new biography queen elizabeth ii

Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II was the longest-reigning monarch in British history, sitting on the throne for 71 years. She was succeeded by King Charles III in 2022.

Latest News: One Year Since Her Death

Who was queen elizabeth ii, quick facts, early life and family tree, ascension to the crown and coronation, husband prince philip, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, family scandals and losses, death and funeral.

On the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, King Charles shared an unreleased photo of the late queen. “In marking the first anniversary of Her late Majesty’s death and my Accession, we recall with great affection her long life, devoted service and all she meant to so many of us,” he said in a statement. Additionally, Prince William and Princess Kate attended a private church service in Wales to commemorate her life, and Prince Harry visited the chapel at Windsor Castle , where the queen is buried. Planning for a memorial to Elizabeth is underway. The targeted unveiling is 2026, the year she would have turned 100.

Queen Elizabeth II became queen of the United Kingdom on February 6, 1952, at age 25 and was crowned on June 2, 1953. She was the mother of Prince Charles , who ascended to the throne after her death, as well as the grandmother of Princes William and Harry . As the longest-serving monarch in British history, she tried to make her reign more modern and sensitive to a changing public while maintaining traditions associated with the crown. Elizabeth died on September 8, 2022, at age 96.

FULL NAME: Elizabeth Alexandra Mary BORN: April 21, 1926 DIED: September 8, 2022 BIRTHPLACE: London, England, United Kingdom PARENTS: King George VI and Queen Mother Elizabeth SPOUSE: Prince Philip CHILDREN: King Charles III , Princess Anne , Prince Andrew , and Prince Edward ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus

Queen Elizabeth II was born Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary on April 21, 1926, in London. Her parents were then known as the Duke and Duchess of York. Prince Albert—later known as King George VI —was the second son of Queen Mary and King George V . Her mother was Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon .

Elizabeth had ties with most of the monarchs in Europe. Her British ancestors include Queen Victoria (ruled 1837 to 1901) and King George III (ruled 1760 to 1820).

At the time of her birth, most people didn’t realize Elizabeth would someday become the queen of the United Kingdom. Nicknamed Lilibet, she got to enjoy the first decade of her life with all the privileges of being a royal without the pressures of being the heir apparent.

Elizabeth’s father and mother divided their time between a home in London and Royal Lodge, the family’s home on the grounds of Windsor Great Park. Elizabeth and her younger sister, Margaret , were educated at home by tutors. Academic courses included French, mathematics, and history, along with dancing, singing, and art lessons.

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Elizabeth and her sister largely stayed out of London, having been relocated to Windsor Castle. From there she made the first of her famous radio broadcasts in 1940, with this particular speech reassuring the children of Britain who had been evacuated from their homes and families. The 14-year-old princess, showing her calm and firm personality, told them “that in the end, all will be well; for God will care for us and give us victory and peace.”

Elizabeth soon started taking on other public duties. Appointed colonel-in-chief of the Grenadier Guards by her father, Elizabeth made her first public appearance inspecting the troops in 1942. She also began to accompany her parents on official visits within Britain.

In 1945, Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service to help in the war effort. She trained side-by-side with other British women to be an expert driver and mechanic. While her volunteer work only lasted a few months, it offered Elizabeth a glimpse into a different, non-royal world. She had another vivid experience outside of the monarchy when she and Margaret were allowed to mingle anonymously among the citizenry on Victory in Europe Day .

When Elizabeth’s grandfather King George V died in 1936, his eldest son (Elizabeth’s uncle) became King Edward VIII . Edward, however, was in love with American divorcée Wallis Simpson and had to choose between the crown and his heart . In the end, Edward chose Simpson and abdicated the crown.

The event changed the course of Elizabeth’s life, making her the heir presumptive to the British crown. Her father was crowned King George VI in 1937, taking on the name George to emphasize continuity with his father. Her mother became Queen Elizabeth.

Fifteen years later, the monarchy changed hands again when King George died. The younger Elizabeth assumed the responsibilities of the ruling monarch on February 6, 1952. At that point, the 25-year-old became Queen Elizabeth II, and her mother became Queen Mother.

Elizabeth was crowned on June 2, 1953, in Westminster Abbey, at the age of 27. For the first time ever, the coronation ceremony was broadcast on television, allowing people from across the globe to witness the pomp and spectacle of the event.

Elizabeth married her distant cousin Philip Mountbatten (a surname adopted from his mother’s side) on November 20, 1947, at London’s Westminster Abbey.

Elizabeth first met Philip, son of Prince Andrew of Greece, when she was only 13. She was smitten with him from the start. The two kept in touch over the years and eventually fell in love.

They made an unusual pair. Elizabeth was quiet and reserved, while Philip was boisterous and outspoken. Her father, King George, was hesitant about the match because, while Mountbatten had ties to both the Danish and Greek royal families, he didn’t possess great wealth and was considered by some to have a rough personality.

At the time of their wedding, Great Britain was still recovering from the ravages of World War II, and Elizabeth collected clothing coupons to get fabric for her gown.

The family took on the name Windsor, a move pushed by her mother and Prime Minister Winston Churchill that caused tension with her husband. In 1960, she reversed course, issuing orders that her descendants who didn’t carry royal titles (or needed last names for legal purposes such as weddings) would use the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. Over the years, Philip inspired numerous public relations headaches with his off-the-cuff, controversial comments and rumors of possible infidelities.

Philip died on April 9, 2021, at age 99. Days later, Prince Andrew told the media Queen Elizabeth described his death “as having left a huge void in her life.” She had previously said he was her “strength and stay.”

Elizabeth and Philip wasted no time in producing an heir: Their son Charles was born in 1948, the year after their wedding, and their daughter, Anne , arrived in 1950. As queen, Elizabeth had two more children—sons Andrew and Edward —in 1960 and 1964, respectively.

King Charles III

In 1969, Elizabeth officially made Charles her successor by granting him the title of Prince of Wales. Hundreds of millions of people tuned in to see the ceremony on television.

In 1981, Charles, then 32, wed 19-year-old Diana Spencer, who became known as Princess Diana . The wedding drew enormous crowds in the streets of London, and millions watched the proceedings on television. Public opinion of the monarchy was especially strong at that time. Later, rumors surfaced that he was pressured into the marriage by his family.

Now King Charles III, he is married to Queen Camilla .

Princess Anne

Princess Anne began working as a member of the royal family when she was 18 in 1969 and continues today. She is also heavily involved in charity work. A noted equestrian, Anne competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Her mother opened the Games that year, and the rest of the royal family traveled to support Anne.

Previously married to Captain Mark Phillips, she and her current husband, Timothy Laurence, wed in 1992.

Prince Andrew

Andrew was the first child born to a reigning monarch in more than 100 years. In 1979, he joined the British Royal Navy, became a helicopter pilot, and served during the Falkland War in the early 1980s. He became the Duke of York after marrying Sarah Ferguson , though the couple later divorced. Following scandal, Andrew stepped back from public duties in his royal capacity in 2019, a decision that was made permanent in 2022.

Prince Edward

The queen’s youngest child, Edward, worked in theater and television production for many years, at one point through his own production company. Since 2002, he has worked full-time supporting his mother and now brother. Edward is married to Sophie Rhys-Jones. He became the Duke of Edinburgh—a title previously held by his father—in March 2023.

Queen Elizabeth had eight grandchildren and was great-grandmother to 12 in her lifetime.

Her most well-known grandchildren are Charles and Diana’s sons, Prince William , who became second-in-line to the throne at his birth in 1982, and Prince Harry , born in 1984. Elizabeth emerged as a devoted grandmother to her grandsons. Prince William has said that she offered invaluable support and guidance as he and Kate Middleton planned their 2011 wedding.

In addition to Princes William and Harry, the queen’s other grandchildren are: Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, born to Princess Anne; Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York, born to Prince Andrew; and Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn, born to Prince Edward. Peter is Elizabeth’s oldest grandchild; he was born in 1977, four years before his sister and five years before Prince William.

William and Kate have three children, who are Elizabeth’s great-grandchildren. The Prince and Princess of Wales welcomed Prince George Alexander Louis in July 2013, Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana in May 2015, and Prince Louis Arthur Charles in April 2018. All three are currently in the line of succession directly after their father.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and his wife, Meghan Markle gave the queen two more great-grandchildren with the birth of their son, Prince Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor , and daughter, Princess Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor , in May 2019 and June 2021, respectively.

Elizabeth’s other great-grandchildren include Savannah Phillips, Isla Phillips, Mia Tindall, Lena Tindall, August Brooksbank, Lucas Tindall, and Sienna Mozzi.

Elizabeth’s long and mainly peaceful reign was marked by vast changes in her people’s lives, in her country’s power, how Britain is viewed abroad, and how the monarchy is regarded and portrayed. As a constitutional monarch, Elizabeth didn’t weigh in on political matters, nor did she reveal her political views. However, she conferred regularly with her prime ministers.

When Elizabeth became queen, post-war Britain still had a substantial empire, dominions, and dependencies. However, during the 1950s and 1960s, many of these countries achieved independence, and the British Empire evolved into the Commonwealth of Nations. Elizabeth II thus made visits to other countries as head of the Commonwealth and a representative of Britain, including a groundbreaking trip to Germany in 1965. She became the first British monarch to make a state visit there in more than five decades.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Elizabeth continued to travel extensively. In 1973, she attended the Commonwealth Conference in Ottawa, Canada and, in 1976, traveled to the United States for the 200 th anniversary celebration of America’s independence from Britain. More than a week later, she was in Montreal to open the Summer Olympics. In 1979, she traveled to Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman, which garnered international attention and widespread respect.

In 1982, Elizabeth worried about her second son, Prince Andrew , who served as a helicopter pilot in the British Royal Navy during the Falklands War. Britain went to war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, a clash that lasted for several weeks. While more than 250 British soldiers died in the conflict, Prince Andrew returned home safe and well, much to his mother’s relief.

In 2011, Elizabeth showed that the crown still had symbolic and diplomatic power when she became the first British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland since 1911 (when all of Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom).

As queen, Elizabeth modernized the monarchy, dropping some of its formalities and making certain sites and treasures more accessible to the public. As Britain and other nations struggled financially, Britain abolished the Civil List in 2012, which was a public funding system of the monarchy dating back roughly 250 years. The royal family continues to receive some government support, but the queen cut back on spending.

Also in 2012, Elizabeth celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, marking 60 years as queen. As part of the jubilee festivities, a special BBC concert was held on June 4 featuring the likes of Shirley Bassey , Paul McCartney , Tom Jones , Stevie Wonder , and Kylie Minogue. Elizabeth was surrounded by family at this historic event, including her husband Philip, son Charles, and grandsons Harry and William.

On September 9, 2015, she surpassed her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria as Britain’s longest-ruling monarch, who reigned for 63 years.

Despite the occasional call to step aside for Charles, Elizabeth remained steadfast in her royal obligations as she passed her 90 th birthday in 2016. She continued making more than 400 engagements per year, maintaining her support of hundreds of charitable organizations and programs.

On February 6, 2017, the queen celebrated 65 years on the throne, the only British monarch to ever celebrate her Sapphire Jubilee. The date also marks the anniversary of the death of her father. The queen chose to spend the day quietly at Sandringham, her country estate north of London, where she attended a church service. In London, there were royal gun salutes at Green Park and at the Tower of London to mark the occasion. The Royal Mint also issued eight new commemorative coins in honor of the queen’s Sapphire Jubilee.

Later that year, the monarchy took what was considered a major step toward transitioning to the next generation: On November 12, Charles handled the traditional Remembrance Sunday duty of placing a wreath at the Cenotaph war memorial, as the queen watched from a nearby balcony.

In August 2019, Elizabeth made a rare intrusion into political matters when she agreed to a request by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to suspend Parliament until October 14, less than three weeks before Britain’s planned departure from the European Union.

In 2022, the nation celebrated Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee year. Another milestone for the monarchy, it marked her 70 years on the throne.

Relationship With Prime Ministers

Elizabeth had 15 prime ministers placed into power during her reign, with the queen and PM having a weekly, confidential meeting. (Elizabeth also met about a quarter of all the U.S. presidents in history, most recently receiving Joe Biden for a state visit in June 2021.)

She enjoyed a father-figure relationship with the iconic Winston Churchill and was later able to loosen up a bit and be somewhat informal with Labour leaders Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. In contrast, she and Margaret Thatcher had a very formal, distant relationship, with the PM tending to be a grating lecturer to the queen on a variety of issues.

Tony Blair saw certain concepts around the monarchy as somewhat outdated, though he did appreciate Elizabeth making a public statement after the death of Princess Diana .

Later, Conservative leader David Cameron, who was Elizabeth’s fifth cousin removed, enjoyed a warm rapport with the queen. He apologized in 2014 for revealing in a conversation that she was against the Scottish referendum to seek independence from Great Britain.

Theresa May was described as being tight-lipped about Brexit plans to leave the European Union, with a rumor circulating that Elizabeth was perturbed over not being informed about future exit strategies.

Two days before her death, Elizabeth welcomed her final prime minister, Liz Truss , at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The September 6, 2022, meeting was her final act as monarch.

Threats to Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Family

Elizabeth worked tirelessly to protect the image of the monarchy and to prepare for its future. But she saw the monarchy come under attack during her lifetime. The once-revered institution weathered a number of storms, including death threats against the royal family.

In 1979, Elizabeth suffered a significant personal loss when Lord Mountbatten, her husband’s uncle, died in a terrorist bombing. Mountbatten and several members of his family were aboard his boat off the west coast of Ireland when the vessel exploded on August 27. He and three others, including one of his grandsons, were killed. The Irish Republican Army, which opposed British rule in Northern Ireland, took responsibility for the attack.

In June 1981, Elizabeth herself had a dangerous encounter. She was riding in the Trooping the Colour, a special military parade to celebrate her official birthday when a man in the crowd pointed a gun at her. He fired, but fortunately, the gun was loaded with blanks. Other than receiving a good scare, the queen wasn’t hurt.

Elizabeth had an even closer call the following year when an intruder broke into Buckingham Palace and confronted her in her bedroom. When the press got wind of the fact that Prince Philip was nowhere to be seen during this incident, they speculated about the state of the royal marriage.

The marriage of Elizabeth’s son Charles to Diana made headlines for years before the couple announced their separation in 1992, followed by their formal divorce in 1996. In the wake of Diana’s death in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997, Elizabeth experienced intense media scrutiny. Her incredibly popular ex-daughter-in-law had been called the “People’s Princess.”

The queen was at her Balmoral estate in Scotland with Charles and his sons with Diana, Prince William and Prince Harry, at the time. For days, Elizabeth remained silent while the country mourned Diana’s passing, and she was sharply criticized for her lack of response.

Stories circulated that the queen didn’t want to give Diana a royal funeral, which only fueled public sentiment against the monarch. Nearly a week after Diana’s death, Elizabeth returned to London and issued a statement on the late princess.

Elizabeth also initially objected to the relationship between her son Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles . Charles and Camilla had dated years before he met his family, but the relationship ended under family pressure, only to resume during Charles and Diana’s marriage. Known to be a stickler for ceremony and tradition, she eventually showed signs of softening her stance over the years. When Charles and Camilla wed in 2005, Elizabeth and Prince Philip didn’t attend the civil ceremony but attended a religious blessing and held a reception in their honor at Windsor Castle.

In 1992, another of Elizabeth’s children, Prince Andrew, ended up in the tabloids after photos emerged of his wife, Sarah Ferguson , and another man engaged in romantic activity. The couple divorced soon after. Along with the dissolution of Charles’ and Andrew’s marriages, Princess Anne divorced her husband Mark Phillips that year. More bad news came when a fire broke out at Windsor Castle in November. The 15-hour blaze destroyed 115 rooms, though it only consumed two pieces of art from the queen’s valuable private collection. The year became known as her “annus horribilis.”

After the start of the 21 st century, Elizabeth experienced two great losses. She said goodbye to both her sister, Margaret, and her mother in 2002, the same year she celebrated her Golden Jubilee that marked her 50 th year on the throne. Margaret, known for being more of an adventurous soul than other royals and who was barred from marrying an early love, died in February after suffering a stroke. Only a few weeks later, Elizabeth’s mother died at Royal Lodge on March 30 at the age of 101.

In November 2017, the media reported the queen had some $13 million invested in offshore accounts. The news came following the leak of the so-called “Paradise Papers” to a German newspaper, which shared the documents with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The Duchy of Lancaster, which holds assets for the queen, confirmed that some of its investments were overseas accounts but insisted they were all legitimate.

Also in 2017, the former owner of the lingerie company Rigby & Peller, which had serviced Elizabeth for more than 50 years, wrote a tell-all autobiography that included some of her experiences with the royal family. Although the author insisted that “the book doesn’t contain anything naughty,” the queen responded in early 2018 by revoking Rigby & Peller’s royal warrant.

In 2019, Prince Andrew was forced to step down from public duties, following a media firestorm. Andrew had courted years of scandal surrounding his controversial business pursuits and friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein ,

Just weeks later, in January 2020, the family again found themselves in the spotlight, following the bombshell decision by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle , the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, to step away from their roles as senior royals.

For much of her life, the queen surrounded herself with dogs. She was especially known for her love of corgis, owning more than 30 descendants of the first corgi she received as a teenager, until the death of the final one, Willow, in 2018.

Elizabeth was also a horse enthusiast who bred thoroughbreds and attended racing events for many years.

