Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II: 1926–2022: A celebration of her life and reign

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Even in her ninth decade the Queen was still accumulating historic firsts, notably in her state visit to Ireland in 2011 when she became the first reigning British monarch to visit the Republic for 100 years. After a century of tension, the Queen’s arrival in Dublin signified the normalisation of relations between the two countries. What parts of the being Queen do you think Queen Elizabeth enjoyed most? Do you think she found some of her duties less enjoyable? Do you think you would enjoy the duties of a King or Queen?

Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Prince Charles, in November 1948. One month earlier, the King had issued letters patent allowing her children to use the style and title of a royal prince or princess, to which they otherwise would not have been entitled as their father was no longer a royal prince. [54] A second child, Princess Anne, was born in August 1950. [55] When her father died in February 1952, Elizabeth—then 25 years old—became queen of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (known today as Sri Lanka), as well as head of the Commonwealth. Elizabeth reigned as a constitutional monarch through major political changes such as the Troubles in Northern Ireland, devolution in the United Kingdom, the decolonisation of Africa, and the United Kingdom's accession to the European Communities and withdrawal from the European Union. The number of her realms varied over time as territories gained independence and some realms became republics. As queen, Elizabeth was served by more than 170 prime ministers across her realms. Her many historic visits and meetings included state visits to China in 1986, to Russia in 1994, and to the Republic of Ireland in 2011, and meetings with five popes and fourteen US presidents. Meanwhile the Queen paced herself to take part, so far as she was able, in the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The Queen’s own secretariat, as small as it was efficient, continued to make household economies, but never enough to silence taunts of profligacy. Twenty years into the reign, a persistent Labour critic complained that the Queen Mother’s Civil List had just been raised by 35 per cent. He omitted to mention that during the same period his own parliamentary salary had more than quadrupled; or that a new car park for MPs at Westminster had cost more than twice the Queen’s then Civil List.

Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was born in 1921 at the royal summer house of Mon Repos, Corfu, the only son of Prince Andrew of Greece, a brother of King Constantine I. His mother was Princess Alice of Battenberg, whose brother Lord Louis Mountbatten had since 1917 borne the anglicised version of the family name. Princess Elizabeth & Prince Philip (front row center) pose with other family members as well as members of European nobility after their wedding CREDIT: British Combine/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Significant events included Elizabeth's coronation in 1953 and the celebrations of her Silver, Golden, Diamond, and Platinum jubilees in 1977, 2002, 2012, and 2022, respectively. Although she faced occasional republican sentiment and media criticism of her family—particularly after the breakdowns of her children's marriages, her annus horribilis in 1992, and the death in 1997 of her former daughter-in-law Diana—support for the monarchy in the United Kingdom remained consistently high throughout her lifetime, as did her personal popularity. Elizabeth died aged 96 at Balmoral Castle in September 2022, and was succeeded by her eldest son, CharlesIII. As Queen she knew how to represent Britain; as a woman she was self-effacing, asking little for herself on a personal level. Duty was her watchword, and at the end of a long life of duty fulfilled, her achievements were remarkable. Even in the nursery she brought poise to royal duties. One morning at Windsor Castle, the officer commanding the guard strode across to where a pram stood, containing Princess Elizabeth: “Permission to march off, please, Ma’am.” There was an inclination of a small bonneted head and a wave of a tiny paw.

In the last 70 years there has also been much discussion about the environment and concern regarding climate change. In 2021 it was the Queen who welcomed scientists and world leaders to the United Nations Climate Change Conference - or COP26 - held in the UK.

Teaching about the latest events?

