Biography: Queen Elizabeth II

Biography: Queen Elizabeth II

The long reign of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain shows a deep sense of responsibility and her commitment to the throne and the people.

For many, she became a fixed point in a rapidly changing world where British influence was waning, society was changing beyond recognition and the role of the monarchy itself was being questioned.

Even more remarkable is his success in maintaining the monarchy even in the most difficult times.

Moreover, at the time of his birth, hardly anyone would have thought that his destiny was linked to the throne.

The birth

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born on April 21, 1926 in a house near Berkeley Square in London.

She is the first child of George V's second son, Albert 'Duke of York', and his wife Elizabeth Bowes Lyon.

Both Elizabeth and her sister Margaret Rose, born in 1930, were educated at home and grew up in a loving family environment.

Elizabeth was very close to her father and grandfather, George V.

At the age of six, Elizabeth told her horse trainer that she wanted to be a 'country lady' with many horses and dogs.

It was said that he showed a remarkable sense of responsibility from a very young age.

Quoting then-future Prime Minister Winston Churchill, he was said to have 'unusual leadership in a child'.

Despite not attending school, Elizabeth showed proficiency in languages ​​and studied constitutional history extensively.

A special group 'Girl Guides Company' was formed so that she could mingle with girls of her age.

Increasing stress

After the death of George V in 1936, his eldest son, David, became Edward VIII.

But when he chose twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson as his wife, it was considered unacceptable on political and religious grounds.

He was deposed at the end of the year.

Reluctantly, the Duke of York became King George VI.

His accession to the throne gave Elizabeth a foretaste of what was in store for her in the coming days, and she later wrote that the occasion was 'very wonderful'.

Against the backdrop of rising tensions in Europe, the new king, along with his wife, Queen Elizabeth, embarked on a campaign to restore public faith in the monarchy.

That example was not lost on their eldest daughter.

In 1939, the 13-year-old princess accompanied the King and Queen to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth.

Along with his sister Margaret, he was accompanied by Prince Philip of Greece, one of the students at the college.

Obstacles

This was not the first time they had met. But it was the first time he had tasted Philip.

Prince Philip visits his royal relatives when he is on leave from the navy.

By 1944, however, when Elizabeth was 18, she had fallen in love with Philip.

She kept Philip's picture in her room and they exchanged letters with each other.

Towards the end of the war, the young princess joined the 'Auxiliary Territorial Service' (ATS), the women's branch of the British Army.

There she learned how to drive and maintain goods 'lorries'.

She was seen with the royal family at Buckingham Palace on 'Vee Day', a day celebrating the victory of the war in Europe.

At that time, thousands gathered on the main road 'The Mall' in front of the Rajdarbar to celebrate the victory in the war.

"We asked my parents if we could go out and have a look", she recalls, "I remember we were afraid to be introduced. I remember a whole bunch of strangers walking down 'Whitehall' (a road in the City of Westminster), one holding the other's hand. We were all there. We were engulfed in a whirlwind of joy and relief."

After the war, her desire to marry Prince Philip was thwarted.

The king was reluctant to lose his much-loved daughter, and Philip was challenged to break the establishment prejudice against her foreign ancestry.

Death of father

Eventually the couple's will won out and they were married on November 20, 1947 at 'Westminster Yabby'.

Philip became the 'Duke of Edinburgh' but did not stop serving in the navy.

The move to Malta, at least for a short time, helped the newlyweds live a relatively normal life.

Their first child, Charles, was born in 1948.

In 1950 Charles's sister Yan was born.

The king, who was suffering from the stress of the war years, succumbed to lung cancer due to his smoking habit.

In January 1952, 25-year-old Elizabeth and Philip left for their trip abroad.

Against the advice of the doctors, the king went to the airport to see the couple off.

That was the last time Elizabeth saw her father.

While in Kenya, Elizabeth heard of her father's death and immediately returned to London as the new queen.

She would later reminisce about that moment.

"In a way, I had no experience. My father passed away at a young age. So it was kind of sudden to take on this responsibility and do the best I could."

Australia and New Zealand

His coronation in June 1953 was televised live.