Not one for the spotlight, Elizabeth liked quiet pastimes. She enjoyed reading mysteries, working on crossword puzzles, and reportedly, even watching wrestling on television.

Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully at her Balmoral estate in Scotland on September 8, 2022, at 3:10 p.m. local time. She was 96 years old. Her official cause of death was old age, according to her death certificate.

The public was first aware of the queen’s ill health earlier that day when Buckingham Palace issued at statement around 12:30 p.m. that said, “Following further evaluation this morning, the queen’s doctors are concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision.”

Soon, members of the royal family began traveling to see the queen. At the time of her death, Prince Charles and Camilla, as well as Princess Anne were at the castle. William, Harry, Andrew, Edward, and Sophie arrived later in the evening. Kate Middleton didn’t travel to say her final goodbyes, citing the recent start of the school year for her children. Meghan Markle was also absent.

Her death was publicly announced at 6:30 p.m. After, newly minted King Charles issued a statement that said:

The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held.

On September 14, Elizabeth’s coffin traveled from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall by horse-drawn carriage and lay in state for four days. The day of her state funeral, September 19, was declared a bank holiday. The funeral was held at Westminster Abbey and ended with two minutes of silence, observed there and throughout the United Kingdom.

President Joe Biden , First Lady Jill Biden , French President Emmanuel Macron , and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among the dozens of world leaders and 2,000 total people in attendance. Millions more watched or listened in; the funeral was broadcast on TV and radio and streamed on YouTube. Elizabeth’s pony and her corgis, Muick and Sandy, watched the procession, as did tens of thousands of people.

A private burial came later that day. Elizabeth was buried with Prince Philip at the King George VI Memorial Chapel.

• I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.
• 1992 is not a year I shall look back on with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an “annus horribilis.”
• When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat; instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future.
• Discrimination still exists. Some people feel that their own beliefs are being threatened. Some are unhappy about unfamiliar cultures. They all need to be reassured that there is so much to be gained by reaching out to others; that diversity is indeed a strength and not a threat.
• Grief is the price we pay for love.
• I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give you laws or administer justice, but I can do something else, I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.
• In remembering the appalling suffering of war on both sides, we recognize how precious is the peace we have built in Europe since 1945.
• We lost the American colonies because we lacked the statesmanship to know the right time and the manner of yielding what is impossible to keep.

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Queen Elizabeth II

By: History.com Editors

Updated: April 25, 2023 | Original: May 23, 2018

Queen Elizabeth II served from 1952 to 2022 as reigning monarch of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and numerous other realms and territories, as well as head of the Commonwealth, the group of 53 sovereign nations that includes many former British territories. Extremely popular for nearly all of her long reign, the queen was known for taking a serious interest in government and political affairs, apart from her ceremonial duties, and was credited with modernizing many aspects of the monarchy.

Childhood and Education of a Princess

When Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, the elder daughter of Prince Albert, Duke of York, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, was born on April 21, 1926, she apparently had little chance of assuming the throne, as her father was a younger son of King George V.

But in late 1936, her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry an American divorcée, Wallis Simpson. As a result, her father became King George VI, and 10-year-old “Lilibet” (as she was known within the family) became the heir presumptive to the throne.

Though she spent much of her childhood with nannies, Princess Elizabeth was influenced greatly by her mother, who instilled in her a devout Christian faith as well as a keen understanding of the demands of royal life. Her grandmother, Queen Mary, consort of King George V, also instructed Elizabeth and her younger sister Margaret in the finer points of royal etiquette.

Educated by private tutors, with an emphasis on British history and law, the princess also studied music and learned to speak fluent French. She trained as a Girl Guide (the British equivalent of the Girl Scouts) and developed a lifelong passion for horses.

As queen, she kept many thoroughbred racehorses and frequently attended racing and breeding events. Elizabeth’s famous attachment to Pembroke Welsh corgis also began in childhood, and she owned more than 30 corgis over the course of her reign.

Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth

Elizabeth and Margaret spent much of World War II living apart from their parents in the Royal Lodge at Windsor Castle, a medieval fortress outside London. In 1942, the king made Elizabeth an honorary colonel in the 500 Grenadier Guards, a Royal Army regiment.

Two years later, he named her as a member of the Privy Council and the Council of State, enabling her to act on his behalf when he was out of the country.

In 1947, soon after the royal family returned from an official visit to South Africa and Rhodesia, they announced Elizabeth’s engagement to Prince Philip of Greece, her third cousin (both were great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert) and a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. She had set her sights on him when she was only 13, and their relationship developed through visits and correspondence during the war.

Though many in the royal circle viewed Philip as an unwise match due to his lack of money and foreign (German) blood, Elizabeth was determined and very much in love. She and Philip wed on November 20, 1947 , at Westminster Abbey .

Their first son, Charles (Prince of Wales, then King Charles III ) was born in 1948; a daughter, Anne (Princess Royal) arrived two years later. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's third child and second son, Prince Andrew, was born in 1960 and the couple's youngest child, Prince Edward, was born in 1964.

Elizabeth and Phillip were married for an extraordinary 73 years, until the Prince died in April 2021 at the age of 99.

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Queen Elizabeth II: 15 Key Moments in Her Reign

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Queen Elizabeth’s First Televised Broadcast Presented a New Type of Monarch

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Queen Elizabeth's Coronation

With her father’s health declining in 1951, Elizabeth stepped in for him at various state functions. After spending that Christmas with the royal family, Elizabeth and Philip left on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, making a stopover in Kenya en route.

They were in Kenya on February 6, 1952, when King George VI succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 56, and his 25-year-old daughter became the sixth woman in history to ascend to the British throne. Her formal coronation as Queen Elizabeth II took place on June 2, 1953, in Westminster Abbey.

In the first decade of her reign, Elizabeth settled into her role as queen, developing a close bond with Prime Minister Winston Churchill (the first of 15 prime ministers she would work with during her reign), weathering a foreign affairs disaster in the Suez Crisis of 1956 and making numerous state trips abroad.

In response to pointed criticism in the press, the queen embraced steps to modernize her own image and that of the monarchy, including televising her annual Christmas broadcast for the first time in 1957.

Elizabeth and Philip had two more children, Andrew (born 1960) and Edward (born 1964). In 1968, Charles was formally invested as the Prince of Wales , marking his coming of age and the beginning of what would be a long period as king-in-waiting.

Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, marking her 25 years on the throne, proved a bright spot in an era of economic struggles. Always a vigorous traveler, she kept a punishing schedule to mark the occasion, traveling some 56,000 miles around the Commonwealth, including the island nations Fiji and Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, the British West Indies and Canada.

Royal Scandals

In 1981, all eyes were on the royal family once again as Prince Charles wed Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Though the couple soon welcomed two sons, William and Harry , their marriage quickly imploded, causing considerable public embarrassment for the queen and the entire royal family.

In 1992, Elizabeth’s 40th year on the throne and her family’s “Annus Horribilis” (according to a speech she gave that November) both Charles and Diana and Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah Ferguson, separated, while Princess Anne and her husband, Mark Phillips, divorced.

A fire also broke out at Windsor Castle that same year, and amid public outcry over the use of government funds to restore the royal residence, Queen Elizabeth agreed to pay taxes on her private income. This was not required by British law, though some earlier monarchs had done so as well.

At the time, her personal fortune was estimated at $11.7 billion. In another modernizing measure, she also agreed to open the state rooms at Buckingham Palace to the public for an admission fee when she was not in residence.

Response to Lady Diana's Death

After Charles and Diana divorced in 1996, Diana remained incredibly popular with the British (and international) public. Her tragic death the following year triggered a tremendous outpouring of shock and grief, as well as outrage at the royal family for what the public saw as its ill treatment of the “People’s Princess.”

Though Queen Elizabeth initially kept the family (including Princes William and Harry) out of the public eye at Balmoral, the unprecedented public response to Diana’s death convinced her to return to London, make a televised speech about Diana, greet mourners and allow the Union Jack to fly at half-mast above Buckingham Palace.

‘Annus Horribilis’: Why Queen Elizabeth II Called 1992 a Horrible Year

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Princess Diana’s Death

Lady Diana Spencer: From Teacher to Princess Diana was born on July 1, 1961, to Edward John Spencer and his wife Frances. At the time of her birth, in Britain’s peerage system, her father held the title of Viscount Althorp. Her parents were divorced in 1969, when she was eight, and her father won sole […]

A Modern Monarchy

The queen’s popularity, and that of the entire royal family, rebounded during the first decade of the 21st century. Though 2002 marked Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee—50 years on the throne—the death of her mother (the beloved Queen Mum) and sister early that year cast a pall on the celebrations.

In 2005, the queen enjoyed public support when she gave her assent to Prince Charles’ once-unthinkable marriage to his longtime love Camilla Parker Bowles.

In her seventh decade on the throne, Queen Elizabeth presided over the pomp and circumstance of another royal wedding at Westminster Abbey, that of Prince William to Catherine Middleton in April 2011. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who are in line to become Britain’s next king and queen, continued the line of succession with their children, Prince George (born 2013), Princess Charlotte (born 2015) and Prince Louis (born 2018).

In September 2015, Elizabeth surpassed the record of 63 years and 216 days on the throne set by Queen Victoria (her great-great-grandmother) to become the longest-reigning British monarch in history. A consistent presence by his wife’s side and one of Britain’s busiest royals for much of her reign, Prince Philip stepped down from his royal duties in 2017, at the age of 96. That same year, the royal couple celebrated 70 years of marriage, making theirs the longest union in the history of the British monarchy. Philip died in 2021, at the age of 99. 

In May 2018, Prince Harry wed the American actress Meghan Markle , a biracial divorcée. The couple had a son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, in 2019, and a daughter, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, in 2021. Harry and Meghan announced they would be stepping back from senior royal duties in January 2020 and subsequently relocated to Los Angeles.

Rumors swirled at various times that Queen Elizabeth would step aside and let Prince Charles take the throne. In 2017, she delegated some of her royal obligations, such as the official Remembrance Day ceremony, to him, fueling speculation that she was preparing to bequeath the throne to her eldest son. Instead, she remained a consistent, stable presence at the head of Britain’s reigning family until her peaceful death on September 8, 2022 at her beloved country residence, Balmoral Castle. 

In the final years of her reign, she continued many of her official duties, public appearances and spent plenty of time outside with her beloved dogs and horses. Two days before her death, she officially installed a new prime minister, Liz Truss.

HISTORY Vault: Profiles: Queen Elizabeth II

Chart the unexpected rise and record-breaking reign of Queen Elizabeth II, which unfolded in the turbulent modern history of the English monarchy.

Her Majesty the Queen, The Royal Household website . Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen ( Penguin Random House, 2012 ). Queen Elizabeth II – Fast Facts, CNN . “Will Queen Elizabeth Give Prince Charles the Throne in 2018?” Newsweek .

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Elizabeth II

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Recent News

• Who was Elizabeth II and how long did she reign as Queen of the United Kingdom?
• What were some of the major historical events that occurred during Elizabeth II's reign?
• How did Elizabeth II's role as monarch evolve throughout her time on the throne?
• How did Elizabeth II balance her public duties with her role as head of the royal family?
• What lasting impact did Elizabeth II have on the British monarchy and the United Kingdom?
• How did Elizabeth II's early life and education prepare her for her role as queen?
• What were some of Elizabeth II's most significant state visits and diplomatic contributions?
• How did Elizabeth II adapt to changing technology and media during her reign?
• What were some of the challenges Elizabeth II faced during her time as monarch?
• How did Elizabeth II's personal interests and hobbies influence her public image?
• What role did Elizabeth II play in modernizing the British monarchy?

Elizabeth II (born April 21, 1926, London, England—died September 8, 2022, Balmoral Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland) was the queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from February 6, 1952, to September 8, 2022. In 2015 she surpassed Victoria to become the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

Elizabeth was the elder daughter of Prince Albert, duke of York , and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon . As the child of a younger son of King George V , the young Elizabeth had little prospect of acceding to the throne until her uncle, Edward VIII (afterward duke of Windsor), abdicated in her father’s favour on December 11, 1936, at which time her father became King George VI and she became heir presumptive. The princess’s education was supervised by her mother, who entrusted her daughters to a governess, Marion Crawford; the princess was also grounded in history by C.H.K. Marten, afterward provost of Eton College , and had instruction from visiting teachers in music and languages. During World War II she and her sister, Princess Margaret Rose, perforce spent much of their time safely away from the London blitz and separated from their parents, living mostly at Balmoral Castle in Scotland and at the Royal Lodge, Windsor , and Windsor Castle .

Early in 1947 Princess Elizabeth went with the king and queen to South Africa . After her return there was an announcement of her betrothal to her distant cousin Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten of the Royal Navy , formerly Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark . The marriage took place in Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947. On the eve of the wedding her father, the king, conferred upon the bridegroom the titles of duke of Edinburgh, earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich. They took residence at Clarence House in London . Their first child, Prince Charles (Charles Philip Arthur George), was born November 14, 1948, at Buckingham Palace .

In the summer of 1951 the health of King George VI entered into a serious decline, and Princess Elizabeth represented him at the Trooping the Colour and on various other state occasions. On October 7 she and her husband set out on a highly successful tour of Canada and Washington, D.C. After Christmas in England she and the duke set out in January 1952 for a tour of Australia and New Zealand , but en route, at Sagana, Kenya , news reached them of the king’s death on February 6, 1952. Elizabeth, now queen, at once flew back to England. The first three months of her reign, the period of full mourning for her father, were passed in comparative seclusion. But in the summer, after she had moved from Clarence House to Buckingham Palace, she undertook the routine duties of the sovereign and carried out her first state opening of Parliament on November 4, 1952. Her coronation was held at Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953.

Beginning in November 1953 the queen and the duke of Edinburgh made a six-month round-the-world tour of the Commonwealth , which included the first visit to Australia and New Zealand by a reigning British monarch. In 1957, after state visits to various European nations, she and the duke visited Canada and the United States . In 1961 she made the first royal British tour of the Indian subcontinent in 50 years, and she was also the first reigning British monarch to visit South America (in 1968) and the Persian Gulf countries (in 1979). During her “Silver Jubilee” in 1977, she presided at a London banquet attended by the leaders of the 36 members of the Commonwealth, traveled all over Britain and Northern Ireland, and toured overseas in the South Pacific and Australia, in Canada, and in the Caribbean.

On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, her son Prince Charles became heir apparent; he was named prince of Wales on July 26, 1958, and was so invested on July 1, 1969. The queen’s other children were Princess Anne (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise), born August 15, 1950, and created princess royal in 1987; Prince Andrew (Andrew Albert Christian Edward), born February 19, 1960, and created duke of York in 1986; and Prince Edward (Edward Anthony Richard Louis), born March 10, 1964, and created earl of Wessex and Viscount Severn in 1999. All these children have the surname “of Windsor,” but in 1960 Elizabeth decided to create the hyphenated name Mountbatten-Windsor for other descendants not styled prince or princess and royal highness. Elizabeth’s first grandchild (Princess Anne’s son) was born on November 15, 1977.

The queen seemed increasingly aware of the modern role of the monarchy, allowing, for example, the televising of the royal family’s domestic life in 1970 and condoning the formal dissolution of her sister’s marriage in 1978. In the 1990s, however, the royal family faced a number of challenges. In 1992, a year that Elizabeth referred to as the royal family’s annus horribilis , Prince Charles and his wife, Diana, princess of Wales , separated, as did Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah, duchess of York. Moreover, Anne divorced, and a fire gutted the royal residence of Windsor Castle. In addition, as the country struggled with a recession , resentment over the royals’ lifestyle mounted, and in 1992 Elizabeth, although personally exempt, agreed to pay taxes on her private income. The separation and later divorce (1996) of Charles and the immensely popular Diana further eroded support for the royal family, which was viewed by some as antiquated and unfeeling. The criticism intensified following Diana’s death in 1997, especially after Elizabeth initially refused to allow the national flag to fly at half-staff over Buckingham Palace. In line with her earlier attempts at modernizing the monarchy , the queen subsequently sought to present a less-stuffy and less-traditional image of the monarchy. These attempts were met with mixed success.

In 2002 Elizabeth celebrated her 50th year on the throne. As part of her “Golden Jubilee,” events were held throughout the Commonwealth, including several days of festivities in London. The celebrations were somewhat diminished by the deaths of Elizabeth’s mother and sister early in the year. Beginning in the latter part of the first decade of the 21st century, the public standing of the royal family rebounded, and even Charles’s 2005 marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles found much support among the British people. In April 2011 Elizabeth led the family in celebrating the wedding of Prince William of Wales —the elder son of Charles and Diana—and Catherine Middleton . The following month she surpassed George III to become the second longest-reigning monarch in British history, behind Victoria . Also in May, Elizabeth made a historic trip to Ireland , becoming both the first British monarch to visit the Irish republic and the first to set foot in Ireland since 1911. In 2012 Elizabeth celebrated her “ Diamond Jubilee ,” marking 60 years on the throne. On September 9, 2015, she surpassed Victoria’s record reign of 63 years and 216 days.

