Queen Elizabeth II (born on April 21, 1926, as Elizabeth Alexandra Mary in Mayfair, London and died on September 8, 2022, at the Balmoral Castle, Aberdeenshire) of the House of Windsor has been Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland since 1952 and of 14 other sovereign states known as Commonwealth Realms including their territories and dependent territories. In addition, she is the head of the 54-state Commonwealth of Nations, feudal lord of the British Crown Possessions and secular head of the Anglican State Church of England.
Elizabeth II is the head of state of the United Kingdom and the following Commonwealth Realms: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Canada, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. During their reign, the number of Commonwealth Realms varied, as most British colonies gained their independence and several of these states declared themselves republics.
Therefore, Elizabeth II was also temporarily Queen of Barbados, Ceylon, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, Kenya, Malawi, Malta, Mauritius, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, the South African Union, Tanganyika, Trinidad and Tobago and Uganda. Only in the United Kingdom does the Queen personally exercise her almost exclusively representative rights and duties. In the other Commonwealth Realms, it is represented by Governors-General. Due to centuries of customary law, she is de facto a constitutional, parliamentary monarch.
Elizabeth II was born after her uncle Edward VIII. and her father George VI. In third place in the British line of succession. Her father ascended the throne in 1936 after the abdication of his older brother. As heiress presumptive (probable heir to the throne), Elizabeth took on public duties for the first time during the Second World War and served in the women’s department of the British army. On 20 November 1947 she married Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, the Duke of Edinburgh, with whom she has four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward. Prince Philip died after the 73-year and 140-day marriage on April 9, 2021, aged 99 years and 303 days.
After the death of her father, Elizabeth II ascended the throne on February 6, 1952. Their coronation took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey and was the first to be televised. Their reign, 70 years and 127 days, is one of the longest in history.
She has held the throne longer than any British monarch before her and is currently the longest-serving head of state in the world. Significant political processes during her reign were the decolonization of the British Empire, the Cold War, the Northern Ireland conflict and both the accession of Great Britain to the European Union and Brexit. Despite increasing criticism of the royal family by the mass media and growing support for the republican form of government – especially in Australia – the monarchy under Queen Elizabeth II continues to enjoy broad acceptance among the population.
Biography of Elizabeth II
Childhood
Elizabeth is the elder of two children of Prince Albert, then Duke of York and later King George VI, and his wife Elizabeth, Duchess of York (Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth). Her father was the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. Her mother was the youngest daughter of Scottish Earl Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
Elizabeth was born by cesarean section on April 21, 1926, the birthplace of her maternal grandfather’s house at 17 Bruton Street in London’s Mayfair district. Cosmo Gordon Lang, the Anglican Archbishop of York, baptized her on May 29 in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace. The godparents were her parents, Lord Strathmore, Prince Arthur (great-great-uncle on the paternal side), Princess Mary (aunt on the paternal side) and Mary Elphinstone (aunt on her mother’s side). She was given the name Elizabeth Alexandra Mary – after her mother, her great-grandmother Alexandra of Denmark, who died the year before, and her aunts. The closest family members called her “Lilibet”.
The only sister, Princess Margaret, was four years younger. Both princesses were taught at home, under the supervision of their mother and Scottish governess Marion Crawford. Classes focused on history, languages, literature and music.
In 1950, Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margaret’s childhood years entitled The Little Princesses without the consent of the royal family. The book describes Elizabeth’s love for horses and dogs, her neatness and sense of responsibility. Others confirmed these observations: Winston Churchill said of the then two-year-old Elizabeth that she was a personality and radiated authority and thoughtfulness, which was amazing for a child. Her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as a “cheerful little girl, but basically reasonable and kind”.
Heir to the Throne
During her grandfather’s reign, Elizabeth was third in line to the British throne, behind her uncle Edward of Wales and her father. Her birth had met with public interest, and the American magazine Time featured her on the front page in April 1929. Nevertheless, it was not assumed that she would become queen, as the Prince of Wales was still young, would probably marry and have children of her own. When her grandfather George V died on January 20, 1936, her uncle succeeded Edward VIII to the throne, and she advanced to second place in the line of succession.
On December 11, 1936, her uncle abdicated after his intention to marry divorced American Wallis Simpson triggered a constitutional crisis. In his place, her father became the new king. If the parents had had a son later, Elizabeth would have slipped behind them due to the then prevailing preference for male offspring in the succession to the throne.
Elizabeth received instruction in constitutional history from Henry Marten, the deputy headmaster of Eton College. With the help of various French and Belgian governesses, she learned to speak French fluently, and the Archbishop of Canterbury was responsible for religious instruction. A Girl Scout group was formed especially for her in 1937 to come into contact with her peers; the 1st Buckingham Palace Company included daughters of members of the court and palace employees. In later years she was a member of the Sea Rangers.
In May and June 1939, Elizabeth’s parents embarked on an extended state visit to Canada and the United States. As in 1927, when her parents had visited Australia and New Zealand, she stayed at home. Her father thought his daughter was too small for public appearances. They corresponded regularly and made the first royal transatlantic phone call on May 18.