It did not escape notice that Churchill had championed King Edward VIII’s marriage to Mrs Simpson in 1936 or that Eden himself had divorced and remarried, as had other members of both Cabinets. The Queen was unable (and perhaps unwilling) to shield her sister from constitutional pressures. Such was the custom of the day. Nearly 40 years later, her only daughter was to divorce and remarry, leaving scarcely a ripple – and more marital splits would follow. Elizabeth was crowned Queen during the Coronation of 1953. And people all around the country were able to join in and watch it because of a recent invention: the television. In most streets, only one or two families had one, so everyone else crowded in to try and get a glimpse. But there were complaints that in preferring Home to Butler, who was thought to enjoy wider support in the constituencies, Macmillan’s advice to the Queen had been tainted by personal animus. As a result, the argument continued, the Queen had selected as prime minister a party leader less well qualified than Butler to win the next general election. One respected historian of the Left, Ben Pimlott, wrote in his life of the Queen (1996) that “it was the biggest political misjudgment of her reign”.

She had been in Downing Street for no more than six months when she weakened a cultural link with Commonwealth countries by imposing higher fees on overseas students than those paid by British undergraduates. More violent collisions followed, none of which can have failed to dismay the Head of the Commonwealth. In 1979 the Thatcher government opposed economic sanctions against Ian Smith’s illegal government in Rhodesia; and in 1986 again provoked widespread Commonwealth condemnation by its reluctance to impose sanctions on South Africa, still under the rule of apartheid. Both Queen and Prime Minister kept their counsel, but their supposed differences were common knowledge. The Queen, happiest when at Windsor or her private residences of Sandringham and Balmoral, was not wedded to a life of luxury. So her vigil was prolonged. The war ended and with her sister she was swept off on a three-month tour of South Africa with the King and Queen in the hard winter of 1947. She spent her 21st birthday in Cape Town and broadcast her moving message of dedication to the Imperial Commonwealth. “There she goes,” the King said to Field Marshal Smuts, “alone as usual, an extraordinary girl.” The Prince harboured earlier resentments. A kind, gentle and polite child, he was deeply bruised by the bullying he had endured at Gordonstoun. In reply to his pleas for help, his father had simply told him to grin and bear it – the habitual reply to generations of small boys at public schools. Neither parent perhaps had responded with the creative sympathy required to intervene discreetly on his behalf while preserving the schoolboy code of honour.

1992 - The Queen has her annushorribilis

Abroad, the Queen was welcomed with something approaching ecstasy, particularly in countries that had dispensed with their own monarchies. During one state visit to France, she happened to mention to her hosts in the Louvre that she had never seen the Mona Lisa. Within minutes, two attendants staggered in with the picture, which they exhibited on bended knees. Rarely did she meet with discourtesy. The King of Morocco kept her waiting for an hour in a torrid desert while he lounged in his air-conditioned caravan; and even India forgot good manners in retaliation for inept remarks on Kashmir by a British foreign secretary who accompanied Her Majesty. The Queen, professional that she was, took it in her stride. The most virulent republicans conceded that it was impossible to imagine any other figure who could have carried the burdens of the Head of State so effectively and graciously, or provided such a unifying presence.

The Cambridges paid a visit to several Caribbean islands where their welcome was not as warm as might normally have been expected. And the Queen’s health remained indifferent, though the main problem was one of mobility; she retained all her mental sharpness, continuing to work though rarely seen in public. Lieutenant Mountbatten was required to change not only his nationality and his status but also his religion. In October 1947 he formally relinquished membership of the Greek Orthodox Church and was received into the Church of England by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher.Some of her older subjects wondered whether the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, who worshipped each Sunday wherever she happened to be, could not have instilled in her restless brood a stronger commitment to their marriage vows. Others, more worldly-wise, accepted that a national failure of one in three marriages could not reasonably exclude even the most privileged family in the kingdom. The Queen has made sure to keep up with these changes too; for example, with social media accounts for herself and the Royal Family. Unable to curb the trade unions on whom he had depended for his political muscle or to mitigate the “winter of discontent” they imposed on the nation, Callaghan was defeated at the general election of 1979 by Margaret Thatcher, who four years earlier had succeeded Edward Heath as leader of the Conservative Party.