In August 2017 Prince Philip officially retired from public life, though he periodically appeared at official engagements after that. In the meantime, Elizabeth began to reduce her own official engagements, passing some duties on to Prince Charles and other senior members of the royal family, though the pool of stand-ins shrank when Charles’s younger son, Prince Harry, duke of Sussex , and his wife, Meghan, duchess of Sussex , controversially chose to give up their royal roles in March 2020. During this period, public interest in the queen and the royal family grew as a result of the widespread popularity of The Crown , a Netflix television series about the Windsors that debuted in 2016. Having dealt with several physical setbacks in recent years, Philip, who had been Elizabeth’s husband for more than seven decades, died in April 2021. On their 50th wedding anniversary, in 1997, Elizabeth had said of Philip, “He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years.” Because of social-distancing protocols brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the queen sat alone in a choir stall in St. George’s Chapel (in Windsor Castle ) at Philip’s funeral. The widely disseminated images of her tragic isolation were heartbreaking but emblematic of the dignity and courage that she brought to her reign.

In June 2022 Britain celebrated Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne with the “Platinum Jubilee,” a four-day national holiday that included the Trooping the Colour ceremony, a thanksgiving service at St. Paul’s Cathedral, a pop music concert at Buckingham Palace , and a pageant that employed street arts, theatre, music, circus, carnival, and costume to honour the queen’s reign. Health issues limited Elizabeth’s involvement. Concerns about the queen’s health also led to a break in tradition when, in September, she appointed Boris Johnson ’s replacement as prime minister , Liz Truss , at Balmoral rather than at Buckingham Palace, where she had formally appointed more than a dozen prime ministers.

Just days later, on September 8, Elizabeth’s death, at age 96, shocked Britain and the world. Prince Charles succeeded her on the throne as King Charles III . Ten days of national commemoration of her life and legacy—long planned as “Operation London Bridge”—followed. Notably, the queen lay in state for a day in St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh and then for three days in Westminster Hall in London, outside of which mourners stood in a line that stretched for miles, in some cases waiting for more than 24 hours to view Elizabeth’s casket. Her sombre funeral ceremony in Westminster Abbey , officiated by Archbishop Justin Welby on September 19, was attended by an estimated 100 heads of foreign governments. Following a procession to Wellington Arch, during which Big Ben tolled, the queen’s casket was borne by hearse to her final resting place in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Elizabeth was known to favour simplicity in court life and was also known to take a serious and informed interest in government business, aside from the traditional and ceremonial duties. Privately, she became a keen horsewoman; she kept racehorses, frequently attended races, and periodically visited the Kentucky stud farms in the United States. Her financial and property holdings made her one of the world’s richest women.

The life and legacy of Britain’s longest-serving monarch

LONDON — She was born a royal but with little hope of wearing the crown. 

Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, known by her family as Lilibet , was born April 21, 1926 — third in line to the throne after her uncle and her father. But a scandalous royal love affair changed the course of Lilibet’s life and paved the way for her to become the United Kingdom’s longest-serving monarch, a much-admired symbol of comfort and continuity and arguably the most famous woman in the world. 

Elizabeth’s reign lasted from the industrial age to the internet age — 70 years of endurance and stoicism in which she met generations of legendary, mostly male, global leaders and helped steer Britain through the loss of its empire and its emergence as a midsized multicultural nation.

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From a young queen to the grandmother of the nation, decade after decade she smiled, waved, shook hands and chatted with a vast number of her subjects and admirers, despite family scandals and the tragedy of a dead princess.  

Her cool, reliable cheerfulness made her overwhelmingly popular with the British public.

Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday . Her eldest son, Charles, is now king.

On the eve of World War II, her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated in 1936 after his marriage proposal to an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, erupted in a scandal that engulfed the royal family and embroiled the country’s politicians. 

Elizabeth’s father became a reluctant King George VI, making Elizabeth the direct heir to the crown. 

Elizabeth assumed the throne in 1952 at the age of 25 after the sudden death of her father in his sleep at 56. In the 70 years since, she worked with 15 British prime ministers and met every U.S. president during her time as queen except Lyndon Johnson. The vast majority of Britons have never known another monarch, and she remained overwhelmingly popular until her death.

She reigned against the backdrop of vast cultural and political transformations — the end of Britain’s age of deference and its empire, and the advent of globalization and the multimedia age. Throughout, she and her family experienced unprecedented levels of public exposure and, at times, a fractious relationship with the media.

Elizabeth also oversaw the monarchy’s evolution into a champion of a diminished United Kingdom at home and abroad, and she worked tirelessly to keep the crown relevant in a changing world. A source of unending fascination to many, she’s been the subject of movies, plays and TV series, including “The Crown,” “The Queen,” and “The Royal House of Windsor.”

“She has throughout her reign managed to make people feel that she is the spirit and the soul of the country,” said Clive Irving, the author of “The Last Queen: How Queen Elizabeth II Saved the Monarchy.” “She gives over a maternal feeling. She’s a safe pair of hands at the top. No one else has ever been able to convey that as she did.”

That was evident most recently during the pandemic, when early on the queen addressed the U.K. in a rare broadcast to urge her subjects to show the same “self-discipline” and “quiet good-humored resolve” that characterized previous generations.

The queen, whose image adorns stamps, money and mailboxes, is more than a mere figurehead: She played an essential role in the functioning of the U.K. as a constitutional monarchy. After an election, it is the U.K.’s monarch who calls on the political parties to form a government. The monarch also must give assent to all legislation passed by Parliament, and meets weekly with the prime minister to discuss government matters. They are legally allowed to “advise and warn” the government’s ministers.

Crucial to what is widely seen as a successful reign was Elizabeth’s ability to appear ubiquitous and at the same time remain an enigma. She accomplished this by avoiding expressing her political views or making controversial statements in public — no mean feat for someone constantly in the limelight. This meant keeping her own counsel during thousands of events, appearances and speeches, according to Philip Murphy, the director of history and policy at the University of London.

“She has an incredible capacity for repeating the same sorts of rather dull official events which clearly mean an awful lot to other people,” said Murphy. “So much of being a constitutional monarch is the repetition of boring regimes, and there’s something about her that has never rebelled against that. She would call that a sense of duty.”

During the war, Elizabeth and her sister went to live in Windsor, while their parents stayed in London despite the heavy bombardment from German bombers. She made her first radio address in 1940, speaking to other children who had been separated from their families to keep them safe. 

Toward the end of the conflict, the princess joined the all-female Auxiliary Territorial Service and trained as a mechanic. 

It was during the war that the young royal began to date her future husband.  

Philip , her third cousin, was a Greek prince but had spent most of his childhood in the U.K. His family fled Greece after a revolution and were largely penniless. The couple first crossed paths in 1934 at a family wedding and then met again in 1939 when she was 13 and he was 18. While he was stationed abroad during the war, they wrote letters to each other, but his background and her youth were a cause of concern to other members of the royal family. 

During their courtship, Philip and Elizabeth would go out driving in Philip’s tiny MG sports car, as well as dancing at London nightclubs. The couple announced their engagement in July 1947 after Elizabeth returned from her first trip abroad to South Africa. They wed that November, and Philip renounced his Greek title and became a British citizen.

Two years later, they moved to Malta, where Philip was stationed with the British Navy and she lived as an officer’s wife, far from the public eye. Royal observers have speculated that these were some of the happiest years of Elizabeth’s life, a time when she was able to drive her own car and mingle with other officers’ wives without the layers of security and protocol that have defined her reign. 

Their relative freedom was cut short when King George, who’s health had long been precarious, suddenly deteriorated. At the time of his death in February 1952, Elizabeth was in Kenya on a royal tour with Philip. After word reached an aide, Philip broke the news to Elizabeth during a walk.

Royal experts say it was Elizabeth’s husband, five years her senior, who helped guide the young queen in the early years.

“She was so young when she ascended the throne,” royal biographer Ingrid Seward said, adding that Elizabeth followed much of the tradition her father had established. “Everything was completely archaic. It was so old-fashioned. I think more than anyone, Prince Philip helped move the monarchy up.”

That was particularly evident in the way he helped revamp the royal estates — the land and holdings belonging to the crown — making their operations profitable, she said.

Philip’s influence on the monarchy as an institution was mirrored in their personal lives, as well.

In one of her more revealing speeches about her husband on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary in 1997, the queen referred to his “constant love and help” and said, “He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years.”

Philip, who retired from his official royal duties in 2017, died in April 2021 at the age of 99. He and Elizabeth were married for 73 years.

In addition to Prince Charles, Elizabeth is survived by two sons, Princes Andrew and Edward; a daughter, Princess Anne; four grandsons; four granddaughters; and 12 great-grandchildren.

Over her 70-year reign , the queen eased the U.K. into its new post-World War II role, which had been diminished after the loss of its colonies around the world.

The queen placed a strong emphasis on her position as the head of the Commonwealth , a loose alliance of more than 50 countries, many of which are former British colonies.

“The queen had to work out how to manage decline — the dissolution of the empire, coming to terms with diminished power — but she also understood that diminished power does not have to mean diminished quality,” Irving said.

Her extensive travels around the globe, many on her beloved royal yacht Britannia, helped raise the profile of the U.K. and brought a dose of glamor to the places she visited. In 1961, she visited the former British colony of Ghana, which had gained independence just a few years earlier in 1957. During that trip, a charm offensive in one of the first members of the Commonwealth , she was filmed dancing with the country’s leader, Kwame Nkrumah, at a time when segregation still existed in the U.S.

Like with so much else that the queen does, it was her actions and not her words that carried weight. 

“A man could not have done it,” historian Nat Nunoo Amarteifio said in the BBC documentary “The Queen: Her Commonwealth Story.” “Here is our president, being respected enough by the queen of England for her to put her arms around him.”

While she was lauded for her work abroad, she was also praised for opening up the royal household and giving the public a glimpse of the family’s life at home.

A 1969 documentary, “Royal Family,” revealed the royal couple’s private life for the first time, showing Elizabeth and Philip having dinnertime conversations and engaging in other regular activities, including barbecuing.

“People realized they weren’t gods. They were real people,” Seward said. “A lot of people said this was a turning point.”

While the queen’s steady consistency was largely considered a boon for the monarchy, her children and grandchildren’s lives have occasionally been a thorn in the side of monarchists. 

Most recently, her grandson Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan , accused an unnamed member of the royal family of asking how dark the skin of their children would be. The couple gave up their royal duties and left the U.K. in 2020. 

Just before their departure, the queen was faced with a growing scandal around her son Prince Andrew’s friendship with the accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew stepped down from his public duties in support of the queen in November 2019, and she stayed largely silent on the topic.  

Despite the recent challenges facing the monarchy, its popularity has remained high. That hasn’t always been the case. 

In the early 1990s, Charles’ rocky marriage to Princess Diana was all over the news, eventually ending in divorce in 1992. In one of the queen’s most famous speeches marking the 40th anniversary of her ascension, she referred to 1992 as an “annus horribilis,” or disastrous year. Speaking just days after a blaze destroyed a large part of her Windsor Castle residence, the queen made a plea for understanding, saying that “most people try to do their jobs as best they can, even if the result is not always entirely successful.”  

Five years later, when Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris and the world mourned, Elizabeth was criticized for staying silent for days and hunkering down at her home in Scotland with Charles and Diana’s sons, her grandsons Princes William and Harry. Satisfaction with the way she was doing her job dipped to 66 percent after that, according to the U.K. polling company Ipsos Mori. (At the time of her 60th anniversary on the throne in 2012, her popularity had risen to 90 percent.)

“I think that was an extremely challenging time for the monarchy, because people couldn’t understand why the royal family weren’t responding as they wanted to,” Seward said of Diana’s death. “In times of great tragedy, they just always lock down. ... They don’t grieve in public. And people wanted more than that.”

When the queen finally returned to London nearly a week later, she paid tribute to Diana . “I for one believe there are lessons to be drawn from her life and from the extraordinary and moving reaction to her death,” Elizabeth said.

She acknowledged in a 1997 speech that the monarchy “exists only with the support and consent of the people.” 

In September 2015, she became the longest-serving monarch in British history, surpassing her great-great-grandmother Victoria’s record of 63 years, 216 days.

“Inevitably a long life can pass by many milestones. My own is no exception,” the queen noted at the time.

While she carried on working until the end, meeting foreign dignitaries, visiting cities around the U.K., supporting charities and promoting her kingdom at home and abroad, she had canceled a number of appearances and events toward the end. 

Perhaps the greatest measure of Elizabeth’s success in carrying the House of Windsor into the future will be how it continues on in her absence. Charles, 73, now becomes king , a role he’s been groomed for since birth. 

At his 70th birthday celebration, in November 2018, Elizabeth called him “a dedicated and respected heir to the throne to stand comparison with any in history — and a wonderful father.”

Yet his popularity is nowhere near as high as his mother’s, coming in sixth on YouGov’s royal popularity ranking, behind his sister, Anne.

While most Britons “love” the queen, Irving said, “the question is how relevant does the monarchy remain after the queen.”

Rachel Elbaum is a London-based editor, producer and writer. 

Culture | Books

Happy and glorious - or a little bit bland? Craig Brown tells all about the Queen, but she remains an enigma.

How much do you know about your grandmother’s life? When she was young, what would she have for breakfast? When she was 40, what did her friends think of her? In Craig Brown’s new book , Voyage around the Queen , he points out Her Maj’s life has been so faithfully chronicled, that even anti-monarchists probably know more about the late Queen than their own grandparents. “Like it or not — like them or not— the royal family are under our skin”, Brown says.

In this new book, published this week,  he puts Elizabeth II’s life into historical context , presenting a portrait of the monarch by exploring the recollections of those who orbited and encountered her, from the civilians to the politicians to the celebrities. It also, oddly, has a section reporting people's dreams about the Queen. Ignoring that, and moving back to actual events, the tidbits are random and varied and cover the scope of her life and reign. Some of these stories are fabulous, from Margaret Thatcher being mocked in-house (in-palace) for the depth of her curtsey to the Christmas present Prince Philip gave her in 1944. Marilyn Monroe was so nervous at the prospect of meeting the Queen that she spent all day “curtseying all over the house and even trying to talk in an English accent”. When they did meet, “within a few seconds the Queen has moved on to the next in line”. The Queen reported later that she“ felt sorry for her, because she was so nervous that she had licked all her lipstick off”. 

There is a mad, amazing tale about Elton John, Princess Anne and the Queen dancing together at “the world’s quietest disco”. And a bitchy retort from 1987, where Andy Warhol reportedly said, “Prince Andrew has gotten so ugly, he’s looking like his mother”. Some tales are less markedly less interesting, and Brown works hard to ascribe them relevance. As a child, he explains, even the way that the young princess Elizabeth ate sweets (methodically and daintily, apparently) illustrated how she was already “embarking on a lifetime's habit of delayed gratification”. Did it really? Was she… possibly… just a bit bland? “I don’t know how to break this…”, remarked Paul McCartney after being presented to the Queen in 2002, “but she didn’t have a lot to say”. And this was from someone who admitted to having an enormous crush on her when he was in his teens, and she in her early 20s. “She was a babe… we used to say ‘just look at the heat on her’”. But how else, Brown recognises, could she act in her position?

Brown’s last Royal insider book Ma’am Diaries, about Princess Margaret, was a juicy account of her life, and we all gleefully lapped up the stories about her morning routine of cigarettes and breakfast in bed, before a 12.30pm vodka pick-me-up. This is more tame. But then, of course, the subject matter is not (and could not be) anywhere near as droll. It is clear, with the restraints upon what she can and can’t say, that the Queen simply “found it a little difficult to make conversation”, was “a sitting target for bores”, and had to rely upon the endless repetition of “how  very  interesting”.

Behind closed doors (though still observed), she minced her words somewhat less. When asked what she would have done if Idi Amin had turned up to her silver Jubilee celebrations , she nodded in the direction of the Lord Mayor's pearl sword and said “I’d have hit him hard over the head with it”. She suggested that President Trump “‘must have some sort of arrangement’ with his wife Melania or else why would she have remained married to him? And when it came to the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, she referred to him as “a frightful little man”. When he and his wife were staying at Buckingham Palace , she spotted them while out walking the corgis and “disappeared behind a bush” until they’d safely passed by. 

This is a portrait of a very odd life, and much is given to the normality vs not-normality. Did the Queen think that the whole world smelt like fresh paint, as everywhere was spruced up before her arrival? There is a very long and laboured point over several chapters with myriad examples that people's behaviour “goes into a different gear” in front of her, that people lose their minds and start spouting utter nonsense. In one example, simply saying “you work here full time? Really?” to a hospital orderly resulted in everyone “falling about in merriment”. The actor Miriam Margolyes reports that the Queen once told her to “be quiet!”, with a “crisp emphasis on the final ‘t’, after Margolyes got slight verbal diarrhoea when meeting her and dared to chip into a conversation she was having with someone else. 

No subject is off limits, and Brown hungrily recounts little details as though he’s been told all the stories himself. He reports that her childhood friend  Alathea Fitzsalan Howard said “Annabelle thinks Lilibet has an enormous chest!”; this slightly ‘Ripleyesque’ character also asks “Will she stand out in history as another great Elizabeth or will she merely be a commonplace puppet in a rapidly degenerating monarchy?” Indeed, the Queen was not confident in the monarchy’s longevity. ‘The thing you must realise about the Royal Family is that they live in a constant state of fear,’ a source told Brown. Prince Harry described it in Spare as being defined by paranoia: “Fear of the public. Fear of the future. Fear of the day the nation would say: OK shut it down”. Inevitably, as the years of her long life went by, the country’s royalist support diluted. We hear that when two youths in Fleet St refused to observe the two minute silence after the Kings death were “nearly lynched”. Yet years later when reporting how a bunch of north London school children reacted to being asked about the Queen , at the time of her jubilee, they replied “she’s never done a day's work in her life”.