The second World War
In September 1939, the United Kingdom entered World War II. During the war, London was regularly subjected to air raids, and many London children were temporarily evacuated. Former Lord Chancellor Lord Hailsham proposed bringing the princesses to safety in Canada. Elizabeth’s mother categorically rejected this and said: “The children will not leave without me. I will not leave without the king. And the king will never go.”
Until Christmas 1939 the children stayed at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, then they lived in Sandringham House in Norfolk and in the Royal Lodge in Windsor, from May 1940, until the end of the war in Windsor Castle. In Windsor, the princesses performed comedic plays at Christmas to raise money for the Queen’s Wool Fund; the proceeds were earmarked for the purchase of yarn used to sew military garments. On 13 October 1940, Elizabeth gave her first radio address on the BBC’s Children’s Hour program. In it, she addressed the children who had been evacuated from the cities.
On her 16th birthday, Elizabeth made her first public appearance; She attended the Grenadier Guards, of which she had been appointed Honorary Colonel the year before. Shortly before her 18th birthday, the parliament decided to change the law: she was now a member of the five-member Council of State, which took over her father’s official duties during a stay abroad or otherwise prevented from doing so.
This was the case, for example, in July 1944, when he visited the British troops in Italy. In February 1945, Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), where she served under service number 230873 as “Second Subaltern Honorary Elizabeth Windsor”. At the ATS, she received training as a truck driver and mechanic. After five months, she was promoted to Junior Commander on an honorary basis. On May 8, 1945, VE Day, the princesses mingled unrecognized among the celebrating crowd in the streets of London.
During the war, the home office was concerned that Welsh nationalism could flourish. For this reason, a closer relationship between Elizabeth and Wales was to be established. Her appointment as Constable of Caernarfon Castle or patron of the youth organization Urdd Gobaith Cymru was proposed. For various reasons, these plans failed, including fears that the princess could be associated with conscientious objectors in the ranks of the Urdd.
Welsh politicians proposed that she be appointed Princess of Wales on her 18th birthday. Home Secretary Herbert Morrison supported this idea, but the king rejected it. In his opinion, this title should be reserved for the wife of a Prince of Wales. In 1946, Elizabeth was admitted to the Bard Association Gorsedd Beirdd Ynys Prydain on the occasion of the National Eisteddfod. After, in 1947, she accompanied her parents for the first time in an official capacity, on a journey through southern Africa. On her 21st birthday, in a radio address to the Commonwealth states, she promised that her entire life would be dedicated to serving the people of the Commonwealth.
The marriage of Elizabeth II
In 1934 and 1937, Elizabeth met her future husband Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark. He is her third cousin; Queen Victoria is their common great-great-grandmother. Both also come from the Danish King Christian IX. She was the great-granddaughter of Alexandra of Denmark and he was the grandson of George I. After another meeting at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in July 1939, the then only 13-year-old Elizabeth is said to have fallen in love with the then 18-year-old Philip, whereupon they began to write letters to each other. During the Second World War, they kept in regular contact. The official announcement of the engagement took place on July 9, 1947.
The engagement was controversial: Philip had no fortune, was born abroad (but a British citizen who had served in the Royal Navy during World War II), and his sisters were married to German nobles who had ties to the Nazis. Marion Crawford wrote: “Some royal advisers said he was not good enough for them. He was a prince without a homeland and kingdom. Some newspapers often and extensively pointed out his foreign origin.”
According to later published biographies, Elizabeth’s mother is said to have initially spoken out against the marriage and referred to Philip as a “Huns” (an English swear word for Germans, derived from the Hun speech). In later years, however, she called him an “English gentleman”. Before marriage, Philip renounced his Danish and Greek titles, converted from the Greek Orthodox Church to Anglicanism, and took the name Philip Mountbatten (the anglicized surname Battenberg of his mother’s British family). Immediately before the wedding, he received the title of Duke of Edinburgh and was henceforth allowed to call himself His Royal Highness. Until her accession to the throne in 1952, Elizabeth held the title Duchess of Edinburgh as his wife. In 1957, Elizabeth gave Philip the title of prince.
Elizabeth and Philip were married on 20 November 1947 at Westminster Abbey. Not yet overcoming the ravages of war, Britain had to resort to rationing stamps to buy the fabrics for her wedding dress, designed by Norman Hartnell. In addition, it was unacceptable for the British in the post-war period to invite the groom’s German relatives to the wedding, including his three sisters. The Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII, also received no invitation.
On November 14, 1948, Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Prince Charles. The second child, Princess Anne, followed on August 15, 1950. After the wedding, the couple rented the country estate Windlesham Moor near Windsor, and on 4 July 1949, they moved to Clarence House in London. Between 1949 and 1951, Philip was stationed several times in the British Crown Colony of Malta, where he served as an officer in the Royal Navy. He and Elizabeth lived temporarily in the hamlet of Gwardamanġa near Pietà and lived there at Villa Guardamangia (or Gwardamanġa), a house rented by Philip’s uncle Lord Mountbatten. Meanwhile, the children remained in the UK. This was the only time Elizabeth lived abroad.
