She was Britain’s longest reigning monarch, the one constant in a country that reinvented itself again and again. From postwar food rations to the digital age, she moved with the times, and the people moved with her. Through crises inside and outside her family, public affection for her never truly wavered. Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born in 1926 at her mother’s parents’ home on Bruton Street in London.
She was third in line to the throne, never expected to become queen. When her grandfather King George V died, her uncle Edward took the throne, but he abdicated just ten months later to marry an American divorcee. Her father became king, and suddenly her future was no longer in doubt. She met her future husband in 1934 at the wedding of Prince Philip’s cousin, Princess Marina of Greece, and the Duke of Kent, who was Elizabeth’s uncle.
By the end of the decade, war had broken out, and Philip was sent to sea. Elizabeth spent those war years in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, training as a mechanic and driver, a princess willing to get her hands dirty. On Victory in Europe Day, she chose to slip out of the palace and celebrate anonymously in the streets of London. Two years later, she married Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark.
The nation was battered by war, and the wedding lifted the country’s spirits. Elizabeth and Philip quickly started their family: Charles in 1948, then Anne, then Andrew and Edward over the following years. For a while, they enjoyed a relatively normal life away from the public spotlight. Then came the news that her father, King George VI, had died at just fifty-six.
Elizabeth and Philip were in Kenya, only days into a five-month tour of the Commonwealth. At twenty-five, the young woman who had never imagined she would become queen was now head of state. Her coronation took place a year later, in 1953, and Philip insisted it be televised for the world to see. As a mother, Elizabeth worried like any other.
On her silver wedding anniversary in 1972, she spoke lovingly of her family: “We had the good fortune to grow up in happy and united families. ” But while her own marriage endured, her children’s did not. In 1992, Andrew and Sarah Ferguson separated, Anne and Mark Phillips divorced, and Charles and Diana separated as well. A major fire engulfed much of Windsor Castle.
The Queen called it her “annus horribilis. ”
Worse was yet to come. In 1997, Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris. The public’s grief was overwhelming, and the Queen’s silence was noticed.
She stayed at Balmoral with William and Harry, protecting them from the public eye. Eventually she appeared and paid tribute on television: “She was an exceptional and gifted human being. ”
That dreadful year ended on a happier note with the Queen and Philip’s golden wedding anniversary. She paid her husband a rare public tribute, calling him “my strength and stay all these years.
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Outside family life, the Queen’s great love was horses. She rode, she watched, and she won at Ascot and Epsom. She also launched the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy, a conservation project planting forests across the Commonwealth’s fifty-three countries. She served more than six hundred charities as patron or president, hosted over one hundred state visits, and carried a busy diary of public engagements well into old age.
As the years passed, the milestones kept coming: a golden jubilee, a diamond jubilee, and in 2015 the moment she became the longest reigning monarch in British history. She appeared in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, and the younger generation of royals made headlines—sometimes for the right reasons, sometimes not. Her second son, Andrew, faced allegations of sexual assault by Virginia Giuffre, which he denied. She claimed she had been trafficked to have sex with Andrew when she was seventeen by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a friend of the prince.
The Queen stripped Andrew of his honorary military roles and royal patronages, and it was agreed he would stop using his HRH style. Then came Harry and Meghan’s shock announcement that they wanted out of the royal family. A summit at Sandringham produced a deal that left Harry without his role as Captain General of the Royal Marines and his position as Commonwealth Youth Ambassador. They moved to California and gave Oprah Winfrey a bombshell interview, revealing painful experiences and allegations of racism within the family.
Just as the world was emerging from the worst health crisis in a century, the Queen delivered only her fifth special television address of her reign. She reassured her people: “Better days will return. We will be with our friends again. We will be with our families again.
We will meet again. ”
One year and four days later, she was grieving her own loss. After seventy-three years of marriage, Prince Philip died at ninety-nine. Restrictions on funeral numbers applied to the royal family just as they did to everyone else.
The widowed Queen carried on with her engagements, sometimes conducted virtually on doctor’s orders. She continued to serve her country and the Commonwealth with an unwavering sense of duty, despite her personal grief, old age, and family troubles. She was a duty she did not choose, a destiny that befell her at age ten, a monarch through times of immense change. When she died, tributes poured in from around the world.
She was described as dignified but not distant, willing to have fun, whether with James Bond or Paddington Bear. She brought the monarchy into people’s lives and homes. One political leader confessed he choked up when asked to speak about her in the past tense. Another, who had met countless world leaders, said she was the most remarkable person he had ever met.
Her son, Charles, addressed the nation with a heavy heart: “It is my most sorrowful duty to announce to you the death of my beloved mother, the Queen. My mother gave an example of lifelong love and of selfless service. Her reign was unequaled in its duration, its dedication, and its devotion. ”
He was proclaimed King Charles III at St.
James’s Palace, and the crowds sang “God Save the King. ” The country that had known only Queen Elizabeth for over seventy years now faced a new chapter.