Her accent diluted over time, too. In 1953 “had” rhymes with “bed”. Thirty years later it rhymes with “bad“. In 1954 she wished people a “heppy” new year, in 1980 it rhymed with “nappy”. Brown is as sharp and drily funny as his subject, and seemingly less sycophantic and genuflective than the majority of Royal biographers. While I wasn’t blown away by the exciting revelations, I was certainly amused by them. This is the Queen within the historical and sociological context of the past hundred years – with some added nuggets drip-fed throughout. I probably could have done with fewer chapters about corgis, but by persevering I do now know that Princess Anne has a criminal record because of one of these vicious-sounding ankle-biters. I like knowing that the Queen’s weekly £5 (only £5!) donation to the church collection was folded and pressed flat with an iron. 

This collection of recollections, as it were, is fun, fizzy and told in Brown’s inimitable insidery, gossipy style. They are shared without judgement, and I think it’s a useful book, certainly very readable, though it does at times go on a bit. Would a non-royalist want to read it? Probably not. But there are still plenty of us who will.  Harriet Addison is Features Director at The Evening Standard

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9 Books to Read About Queen Elizabeth II

Elizabeth, famously reticent during her decades in the public eye, was a source of fascination for many. These books offer a deeper understanding of her life, family and world.

By The New York Times Books Staff

During the 70-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II, through times of turbulence and peace, celebration, controversy and scandal, the monarchy has been an object of fascination.

Elizabeth, who died on Thursday at 96 , became Britain’s sovereign in 1952. Her reign, which spanned 15 British prime ministers and 14 American presidents, coincided with tremendous social and cultural change at home and abroad, as its empire overseas fell away.

Her duties were largely ceremonial, but supporters felt that she, and the monarchy, played an important and stabilizing role as the anchor of the country. Critics, on the other hand, considered the institution expensive and increasingly irrelevant in modern life.

Her coronation in 1953 was the first in Britain to be broadcast on television almost from beginning to end, and she struggled throughout her life to balance the norms and traditions with 24-hour news cycles and a far more public age. All the while, she worked to keep intact the public consensus the monarchy needed to survive.

Here are nine books we recommend for a deeper understanding of Elizabeth, her family and her time as Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. — Elizabeth A. Harris

‘Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch,’ by Sally Bedell Smith

This thorough but deferential biography was published to coincide with the queen’s diamond jubilee. Smith — who has also written books about Princess Diana, Prince Charles and various American presidents — “curtsies before the British throne as deeply as a lady-in-waiting,” as wrote Alan Riding in The Times in 2012. Smith consulted public sources, friends and former courtiers of the queen who shared “intimate tidbits (all too often about horses and corgis). But despite that,” Riding goes on, “She faces a problem encountered, I suspect, by other royal biographers. Elizabeth has lived a remarkable life yet one that, quite frankly, is a bit dull to recount. Put differently, her somewhat dysfunctional family has provided far livelier copy.” — Elisabeth Egan

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• HISTORY MAGAZINE

Queen Elizabeth II: A lifetime of devotion and service

The funeral of Britain's longest-ruling monarch concludes a life exemplified by a personal motto of "I serve."

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch died on September 8, setting off a series of well-planned events to mark her passing. The culmination of these events is the state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Monday and her subsequent interment at King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle. The people of the United Kingdom and leaders from around the world will gather in London to pay their respects to the late queen and bid a final farewell.

The beginning of an era

Queen Elizabeth II sat at her desk, undertaking her first duties as monarch. Just hours before, she had been Elizabeth Windsor; now she was queen of the United Kingdom, head of the Commonwealth of Nations, and sovereign of the Commonwealth realms.

It was 1952, and she was in mourning. But despite her grief, the young queen shouldered her new responsibility with grace—and her signature stiff upper lip. “She was sitting erect, fully accepting her destiny,” her private secretary later recalled. When he asked her which name she would reign under, she said “My own, of course.”

Over the seven decades that followed, Queen Elizabeth II would leave an unmistakable impression on her nation and the rest of the world. Her road to the throne was a twisted one; her reign beset by crises and social cataclysms. But her destiny was to rule through triumph and sorrow, conflict and almost unthinkable change. Along the way, she would become the longest-ruling British monarch—linking past and present and emerging as an indelible figure on the world stage.

A twist of royal fate

Born in London on April 21, 1926, Elizabeth was the granddaughter of a king and daughter of a duke—the newest member of the House of Windsor. Despite her royal pedigree, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary didn’t seem destined to the British throne. She was third in line to the monarchy, but it was widely assumed that her uncle Edward would become king, marry, and produce royal heirs of his own. History had other plans for Elizabeth.

When she was nine years old, her uncle took the throne as Edward VIII according to plan. Less than a year later he abdicated, abandoning the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite. Elizabeth’s father would become king, and suddenly Elizabeth was next in line to helm Britain’s hereditary monarchy.

The lonely princess

Elizabeth had been raised quietly along with her younger sister, Princess Margaret. But when she became heir to the throne, her future reign indelibly shaped young Elizabeth’s life. Privately educated in Buckingham Palace and overseen by a beloved governess, she was tutored in her future duties by leading scholars and in religion by the archbishop of Canterbury. She learned from her father, too: Shy, stuttering George VI nonetheless addressed his people regularly and insisted on staying in London during the Blitz of World War II.

Elizabeth was a lonely but dutiful young girl—one biographer noted that her loud cries during her christening as a baby were “the last recorded instance of her surrendering to anything like a tantrum.” But the war opened up her horizons.

In 1940, she made her first public speech at age 14, addressing children who had been separated from their parents during the war. “We children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage,” she said. “We are trying . . . to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war.”

Love and war

The teenage princess took part in the war effort in another way, too. In 1945, Elizabeth made history when she became the first woman in the royal family to serve full-time in Britain’s military as a truck driver and mechanic. When the war ended later that year, she wore her uniform and slipped into the celebrating crowds, blending in with the revelers as she basked in the joy and relief of peace.

By then, the seeds of what would become a seven-decade romance had been sown. Elizabeth and Margaret spent much of World War II at Windsor Castle. Elizabeth’s third cousin, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark often stayed there when he was on leave from the Royal Navy. After the war, their relationship bloomed.

The dashing, blunt prince—who was exiled to England as an infant amid political strife in Greece and became naturalized as Philip Mountbatten in 1947—was an unlikely match for the reserved queen-to-be. He was relatively poor and seemingly rootless, his childhood marked by instability and trauma. But Elizabeth was captivated, reportedly falling in love at age 13. “She had a protective shell around her, and he brought her out of it,” said one observer. They married in Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947.

The young queen

As a young wife and mother—Charles III was born in 1948 and Princess Anne followed in 1950—Elizabeth began to step into her aging father’s shoes. In 1952, she undertook a world tour in King George VI’s stead. During a brief getaway with Philip in Kenya, word arrived that her father had died. The 25-year-old was now a queen.

Elizabeth II, Britain’s 61st monarch, would reign over a vast empire and serve as head of the Church of England. At the time of her accession, Britain had more than 70 territories overseas. She was sovereign and head of state of the Commonwealth realms, including Canada and Australia, and the second Head of the Commonwealth of the Commonwealth of Nations, an association of sovereign states mostly linked to the United Kingdom through a history of British colonial rule. But her role was mostly symbolic: Though technically head of state and church, under the United Kingdom’s constitutional monarchy she possessed no ability to pass or enforce laws and was responsible for serving as a national figurehead, not a politician.

Elizabeth considered her responsibility as monarch a sacred duty. “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong,” she said in a radio address on her 21st birthday, when her father was still king. She would spend the rest of her life living up to that promise.

A glittering coronation

As she mourned her father and acclimated to life as queen, Elizabeth prepared for perhaps the most memorable of the many royal appearances she was to make during her long life: Her coronation, held in Westminster Abbey in June 1953, hewed to time-honored tradition.

The day of the ceremony, the demure young queen, wearing an elaborate white satin dress, took a carriage from Buckingham Palace to the abbey. Inside the abbey, she was blessed and anointed with oil, decked with royal robes, and given a scepter and an orb.

Finally, after a nearly five-pound crown studded with jewels was placed on her head, she received the homage of the royal family and the peerage. Prince Philip was the first to kneel before her, pledging to be her “liege man of life and limb.”

Admiring subjects lined the streets of London to celebrate. They weren’t the only ones to take in the grandeur—at the queen’s insistence, television cameras were allowed inside the church for the first time, and the coronation was broadcast live. An estimated three-quarters of the population of Britain, more than 20 million people, tuned in for the ceremony, and millions more watched from other countries. Her coronation was the world’s first must-see television event and ushered in a new, modern monarchy.

Her changing empire

The British Empire of the queen’s forebears was changing rapidly as countries asserted their independence in the postwar years. Elizabeth continued to serve as constitutional monarch of a growing number of Commonwealth realms. And as head of the Commonwealth of Nations, she presided over a loose group of mostly former British colonies that had abandoned their colonial relationships with Britain.

After the coronation, Elizabeth and Philip embarked on an unprecedented tour of the Commonwealth. During the trip, the pair traveled more than 40,000 miles and visited 13 countries. It was the first time a reigning monarch had visited either Australia or New Zealand.

The Commonwealth would become one of Elizabeth’s most enduring projects. She embraced the association’s diversity and fostered close relationships with its leaders. The Commonwealth “bears no resemblance to the Empires of the past,” she said. “It is an entirely new conception, built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man: friendship, loyalty, and the desire for freedom and peace. To that new conception of an equal partnership of nations and races I shall give myself heart and soul every day of my life.”

Royal duties

A busy travel schedule made up just part of the queen’s royal duties. Though the British sovereign must remain externally neutral on matters of state, they retain the right to appoint prime ministers and call a general election. Although those duties are usually no more than ceremonial, they remain a key part of protocol. Monarchs can also advise—or be advised by—their prime ministers.

During her weekly visits with Prime Minister Winston Churchill in her first years as queen, Elizabeth received his tutelage and shared in his notorious sense of fun. Her private secretary recalled hearing “peals of laughter” during their audiences, and the queen wrote that she was “profoundly grateful” for his guidance during her first years as sovereign.

A “priggish schoolgirl”

Despite her outward neutrality, the queen had her detractors—and soon learned that, in times of national strife, the monarchy could be harshly criticized. The first gauntlet came after the Suez Crisis, Britain’s disastrous, short-lived invasion of Egypt in 1956. The brief fiasco resulted in a decline in the U.K.’s global status and fueled a political and economic crisis.

After Anthony Eden, the prime minister who had given the invasion the green light, resigned, Elizabeth came under fire for relying on the advice of an insular group of royal insiders in choosing Eden’s successor. In 1957, Lord Altrincham, the influential editor of the National and English Review, published sharp criticism of Elizabeth and her “tweedy” advisers. Then he launched into a personal attack on the queen herself, complaining about everything from her voice to her “priggish schoolgirl” demeanor.

The criticism—and the debate it generated—prompted the queen to make lasting changes. Though the queen kept the monarch’s prerogative to appoint prime ministers, she would defer to political parties’ choice of prime minister for the rest of her life. And, in a nod toward equality, the queen eventually did away with the custom of presenting upper-crust debutantes at court, a long-standing tradition seen by some as evidence of a privilege unfairly extended to an elite minority.

A troubled nation

British society was changing and so was the monarchy. During her reign, Elizabeth faced a seemingly endless parade of crises, from economic malaise in the 1970s and 1980s to the international woes of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic in the 21st century. But some events hit closer to home than others.

One such event was the Aberfan mine disaster in 1966, a landslide in which 144 people, many of them schoolchildren, were killed. After refusing to visit the Welsh community until more than a week after the incident, Elizabeth faced deep criticism for what some saw as leaving her subjects in the lurch. The queen reportedly considered her bungled response to the disaster to be the biggest regret of her reign.

The Troubles, a three-decades-long conflict between nationalists and unionists in Northern Ireland, was another crucible. The violence left more than 3,600 dead and more than 30,000 injured. The Troubles also touched Elizabeth personally: Her second cousin Lord Louis Mountbatten was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1979. It would take until 2011 for Elizabeth to make an official state visit to the Republic of Ireland, where she offered her sympathy to the victims of the Troubles. Despite her words—the closest a member of the Royal Family ever came to apologizing for Britain’s reprisals during the conflict—tensions continued to simmer in Northern Ireland, especially in the throes of Brexit, which threatened trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Pomp and circumstance

As a mother of four—Prince Andrew was born in 1960 and Prince Edward in 1964—the queen hewed carefully to her symbolic duties. Every year, she presided at the State Opening of Parliament, delivering a speech to the assembled members of the Houses of Commons and Lords. (During her reign she missed only three appearances; twice while pregnant with her younger sons and once in 2022 as concerns for her health increased.)

State events were filled with pitfalls of procedure and etiquette. But for the queen, there was a practical annoyance: the weight of her nearly five-pound Imperial State Crown. “You can’t look down to read the speech, you have to take the speech up. Because if you did, your neck would break—it would fall off,” she told the BBC in a 2018 documentary. “So there are some disadvantages to crowns, but otherwise they’re quite important things.” As the queen aged, she began wearing a lighter-weight diadem to Parliament instead.

Another tradition was the royal Christmas message, a speech broadcast first by radio, then by television to a worldwide audience. During the annual messages, which her grandfather first instituted, Elizabeth offered thanks and encouragement to the people of the Commonwealth and commented on the most pressing issues of the time.

And then there were the jubilees—anniversary celebrations of the queen’s ever lengthening rule. The queen would often travel throughout the Commonwealth of Nations during jubilee years, and she used the jubilee celebrations as chances to greet her subjects and focus on the unity and progress of her nation and the Commonwealth.

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In 1969, she presided over a very personal ceremony: the investiture of her oldest son, Charles, as Prince of Wales. As her son knelt before her at Caernarfon Castle, she placed a jewel-studded coronet on his head and presented him to the Welsh people as their prince.

Family matters

Over the years, the queen survived multiple assassination attempts. But those were arguably less traumatic than the family conflicts that rocked her personal life and shook public confidence in the monarchy.

The queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, caused a furor when tabloids published photos of her cavorting with her lover in 1976. Though Margaret’s subsequent divorce scandalized the family, Elizabeth gave it her blessing. It was just a preview of the strife to come.

The fallout of the tempestuous marriage and separation of Charles III and Princess Diana led Elizabeth to refer to 1992 as her “annus horribilis,” a year that also included a catastrophic fire at Windsor Castle, the divorce of Princess Anne, and the separation of Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah.

When Diana died in a tragic car crash while being pursued by paparazzi in 1997, her former mother-in-law was condemned for her seeming lack of emotion. But in private, the queen expressed her grief, writing to a friend that Diana’s death was “dreadfully sad.” In the aftermath, she protected and cared for her grandsons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

A stiff upper lip

Elizabeth’s troubles didn’t end then. Her son Prince Andrew was linked to infamous American financier Jeffrey Epstein and accused of sexually assaulting a minor Epstein had allegedly trafficked. Under increasing public pressure and after a widely criticized television interview in which Prince Andrew downplayed Epstein’s actions and denied any wrongdoing, he stepped down from public life in November 2019 and returned his royal patronages and military titles to the queen in January 2022.

In January 2020, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, announced they would step back from the royal family and become financially independent. They also alleged that Meghan, who is biracial, had received racist treatment from members of the royal inner circle. Though the couple’s retreat to the United States reportedly came as a blow to the queen, the monarch retained a relationship with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from afar and was said to have been “overjoyed” that the pair named their second child Lilibet.

Another blow came in 2021, when Philip, the longest-serving royal consort in British history, died at age 99. Images of the queen sitting alone at her husband’s funeral, which was kept small to conform with the British government’s coronavirus-era restrictions, vividly illustrated the queen’s loss. But through it all, she presented a placid face to the world.

Intensely private though she was, the queen was also known to be warm and witty. She doted on her corgis and relished her summer retreats to Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where she could go on long walks and picnics, drive her Range Rover, and visit with her royal ponies. A committed horsewoman, she was a fixture at horse shows and races and could be spotted in the saddle into her 90s.

But for the woman who committed to serving her country at the age of just 25, her country was never far from her thoughts. She remained active and involved in public events into her mid-90s and never turned away from her responsibilities as queen. “These are the things that, at her age, she shouldn’t be doing, yet she’s carrying on and doing them,” her grandson Prince Harry said in a 2012 interview. So, what did the resilient queen make of her own boundary-breaking life? She reportedly joked, “I have to be seen to be believed.”

Elizabeth could find the humor in her complicated destiny. And for those who loved her—her millions of subjects, her loving family, and her fans around the world—she was much more than a figurehead. “In the days when it was a man’s world, it was very difficult for her to . . . make a difference,” her grandson Prince William said in a 2019 interview. “And she’s done it. In her own very unique, distinct way.”

To the end, she retained the calm resolve of the young woman who accepted her royal fate so many years before—a life of duty and service, accomplished as no one but Elizabeth could.

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VOYAGE AROUND QUEEN HB: The new must-read biography of Queen Elizabeth II from the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize Hardcover – 29 Aug. 2024

From one of the funniest writers of our time, the award-winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of One Two Three Four and Ma'am Darling turns his attention to Queen Elizabeth II in an unforgettable and fascinating biography.