Rules
In 1951, George VI’s health deteriorated, and Elizabeth regularly stepped in for him at public events. When she traveled through Canada in October and then to Washington, D.C. President Harry S. Truman visited, her private secretary, Martin Charteris, carried with him a draft declaration of accession to the throne in case the king died during their journey. At the beginning of 1952, Elizabeth and Philip embarked on a journey to Kenya, which would later take them to Australia and New Zealand. A few hours after spending a night at the Treetops Hotel in Aberdare National Park near Nyeri, they learned of George’s death on February 6, 1952.
Charteris asked Elizabeth, who had automatically become queen by the death of her father, to choose a ruler’s name, after which she chose her first name. The proclamation in London was carried out by the Accession Council responsible for proclaiming the respective monarch, but only formally due to Elizabeth’s absence. The couple immediately returned to the UK and moved to Buckingham Palace.
Accession to the throne and proclamations
After the accession to the throne on 6 February 1952, the proclamations were ceremonially announced in this order: on the same day as Elizabeth’s rule over Canada, on the 7th in South Africa, on the 8th the subsequent ceremonial proclamation as Queen of the United Kingdom, also on the 8th to Australia and on the 11th to New Zealand.
With the accession to the throne, there was the possibility that the royal family would bear the family name of Elizabeth’s husband and thus be called House Mountbatten. Her grandmother, Queen Mary, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill preferred to keep the name Windsor and prevailed with their opinions. Philip complained, “I am the only man in the country who is not allowed to pass on his name to his own children.” In 1960, Mountbatten-Windsor was introduced as a surname for those descendants of Philips and Elizabeth who did not have a royal title.
Coronation and the increasing importance of the mass medium television
In the midst of preparations for the coronation, Princess Margaret informed her sister that she wanted to marry Peter Townsend, a divorced fighter pilot 16 years her senior with two sons from her first marriage. The Queen asked her to wait a year. According to Martin Charteris, Elizabeth hoped that the romance would fizzle out over time.
Leading politicians opposed this connection, and the Church of England, of which Elizabeth was now the secular head, did not allow the remarriage of divorcees. In the event of a civil marriage, Margaret would have been expected to give up her right to succeed to the throne. Eventually, she decided against the marriage plans with Townsend. In 1960 she married Antony Armstrong-Jones, who a year later received the title of Earl of Snowdon from Elizabeth. The marriage was divorced in 1978 and Margaret did not marry again.
Before her death on March 24, 1953, Queen Mary had requested that the coronation take place as planned on June 2. The ceremony at Westminster Abbey was televised for the first time, with the exception of the anointing and communion. Elizabeth’s coronation robe had been commissioned from Norman Hartnell and embroidered with the floral emblems of the Commonwealth countries according to her instructions. Around 8,000 guests attended the ceremony, including numerous dignitaries. Elizabeth vowed to uphold the laws of her nations and protect the Church of England.
The coronation was not only shown publicly for the first time in the relatively new medium of television, but the medium itself gained mass distribution for the first time through the event. The number of devices in the UK jumped from a few hundred thousand to four million, worldwide a total of about 300 million viewers are said to have watched the ceremony. This medialization gave the British monarchy a hitherto unknown character, which, however, had already been recognized and used by Elizabeth’s mother. Without this interaction, Elizabeth’s interpretation of the role remains incomprehensible.
Development of the Commonwealth
Over the course of her more than six decades of rule, the Queen witnessed the transformation of the British Empire into the Commonwealth of Nations. When she ascended the throne, her role as head of state of various independent states was already established. In 1953/54 she and her husband undertook a six-month trip around the world. She was the first monarch of Australia and New Zealand to visit these countries during her reign. It is estimated that three-quarters of all Australians saw them at the time. During her reign, she made over 100 state visits and over 180 trips to the Commonwealth Realms; she is considered the most traveled head of state in history.
In 1956, French Prime Minister Guy Mollet and British Prime Minister Anthony Eden discussed the possibility of a Franco-British union or France’s accession to the Commonwealth. Elizabeth would also have become head of state in France (in 1801, George III. the theoretical claim to the French throne). Both proposals failed. The following year, France signed the Treaties of Rome, which established the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the European Union. In November 1956, British and French troops invaded Egypt to take control of the Suez Canal in the wake of the Suez Crisis. Lord Mountbatten claimed that the Queen had opposed the invasion. Eden, who resigned two months later, denied this.
In 1957, the Queen visited the United States and addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York on behalf of the Commonwealth. On the same trip, she was the first Canadian monarch in Ottawa to personally open parliament. During a state visit to Ghana in 1961, she dismissed fears for her safety, even though her host Kwame Nkrumah, who had replaced her as head of state, was the target of assassins. Harold Macmillan wrote: “The Queen was absolutely determined all along […].
