Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II was queen of the United Kingdom and its other realms from 6 February 1952 until her death at Balmoral on 8 September 2022. Her reign lasted 70 years and 214 days, the longest in British history. She was succeeded by Charles III, who became head of state in 15 Commonwealth realms including the United Kingdom. In her reign she had fifteen prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss.

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born on 21 April 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in London, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York. At birth she stood third in line to the throne, and the prospect of her ever becoming queen seemed remote. In 1927 the family moved into its first permanent London home at 145 Piccadilly. Her sister Margaret Rose was born at Glamis Castle in August 1930 and was at first too young to be a playmate. Known within the family as Lilibet, she became heir to the throne at the age of ten.

Her first full-time governess was Marion Crawford, a Scot appointed to teach her when she was seven.

Constitutional history and law were taught twice a week by Henry Marten, then vice-provost of Eton College.

A Girl Guide company was formed at Buckingham Palace, and Elizabeth became second-in-command of the Kingfisher patrol.

Because her father was a younger son of King George V, her path to the throne opened only with Edward VIII's abdication. George V died on 20 January 1936 and her uncle David became King Edward VIII. Edward VIII signed the abdication papers on 10 December 1936 and his brother Bertie became George VI. She was named heiress presumptive, since only the birth of a brother could have displaced her. Her father was crowned on 12 May 1937 on the date originally fixed for Edward VIII.

She and Princess Margaret spent much of the war at Windsor Castle after their parents rejected evacuating them to Canada. On 13 October 1940 she gave her first broadcast, speaking in Children's Hour to children separated from their homes. Her father made her honorary colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and she inspected the regiment on her birthday. On her eighteenth birthday she became a counsellor of state, able to carry out state business if required.

At eighteen she was appointed an honorary second subaltern in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. By joining it she became the first woman in the royal family to serve in the armed forces in wartime. She trained as a driver and mechanic, and in July 1945 she was made an honorary junior commander in the ATS. On VE Day the princesses were allowed to join the celebrating crowds, and again on VJ Day in August.

Her engagement to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten was announced in July 1947 after he renounced his place in the Greek and Danish royal families. On 20 November 1947 she married him, a Royal Navy officer and her distant cousin, in Westminster Abbey. She was the tenth royal bride to be married there. On the eve of the wedding the King created Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich. Because of postwar austerity very little extra seating was provided, and about 2,000 guests attended. Her wedding dress, designed by Norman Hartnell, was of ivory silk decorated with 10,000 pearls, and only the wedding procession was filmed.

In November 1948 their first child, Charles Philip Arthur George, was born at Buckingham Palace, and in August 1950 their second child and only daughter, Princess Anne, was born at Clarence House. Prince Andrew was born in 1960 and Prince Edward in 1964 to complete a family of four children. In 1960 she created the hyphenated surname Mountbatten-Windsor for descendants not styled prince or princess. The couple had eight grandchildren and, at her death, twelve great-grandchildren.

George VI died in his sleep at Sandringham in the early hours of 6 February 1952, and Elizabeth was proclaimed sovereign throughout her realms. After a night watching wildlife from Treetops she learned of her father's death at Sagana Lodge in Kenya, and she was the first sovereign since George I in 1714 to be outside the realm when succeeding to the Crown. Aged 25 she made her accession declaration to the Privy Council at St James's Palace two days after her father died. Around 300 privy counsellors were summoned to St James's Palace for the Accession Council held that same evening, and after she returned from Kenya on 7 February the second part of the council met the next morning. The accession proclamation was read by Garter King of Arms Sir George Bellew at Friary Court.

The coronation took place on Tuesday 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey, with all arrangements made by the Earl Marshal and his Coronation Committee. A 200-strong labour force built the coronation theatre and tiered seating for 8,251 guests. Representatives of 129 nations and territories attended, and the ceremony was the first coronation to be televised. It was watched by 27 million people in the United Kingdom and heard on radio by another 11 million. About 30,000 service personnel took part in the coronation procession, including 16,100 from the Army.

The service was conducted in six parts, and the sovereign sat in St Edward's Chair, made in 1300 for Edward I. At 12.34pm she was crowned in the Coronation Chair with St Edward's Crown.

As head of state she opened parliamentary sessions, formally appointed prime ministers and represented the country abroad. In November 1952 she carried out her first state opening of Parliament after moving to Buckingham Palace.

The Commonwealth she headed is a voluntary association of 56 independent and equal countries home to about 2.7 billion people. The role of Head of the Commonwealth is symbolic, has no fixed term and is not hereditary, with future heads chosen by Commonwealth leaders. The London Declaration of 1949 marked the beginning of the modern Commonwealth, with members as free and equal partners. Thirty-three of the world's forty-two small states are Commonwealth members, each with a population of 1.5 million or less. Between 1971 and 2018 she missed only one Heads of Government Meeting.

From November 1953 the Queen and the Duke made a six-month tour of the Commonwealth, the first by a reigning monarch to Australia and New Zealand. Their arrival in Cape Town marked the first time a reigning British monarch had set foot in South Africa. She made the first royal British tour of the Indian subcontinent in fifty years and was the first reigning monarch to visit South America. She visited more than 100 countries, often accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh. In May 2011 she became the first British monarch to visit the Irish republic, and the first to set foot in Ireland since 1911.

In 1977 she celebrated her Silver Jubilee to mark twenty-five years on the throne. In 2002 she marked fifty years on the throne by visiting seventy cities and towns across Britain over thirty-eight days. Her Diamond Jubilee in 2012 was marked by a special Gazette supplement carrying addresses from parliament and privileged bodies. On 9 September 2015 she surpassed Queen Victoria's record and became the longest-reigning monarch in British history, and in 2022 she became the first sovereign to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking seventy years on the throne.

Elizabeth called 1992 her annus horribilis, a year in which two of her children's marriages broke down. Princess Anne divorced, and a fire gutted the royal residence at Windsor Castle. As the country struggled with recession she agreed to pay taxes on her private income, although personally exempt. After Diana's death in 1997 the Queen drew criticism for appearing reluctant to respond publicly, and Diana's funeral service took place at the Abbey before burial at her family home at Althorp. The Sovereign Grant Act came into force in April 2012 and sets how the grant paid by the Treasury is calculated.

Elizabeth died at Balmoral Castle on the afternoon of 8 September 2022, and Charles succeeded to the Crown. A period of national mourning ran from 8 September until the State Funeral on 19 September, and flags on royal residences, government buildings and military establishments were half-masted after her death.

Her state funeral was the first at the Abbey for a reigning monarch since George II. Before the funeral the Abbey's tenor bell tolled once a minute for 96 minutes, one for each year of her life, and the congregation of about two thousand included heads of state, governors-general and realm prime ministers.

She was laid to rest in the vault that held Prince Philip, her parents George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and her sister Margaret. That evening she was buried at a private family service in St George's Chapel beside the Duke of Edinburgh.