'Enthralling… deliciously gossipy' MAIL ON SUNDAY

'A crown jewel among royal biographies' OBSERVER

'Brilliant' SARAH VINE

Virginia Woolf compared her to a caterpillar; Anne Frank kept pictures of her on the wall of her annex; Jimi Hendrix played her tune; Haile Selassie gave her a gold tiara; Dirk Bogarde watched Death in Venice with her; Andy Warhol envied her fame; Donald Trump offended her; E.M. Forster confessed he would have married her, if only she had been a boy.

Queen Elizabeth II was famous for longer than anyone who has ever lived. When people spoke of her, they spoke of themselves; when they dreamed of her, they dreamed of themselves. She mirrored their hopes and anxieties. To the optimist, she seemed an optimist; to the pessimist, a pessimist; to the awestruck, charismatic; and to the cynical, humdrum. Though by nature reserved and unassuming, her presence could fill presidents and rock gods with terror. For close to a century, she inhabited the psyche of a nation.

Combining biography, essays, cultural history, dream diaries, travelogue and satire, the bestselling and award-winning author of Ma'am Darling and One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of this most public yet private of sovereigns.

'An enthralling reverie on memory, identity, coincidence and meaning – testing, teasing, charming, moving and deceptively wise' RORY STEWART

'Completely and utterly brilliant and exquisitely funny and fascinating. This book is, dare I say, majestic. Craig Brown has no peers – I would curtsey to him if I met him' MARINA HYDE

'You wouldn’t think the world needed another book about Queen Elizabeth – but how wrong you’d be. Craig Brown’s wholly original and enthralling biography is absolute heaven from start to finish’ INDIA KNIGHT

'Craig Brown continues to reinvent the art of biography… utterly fascinating' JASON COWLEY

A JAZZ FM SUMMER BOOK CLUB PICK

Craig Brown's book One Two Three Four won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction in 2020.

• Print length 672 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Fourth Estate
• Publication date 29 Aug. 2024
• Dimensions 15.9 x 3.43 x 24 cm
• ISBN-10 0008557497
• ISBN-13 978-0008557492
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'Brown’s wry, gossipy style has made him one of the UK’s best-loved biographers' LUCY KNIGHT, GUARDIAN

'A very unusual masterpiece … teems with facts, humour and intelligence … I enjoyed A Voyage Around the Queen so much that I wished it were longer than its 672 pages' CHRISTOPHER HOWSE, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

'Rich in vignettes, but also has a revelatory depth … thought-provoking, perhaps even deep … a vivid and remarkably telling study of our late head of state, and even more so of the people she reigned over for 70 years' STEPHEN SMITH, OBSERVER

'Brown is as sharp and dryly funny as his subject … fun, fizzy and told in Brown’s inimitable insidery, gossipy style' HARRIET ADDISON, EVENING STANDARD

'Brown gives an astute account of the wellnigh unaccountable public life of an intensely private person … In any case, he has performed the task with admirable zeal. The book is crammed with facts, statistics, anecdotes, and much of it is gloriously bizarre…' JOHN BANVILLE, GUARDIAN

'Celebrated author Craig Brown delves into the fascinating public and private life of the late monarch in this biography that’s witty, sharp and unforgettable' WOMAN’S OWN

'Wonderfully readable … At once sympathetic but clear-eyed, kind but sharp, Brown has given us a serious reflection on the nature of power and why institutions such as the monarchy, in the right hands, can provide a society with stability and a sense of continuity, especially in turbulent times' MARGARET MACMILLAN, NEW STATESMAN

Book Description

The new must-read biography of Queen Elizabeth II from the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize

About the Author

Craig Brown has been writing the parodic celebrity diary for Private Eye since 1989. He has written for a widevariety of publications, including the Daily Mail , the Guardian , the New Statesman and the Spectator . His books include One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time , which won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, and Ma’am Darling , which won the James Tait Black award.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fourth Estate (29 Aug. 2024)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 672 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008557497
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008557492
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.9 x 3.43 x 24 cm
• 1 in British Historical Social & Urban History Biographies
• 1 in British Royalty Biographies
• 1 in Cultural History of London

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Craig brown.

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Home > New Materials > Book Lists > Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life and Reign

Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life and Reign

Queen Elizabeth II, who died September 8, 2022, at the age of 96, was the longest-serving monarch in British history. While she was not in direct line for the throne at birth, she became heir apparent at the age of 10 when the abdication of King Edward VIII, her uncle, made her father the monarch. A devotion to service—which began before she ascended the throne—was the hallmark of her reign. As a teenager during WWII, she made radio broadcasts to boost the morale of the British public, and after turning 18, she joined the women’s branch of the British army, where she was trained to become an auto mechanic. In a speech marking her 21st birthday Elizabeth said, "I declare before you that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service, and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong."

When Elizabeth II traveled the globe, although she did not make political pronouncements, her official presence at events had the force of diplomatic statements. She participated in approximately 300 public events each year. She held weekly meetings with prime ministers, fifteen during the course of her reign, beginning with Winston Churchill and ending with Liz Truss just two days before her death.

There were some light-hearted events, too, like the queen’s tea with Paddington Bear. And she opened the 2012 Olympics with an elaborate video showing her being whisked away to a helicopter by Daniel Craig, portraying James Bond, where a stunt double dressed like Elizabeth parachuted into the opening ceremonies.

Queen Elizabeth II did not cut back on her appearances and duties until her final year, and then only on medical advice. For her Silver Jubilee in 1977, she reflected on her early promise of service: "Although that vow was made in my salad days, when I was green in judgment, I do not regret nor retract one word of it.”

All titles in this minibibliography can be requested from your local cooperating library. The digital talking-book titles can be downloaded through BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) . Contact your local cooperating library to register for BARD. Registered users can also download titles on iOS and Android devices using the BARD Mobile app. To find your local cooperating library, go to www.loc.gov/nls/braille-audio-reading-materials/find-a-local-library or call toll-free 888-NLS-READ (888-657-7323)

Queen Elizabeth II

Prince philip, king charles iii, other family members, elizabeth: a biography of britain's queen by sarah bradford.

An in-depth portrait of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. Offers inside views--including scandals--of her parents and other forebears, sister, husband, and four children. Tells how she copes with the pressures of being head of state, wife, and mother in an era of tumultuous political and social change. 1996. Download DB51345

Royal Sisters: Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret by Anne Edwards

This dual biography intertwines the lives of Elizabeth II, who would become queen, and Margaret, who would forever remain in her shadow. Edwards shows how quickly they developed different personalities. Elizabeth became serious and reserved, while Margaret retained her feisty spirit. It also discusses the sisterly loyalty that has sustained them throughout life. 1990. Download DB33196

Queen of the World by Robert Hardman

A biography of Queen Elizabeth II, monarch of the United Kingdom, that focuses on her active role in international affairs as a diplomat, stateswoman, pioneer, and peace-broker. 2019. Download DB104603

Monarch: The Life and Reign of Elizabeth II by Robert Lacey

Overview of the monarchy of Great Britain from Queen Victoria in the nineteenth century to Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee in 2002. Explores the crown's uneasy relationship with the press and Elizabeth's endurance of criticism over the misbehavior of members of her family. 2002. Download DB54923

The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II by Ben Pimlott

The author describes how Elizabeth II, who was never expected to become queen, was thrust toward the role after her uncle's abdication as king. Pimlott suggests that through no fault of Elizabeth's, political and social upheavals and scandals involving her children have come to threaten the existence of the monarchy since she began her reign in 1952. 1997. Download DB47203

Queen and Country: The Fifty-Year Reign of Elizabeth II by William Shawcross

British historian recounts the life and times of Great Britain's queen from her 1952 ascent to the throne to her 2002 Golden Jubilee. Describes how Elizabeth II adjusted to modern times the ancient monarchy she inherited, surviving notable challenges, among them the tabloid reports of her family's affairs. 2002. Download BR14333

Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith

Biography of Great Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (born 1926) by the author of Diana in Search of Herself (RC 48833). Covers her childhood, coronation, and work ethic. Includes anecdotes about palace intrigues and her relationships with family, friends, and politicians. Concludes with Queen Elizabeth II's 2012 Diamond Jubilee. Bestseller. 2012. Download DB74430

Young Elizabeth by Kate Williams

An account of Queen Elizabeth II's life as a young adult, her public life, her work with the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service, and her forward-looking thinking upon rising to the crown. Examines how the young queen carved out a role distinct from that of her parents and grandparents. 2012 Download DB84815

Prince Philip: The Turbulent Early Life of the Man Who Married Queen Elizabeth II by Philip Eade

Biography of Great Britain's prince consort Philip (born 1921), the grandson of King George I of Greece. Describes Philip's childhood in Greece, France, Nazi Germany, and England. Continues through his 1947 marriage to Princess Elizabeth II of England and her 1952 ascension to the throne. 2011. Download DB76642

Philip, the Man Behind the Monarchy by Unity Hall

Analyzes and documents the difficult life of Prince Philip, husband of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. Hall views Philip, as an intriguing mix of ambition and dedication who decided early on to marry Elizabeth, thus carving out a career for himself. Hall also asserts that while Elizabeth and Philip are very different personalities, they are, and always have been, devoted to each other. 1987. Download DB28905

Prince Charles by Anthony Holden

Heir to the world's only surviving major monarchy and to one of the greatest fortunes on earth is viewed as a complex, conservative figure who has become an accomplished ambassador for Britain overseas. Download DB14027

Prince Charles by Sally Bedell Smith

A biography of Prince Charles. Using years of research and hundreds of interviews, the author sheds light on the death of Diana, Charles's marriage to Camilla, and his preparations to take the throne. Begins with his lonely childhood, follows his years at school, his many pursuits, and his complicated familial relationships. Some strong language and some descriptions of sex. Commercial audiobook. 2017. Download DB88248

Diana's Boys: William and Harry and the Mother They Loved by Christopher P. Andersen

Portraits of the princes William and Harry, with and without their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. Andersen describes the boys' development from hellions to seemingly well-adjusted adolescents, and the roles of Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, and Camilla Parker Bowles after Diana's death. He also looks at the women in William's life. Bestseller. 2001. Download DB52908

Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown

A portrait of the famous English royal, sister to Queen Elizabeth II, drawn through interviews, parodies, dreams, parallel lives, diaries, announcements, lists, catalogues, and essays. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2017. Download DB91978

Spare by Harry, Prince. Duke of Sussex

"It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on. For Harry, this is that story at last. Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight. At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love. Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief." -- Provided by publisher.; Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller. 2023. Download DB112017

Battle of Brothers: William and Harry–The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult by Robert Lacey

The biographer who wrote Sir Walter Raleigh (DB11467) explores the relationship between Prince William and Prince Harry throughout their childhood and as adults. He reflects on their former closeness and later estrangement, as well as the role that their vastly different futures may have played in their dynamic. 2020. Download DB103291

Diana, William, and Harry by James Patterson and Chris Mooney

"From the moments William and Harry are born into the House of Windsor, they become their young mother's whole world. I've got two very healthy, strong boys. I realize how incredibly lucky I am, Diana reminds herself every morning. But even the Princess of Wales questions, Am I a good mother? Diana's faced with a seemingly impossible challenge: one son destined to be King of England and another determined to find his own way. She teaches them to honor royal tradition, even while daring to break it. "Sometimes I'd like a time machine..." Diana says as William and Harry grow up, never imagining they'd have less than a lifetime together. Even after she's gone, her sons follow their mother's lead—and her heart. As the years pass and William and Harry grow into adulthood and form families of their own, they carry on Diana's name, her likeness, and her incomparable spirit." -- Provided by publisher.; Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller. 2022. Download DB110618

Game of Crowns: Elizabeth, Camilla, Kate, and the Throne by Christopher P. Andersen

An examination of the lives, loves, and relationships among the women of the early twenty-first century British royal family—Queen Elizabeth II, Camilla Parker Bowles, and Kate Middleton. Discusses their backgrounds and both the similarities and differences in the trajectories of their lives. 2016. Download DB88655

Royal Service: My Twelve Years as Valet to Prince Charles by Stephen P. Barry

The man who traveled around the globe with Prince Charles for twelve years prior to the royal marriage takes readers into Buckingham Palace and reveals what it was really like to be a commoner living and working side-by-side with royalty. His candid memoir details the differences with clarity, humor, and affection. 1983. Download DB19617

Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner

A memoir from a close member of the royal circle and lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret, who was a friend of Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth II since childhood. Describes her experiences witnessing landmark moments in royal history and shares intimate stories from her time as Princess Margaret's closest confidante. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2020. Download DB98917

HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style by Elizabeth Holmes

Journalist examines the lives and fashion choices of members of the British royal family—Queen Elizabeth II; Princess Diana; Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge; and Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex. Holmes analyzes the ways the royals use fashion to convey messages about values, interests, and priorities. 2020. Download DB101938

At Home with the Royal Family by Paul James and Peter Russell

Russell, a former butler to the royal household, and James, a "veteran chronicler of the members of royalty," offer details of behind-the-palace-walls life. This is not a sampler of royal gossip, but an informed account of the day-to-day running of the court explained with thorough knowledge and ingratiating humor. 1986. Download BR07326

The Other Side of the Coin by Angela Kelly

"When Angela Kelly and The Queen are together, laughter echoes through the corridors of Buckingham Palace. Angela has worked with The Queen and walked the corridors of the Royal Household for twenty-five years, initially as Her Majesty's Senior Dresser and then latterly as Her Majesty's Personal Advisor, Curator, Wardrobe and In-house Designer. As the first person in history to hold this title, she shares a uniquely close working relationship with The Queen. In The Other Side of the Coin , The Queen has personally given Angela her blessing to share their extraordinary bond with the world. Whether it's preparing for a formal occasion or brightening Her Majesty's day with a playful joke, Angela's priority is to serve and support. Sharing charming anecdotes of their time spent together, this revealing book provides memorable insights into what it's like to work closely with The Queen, to curate her wardrobe and to discover a true and lasting connection along the way. 'The book documents the unique working relationship between Her Majesty The Queen and the woman who has been her Personal Assistant and Senior Dresser for more than two decades: Angela Kelly. It gives a rare insight into the demands of the job of supporting the Monarch, and we gain privileged insight into a successful working relationship, characterized by humor, creativity, hard work, and a mutual commitment to service and duty. Angela is a talented and inspiring woman, who has captured the highlights of her long career with The Queen for us all to share.'" -- Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2019. Download DB112661

The Queen & Her Court: A Guide to the British Monarchy Today by Jerrold M. Packard

A close look at the royal family, their lives, personalities, associates, and residences. Also explains various titles and ranks and what they signify, how to address members of the nobility, and customs surrounding the royal family and the court. 1981. Download BR05279

The Rise and Fall of the House of Windsor by A.N. Wilson

According to Queen Elizabeth II, 1992 was an "annus horribilis." In that year, the family that was supposed to represent the ideal family of stability, to which the British could look for example, suffered many changes. Wilson looks at the House of Windsor in its crisis by examining the influence of the press, royal marriages, religion, and the Constitution. 1993. Download DB37913

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Queen Elizabeth II: A Biographical Reading List

The life and reign of the UK's Queen Elizabeth II , who died today, spanned a period of enormous social and political change. Ascending the throne at the age of 25 and reigning for more than 70 years, the Queen was a steadfast presence in the lives of Britons and a major presence on the world stage. She navigated the evolving role of the monarchy, guiding both her family and the nation through changing, often challenging times. These biographies delve into the Queen's upbringing, personality, and private life—and examine her impact and legacy at the head of a modern royal family and as Britain's head of state.

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by   Deborah Hart Strober & Gerald Strober

A revelatory oral history of Queen Elizabeth II's reign featuring interviews from diverse sources including Buckingham Palace staff, family friends, and international figures such as Nelson Mandela, and containing a broad spectrum of views on the Queen—her story, her personality, and how her life has intersected and impacted others.

Queen of Our Times: The Life of Queen Elizabeth II

by Robert Hardman

A portrait of a world leader who remains as intriguing today as the day she came to the throne at the age of 25. Hardman, using unpublished papers from the royal archives and photographs and personal stories from other world leaders, distills Elizabeth's complex life into a must-read study of dynastic survival and renewal.

Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters

by Andrew Morton

A biography of Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, Princess Margaret, examines their early idyllic youth as the closest of sisters as well as their relationship after their father's death and Elizabeth's ascension to the throne.

Queen: A Life in Pictures

by Victoria Murphy

More than 300 extraordinary photographs, along with insightful commentary by royal journalist Victoria Murphy, showcase the most historic moments of the Queen’s life—as well as more intimate occasions—first as a young princess and then as the longest-reigning British monarch.

The Last Queen: Elizabeth II's Seventy Year Battle to Save the House of Windsor

by Clive Irving

A timely and revelatory new biography of Queen Elizabeth II and her family exploring how the Windsors have adapted as the modern world has changed around them.

Princess: The Early Life of Queen Elizabeth II

by Jane Dismore

Dismore examines the early life of the future queen, including her happy childhood, relations with her younger sister Margaret, wartime experiences as a teenager, her marriage to Prince Philip, and her ascension to the throne at the age of 25.

Young Elizabeth: The Making of the Queen

by Kate Williams

Williams chronicles the early life of Queen Elizabeth II, who, after her accession to the throne at the age of 25, carved out a lasting role for herself amid the changes of the 20th and 21st centuries.