She was upset by the attitude towards her to treat her like […] a movie star […]. She actually has ‘the heart and marrow of a man’” (a reference to Queen Elizabeth I’s Tilbury speech. ). Before a trip through Quebec in 1964, there were rumors in the media that extremist Quebec separatists were planning an attack on the Queen. Although there was no attack, a riot broke out when she was in Montreal. The media reported on “their composure and courage in the face of violence.”
Only twice during her reign, in 1959 and 1963, did Elizabeth not open the British Parliament; at that time she was pregnant with Andrew or Edward. In addition to performing traditional ceremonies, she also established new habits. She did not only want to meet officials and dignitaries on her travels and in 1969 during her state visit to Austria and also in 1970 during a trip through Australia and New Zealand she undertook royal walkabouts for the first time, during which she approached “ordinary people” to have conversations with them.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the decolonization of Africa and the Caribbean accelerated. More than 20 countries gained their independence from the United Kingdom as part of a planned transition to self-government. This approach was also planned for Rhodesia, but in 1965 the Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith opposed the British request to transfer power to the black majority. His government unilaterally declared the country’s independence, while at the same time expressing “loyalty and devotion” to Elizabeth. The Queen dismissed him in a formal statement, and the international community issued sanctions against Rhodesia. Nevertheless, Smith held on to power until 1979.
Political influence
For a long time, the Conservative Party had no fixed rules for electing a new party leader. After Anthony Eden’s resignation, the Queen, therefore, had the task of appointing a candidate to form a government. Eden recommended that she consult with Lord Salisbury, the Lord President of the Council. Lord Salisbury and Lord Chancellor Lord Kilmuir then spoke with the Cabinet, Winston Churchill and the Chairman of the 1922 Committee composed of backbenchers. Finally, Elizabeth installed the proposed candidate Harold Macmillan. When he resigned in 1963, the Queen followed his advice to appoint Alec Douglas-Home as Prime Minister. As in 1957, it was criticized for following the advice of a small group of ministers or a single minister. In 1965, the Conservative Party introduced a set of rules for the election of a leader, which meant that the Queen’s participation was no longer necessary.
In February 1974, British Prime Minister Edward Heath advised the Queen to call new elections. At that time, she was on a journey through the Pacific states and had to fly back to Great Britain. The elections did not result in a clear majority (a hung parliament). Heath’s Conservative Party had four fewer seats than the Labour Party, but could have formed a coalition with the Liberal Party. When coalition negotiations failed, the Queen asked opposition leader Harold Wilson to form a government.
At the height of the 1975 constitutional crisis, Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was removed from office by Governor-General John Kerr after the opposition-controlled Senate rejected the government’s budget proposals. Since Whitlam had a majority in the House of Representatives, the Speaker asked the Queen to reverse Kerr’s decision. She rejected the request on the grounds that she did not interfere in decisions reserved for the Governor-General under the Australian Constitution. The Whitlam crisis led to a strengthening of Australian political forces seeking a republican form of government.
Silver Jubilee of the Throne, Espionage
1977 was the year of Elizabeth’s silver jubilee to the throne. Festivals and events took place throughout the Commonwealth, many of them in connection with their travels through the kingdoms. The festivities confirmed the Queen’s popularity, despite the almost simultaneous press campaign against Princess Margaret, who had separated from her husband.
In June 1978, Elizabeth reluctantly received the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena, who had been invited by the British government for a three-day state visit. Her disgust is said to have been so great that she is said to have hidden behind a bush during a walk in the garden of Buckingham Palace to avoid meeting them. After Ceaușescu’s overthrow in December 1989, she revoked the knighthood conferred on him and sent her star back to the Socialist Republic of Romania. In 1979, Anthony Blunt, former director of the Royal Collection’s painting collection, was exposed as a Soviet spy and member of the Cambridge Five. On 27 August of the same year, Prince Philip’s uncle Lord Mountbatten, with whom she had a particularly friendly relationship, was assassinated by the IRA.
Resolving Canada’s Constitutional Obligations
According to Paul Martin Sr. in the late 1970s, the Queen was concerned that the monarchy “meant little” to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. According to Tony Benn, the Queen found Trudeau “quite disappointing.” The Canadian Prime Minister openly expressed his disapproval of the monarchy, for example by sliding down a railing in Buckingham Palace in 1977 or by playing a pirouette behind Elizabeth’s back.
His approach became more concrete when he had various royal symbols removed in Canada. In 1980, Canadian politicians went to London to discuss the separation of Canada’s last constitutional ties with the United Kingdom. They noted that the Queen was “better informed than any of the British politicians or bureaucrats”. With the Constitutional Act of 1982, the British Parliament lost its last chance of influence in Canada, but the monarchy was preserved. Trudeau wrote in his memoirs that the Queen had supported his efforts to reform the Constitution. He was impressed “by the dignity she showed in public” and “by the wisdom she showed in private.”
Endangered security, ambivalent relationship with the US
During the annual troop parade in honor of the royal birthday, trooping the Color on The Mall in June 1981, six shots were fired at Elizabeth as she rode her Burmese horse. This happened just six weeks before Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer. As it turned out, these had been blank cartridges. 17-year-old shooter Marcus Sarjeant, who originally intended to use a rifle with live ammunition, was sentenced to five years in prison and released early after three years. In the early morning of July 9, 1982, Michael Fagan sneaked into the Queen’s bedroom. She engaged him in a conversation for several minutes until the police were able to take him away.