This was done despite the opposition of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Millions of people watched Queen Elizabeth's swearing-in on television.

The accession was seen by many commentators as the dawn of a new 'Elizabethan' era in a post-war austerity-ridden Britain.

After World War II, the British Empire came to an abrupt end and by the time the new Queen left for a long tour of Commonwealth countries in November 1953, many countries under British control, including India, had gained independence.

Elizabeth became the first sitting Queen to visit Australia and New Zealand.

It was estimated that about a third of Australians went to see him live.

Throughout the 1950s many countries became independent from British control.

Those countries were now united under a voluntary organization.

Many politicians saw the new commonwealth as a rival to the nascent European Economic Community.

To some extent British policy turned away from the Continent.

Personal criticism

But British influence further declined after the Suez Affair of 1956.

The incident showed that the commonwealth lacked the collective will to act in a unified manner in times of crisis.

The decision to send British troops to stop Egypt's attempt to nationalize the Suez Canal ended in an embarrassing setback.

Then Prime Minister Anthony Eden had to resign.

This incident plunged the queen into a political crisis.

The Conservative Party had no mechanism to elect a new leader and after a series of discussions the Queen invited Harold Macmillan to form a new government.

The Queen also found herself the subject of Lord Altrinam's personal criticism.

In an article published in the newspaper, he claimed that Elizabeth's court was 'very British' and 'high-class', and accused the queen of not being able to make even a simple speech without a script.

His comments led to widespread controversy and debate in the media.

Lord Ultrinam was also physically attacked in the street by members of a pro-monarchist group called the League of Empire Loyalists.

However, the incident showed that British society and attitudes towards the monarchy were changing rapidly.

Encouraged by her husband, the queen began to adopt new reforms.

The term 'The Monarchy' was successively replaced by 'The Royal Family'.

In 1963, when Harold Macmillan stepped down as Prime Minister, the Queen again found herself at the center of political controversy.

The Conservative Party had not yet established a mechanism to elect a new leader.

The Queen followed Macmillan's advice to replace him with the Home Secretary as Prime Minister.

It was a difficult time for the Queen.

Following the constitution and keeping the monarchy apart from the then government were the hallmarks of the queen's rule.

The Queen took seriously her right to be informed, to give her own advice and warnings.

But she never tried to get out of it.

That was the last situation in which Rani would be in such trouble.

The Conservatives finally ended the system of randomly selecting a new party leader and adopted a systematic method.

A stress-free mood

In the late 1960s, Buckingham Palace decided that affirmative action was needed to make the royal family less formal and more accessible.

The result was the historical documentary 'Royal Family'.

The BBC was given permission to film activities inside the palace.

There were pictures of Christmas trees being decorated, food being burnt on open fires, children being taken for a spin in the car.

Such routine activities of the royal family had never been seen before.

Critics claimed that Richard Custon's documentary had demystified the royal family.

But the documentary captured the relaxed mood of the time and helped restore public faith in the monarchy.

In 1977, Rajat Utsav was celebrated with great enthusiasm with street gatherings and programs across the country.

The monarchy seemed to have won the affection of the people.

Two years later, Britain had Margaret Thatcher as its first female Prime Minister.

It was sometimes said that there was a strained relationship between the female head of state and the female head of government.

Disputes and accidents

A complex area was the Queen's devotion to the Commonwealth of which she was head.

Elizabeth was well acquainted with African leaders and sympathized with their cause.

He is said to have found Thatcher's style 'unintelligible'--not just on the prime minister's opposition to sanctions against apartheid South Africa, but on many other fronts.

The queen's public duties continued year after year.

She became the first British royal to address a joint session of the US Parliament since the 1991 Gulf War.

President George W. Bush said he has been "a friend of liberty for as long as we can remember."

However, a year later a series of controversies and accidents affected the royal family.

The Queen's second son, the Duke of York, and his wife Sarah separated.

Princess Yan's marriage to Mark Phillips also ended in divorce.

The Prince and Princess of Wales at the time were also revealed to be extremely unhappy with each other, and they eventually separated as well.