My Husband and I: The Inside Story of the Royal Marriage

by Ingrid Seward

A revealing insight into the marriage of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, who made a formidable partnership throughout her record-breaking reign.

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.

20 of the Best Books About Queen Elizabeth II

From exhaustive biographies, to illustrated coffee table books, and dishy accounts from former palace staffers.

Every item on this page was chosen by a Town & Country editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

On the one year anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's passing, you may find yourself wanting to deepen your knowledge of the longest-reigning female monarch in world history. There's a wealth of books out there to delve into. From exhaustive biographies, to illustrated coffee table books, to dishy accounts from former palace staffers, here are 20 of the best books you can read about the queen.

Sally Bedell Smith Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

Sally Bedell Smith has written biographies of towering figures on both sides of the pond, including Princess Diana, John and Jacqueline Kennedy, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and most recently Prince Charles . Her take on the queen was praised as “an excellent, all-embracing new biography” by the New York Times .

Angela Kelly The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe

To be fascinated by the Queen is to be fascinated by her wardrobe, and The Other Side of the Coin is a must-read for anyone wanting the inside scoop on those impeccably coordinated suits. Angela Kelley is the Queen’s personal dresser , and was given permission to share this exclusive glimpse into the royal costuming process, complete with never-before-seen images.

Hearst Home Town & Country: The Queen: A Life in Pictures

This carefully curated coffee table book from T&C was created by longtime royal reporter Victoria Murphy. The photographic tribute to Queen Elizabeth II features more than 300 photographs from the seven decades of her reign, spotlighting significant moments from both her public and private spheres, all accompanied by commentary and context from Murphy. The collection encompasses her coronation, her marriage to Prince Philip, her numerous royal tours around the world, her evolving wardrobe through the years, the births of her children and grandchildren, and much more.

Ingrid Seward My Husband and I: The Inside Story of the Royal Marriage

If you were gripped by season two of The Crown ’s deep dive into Elizabeth and Philip’s once-troubled marriage , you’ll want to prioritize this one. Seward delves into the couple’s 70-year long marriage with a lightness of touch, detailing their courtship and ups and downs as well as their formidable bond.

Robert Lacey The Crown, The Official Companion

If while watching The Crown , you're simultaneously fact-checking each episode, this is the book for you. Written by the show's historical consultant, Robert Lacey, it offers an in-depth look at the true story behind the drama. While this volume only addresses seasons two and three, hopefully Lacey will offer a season four version soon.

Elizabeth and Philip: A Royal Love Story

Similar to Seward's text, this special edition of Town & Country centers on the Queen and Prince Philip's romance, and features the true story of their courtship and 70+ year marriage alongside rarely seen photos of the royal couple.

Sali Hughes Our Rainbow Queen: A Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and Her Colorful Wardrobe

This beautiful coffee table book by Welsh journalist Sali Hughes offers a photographic voyage through nine decades of the Queen’s wardrobe, and more importantly her color schemes .

Brian Hoey Not in Front of the Corgis: Secrets of Life Behind the Royal Curtains

Admit it, this one had you at the title. Though this book isn’t exclusively about Queen Elizabeth’s famous collection of corgis (disappointing), it’s still a fun, deliberately lightweight collection of trivia and tidbits about royal life.

Sarah Bradford The Reluctant King: The Life and Reign of George VI, 1895-1952

In order to fully understand Queen Elizabeth, and the turbulent circumstances of her ascension to the throne, you need to understand her father, King George VI. Now most famous as the subject of 2010's The King's Speech , George was forced to become King after his brother abdicated the throne, a saga which Sarah Bradford chronicles in fascinating detail.

The Queen Mother: The Official Biography

As important as King George VI is to Queen Elizabeth's story, the Queen Mother played a far more central role in her daughter's reign, having lived to see its first five decades. William Shawcross’s official biography, published seven years after the Queen Mother's death in 2002, is a weighty tome packed with details and insight into her daily life.

Carol Ann Duffy Jubilee Lines: 60 Poets for 60 Years

Though not technically a book about Queen Elizabeth at all, Jubilee Lines is nevertheless an evocative portrait of her reign. In this collection, published in 2012 for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, 60 poets are each assigned one of the 60 Jubilee years, and write a poem related in some way to the events or reality of that year.

Ben Pimlott The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II

Originally published in 1996, this definitive and acclaimed biography of Queen Elizabeth was updated in 2002 to mark her Golden Jubilee. Written by the late, highly respected historian Ben Pimlott, The Queen was described by The Independent newspaper as “the standard work on its sovereign subject, while The New York Times Book Review called it a “superbly judicious biography of Elizabeth II.”

Pegasus Books Queen of the World: Elizabeth II: Sovereign and Stateswoman

Veteran royal chronicler Robert Hardman focuses his 2019 biography on a specific aspect of Queen Elizabeth – her role as the head of Commonwealth of Nations—and thus avoids retreading familiar ground. Queen of the World was described by the BBC as “an intimate portrait of the Royal commitments at home and abroad.”

Andrew Marr The Diamond Queen: Elizabeth II and Her People

Scottish journalist Andrew Marr has a unique perspective as royal biographer, having once been a diehard republican (i.e. opposed to the existence of monarchy). Now an admirer of the Queen, Marr argues in this biography that “Britain without her would have been a greyer, shriller, more meagre place."

Sarah Bradford Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life In Our Times

In this relatively recent biography of the Queen—published in 2012—Sarah Bradford places the Queen’s life in a broader historical context. Per The Telegraph , the book represents “a familiar story being sparked into new life by a skilled practitioner.”

Marion Crawford The Little Princesses

For a truly one-of-a-kind perspective on the Queen’s formative years, look no further than this extraordinary biography by Marion Crawford, who was governess to the young Elizabeth and her sister Margaret for 17 years (they called her “Crawfie”). The 1950 publication of The Little Princesses caused a stir, and Crawford was reportedly shunned by the royal family for writing it.

Gyles Brandreth Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage

Another option for those fascinated by the Elizabeth/Philip dynamic, this biography by Gyles Brandreth is unusual for being focused primarily on Philip’s perspective.

Catherine Ryan The Queen: The Life and Times of Elizabeth II

This beautifully presented coffee table book takes a photo-centric approach to chronicling Queen Elizabeth’s life and reign.

Dickie Arbiter On Duty With The Queen

In his part-autobiography and part-royal biography, former palace spokesman Dickie Arbiter recounts how he went from working in broadcast journalism to being appointed as press secretary to the Royal family in 1988. Given Arbiter’s unparalleled access to the Queen—not to mention Princess Diana—it’s no surprise that this is a compelling, if restrained, read.

Cecil Beaton Queen Elizabeth II: Portraits by Cecil Beaton

Society photographer Cecil Beaton was chosen to take the official photographs of the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, and his portraits became some of the most iconic images from her entire reign. Along with the pictures themselves, this book offers insight into Beaton’s long relationship with the royals, and the role his work played in their public image.

Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.

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10 things to know about Queen Elizabeth II’s life

FILE - Britain’s Princess Elizabeth aged 16 at an unidentified event, April 7, 1942. During World War II, young Princess Elizabeth briefly became known as No. 230873, Second Subaltern Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor of the Auxiliary Transport Service No. 1.(AP Photo, File)

FILE - A view of commemorative coin showing portraits of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II from the start of her reign, at left, to the present is displayed at The Royal Mint, Llantrisant, Wales, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015. Elizabeth was the oldest and longest-reigning monarch in British history. In September 2015 she surpassed her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, who was on the throne for 63 years and 7 months. (AP Photo/Ashley Chan, File)

FILE - Britain’s Princess Margaret Rose, left, points to an interesting feature of a book held by her sister, Princess Elizabeth, as the children of the King and Queen of England read together in the Bowl-Room of Buckingham Palace, Aug. 14, 1942, London. Like many royals of her time and before, Elizabeth never went to a public school and was never exposed to other students. Instead, she was educated at home with Margaret, her younger sister. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Princess Elizabeth on horseback with the riding master in Windsor Great Park, Windsor, England, in April 1935.Like many royals of her time and before, Elizabeth never went to a public school and was never exposed to other students. Instead, she was educated at home with Margaret, her younger sister. . (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Britain’s Princess Elizabeth sits at the driving wheel of an ambulance in April 1945 after completing a course of driving instruction at the A.T.S. Center to be an officer. During WWII, young Princess Elizabeth briefly became known as No. 230873, Second Subaltern Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor of the Auxiliary Transport Service No. 1. After months of campaigning for her parents’ permission to do something for the war effort, the heir to the throne enthusiastically learned how to drive and service ambulances and lorries. She rose to the rank of honorary Junior Commander within months. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II laughs as Irish President Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina prepare to leave Windsor Castle in Windsor, southern England on April 11, 2014, at the end of their official visit. Elizabeth often gave the impression of seriousness and many have noted her “poker face,” but those who knew her described her as having a mischievous sense of humor and a talent for mimicry in private company. Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has said the queen could be “extremely funny in private _ and not everybody appreciates how funny she can be.” (Leon Neal, Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II inspects the ruins left by a fire in Windsor Castle on Saturday, Nov. 21, 1992 in Windsor, England with an unidentified fireman. She may have been the queen, but she paid taxes too, at least from 1992. When Windsor Castle, the queen’s weekend residence, was ravaged by a fire in 1992, the public revolted against paying millions of pounds for the repairs. But she voluntarily agreed to pay tax on her personal income. (Pool Photo via AP)

FILE - Britain’s Queen Mary, left, rides in her carriage with Princess Elizabeth and Queen Elizabeth, right, after the trooping the colour ceremony in honour of king George V 68th Birthday, in London, June 3rd, 1933. The queen was christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary of York, in honor of her mother, paternal grandmother and paternal great-grandmother. But as a child, she was endearingly known as young Lilibet by her family said to be because she couldn’t pronounce Elizabeth properly. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Britain’s Princess Elizabeth and her fiance Lieut. Philip Mountbatten, background, arrive at the Caledonian Hotel to attend a dinner given by the Duchess of Buccleugh, as policemen hold back cheering crowds, July 15, 1947, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip enjoyed a stable relationship for more 70 years, a union that far outlasted the marriages of three of her four children _ Charles, Anne and Andrew. “He has been quite simply my strength and stay all these years,” the queen said of Philip on their 50th anniversary. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II watches the red arrows fly over to mark her official birthday at Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, Saturday June 12, 2021. Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926, but it was sometimes confusing for the public to know when to celebrate. There was no universally fixed day for her “official birthday”: It’s either the first, second or third Saturday in June, and was decided by the government. (Chris Jackson/Pool via AP, File)

FILE - Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II rides in a carriage along the Mall during the Trooping The Colour parade at Buckingham Palace, in London, Saturday, June 11, 2016. Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926, but it was sometimes confusing for the public to know when to celebrate. There was no universally fixed day for her “official birthday”: It’s either the first, second or third Saturday in June, and was decided by the government. (AP Photo/Tim Ireland, File)

Princess Elizabeth takes her pet dog for a walk in Hyde Park, London, on Feb. 26. 1936. It’s widely known that Elizabeth loved corgi dogs, Princess Diana reportedly called the animals the queen’s “moving carpet” because they accompanied her everywhere. Elizabeth was photographed hugging one of the pooches as far back as 1936, aged 10, and was given a corgi named Susan as an 18th birthday present. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - The Beatles, standing from left George Harrison and John Lennon; seated, Paul McCartney, left, and Ringo Starr display their MBE medals during a news conference in London, England, Oct. 26, 1965. They were made members of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen of England at Buckingham Palace. The queen inevitably became the subject of many a pop song. The Beatles immortalized the queen with the tongue-in-cheek “Her Majesty,” calling her “a pretty nice girl” though “she doesn’t have a lot to say.” The brief song, sung by Paul McCartney and recorded in 1969, appeared at the end of the album “Abbey Road.” (AP Photo, File)

FILE - British punk rock band the Sex Pistols are seen in 1977. From left to right: Paul Cook, Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten and Steve Jones. The Sex Pistols’ anti-monarchist “God Save The Queen,” was released right before Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 and was banned on British television. (AP Photo, File)

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LONDON (AP) — Ten things to know about the life of Queen Elizabeth II:

BRITAIN’S LONGEST-REIGNING MONARCH

Elizabeth, who marked 70 years on the throne this year, is the oldest and longest-reigning monarch in British history. In September 2015 she surpassed her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, who reigned for 63 years and seven months.

In 2016, Elizabeth also became the longest-reigning monarch in the world with the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. In 2022, she became the second-longest-reigning monarch in world history, behind 17th century French King Louis XIV, who took the throne at age 4.

Apart from Elizabeth and Victoria, only four other monarchs in British history have reigned for 50 years or more: George III (59 years), Henry III (56 years), Edward III (50 years) and James VI of Scotland (58 years.)

HOME-SCHOOLING

Like many royals of her time and before, Elizabeth never went to a public school and was never exposed to other students. Instead, she was educated at home with Margaret, her younger sister.

Among those who taught her was her father, along with a senior teacher at Eton College, several French and Belgian governesses who taught her French, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who taught her religion.

Elizabeth’s schooling also included learning to ride, swim, dance and the study of fine art and music.

“NO. 230873”

During World War II, young Princess Elizabeth briefly became known as No. 230873, Second Subaltern Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor of the Auxiliary Transport Service No. 1.

After months of campaigning for her parents’ permission to do something for the war effort, the heir to the throne learned how to drive and service ambulances and trucks. She rose to the rank of honorary Junior Commander within months.

‘GREAT MIMICKER’

Elizabeth often gave the impression of a serious demeanor, and many have noted her “poker face,” but those who knew her described her as having a mischievous sense of humor and a talent for mimicry in private company.

Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has said the queen could be “extremely funny in private — and not everybody appreciates how funny she can be.”

Bishop Michael Mann, the monarch’s domestic chaplain, once said that “the queen imitating the Concorde landing is one of the funniest things you could see.” Ian Paisley, the Northern Irish clergyman and politician, also noted that Elizabeth was a “great mimicker” of him.

More recently, she showed her mischievous side during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, when she starred in a comic video alongside an animated Paddington Bear and spoke of hiding marmalade sandwiches in her purse.

ROYAL TAXPAYER

She may have been the queen, but she paid taxes too — at least since 1992.

When Windsor Castle, the queen’s weekend residence, was ravaged by fire in 1992, the public rebelled against paying millions of pounds for repairs.

But she voluntarily agreed to pay tax on her personal income. She said she would meet 70 percent of the cost of restoration work, and she also decided to open her home at Buckingham Palace to the public for the first time to generate extra funds from admission fees.

LITTLE LILIBET

The queen was christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor of York, in honor of her mother, paternal grandmother and paternal great-grandmother. But as a child, she was endearingly known as young Lilibet by her family — said to be because she couldn’t pronounce “Elizabeth” properly.

In a letter to her grandmother Queen Mary, the young princess wrote: “Dear Granny. Thank you very much for the lovely little jersey. We loved staying at Sandringham with you. I lost a top front tooth yesterday morning,” before signing off, “Love from Lilibet.”

The nickname became more widely known after Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, named their daughter Lilibet Diana in 2021.

A STEADFAST ROMANCE

Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip enjoyed a stable relationship for more 70 years, a union that far outlasted the marriages of three of her four children: Charles, Anne and Andrew.

“He has been quite simply my strength and stay all these years,” the queen said of Philip on their 50th wedding anniversary.

Their story began in 1939, when Prince Philip of Greece, a handsome 18-year-old naval cadet, was detailed to entertain the 13-year-old Elizabeth for a day. Several years later, Philip was invited to join the royal family at Windsor Castle at Christmas, and he soon made discreet inquiries whether he would be considered an eligible suitor.

The couple married in Westminster Abbey in 1947. When Philip died in 2021 at age 99, Elizabeth described his passing as leaving a “huge void” in her life, according to their son, Andrew.

MULTIPLE BIRTHDAYS

Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926, but it was sometimes confusing for the public to know when to celebrate.

There was no universally fixed day for her “official birthday” — it’s either the first, second or third Saturday in June, and was decided by the government.

In Australia, her birthday was celebrated on the second Monday of June, while in Canada, was marked on a Monday either on or before May 24, Queen Victoria’s birthday.

Only the queen and those closest to her celebrated her actual birthday in private gatherings.

HOW MANY CORGIS?

It’s widely known that Elizabeth loved corgis — Princess Diana reportedly called the dogs the queen’s “moving carpet” because they accompanied her everywhere.

She owned more than 30 corgis over the years. She also had two “dorgis” — crossbreeds of dachshund and corgi — named Candy and Vulcan.

Elizabeth was photographed hugging one of the dogs as far back as 1936 at age 10, and was given a corgi named Susan for her 18th birthday. The breed was introduced to the royal family by her father, King George VI, in 1933, when he bought a male corgi called Dookie from a local kennel.

As queen, she also technically owned the thousands of mute swans in open British waters, and had the right to claim all sturgeons, porpoises, whales and dolphins, according to a statute from 1324.

‘A PRETTY NICE GIRL’

The queen inevitably became the subject of pop songs.

The Beatles immortalized her with the tongue-in-cheek “Her Majesty,” calling her “a pretty nice girl” though “she doesn’t have a lot to say.” The brief song, sung by Paul McCartney and recorded in 1969, appeared at the end of the “Abbey Road” album.

Other musical treatments weren’t so kind. The Sex Pistols’ anti-monarchist “God Save The Queen,” released right before her Silver Jubilee in 1977, was banned on British television.

Follow all AP stories on Britain’s royals at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii.