Elizabeth’s son Andrew, who had trained as a helicopter pilot in the Royal Navy, took part in Falklands War combat operations aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible in 1982.
Her relationship with AMERICAN President Ronald Reagan was ambivalent: although she had received him at Windsor Castle in 1982 and paid a return visit to his California ranch a year later, she was enraged when he ordered the US invasion of Grenada without first informing her about the military intervention in one of their kingdoms.
In the focus of the mass media
In the 1980s, interest in the views and private lives of the royal family increased significantly, leading to a series of sensational articles in the press, some of which contained fabrications. Kelvin MacKenzie, editor of The Sun, ordered his employees: “Give me a Sunday-to-Monday furor about the Royals. Don’t worry if it’s not true– as long as there’s not too much fuss about it afterwards.” Publisher Donald Trelford wrote in the Observer on September 21, 1986: “The royal soap opera has now reached such a great public interest that the boundary between fact and fiction is no longer recognizable […]. It’s not just that some newspapers don’t check their facts or accept denials; they don’t care if the stories are true or not.”
The Sunday Times of 20 July 1986 reported that the Queen was concerned that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s economic policies were promoting social antagonisms; she was concerned about high unemployment, racial unrest, the violent miners’ strike and Thatcher’s refusal to impose sanctions on the South African apartheid regime.
Sources of the rumors included Royal Press Secretary Michael Shea and Shridath Ramphal, Secretary General of the Commonwealth. Shea claimed that his statements had been taken out of context and embellished with speculation. Thatcher’s biographer John Campbell described the article as “a piece of journalistic incitement”. In her biography, published in 1993, Thatcher denied a rift and even showed admiration for Elizabeth. After her replacement by John Major, she received two personal honors from the Queen, she was inducted into the Order of Merit and the Order of the Garter.
Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney believed That Elizabeth had been a “force behind the scenes” in ending apartheid in South Africa. In 1987, she publicly expressed her support for the Meech Lake Accord in Canada, provoking criticism from opponents of this controversial constitutional reform, including Pierre Trudeau. In the same year, the elected government of Fiji was overthrown by a military coup. As monarch of Fiji, Elizabeth supported the efforts of Governor-General Penaia Ganilau to enforce executive rights and negotiate an agreement.Coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka removed Ganilau from office and declared Fiji a republic.
In Great Britain, support for the introduction of a republic grew. The press circulated estimates of the Queen’s personal fortune, which were disputed by the royal family; In addition, there were reports of love affairs and broken marriages in the extended family circle. The involvement of their children Andrew, Anne and Edward in the BBC charity game show It’s a Royal Knockout (an adaptation of Game Without Borders) caused much ridicule in 1987, and the Queen became a target of biting satire.
On May 17, 1991, a few months after the end of the Second Gulf War, Elizabeth became the first British monarch to appear before the United States Congress. In her speech, she noted that history had shown that power from rifle barrels never lasts long and that successful societies are based on mutual understanding.
“Annus horribilis”, Elizabeth as the moral anchor of the monarchy
In a speech Elizabeth gave on 24 November 1992 at London’s Guildhall on the occasion of her 40th anniversary on the throne, she described the past year as annus horribilis (“year of horror”). With this expression she alluded to various events: in March, her son Andrew and his wife Sarah Ferguson had separated; in April, their daughter Anne divorced Mark Phillips; in November, Windsor Castle suffered considerable fire damage.
The monarchy had to face growing criticism and public scrutiny. In her unusually personal speech, the Queen said that every institution must expect criticism; but this can be just as effective if it is presented “with a little humor, gentleness and understanding”. Two days later, Prime Minister John Major announced a reform of the royal finances: among other things, the Queen had to pay income taxes for the first time from 1993 and the civil list was shortened. In December, Major announced the separation of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in the House of Commons. The “year of horror” ended with a lawsuit by the Queen against the tabloid The Sun for copyright infringement, as the text of her traditional Christmas address had been published two days before the broadcast. The newspaper had to pay the Queen’s legal fees and donate £200,000 to charity.
In the years that followed, revelations about the state of Charles and Diana’s marriage continued. Although support for republicanism seemed high in Britain, only a minority of the population rejected the monarchy; especially the queen had high approval ratings. The criticism concerned the institution as such and its wider family circle, not it personally or its behavior. In Australia, where republican ideas have traditionally been widespread, the referendum on the abolition of the monarchy was rejected on 6 November 1999. Such a referendum failed in Tuvalu on 30 April 2008 and in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on 25 November 2009.
In agreement with Prime Minister Major, Archbishop George Carey, Private Secretary Robert Fellowes and husband Philip, the Queen wrote a letter to Charles and Diana at the end of December 1995, stressing that a divorce was desirable. They divorced in 1996; Diana died in a car accident in Paris on August 31, 1997. The Queen was on holiday at Balmoral Castle at the time. The grandchildren William and Harry wanted to mourn in the church, so the Queen and the Prince Consort accompanied them there that morning. After this single public appearance, Elizabeth and Philip shielded their grandchildren from the immense interest of the media for five days.
