Elizabeth II

**DeathElizabeth II** (born 21 April 1926) is queen of the United Kingdom and head of the commonwealth. She is the current reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Grenada, Belize, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, st Vincent and the grenadines, st Lucia, st Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda. She has also served as queen of Pakistan, South Africa, Uganda, Guyana, Ceylon, Fiji, Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi, The Gambia, Kenya, Trinidad and Tobago, Malta, Barbados, Sierra Leone, Tanganyika, and Mauritius. She is the second longest reigning monarch in history.

## Biography

Elizabeth was born in London on 21 April 1925. She was the eldest child of George, the Duke of York (later King George VI) and his wife Elizabeth, the duchess of York. She was baptized on 29 May at Buckingham Palace by Cosmo Gordon Lang. She was named after her mother.

### Early life

Elizabeth and her sister were educated at home by there governess, Marion Crawford. Elizabeth would later attend Eton College where she would learn French. On 20 January 1936 Elizabeth’s much beloved grandfather George V died with her uncle Edward VIII becoming king. Edward would abdicate shortly soon afterwards due to his interest in marrying Wallis Simpson leaving Elizabeth’s father as king and her as heir to the throne. In September 1939 Britain declared war on Germany with initial plans of evacuating Elizabeth and her sister to Canada to avoid the threat of bombing raids. The plan was turned down by her mother who moved them to Windsor Castle. Elizabeth joined the military as a colonel and as an honorary junior commander. Following the end of the war Elizabeth married prince Philip of Greece and Denmark on 20 November 1947.

### Reign

On 6 February, 1952 George VI died with Elizabeth becoming queen. She was the first female monarch since Queen Victoria and was made Elizabeth II at her coronation. when Elizabeth first became queen she was the head of state for multiple commonwealth nations. In 1965 she was declared queen of Rhodesia, however the title was never fully recognized. By 1973 Britain had joined the European economic community the predecessor to the European Union. In 1978 the communist leader of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu visited Britain with Elizabeth being particularly disappointed by his visit. It soon come to light that the queens surveyor of the pictures was a communist spy and that one of her family members had been killed in a trip to Ireland. As a result of the mass decolonization of Africa and the Caribbean, many new countries gained independence from Britain with Elizabeth being made queen for many of them. During the Falkland war one of her sons, prince Andrew fought in the army where he was nearly killed. 1992 was a rocky year for the queen as she was kicked as head of state for Mauritius and the royal family fell under mass criticism with Windsor Castle catching on fire and a string of divorces involving her multiple children. In 1994 she became the first British monarch to step foot on Russian land. In 2012 she held her diamond Jubilee marking her sixty years on the throne and would go on a tour of the United Kingdom to celebrate. In 2015 she became the longest serving monarch in British History and the longest serving queen in world History. In 2022 she held her platinum jubilee to celebrate 70 years on the throne.

### Death

on September 7th 2022 Buckingham Palace stated that Elizabeth had fallen ill and that she was under the close eye of doctors. On September 8th at 18:30 British summer time Elizabeth was pronounced dead with her eldest son Charles becoming king of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms (date of coronation to be announced).