Live updates: King Charles addresses the nation as Britain goes into mourning

Two 96-round gun salutes honoring the queen — one round for each year of her life — fired in London today as the nation began a complex, multiday farewell to Queen Elizabeth II.

Here's what we're following:

Operation "London Bridge": The British government has an intricate protocol to mark Elizabeth's death.

The monarchy's uncertain future: Britain can expect to struggle without Queen Elizabeth at the helm, according to one expert.

The last time a British monarch died: See a young Queen Elizabeth at her father's funeral in 1952

3 takeaways from King Charles' speech

By Willem Marx

LONDON — King Charles III gave his first public speech, in an emotion-laden prerecorded broadcast that began at the same time as a service Friday evening to commemorate his late mother began at St. Paul's Cathedral.

It came just a day after Queen Elizabeth's death at her Balmoral estate in Scotland, and after Britain's new head of state had traveled south from there to London, arriving at Buckingham Palace alongside his wife Camilla, now the queen consort, and before waiting crowds of thousands.

He spoke from the same room Elizabeth had often used for her televised Christmas broadcasts, but his tone was mostly somber and serious as he paid tribute not only to her as a monarch, but as a mother.

Below are three of the major takeaways:

1. As king, he has to hand off charity work

For decades, Charles has focused much of his attention and intellect on programs and passions that have been of interest to him: underprivileged young people, climate, agriculture and even community development are subjects close to his heart and have inspired his efforts. But he acknowledged in his address that the charities and organizations he has supported or spearheaded must now be led by others, as he takes on the additional constitutional roles and responsibilities of kingship. "This important work will go on in the trusted hands of others," he said.

2. He promises continuity

The new king insisted that a primary part of his mission as monarch would be to provide a form of consistency in matters both temporal and spiritual, in the way he said his mother had done, despite huge social, political and cultural changes across Britain over the last seven decades. He said though the institutions of state had changed, and despite various challenges, he said the United Kingdom's values have remained constant and should continue to do so. As the new head of the Church of England, he said that his own faith had helped him to develop a sense of duty to others, and to respect Britain's system of parliamentary government.

3. The new queen consort has showed "loyal public service"

He focused on the important role two women had played already in his life, his mother and his wife, but also how the latter, Camilla, would continue to support him during this moment and the years to come. He said that her new position of queen consort was a recognition of her own "loyal public service." He appeared keen to play up her own ability to meet what he called the "demands" of this new role but also — in the most emotional words of his entire delivery — he thanked the woman he called his "darling Mama" for her love and devotion.

Canada mourns Elizabeth, who was its head of state too

By Crispin Thorold

“Canada is in mourning,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an emotional tribute following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

The United Kingdom isn’t the only country that just lost its long-reigning queen — Canada is one of more than a dozen members of the British Commonwealth that recognize the monarch as their head of state. And as of her death on Thursday, there is a new King of Canada and head of state: Charles III.

In Trudeau’s words, Elizabeth had an “abiding love for Canadians.” She carried out 22 official visits, including a marathon 45-day tour of all the Canadian provinces and territories in 1959. On her last visit to the country in 2010, she noted in a speech, in both English and French, that it was “very good to be home.”

The country is marking Elizabeth’s death as an official period of mourning. Canada has lowered flags on buildings across the country. Canadian politicians as well as the monarch’s own representatives here have made statements. A commemorative service will be held in the capital, Ottawa.

Yet the public reaction to her death is nuanced, partly because it comes at a time when Canadian society is reappraising its colonial history. The Canada of 1952, when Elizabeth ascended to the throne, has changed dramatically, especially in population centers where decades of immigration have changed demographics.

Many Canadians today have ties with countries that have no link with the monarchy or are former colonies with differing views of their onetime rulers. An Angus Reid survey in April found 51% of respondents were against continuing with a constitutional monarchy, while close to two-thirds (63%) viewed Elizabeth favorably.

“The queen was a global figure,” says Andrew McDougall, assistant professor of Canadian politics and public law at the University of Toronto. “To that extent this is an event that people will connect to on a cultural basis. The institutional side is more complicated.”

The monarchy is embedded within the Canadian Constitution, and while there is periodic discussion about whether it remains useful in modern Canada, there is not a significant movement in favor of becoming a republic.

“A lot of people would not be opposed to getting rid of the monarchy,” McDougall says, “but it would require the consent of the federal government and all the provinces. It would also likely need the input of Indigenous peoples who often see their relationship as being with the Crown rather than the government of Canada.”

There is also the challenge of what would replace the monarchy. During Elizabeth’s reign, Canadians generally viewed the debate around whether to become a republic as a distraction from pressing problems like inflation and the burdened public health system.

The immediate reaction following Elizabeth’s death suggests this will not change overnight. But according to the Angus Reid poll, there could be difficulties for the monarchy in Canada — with just one-third supportive of recognizing King Charles as head of state.

Remembering Elizabeth in the Kenyan town where she discovered she was queen

By Michael Kaloki

To some, Nyeri is an unassuming farm town in central Kenya. But to others, it has a special connection to the longest-serving British monarch.

Just a half-hour’s drive from the town is the Treetops Lodge. It is where a then 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth found out she had become queen.

Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip were at the lodge in February 1952, when King George VI died. Thus began the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Kenya was once a British colony that gained independence in 1963 — during Elizabeth’s reign.

In a solemn, quiet kind of way, that reign came to an end Thursday with the queen’s death at age 96. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a period of mourning around the nation in her honor.

NPR spoke to people in Kenya about their connection with the queen.

“She’s kind of an inspiration to me at this young age,” says William Thuo, a web developer in Nyeri. He says Elizabeth proved she could overcome major challenges.

A few miles down the road from Nyeri lies the village of Kamuyu, dotted with trees and dirt paths.

“My father was working at Treetops when the queen visited,” says Jane Mureithi, 43, while glancing at a photo of her father who passed away in 2021. “He thought she was a great person.”

Fiction imagined the truth of Queen Elizabeth II and her subjects

By Barbara Campbell

Plenty of biographies purport to tell the inside story of Queen Elizabeth II — but she was renowned for her reserve, and they may not have reflected her deepest feelings. What books to turn to, then, for an unguarded portrayal of the late queen? Fiction, usually comedy, has imagined the truth of Elizabeth and, by extension, of Great Britain.

What if the queen had to live in a council flat?

In The Queen and I , author Sue Townsend dumped the royal family out of their lives of economic security and gave them a taste of lower-quality housing, sitting in a National Health Service waiting room and no corgis.

She could have hidden out in the Caribbean

What if Elizabeth had dropped out of royal life of her own accord? Emma Tennant imagined her disappearing from Balmoral in The Autobiography of the Queen and reemerging solo in St. Lucia as Gloria Smith. Here again, she encounters the conditions that average people face.

Her transformation could have happened in her own home

As other authors pulled the queen out of royal life to imagine her inner truth, Alan Bennett kept her in the palace, but with the life-changing discovery of reading. In The Uncommon Reader , Her Majesty unexpectedly becomes a voracious reader of fiction and discovers other people's inner lives. That, of course, is the whole point of fiction, and of all these novels that try to break through the monarch's public image.

Tributes pour in from the Arab world, where royal families held close ties with Elizabeth

By Fatma Tanis

Across the Arab world, flags are flying at half-staff and days of mourning were announced as Arab leaders paid tribute to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.

Royal families in the Middle East boasted close relations with the queen. And local media across the region are displaying images of her many visits during her 70-year reign.

Jordan's King Abdullah II called her a “dear family friend” as he announced seven days of mourning. The United Arab Emirates’ president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, said on Twitter the queen “was a close friend of the UAE and a beloved & respected leader.”

In a statement, Saudi Arabia's King Salman said the queen was "a model of leadership." His son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, called her an “example of wisdom, love and peace.”

In Egypt, the Al-Azhar Mosque’s grand imam, Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb — considered by many to be the highest authority in Sunni Islam — tweeted his condolences to King Charles III and added that “her Majesty was such a unique, committed, and deeply respected Head of State. She dedicated her life to serving her nation and people.”

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi called the queen's death a great loss, and said he had "full confidence in the ability of King Charles to fill the space left by Queen Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth II became the monarch just as Egypt had formed its republic after overthrowing decades of British occupation in a revolution in 1952. Other Arab countries, including Jordan, Yemen and the UAE, were under the British protectorate and gained full independence in the 1960s and 1970s during Elizabeth’s reign.

Niagara Falls has been a welcome destination for generations of the royal family

By Mark Wozniak, WBFO

As WBFO's Mark Wozniak explains — generations of Queen Elizabeth's family have made their way to Niagara Falls: From her parents' pre-WWII visit to dedicate the site of what is now known as the Niagara Falls International Rainbow Bridge, to her grandchildren's visit with their mother Princess Diana to ride the Maid of the Mist.

The visits span decades and mark powerful moments in both Queen Elizabeth's reign and in our recent history. Head to WBFO to see the full timeline .

Biden plans to attend the queen's funeral

By NPR Washington Desk

President Biden told White House reporters on Friday that he plans to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

“Yes. I don’t know what the details are yet but I’ll be going,” Biden replied in answer to a question from reporters traveling with him on a trip to Ohio.

King Charles offers thanks to his mother and a promise to the country

By Tara Neill

King Charles III has just delivered his first address to the United Kingdom as monarch.

Speaking from Buckingham Palace, he paid tribute to his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died at the age of 96 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday.

In the special broadcast, which was recorded earlier today, the king spoke of his feeling of "profound sorrow." He talked of Queen Elizabeth's unfailing devotion to her country and family, of her "life well lived" and "sacrifices to duty." Looking ahead, he pledged to uphold the constitutional principles of the nation and serve the country with loyalty.

He also announced that his eldest son, Prince William, will now assume the title of Prince of Wales. He ended the broadcast with a simple "thank you" to his mother, the queen.

The speech was broadcast at the start of a memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral in London, at the end of which the first official rendition of "God Save the King" will be sung.

Behind the scenes of the queen's last public portrait

By Rachel Treisman

Queen Elizabeth died just days after appointing Liz Truss the United Kingdom's newest prime minister, a time-honored formality that has taken on new meaning as the queen's final act of service and the setting of the last publicly-released photos taken of her.

The ceremony was held at Balmoral Castle in Scotland (as opposed to Buckingham Palace, as is customary) because of the queen's mobility issues and limited capacity to travel.

Photos from PA Media (formerly the Press Association) show the queen shaking hands with Truss and smiling in a moment by herself. She is wearing a cardigan and long plaid skirt, carrying a handbag and walking stick. Social media users took note of visible bruising on her outstretched hand.

Jane Barlow, the photographer behind those now-iconic images, told the PA that Queen Elizabeth was "frail" but "in good spirits" that day.

Barlow took some solo portraits of the queen in the ornate drawing room as they waited for Truss to arrive, and made small talk about the dreary weather. Still, Barlow recalled, "I got a lot of smiles from her." The queen greeted Truss "with a big smile" too — but Barlow's favorite photo is the one of her standing alone.

Barlow says it was an honor and a privilege to capture the queen's last public portrait, and that she's gotten many lovely comments about it in the days since.

"I was there to photograph her meeting the new prime minister but for me the best picture was the one of the queen on her own," she said. "And it has obviously become more significant now."

Watch: King Charles addresses the U.K. as the kingdom mourns Elizabeth

By Bill Chappell

King Charles III is making his first public remarks as a monarch Friday, delivering what is expected to be a brief speech at 1 p.m. ET.

Around the same time as the speech, 96-round gun salutes honoring the queen — one round for each year of her life — were to be fired in Hyde Park and at the Tower of London.

Earlier Friday, the king announced a period of royal mourning, to be observed until seven days after the queen's funeral — the exact date of which remains uncertain.

On Saturday morning, the Accession Council is expected to proclaim the new sovereign's accession to the throne .  Afterward, Charles will read and sign a centuries-old oath to uphold the security of the Church in Scotland and ensure continuity of government.

The U.K. is heartbroken over the queen’s death, U.S. ambassador says

By Olivia Hampton

The United Kingdom is a nation "heartbroken" over the death of its long-serving monarch Queen Elizabeth II, U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. Jane Hartley told NPR’s Morning Edition on Friday.

"I can't imagine what it was like for her 70 years ago as a world leader and really being the only woman," said Hartley, who is only the second female U.S. ambassador to the country in half a century. "So I just I just have the deepest, deepest respect for her and for her legacy."

The envoy recalled how, even in ill health just two days before her death, the queen had asked Prime Minister Liz Truss to form a new government.

"She realized how important that was because as we know, there are difficult days in the U.K. right now with the economy, with the cost of living, with the war in Ukraine. So she felt right to the end that she had to lead," Hartley said, adding the move brought me to tears."

When a U.S. ambassador presents credentials to the British monarch, it is usually a lavish ceremony that involves traveling in a horse-drawn carriage to Buckingham Palace. But Hartley recalled how record temperatures had made it too hot for the horses on the day of her ceremony this July.

"So the queen insisted on sending me her car, which was just extremely kind," Hartley told co-host Rachel Martin. "And in my conversations with her, which were all about policy, because she was so informed and cared deeply, she cared about my own personal happiness, she asked me if London was treating me well."

The whole country is mourning her loss, with large crowds gathering at Buckingham Palace to pay their respects and bells tolling across the U.K.

"It really is an end of an era and everybody had tears in their eyes, and I think everybody knew it was coming, but somehow it still felt too soon," Hartley added.

Listen to their full conversation here .

What could happen to Queen Elizabeth's beloved corgis?

By Juliana Kim

Among the hallmarks of Queen Elizabeth II was her love for animals, and particularly dogs.

On Thursday, the Queen died in her Balmoral estate in Scotland at age 96. Over the course of her life, Elizabeth owned more than 30 pets — a majority of which were Pembroke Welsh Corgis .

She leaves behind at least four dogs  — two corgis, one cocker spaniel and one dorgi (a dachshund corgi hybrid that the queen is credited with originating). Their names are Muick, Sandy, Lissy  and Candy, respectively.

Elizabeth's affinity for dogs can be traced back to her 18th birthday , when she was first given a corgi named Susan, from whom all the corgis bred by the queen are descended.

Over the decades, the queen's canine companions were often seen close by their owner wherever she went. In 2014, they helped comfort Dr. David Nott, a surgeon who had just returned from Syria, during a PTSD attack .

In 2015, Elizabeth decided she would stop bringing new dogs under her care out of fear of leaving any puppies behind, Monty Roberts, a royal horse whisperer, told Vanity Fair . But after her husband Prince Philip's death in 2021, Elizabeth had a change of heart .

Without Elizabeth, the dogs may be separated and given to various family members, some experts speculate.

"Andrew has Cocker Spaniels so he might take back the one he gave her. William and Kate also love dogs so they could have them," Claudia Joseph, a journalist based in London, told the New York Post .

Others believe the pets may remain under the care of Elizabeth's trusted staff.

Penny Junor, who has written extensively about the queen's corgis, noted that both Elizabeth's dressmaker, Angela Kelly, and royal employee, Paul Whybrew, have experience caring for the queen's dogs, Newsweek reported.

The Sydney Opera House projects a massive photo to honor Queen Elizabeth II

The famous sails of the Sydney Opera House are lit in somber colors Friday, highlighting a photograph of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

The queen visited the landmark several times -- including when she officially declared it open in 1973, Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron said in a statement .

“The human spirit must sometimes take wings or sails,” Elizabeth said , “and create something that is not just utilitarian or commonplace.”

By displaying the photo, Herron said, "We celebrate her contribution to Australian life and culture."

The Opera House is projecting the image until midnight on Friday and Saturday.

An unexpected sign of Queen Elizabeth's legacy on one D.C. street

By Martin Austermuhle, WAMU/DCist

Back in 1991, Queen Elizabeth visited Washington, D.C., taking time to stop by a housing development in the southwest part of the district. As WAMU/DCist's Martin Austermuhle explains :

On a warm spring day in 1991, D.C. resident Alice Frazier threw all norms out the window and embraced the United Kingdom’s then-monarch as the queen walked into Frazier’s home in Ward 7. The protocol-prohibited hug, memorialized in a picture showing Queen Elizabeth II smiling pleasantly but not returning Frazier’s surprise embrace, came in the midst of the monarch’s official 12-day visit to the U.S. more than three decades ago.

The queen’s trip included stops in Texas, Virginia, Maryland (where she attended a Baltimore Orioles game), as well as the White House. But the monarch also visited a new affordable housing development on Drake Place SE, where Frazier had recently moved.

To memorialize the visit, efforts were made to rename Drake Place “Queen’s Stroll Place,” a name that exists today.

Of course, not everyone was enthused with the idea. Keep reading at DCist.com .

Paddington Bear bids a simple farewell to Queen Elizabeth II

“Thank you Ma’am, for everything,” Paddington Bear said via the beloved children’s character's Twitter account, sharing good wishes after news emerged that Queen Elizabeth II’s long reign has ended.

The farewell comes just three months after Paddington famously helped the queen celebrate her Platinum Jubilee, joining her for a spot of tea and a marmalade sandwich at Buckingham Palace.

A video of their meeting helped kick off the palace’s party celebrating Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne.

Paddington's message is resonating online — as one commenter wrote, "Indeed. Thank you, ma'am, for everything."

Queen Elizabeth's lack of drama was the secret to her success, a royal historian says

Tracy Borman, royal historian and author of Crown and Sceptre , spoke to NPR's Morning Edition about the life and legacy of Queen Elizabeth — starting with her very first days on the throne at age 25.