The seclusion of the royal family and the fact that they did not fly a flag over the Buckingham at half-mast caused great irritation in the public. Put under pressure by the sometimes hostile reactions, the Queen returned to London and gave a televised address on 5 September, one day before Diana’s funeral. In it, she expressed her admiration for Diana and her “grandmotherly feelings” for Princes William and Harry. After this speech, the negative mood evaporated for the most part.
Golden Jubilee, Reconciliation with Ireland
In 2002, Elizabeth celebrated her golden jubilee on the throne. Her sister and mother died in February and March, respectively, after which the media began to speculate whether the anniversary would be a success or a failure. Once again, the Queen undertook extensive journeys through the Commonwealth Realms, starting with Jamaica in February. The three-day main celebrations in London attracted over a million visitors a day, and the enthusiasm for the Queen seemed greater than some journalists critical of the monarchy had predicted.
In May 2007, the Daily Telegraph reported that, according to unnamed sources, the Queen was “outraged and frustrated” with Prime Minister Tony Blair’s policies. She was concerned that British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan were being overused, and she had repeatedly expressed that he lacked understanding of the concerns of rural areas. On the other hand, she admired Blair’s efforts to create peace in Northern Ireland. Nine years earlier, she had spoken positively about the conclusion of the Good Friday Agreement, whereupon DUP leader Ian Paisley, who rejected the agreement, called her “Blair’s parrot”. At the invitation of Irish President Mary McAleese, Elizabeth became the first British monarch to pay a state visit to the Republic of Ireland in May 2011. The visit was seen as a symbol of the normalization of British-Irish relations.
Diamond Jubilee, Honors
In the year of her diamond jubilee to the throne, Elizabeth limited herself to traveling in Great Britain. Highlights of the celebrations included the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, a parade of 1000 boats and ships on the Thames in London; it was the largest parade of its kind ever held.
The Queen opened the 2012 Summer Olympics in London (as well as the 2012 Summer Paralympics). She was the first head of state to open two Olympic Games in two different countries (after the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal). During the opening ceremony at the Olympic Stadium, the short film Happy and Glorious, directed by Danny Boyle, in which she played herself, was screened alongside Daniel Craig in the role of secret agent James Bond. In April 2013, she received a BAFTA Honorary Award for her support of the British film industry and was described as the “most unforgettable Bond girl of all time” during the ceremony.
On December 18, 2012, Elizabeth became the first British monarch since George III in 1781, which attended a cabinet meeting of the British government in peacetime; on this occasion, part of the British Antarctic Territory was given the designation Queen Elizabeth Land. Due to her advanced age, she did not travel to Sri Lanka in November 2013 for the biennial Conference of Commonwealth Heads of Government. It was the first time since 1973 that she was not present at this summit; instead, she was represented by her son Charles.
Longest-serving monarch in British history, more throne anniversaries and pandemic
Elizabeth’s reign is now the longest of all British monarchs. She surpassed Queen Victoria’s previous record (with a reign of 63 years and 7 months) on September 9, 2015, at 5:30 p.m. Since the death of Saudi King Abdullah on January 23, 2015, Elizabeth is currently the oldest reigning monarch in the world. Since the death of King Bhumibol of Thailand on October 13, 2016, she has also held the longest term of any current monarch.
On February 6, 2017, she celebrated her Sapphire anniversary, after 65 years had passed since her accession to the throne. Elizabeth II gave five extraordinary televised speeches during her reign: in 1991 during the Gulf War, in 1997 before the funeral of Princess Diana, in 2002 after the death of her mother, in 2012 on the occasion of her 60th anniversary of the throne and in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While Elizabeth II had already spent more time at Windsor Castle than at Buckingham Palace from around 2007, she retired completely to Windsor Castle with her husband Prince Philip at the beginning of 2020 to protect against the pandemic. It was there that Prince Philip died a natural death in April 2021. In March 2022, her court announced that she would not return to Buckingham Palace, which was in disrepair at the time. A few weeks earlier, in February 2022, Elizabeth II was slightly ill with COVID-19. The same month marked the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne (platinum anniversary).
In May 2022, Elizabeth II did not give the throne speech for the first time in 59 years for health reasons or did not open a session of the British Parliament for the first time since 1963. This was taken over by Prince Charles instead. Elizabeth II did not open parliament herself three times during her reign: in 2022, as well as in 1959 and 1963, when she was pregnant.
The personality of Elizabeth II and public perception
Elizabeth is a patron of over 600 charitable and voluntary organizations. Since she hardly gives interviews (and in them talks almost exclusively about her role as head of state), little is known about her personal feelings and views. As a parliamentary monarch, she never spoke in public about her political views. Margaret Thatcher is said to have told journalist Brian Walden in the 1980s that the Queen, if she could, would vote for the Social Democratic Party– Thatcher’s political rivals. It is known that Elizabeth has a deep understanding of her religious and state duties and takes her coronation oath very seriously.