Towards the end of the year, a fire broke out at Windsor Castle, the Queen's beloved residence.

It seemed to be the symbol of a palace in distress.

The situation was further complicated by a raging dispute over whether the taxpayer or the Queen herself should bear the cost of repairs.

Limitation between disputes

Rani described 1992 as a 'year full of misfortune' for her. In her address to the City of London, she emphasized the need for a more open monarchy in return for a less critical media.

"No institution, city, monarchy can expect to be free from the review of those who are loyal to him and support him. We are all part of the same thread of the national society. If politeness, humor and understanding are adopted, the review will be more effective".

The monarchy was on the defensive.

Buckingham Palace was opened to the public to raise money for Windsor's renovations and it was announced that the Queen and the Prince of Wales would pay tax on investment income.

Abroad, the hopes for the commonwealth during Elizabeth's early reign were not fulfilled.

With the new order in Europe, Britain turned its back on its old companions.

The Queen nevertheless saw the importance of the Commonwealth.

The Queen was extremely grateful when South Africa ended apartheid.

She showed that gratitude by visiting there in March 1995.

The queen tried to maintain the prestige of the monarchy at a time when there was a public debate in the country about whether or not the monarchy had any future.

Death of Diana, Princess of Wales

As Britain struggled to find a new destination, she tried to remain a reassuring figure.

But the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in a car crash in Paris in August 1997 shocked the monarchy and drew unusual criticism of the Queen herself.

People came to the palaces in London to pay their respects with flowers.

But the queen, who shows character to focus on a moment of national importance, seemed reluctant this time.

She also felt the need to comfort Diana's sons within the family as a loving grandmother.

Finally, she paid her respects to her daughter-in-law in a live broadcast and committed to the theme of the monarchy.

Damage and celebration

After the death of his mother and sister in 2002, there was confusion about whether to hold programs across the country to mark the 50th anniversary of his accession.

However, around one million people gathered in the evening to celebrate the 50th anniversary on 'The Mall', the street in front of Buckingham Palace.

In April 2006, thousands of well-wishers lined the streets of Windsor when the Queen made an unofficial public appearance on her 80th birthday.

In November 2007, Prince Philip and the Queen celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in front of 2,000 people at Westminster Abbey.

Another happy moment was in April 2011 when the Queen attended the wedding of her grandson William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine Middleton.

In a speech in Irish, she called for reconciliation.

Public Opinion Collection

A year later, during a visit to Ireland as part of the Diamond Jubilee, the Queen shook hands with former IRA commander Martin McGuinness.

The moment was poignant for the Queen, who lost her relative Lord Louis Mountbatten in an IRA bombing in 1979.

Millions of people took to the streets at the Diamond Festival and celebrated for a week in London.

The referendum on Scottish independence in September 2014 was a testing hour for the Queen.

Few have forgotten his speech in Parliament in 1977, showing his commitment to the United Kingdom.

Speaking to well-wishers in Balmoral on the eve of the Scottish referendum, she said she expected people to be very careful about their future.

In his public statement after the result, he seemed relieved that the United Kingdom was united.

However, she understood the changing political situation.

On 9 September 2015, she became the longest-reigning Queen in British history.

Along with this, she broke the history of her great-grandmother's grandmother, Queen Victoria.

She celebrated her 90th birthday in April 2016.

Although the monarchy is not as strong as it was at the beginning of the Queen's reign, the love and respect for the Queen is still found in the hearts of the British people.

Especially since the Duke of Edinburgh retired in 2017, she continues to carry out her public duties alone even in her nineties.

In the meantime, there was also work that caused tension in the family. Such as her husband's car accident, The Duke of York's friendship with a convicted American businessman and Prince Harry's obscurity about royal family life.

Still under the leadership of the Empress, who was keeping the situation under her control, these were some disturbing events.

During her Diamond Jubilee, she recalled the commitment she had made during her earlier tour of South Africa.

"I made a commitment at the age of 21 to dedicate my life to our people and prayed to God to enable me to keep my commitment. I have not taken a step back from that commitment I made in my youth and I do not regret it. "