Elizabeth Mary

* 2022
* 1927

**Queen Elizabeth II** (Elizabeth Alexandra May;born April 21, 1926) s Queen of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms. She first and oldest daughter of  King George VI and  Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother

She had a younger sister Margaret Rose, Countess of Snowdon (1930 - 2002)

In November 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, and their marriage lasted 73 years until Philip's death in 2021. They had four children:  Prince Charles of Wales (b.1948),  Anne, Princess Royal(b.1950),  Prince Andrew, Duke of York (b.1960), and  Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex (b.1964).

## Early Life

### Birth

Elizabeth was born on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather, King George V. Her father, the Duke of York (later King George VI), was the second son of the King. Her mother, the Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother), was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. She was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfather's London house: 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair.

### Christening

She was baptised by the Anglican Archbishop of York, Cosmo Gordon Lang, in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace on 29 May, and named Elizabeth after her mother; Alexandra after her paternal great-grandmother, who had died six months earlier; and Mary after her paternal grandmother.

## Education

The two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford. Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature, and music. Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margaret's childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family. The book describes Elizabeth's love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, and her attitude of responsibility. Others echoed such observations: Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as "a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant." Her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as "a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved".

## Personal Life

### Marriage

lizabeth met her future husband, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, in 1934 and 1937. They were second cousins once removed through King Christian IX of Denmark and third cousins through Queen Victoria. After another meeting at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in July 1939, Elizabeth—though only 13 years old—said she fell in love with Philip, and they began to exchange letters. She was 21 when their engagement was officially announced on 9 July 1947.

The engagement was not without controversy; Philip had no financial standing, was foreign-born (though a British subject who had served in the Royal Navy throughout the Second World War), and had sisters who had married German noblemen with Nazi links. Marion Crawford wrote, "Some of the King's advisors did not think him good enough for her. He was a prince without a home or kingdom. Some of the papers played long and loud tunes on the string of Philip's foreign origin." Later biographies reported Elizabeth's mother had reservations about the union initially, and teased Philip as "The Hun". In later life, however, the Queen Mother told biographer Tim Heald that Philip was "an English gentleman".

Before the marriage, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish titles, officially converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, and adopted the style Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, taking the surname of his mother's British family. Just before the wedding, he was created Duke of Edinburgh and granted the style His Royal Highness. Elizabeth and Philip were married on 20 November 1947 at Westminster Abbey. They received 2,500 wedding gifts from around the world. Because Britain had not yet completely recovered from the devastation of the war, Elizabeth required ration coupons to buy the material for her gown, which was designed by Norman Hartnell. In post-war Britain, it was not acceptable for Philip's German relations, including his three surviving sisters, to be invited to the wedding. The Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, was not invited either.

After 73 years of marriage, Philip died on 9 April 2021, making Elizabeth the first British monarch to reign as a widow or widower since Victoria. She was reportedly at her husband's bedside when he died, and remarked in private that his death "left a huge void". Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Queen sat alone at Philip's funeral service, which evoked sympathy from people around the world. In her Christmas broadcast that year, the Queen paid a personal tribute to her "beloved Philip", saying, "That mischievous, inquiring twinkle was as bright at the end as when I first set eyes on him".

### Children

Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Prince Charles, on 14 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. A second child, Princess Anne, was born in 1950

## Tittle and Succession

* 21 April 1926 – 11 December 1936: *Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth of York*
* 11 December 1936 – 20 November 1947: *Her Royal Highness The Princess Elizabeth*
* 20 November 1947 – 6 February 1952: *Her Royal Highness The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh*
* Since 6 February 1952: *Her Majesty The Queen*

During her grandfather's reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the British throne, behind her uncle Edward and her father. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, as Edward was still young and likely to marry and have children of his own, who would precede Elizabeth in the line of succession. When her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second in line to the throne, after her father. Later that year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Consequently, Elizabeth's father became king, taking the regnal name George VI. Since Elizabeth had no brothers, she became heir presumptive. If her parents had had a later son, he would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession, which was determined by male-preference primogeniture at the time.