As the Nominal Supreme Governor of the Church of England, she has repeatedly supported interreligious dialogue and met with leaders of other churches and religions, including the three Popes John XXIII, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Personal thoughts on matters of faith are often part of her annual royal Christmas address.
In her spare time, Elizabeth is particularly interested in equestrian sports. Every year she attends the horse races in Ascot and Epsom. As the owner and breeder of English thoroughbreds, she often follows other races in which her horses participate. She is equally fond of dogs, especially the Pembroke Welsh Corgi herding dog breed. She received her first corgi in 1933, and since her accession to the throne alone she has owned more than 30 of these animals. They are known worldwide and have been immortalized in various works of art; a Crown coin issued in 1977 on the occasion of the silver jubilee shows Elizabeth with a corgi. She also owns several English Cocker Spaniel and Labrador Retrievers.
In the 1950s, as a young woman at the beginning of her reign, the media portrayed Elizabeth as a glamorous “fairytale queen”. After the traumatic events of the war, this seemed to be a time of hope and progress, the beginning of a “new Elizabethan age”. Criticism was extremely rare at the time; in 1957, Lord Altrincham wrote in a controversial article in National Review magazine that the Queen was “yesterday’s” and that her speeches sounded like those of a “complacent student”.
At the end of the 1960s, there were increased efforts to present a more modern image of the monarchy. To this end, the BBC produced the documentary Royal Family, which was watched by around two-thirds of all British television viewers in 1969 and provided an unprecedented insight into the private life of the royal family. The documentary remained largely under wraps afterward – allegedly because the Queen was worried that her family was making too ordinary an impression in it. In order to be particularly visible even in large crowds, Elizabeth began to wear dresses in strikingly bright colors and unusual hats – a fashion style that developed into her trademark. One of its three tailors was the German Karl-Ludwig Rehse.
In the 1980s, criticism of the royal family increased markedly as their children’s work and private lives became the focus of the media. Under pressure from the public, the Queen began paying income taxes for the first time, making Buckingham Palace accessible to visitors. In 1992, the BBC produced another documentary, Elizabeth R: A Year in the Life of the Queen, which, according to critics, seemed distant and did not address the problems that prevailed at the time.
Dissatisfaction with the monarchy peaked in 1997 with the death of Princess Diana, but the Queen’s live speech five days after the fatal accident caused her popularity ratings and those of the royal family to rise again. Fifteen years later, an opinion poll by Ipso MORI showed a record approval rating of 90%. A third documentary, Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work, was released in 2007 and led to a lawsuit against the BBC: The trailer had been edited in such a way that the false impression could arise that the Queen had angrily broken off a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz.
Elizabeth has been portrayed by numerous well-known artists, including painters such as Lucian Freud, Peter Blake, Terence Cuneo and Pietro Annigoni, as well as photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Yousuf Karsh, Lord Lichfield and Terry O’Neill, as well as court photography by A.C. Cooper. Various actors impersonated her in theatre and film productions. Her double Jeannette Charles became particularly famous in several comedies, e.B. 1988 in Die nackte Kanone. Helen Mirren received the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2007 for her portrayal of the Queen in the film drama The Queen, which deals with the events after Diana’s death.
Elizabeth inspired numerous pop musicians to write songs. Paul McCartney wrote Her Majesty, which appeared on the Beatles album Abbey Road in 1969. In 1977 (the year of the silver jubilee of the throne), the punk band Sex Pistols caused a scandal with God Save the Queen, as they portrayed the Queen as a representative of a fascist state. After, in 1986, The Smiths released the album The Queen Is Dead. In the novel The Queen and I by Sue Townsend, Elizabeth finds herself in social housing and has to support herself and her corgis with a pension.
The German comedy Willi und Die Windzors by Hape Kerkeling put this idea into practice on film in 1996. In the 2015 animated film Minions, the main characters steal the queen’s crown in 1968, after which she is shown drinking beer in an English pub as a former monarch with a wink. Since 2016, the series The Crown has been broadcast, in which she is portrayed in the first two seasons of Claire Foy, in the third and fourth seasons of Olivia Colman and in the fifth and final sixth seasons of Imelda Staunton.
In July 2015, The Sun published an article with images from a 17-second private film, presumably shot in 1933, showing Elizabeth at the age of six or seven showing the Hitler salute. Also on display is her uncle Edward VIII, who is described in the article as a sympathizer of National Socialist Germany.
According to a report by The Guardian in February 2021, it became public that Elizabeth reviewed at least 1,062 laws during her reign, according to the National Archives, before they were submitted to parliament for a vote. This was done within the framework of the Queen’s Consent (a provision according to which the British throne holders can view draft laws and, if they affect the private interests of the British royal family, not only give formal consent to the adoption of laws, but may also influence the legislative design in advance.
Assets
The financial circumstances of Elizabeth II caused speculation for many years, as there is hardly any reliable information about it. Responsible for the finances of the royal household is the Keeper of the Privy Purse (since 2002: Sir Alan Reid).
