke visited North American nation and the United States. In 1961 she made the first royal British tour of the Indian landmass in fifty years, and she or he was also the first reigning British monarch to visit South America (in 1968) and therefore the gulf countries (in 1979). throughout her “Silver Jubilee” in 1977, she presided at a London banquet attended by the leaders of the thirty six members of the Commonwealth, traveled everywhere UK and Northern Ireland, and toured overseas within the Pacific and Australia, in Canada, and in the Caribbean.

On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, her thusn Prince Charles became heir apparent; he was named patrician of Wales on Gregorian calendar month 26, 1958, and was so endowed on July 1, 1969. The queen’s alternative youngsters were aristocrat Anne (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise), born August 15, 1950, and created princess in 1987; patrician Saint Andrew (Andrew Prince Albert Christian Edward), born Feb 19, 1960, and created duke of royalty in 1986; and prince (Edward Anthony Richard Louis), born March 10, 1964, and created Earl of geographic region and Viscount Severn in 1999. of these youngsters have the last name “of Windsor,” however in 1960 Elizabeth set to make the combined name Mountbatten-Windsor for alternative descendants not titled prince or aristocrat and royal highness. Elizabeth’s initial progeny (Princess Anne’s son) was born on Gregorian calendar month 15, 1977.

the trendy monarchy

The queen appeared more and more conscious of the trendy role of the autarchy, allowing, for example, the televising of the royal line’s domestic life in 1970 and condoning the formal dissolution of her sister’s wedding in 1978. within the 1990s, however, the royal family two-faced variety of challenges. In 1992, a year that Elizabeth brought up because the royal family’s annus horribilis, Prince Charles and his wife, Diana, aristocrat of Wales, separated, as did patrician Saint Andrew and his wife, Sarah, Lady of York. Moreover, Anne divorced, and a hearth gutted the royal residence of Windsor Castle. In addition, as the country struggled with a recession, bitterness over the royals’ manner mounted, and in 1992 Elizabeth, though in person exempt, in agreement to pay taxes on her personal income. The separation and later divorce (1996) of Charles and therefore the vastly standard Diana additional worn support for the royal family, that was viewed by some as archaic and unfeeling. The criticism intense following Diana’s death in 1997, particularly once Elizabeth ab initio refused to permit the emblem to fly at half-staff over Buckingham Palace. In line together with her earlier tries at modernizing the monarchy, the queen afterwards wanted to gift a less-stuffy and less-traditional image of the monarchy. These tries were met with mixed success.

In 2002 Elizabeth celebrated her fiftieth year on the throne. As a part of her “Golden Jubilee,” events were command throughout the Commonwealth, together with many days of festivities in London. The celebrations were somewhat diminished by the deaths of Elizabeth’s mother and sister early within the year. starting in the latter part of the primary decade of the twenty first century, the general public standing of the royal line rebounded, and even Charles’s 2005 wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles found a lot of support among a people people. In Gregorian calendar month 2011 Elizabeth LED the family in celebrating the marriage of patrician William of Wales—the elder son of Charles and Diana—and Catherine Middleton. the subsequent month she surpassed George III to become the second longest-reigning monarch in British history, behind Victoria. additionally in May, Elizabeth created a historic trip to eire, turning into each the primary British monarch to go to Irish republic and therefore the first to line foot in Ireland since 1911. In 2012 Elizabeth celebrated her “Diamond Jubilee,” marking sixty years on the throne. On September 9, 2015, she surpassed Victoria’s record reign of sixty three years and 216 days.

In August 2017 Prince Philip formally retired from public life, although he sporadically appeared at official engagements once that. within the meantime, Elizabeth began to cut back her own official engagements, spending some duties on to Prince Charles and alternative senior members of the royal line, though the pool of stand-ins shrank when Charles’s younger son, patrician Harry, duke of Sussex, and his wife, Meghan, Lady of Sussex, polemically selected to grant up their royal roles in March 2020. throughout this period, public interest in the queen and therefore the royal family grew as a result of the widespread quality of The Crown, a Netflix tv series regarding the Windsors that debuted in 2016. Having handled many physical setbacks in recent years, Philip, who had been Elizabeth’s husband for quite seven decades, died in Gregorian calendar month 2021. On their fiftieth wedding anniversary, in 1997, Elizabeth had aforementioned of Philip, “He has, quite simply, been my strength and keep of these years.”

Elizabeth is understood to favour simplicity in court life and is additionally known to require a significant and well-read interest in government business, except for the standard and ceremonial duties. Privately, she became a keen horsewoman; she keeps racehorses, oft attends races, and sporadically visits the Bluegrass State stud farms within the United States. Her money and property holdings have created her one in every of the world’s richest women.