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Queen Elizabeth II has since 1952 served as reigning monarch of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and numerous other realms and territories, as well as head of the Commonwealth, the group of 53 sovereign nations that includes many former British territories. Extremely popular for nearly all of her long reign, the queen is known for taking a serious interest in government and political affairs, apart from her ceremonial duties, and is credited with modernizing many aspects of the monarchy.
In September 2015, Elizabeth surpassed the record of 63 years and 216 days on the throne set by Queen Victoria (her great-great-grandmother) to become the longest-reigning British monarch in history.
When Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, the elder daughter of Prince Albert, Duke of York, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, was born on April 21, 1926, she apparently had little chance of assuming the throne, as her father was a younger son of King George V.
But in late 1936, her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry an American divorcée, Wallis Simpson. As a result, her father became King George VI, and 10-year-old “Lilibet” (as she was known within the family) became the heir presumptive to the throne.
Though she spent much of her childhood with nannies, Princess Elizabeth was influenced greatly by her mother, who instilled in her a devout Christian faith as well as a keen understanding of the demands of royal life. Her grandmother, Queen Mary, consort of King George V, also instructed Elizabeth and her younger sister Margaret in the finer points of royal etiquette.
Educated by private tutors, with an emphasis on British history and law, the princess also studied music and learned to speak fluent French. She trained as a Girl Guide (the British equivalent of the Girl Scouts) and developed a lifelong passion for horses.
As queen, she has kept many thoroughbred racehorses and frequently attended racing and breeding events. Elizabeth’s famous attachment to Pembroke Welsh corgis also began in childhood, and she would own more than 30 corgis over the course of her reign.
Elizabeth and Margaret spent much of World War II living apart from their parents in the Royal Lodge at Windsor Castle, a medieval fortress outside London. In 1942, the king made Elizabeth an honorary colonel in the 500 Grenadier Guards, a Royal Army regiment.
Two years later, he named her as a member of the Privy Council and the Council of State, enabling her to act on his behalf when he was out of the country.
In 1947, soon after the royal family returned from an official visit to South Africa and Rhodesia, they announced Elizabeth’s engagement to Prince Philip of Greece, her third cousin (both were great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert) and a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. She had set her sights on him when she was only 13, and their relationship developed through visits and correspondence during the war.
Though many in the royal circle viewed Philip as an unwise match due to his lack of money and foreign (German) blood, Elizabeth was determined and very much in love. She and Philip wed on November 20, 1947, at Westminster Abbey.
Their first son, Charles (Prince of Wales) was born in 1948; a daughter, Anne (Princess Royal) arrived two years later.
Elizabeth and Phillip were married for an extraordinary 73 years, until the Prince died in April 2021 at the age of 99.
The Coronation of Queen Lillbett.x
How the other family members live
The Stewart dynasty descended from King Robert I's daughter and her husband, Walter the Steward. Despite early unrest and weak government caused by several Stewart kings succeeding as minors, the dynasty flourished for over three centuries. During this time, Scotland moved forward to become a modern and prosperous nation. Stewart monarchs such as King James IV and VI were Renaissance patrons of artistic, scientific, commercial, religious and political endeavour, sponsoring figures including the poet Robert Henryson and humanist George Buchanan. Also of significance was the arrival in the mid-sixteenth century of the Reformation movement, bringing about the replacement of Catholic Mary Queen of Scots by her son King James VI. It was through the Stewart dynasty that the two thrones of England and Scotland - and later the governments - came to be united. The 'Marriage of the Thistle and the Rose' took place at Stirling Castle in 1503 between King James IV and Princess Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England. This union of the Scottish and English Royal families eventually led in 1603 to the succession of a Stewart (now with a change of spelling) to the throne of England.
Anne (r.1702-1714) Born in 1665, the younger daughter of James VII and II by his first wife, Anne Hyde, Queen Anne inherited the throne in 1702. She came to Scotland as a 15-year-old when her father was Lord High Commissioner at Holyroodhouse, enjoying the balls and entertainments, but poor health in later years meant that she never made the journey north again. She was married at 18 to Prince George of Denmark, whom she loved devotedly, but her 18 pregnancies all ended in miscarriage, stillbirth or the birth of babies who did not live beyond childhood. Only William, Duke of Gloucester survived his earliest years, but he suffered from hydrocephalus and died five days after his eleventh birthday. During Queen Anne's reign, Scotland and England found it increasingly difficult to co-exist peacefully, for their separate parliaments had conflicting foreign and economic policies. Eventually, the situation became so unstable that the Union of the Crowns itself seemed to be in danger. In 1701, England settled the succession of the Protestant Sophia of Hanover, granddaughter of James VI and I, but two years later the Scots declared that they were free to choose someone else, the implication being that they might select the exiled Jacobite claimant, James VII and II's son. The situation was untenable. After months of bitter debate, the anti-Unionists led by Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun were finally defeated and the Scottish Parliament agreed that henceforth the kingdoms of Scotland and England would be united as Great Britain, with one parliament. The Hanoverian succession was thereby recognised, there would in future be freedom of trade, the coinage, weights and measures would be uniform and Scotland would be represented in Parliament by 45 MPs and 16 elected peers. The Treaty of Union came into effect on 1 May 1707. Many Scots disliked the Treaty of Union, for they had favoured a federal rather than an incorporating union, and in the final years of Queen Anne's reign there was widespread disappointment when the hoped-for economic benefits were not immediately forthcoming. Moreover, the Jacobites continued to support the exiled Prince James Francis Edward. In 1714, Queen Anne died, the last Stuart monarch. Sophia of Hanover had died only a few weeks previously, and so her eldest son George, Elector of Hanover became George I of Great Britain.
Copyright © 2022 The Royal Dragon Court - All Rights Reserved.The Royal Dragon Court, The Dragon Legacy and The Dragon Cede. By Nicholas Devere & Abbe Devere.
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