In July 2010, Forbes magazine estimated her fortune at $450 million. In 1993, the New York Times estimated a fortune of 100 million pounds; David Ogilvy, then Lord Chamberlain of the Household, described this estimate as “excessively exaggerated”. John Rupert Colville, her former private secretary and a director of her house bank Coutts, assumed two million pounds in 1971 (equivalent to around 24 million in 2013). In the 2013/14 financial year, the Queen received a total of £37.9 million from taxpayers’ money. Private assets also include the Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle estates.
The Royal Collection, which includes the Royal Art Collection and the Crown Jewels, is not part of the Queen’s private assets, but is held in trust by a foundation. The same applies to royal residences such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. Another fiduciary foundation is the Duchy of Lancaster, whose portfolio was worth £472 million in 2015. The £11.6 billion Crown Estates managed by HM Treasury (fiscal year 2014/15) belong to the Queen only in her capacity as Head of State; as a private individual, she has no access to the portfolio of this public corporation.
In November 2017, documents emerged showing that Elizabeth II was investing £10 million in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda through her Duchy of Lancaster. It holds shares in the controversial British rent-to-own provider Bright House through the Dover Street VI Cayman Fund and Vision Capital Partners VI B LP.
The symbolism of Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II title
In the United Kingdom, the Queen’s full title is as follows:
“Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith”.
As head of state of the Commonwealth Realms, she has her own title, for example, Queen of Canada and Queen of Australia. In most cases, there is also no reference to the defense of the faith and to the United Kingdom. The practice is different in the Crown Possessions, which are not part of the United Kingdom, but directly subordinate to the Crown: in the Channel Islands she is referred to as the Duke of Normandy, on the Isle of Man as Lord of Mann (both in the male form).
Whether the Queen can call herself Elizabeth “the Second” caused controversy in Scotland, as there was never an Elizabeth I gave. After the accession to the throne, several new mailboxes decorated with the royal monogram EIIR were vandalized. That is why since then only the Crown of Scotland has been depicted on mailboxes and vehicles of the Royal Mail in Scotland. In 1953, Scottish nationalists filed a lawsuit (MacCormick v Lord Advocate).
They disputed the Queen’s right to call herself Elizabeth II in Scotland, as this violated the Act of Union 1707. Scotland’s highest court dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the choice of name was a private matter for the Queen and was part of her powers. Winston Churchill suggested that future monarchs should take into account both English and Scottish predecessors when choosing names. At the opening session of the Scottish Parliament, which was reintroduced in 1999, The Speaker of Parliament, David Steel, greeted the Queen with the words of Elizabeth, Queen of Scots, in keeping with the traditions of the Scottish monarchy.
Since her accession to the throne on February 6, 1952, the short form of her title has been Her Majesty The Queen. At her birth, the title HRH (Her Royal Highness) was Princess Elizabeth of York. After her father became king on 11 December 1936, she was called HRH Princess Elizabeth, after marriage on 20 November 1947 HRH Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh.
Coat of arms
Since her accession to the throne, Elizabeth has held the coat of arms of the British monarch as a symbol of royal rule, which has existed in this form since 1837. The coat of arms shows three leopards for England (double), a lion for Scotland and a harp for Northern Ireland. In addition, there are shield holders (lion and unicorn), helmet, helmet decoration, postament and the motto of the Order of the Garter as decorative elements. For Scotland, there is a different version, in which the lion is depicted twice instead of the leopards on the coat of arms; the differences include the helmet decoration, swapped shield holders and the motto of the Scottish Thistle Order. Other variants of the royal coat of arms are used by other members of the royal family and by the British government.
In 1944 Elizabeth received her first coat of arms. It consisted of a diamond shield with the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, supplemented by a silver tournament collar with three lobes (the middle dungaree with a Tudor rose, the other two with a George’s cross). In her function as Queen of one of the other 15 Commonwealth Realms, the Queen carries the respective national coats of arms.
- Coat of arms of Princess Elizabeth (1944–1947)
- Coat of arms of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh (1947–1952)
- Coat of arms of the Queen in the United Kingdom
- Coat of arms of the Queen in Scotland
Flags
The Royal Standard is the flag of the Queen in her capacity as head of state. On it is the coat of arms of the royal coat of arms, which means that the flag is actually a banner. It is hoisted on royal residences where the monarch is currently staying, and is also used on official vehicles such as.B the Bentley State sedan. The Royal Standard of the United Kingdom depicts the coat of arms symbols of England (double), Scotland and Northern Ireland.
When the Queen is in Scotland, a different Royal Standard is applied, on which the Scottish coat of arms symbol is depicted twice instead of the English coat of arms symbol. When she visits Australia, Jamaica, Canada or New Zealand, the Royal Standards of these countries are hoisted, which differ greatly from the British one. In those states of the Commonwealth of Nations that are not Commonwealth Realms, the Queen’s personal flag is used, consisting of a crowned “E” on a blue background surrounded by golden roses.
References (sources)
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