"She immediately faced whole-scale prejudice about the fact that she was a woman, and people just didn't think she was capable of fulfilling this role of queen," Borman says. "And yet she defied all expectations. And I think it was her constancy and sense of duty, from the beginning, that really set her on the right path."

Those aren't necessarily the most glamorous qualities for a monarch, Borman adds, but she believes "it's the very lack of drama that defined her reign and was the secret of her success."

She says Queen Elizabeth always understood and abided by her constitutional role, upholding tradition while keeping up with the times and embodying the adage that an ideal monarch needed to be "always changing, always the same."

To Borman, the queen's greatest legacy lies in "finally introducing equality into the succession," so that women have equal precedence with men when it comes to inheriting the throne.

Critics say that even if the queen was modern in some ways, she represented a part of British history that many people are not proud of — Borman acknowledges this but says the queen helped pave the way for a more modern monarchy, noting there is talk of King Charles being "defender of faiths" as opposed to the centuries-old title "defender of the faith."

And there's no denying that the royal family suffered a series of setbacks— from the traumatic death of Princess Diana to Prince Andrew's ties to Jeffrey Epstein to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepping back from royal duties — during her reign.

So how will the queen's legacy in those moments be remembered?

"I think there's a huge amount to learn from the queen's reactions to those moments," Borman says. "She always upheld the privacy of her position and I think she judged that absolutely correctly. 'Cause in this age that's obsessed with overnight celebrities and global communication, I think the queen upheld that dignity and was this constant, unswerving presence. Even when everything was falling apart around her, she was there, she was constant, a really steady hand."

Listen to the full conversation.

Here's what every living former U.S. president said about the queen

Queen Elizabeth had met with every sitting U.S. president , except Lyndon Johnson , since 1951 — 13 in total.

All of those who are still living paid tribute to her after her death, sharing statements of gratitude and some cherished personal memories. Here are some highlights:

Former President Donald Trump issued a statement on behalf of himself and former first lady Melania Trump, praising the queen's "generous friendship, great wisdom, and wonderful sense of humor."

"What a grand and beautiful lady she was — there was nobody like her!” he added.

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama released a lengthy statement honoring the queen, outlining the many ways in which she served the public as well as what she meant to them personally.

Like so many of you, Michelle and I are grateful to have witnessed Her Majesty’s dedicated leadership, and we are awed by her legacy of tireless, dignified public service. Our thoughts are with her family and the people of the United Kingdom at this difficult time. pic.twitter.com/sbID222iSQ — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 8, 2022

Former President George W. Bush paid tribute to the queen's steady resolve, confidence in her people and vision of a brighter future.

"She was a woman of great intellect, charm, and wit," he wrote. "Spending time at Buckingham Palace, and having tea with Her Majesty – and her Corgis – is among our fondest memories of the presidency."

The Clintons

Former president Bill Clinton said he and former first lady Hillary Clinton were grateful for the queen's kindness over the years, especially during their two visits to Buckingham Palace, and "for all she did to deepen the Special Relationship."

My thoughts and prayers are with the Royal Family and all the people Her Majesty inspired throughout her lifetime of service. pic.twitter.com/r5pjncyCu8 — Bill Clinton (@BillClinton) September 8, 2022

The Carters

In a statement issued by the Carter Center, former president and first lady Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter extended their condolences too. It reads in part:

"Her dignity, graciousness, and sense of duty have been an inspiration, and we join the millions around the world in mourning a remarkable leader."

See how newspapers around the world handled Queen Elizabeth’s death

News of Queen Elizabeth II’s death quickly spread across the world on Thursday, after the long-reigning monarch died at 96. Journalists weighed her legacy, and what the future looks like for the U.K. under King Charles III.

Here’s a look at how different newspapers featured the news on their front pages:

The Financial Times and other outlets splashed color photos of the queen as a young woman across the full width of their front pages. Online, many cheered the paper for choosing a photo that showed Elizabeth not as a stodgy royal but as an excited and engaged leader.

Just published: front page of the Financial Times international edition Friday September 9 https://t.co/zBvV16DeRt pic.twitter.com/bRdv2ZQdjr — Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) September 8, 2022

The Guardian emphasized the majesty of the queen's role, in a photo that several other outlets also used.

The Guardian front page, Friday 9 September 2022; Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022 pic.twitter.com/5ROqSmVqE1 — The Guardian (@guardian) September 8, 2022

In Scotland, The Herald used an image of the queen wearing lush green ceremonial robes and the collar of the Order of the Thistle, Scotland's order of knighthood, at her Balmoral estate.

Tomorrow's front page as we pay tribute to the Queen pic.twitter.com/9ct0IZH8ST — The Herald (@heraldscotland) September 8, 2022

Others used black and white images to show Elizabeth in her later years, such as The New York Times .

The front page of The New York Times for Sept. 9, 2022. https://t.co/LilnXcdIw1 pic.twitter.com/GjcIFMe91E — The New York Times (@nytimes) September 9, 2022

The Belfast Telegraph captioned an archival image of Elizabeth, “Thank you, Ma’am.”

Friday's @BelTel front page: Thank you, Ma'am #TomorrowsPapersToday #QueenElizabeth https://t.co/MSchPqaHYL pic.twitter.com/khRIwvNuKs — Belfast Telegraph (@BelTel) September 8, 2022

In Nigeria — a former British colony — the headline declared, “ Bye Elizabeth II! ”

In Bermuda, The Royal Gazette published a color photo of the monarch with the dates of her life.

The Japan Times shared its original front page from 1953, when Elizabeth was crowned as a young queen (and the paper was called The Nippon Times ).

Prince Charles is far less popular than his mother

As Queen Elizabeth gradually retreated from public life in recent months, Prince Charles stepped in for a growing number of royal duties.

There was just one problem with that arrangement, as NPR's Frank Langfitt reported earlier this year: While the queen was hugely popular, her son was not. Langfitt cited polls that showed some 80% of Britons viewed the queen positively, while only about one-third wanted the 73-year-old to become king.

At least part of that unpopularity seems to stem from how Charles handled his marriage to the late Princess Diana, including maintaining an affair with his now-wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles. (Charles and Diana finalized their divorce in 1996, a year before she was killed in a car accident, and he remarried in 2005.)

Max Hastings, the former editor of Britain's The Daily Telegraph and the Evening Standard , says the late princess left behind an image of Charles as "a very selfish, quirky, weird man who couldn't understand for the life of him why he was expected to give up his long-term mistress just because he married a young girl."

There have been plenty of other criticisms in the decades since, targeting everything from Charles' character to his capability for the job (including his age).

And while he does have some defenders — who point to his long record of philanthropy and environmentalism — it appears that many Britons share the opinion that he should step aside. An April poll from the data analytics firm YouGov showed that just 34% of people want Charles to become king, while 37% would prefer his son Prince William take the throne.

Langfitt put it this way : "Prince William is more popular, and — at 39 — almost 3 1/2 decades younger than his father. But there is no sign that Charles plans to abdicate. After so many years in the wings, he's more than prepared to do the job, some believe."

Meghan and Harry's kids could get royal titles, at least in theory

The queen's death means that Archie and Lilibet, the two young children of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle — aka the Duke and Duchess of Sussex — are eligible to receive royal titles, though it's not clear whether that will actually happen.

Under rules established by King George V in 1917, only the monarch's children and the oldest son of the queen's firstborn (in this case, Prince William's son Prince George) receive royal titles . In 2012, however, Queen Elizabeth issued a "letters patent" so that Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge could give their three children HRH titles.

Archie and Lilbet, as great-grandchildren of Queen Elizabeth, were not known as prince and princess. That could change now that their grandfather, King Charles, is on the throne — unless he intervenes, which Meghan has said is likely.

Harry and Meghan, who married in 2018, stopped using their "Royal Highness" titles when they stepped down as working royals in 2020. A year later, in an explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey , Meghan said that the palace informed her while she was pregnant with Archie (who is now 3) that they would not give her child the title of prince or princess, nor the protection that comes with it.

She said she received no clear reason why, but suggested the decision may have had to do with Archie's race and skin color (she mentioned discussions in which royal family members expressed concerns to Harry about how dark the baby's skin might be, but stopped short of revealing their identities).

She said in the interview that she was told “they want to change the convention for Archie," and suggested that would be an example of “the first member of color in this family not being titled in the same way that other grandchildren would be.”

The Guardian reports that to prevent Archie and Lilibet from becoming prince and princess, Charles would have to issue a letters patent amending those rights. The king has long made his preference for a "slimmed-down" monarchy known, royal experts say.

Queen Elizabeth is survived by 12 great-grandchildren . The line of succession starts with Charles' eldest son, Prince William, followed by his three kids in age order. Prince Harry, Archie and Lilibet are fifth, sixth and seventh in line, followed by Prince Andrew and Princess Beatrice.

'Operation London Bridge' maps out the 10 days after Queen Elizabeth's death

Queen Elizabeth II is being mourned by her family, fans and admirers. In Britain, her death at age 96 has thrown a state apparatus into motion that has sat idle for 70 years — since Elizabeth's father, King George VI, died in 1952.

The British government dubbed the intricate protocol of handling Elizabeth's death "Operation London Bridge."

The London Bridge plans were leaked to Politico last fall. Some of the details may have changed since then — but using them as a guide, here's a brief look at what the documents say will happen in the first 10 days after the end of the queen's record-setting reign:

Day 1 Two 96-round gun salutes honoring the queen — one round for each year of her life — are fired at 1 p.m. local time Friday in London.

Week 1 Charles reads and signs a centuries-old oath to uphold the security of the Church in Scotland and ensure continuity of government. Elizabeth's body is brought from Scotland to Buckingham Palace in London.

Day 10 A state funeral service is held at Westminster Abbey. After a final service in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, the queen is buried on the castle grounds   next to her husband, Prince Philip.

You can read a more detailed list here .

See a young Queen Elizabeth at her father's funeral in 1952

Great Britain has observed many royal funerals in the seven decades since Queen Elizabeth took the throne, with a series of solemn-yet-lavish ceremonies for figures including Prince Philip (2021), Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (2002) and Diana, Princess of Wales (1997).

Queen Elizabeth inherited the crown at age 25 when her father, King George VI, died in February 1952. Here's what that period of mourning and transition looked like the last time around.

Will Britain's currency change following the death of Queen Elizabeth II?

By Ayana Archie

Elizabeth II was declared queen in 1952, and in 1960, she became the first monarch to have a picture on Britain's paper notes.

Her son Prince Charles III will now take over as king. So will the currency change?

The Bank of England said notes featuring Queen Elizabeth II will still be considered legal money that can be exchanged. It said it will make an additional announcement about the country's existing notes "once the period of mourning has been observed."

"As the first monarch to feature on Bank of England banknotes, the Queen's iconic portraits are synonymous with some of the most important work we do," it said in a statement.

Photos of the queen on paper money are also an anti-counterfeit method, as it is easier to detect changes among facial features than inanimate objects, according to the Bank of England.

As for the coins, since the reign of King Charles II, it has been a tradition to have new monarchs' photos face opposite directions of their predecessors. So King Charles III would be facing the left, as opposed to his mother Elizabeth's coins, whose pictures face the right.

There is public support in Britain for the monarchy, but uncertainty about its future

What can British public opinion tell us about the possible fate of the monarchy?

An Ipsos poll conducted in Nov. 2021 found that most people believe it will still exist in a decade, but have more doubts about the next 50-100 years.

It found that 60% of Britons, or 3 in 5 people, favored Britain remaining a monarchy — that number is down from 76% in 2016 and marks the lowest level of support for the monarchy since the question was first asked in 1993 (surpassing a previous record in 2005).

Here are some other key takeaways:

• The public is divided over whether Britain would be worse off (39%) or unchanged (41%) if the monarchy were to be abolished. Only around 11% think Britain would be better, a number that's been fairly constant over the last four decades.
• There is a similar split between people who think the monarchy should be modernized (42%) or remain largely unchanged (37%).
• Some 82%, or more than 4 in 5 people, think Britain will still have a monarchy a decade from now, but there's less certainty about the generations ahead. Some 43% think there will be a monarchy in 50 years, and 48% think it will be gone in 100 years (just 28% think it will still be in place by 2121.

A spring 2022 survey by the data analytics firm YouGov draws similar conclusions, finding that Britons of all ages have become less convinced that they will still have a monarchy a century from now.

Do they want it to? Six in 10 Britons think the monarchy should continue to exist in the future, while 22% think the country should have an elected head of state instead.

The poll also found that a majority of Britons — 56% — feel the institution of the monarchy is good for Britain, a significant drop over the last decade (it was 73% in 2012). Notably, that feeling is much less prevalent among younger people.

Even many critics of the monarchy considered themselves 'queenist'

There's no doubt that the British royal family — often called "The Firm" — has suffered a series of setbacks and scandals in recent years, harming its reputation and putting its future in doubt.

Even so, many Britons otherwise critical of the monarchy consider themselves fans of Queen Elizabeth.

NPR's Frank Langfitt spoke to several of them in June as she marked 70 years on the throne. They celebrated her as a unifying and stabilizing force for the country, most recently with her messages of encouragement and fortitude during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I just think the sacrifices that she made during what was the worst time that I've ever seen, her having to mourn her husband alone, that image will just — that'll never leave, the sacrifice that she made that day, when so many other people didn't," said Danielle Wallace, a pharmacist who traveled from Belfast for the celebrations. "It just shows the character that she has."

Royal analyst David McClure told Langfitt that part of the queen's allure was her mystique — people didn't really know what she was like, but they projected onto her "what they want to see, what you'd like the nation to be," he explained.

Whether it's nostalgia, mystery or any other number of reasons, support for the queen has consistently outranked that for the institution she represented.

"People who aren't necessarily monarchists say, 'I'm a queenist,' " McClure told NPR last December. "People have been not supporting the monarchy. They've been supporting the queen. And so when she dies, there'll be an enormous void."

A rainbow appeared above Buckingham Palace after the queen's death

Crowds gathered at London's Buckingham Palace on Thursday as concerns mounted about the queen's health. So did the rainbows, with photos of a colorful double arch flooding social media around the time that her death was announced.

By that point, according to local media, the crowd had bloomed from hundreds to thousands of people.

Netflix drama series 'The Crown' may be paused out of respect for Queen Elizabeth

By Dustin Jones

Production of the Emmy Award-winning drama series The Crown may be put on hold following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

The show’s creator, Peter Morgan, told Deadline that the series is a “love letter” to the United Kingdom’s longest-living ruler, who died Thursday at 96, and that the the show will likely be paused.

“The Crown is a love letter to her and I’ve nothing to add for now, just silence and respect,” Morgan told Deadline . “I expect we will stop filming out of respect, too.”

Back in 2016, show director Stephen Daldrey similarly had said that the show would stop filming should anything happen to Elizabeth.

According to Netflix , Season 5 of the Crown is set to air sometime this fall, but an exact date has yet to be released. The show’s sixth and final season is expected to premiere sometime in 2023.

Britain will struggle and a change will come to the monarchy, one royal watcher says

By Manuela López Restrepo

The death of Queen Elizabeth marks the beginning of an uncertain future for the British monarchy, and Britain can expect to struggle without her at the helm, according to one expert.

Richard Fitzwilliams is a longtime royal watcher and commentator, and said her death could also have ripple effects beyond the U.K.

“There are 14 other realms which still have the British moniker as head of state. To what extent that will continue is perhaps a question mark, there will certainly be some that will have a referendum on being a republic,” Fitzwilliams said. He added that he didn’t think the monarchy was endangered, but an evolution to meet the times was almost certain.

“I do think [the monarchy] will change, and I do think that King Charles and Queen Camilla will be controversial in some respects, especially there are still those who remembered Diana, Princess of Wales, and an unhappy period over 25 years ago,” he said.

“Looking forward, I would expect as Britain struggles — which it is undoubtedly doing at the moment — you are going to have a series of crises. With the queen at the helm, I think people felt more secure. It remains entirely a question mark what they will feel in the coming months and years.”

What to know about Balmoral, where Queen Elizabeth II spent her final days

By Vanessa Romo

Queen Elizabeth II spent her final days and took her last breath at Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands.

For much of her life, the grand estate served as a holiday getaway where, even as a child, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch indulged in simple country-life pleasures. (Think family picnics and lots of muddy walks accompanied by her corgis.) It was also a private refuge where the Queen and the royal family could escape during some of their more painful public moments, far from the prying eyes of the world.

Sir Malcolm Ross, former Comptroller of the Royal Household, told the BBC it was a place where “she can relax, with her dogs, just doing what she thought normal people did, and indeed what normal people do."

Still, little of the interior has been seen of the Queen’s sprawling property, though much of the world was able to get a few glimpses via Netflix’s The Crown . (The Season 4 episode “The Balmoral Test” is set there.)

Here are a few things you might not have known about the vacation sanctuary.

It’s not as old as you might think

Britain’s taxpayers aren’t on the hook for the property.

In contrast, Windsor Castle and Buckingham Place are royal residences owned by the Crown Estate, which means they are funded by taxpayers.

Balmoral has been a sanctuary for the Queen Elizabeth II

Once married to Prince Phillip, the two continued the tradition with their own growing family. And in the final years of his life, they remained at Balmoral together, including during the lockdown. In 2020, they celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in at the castle.

The castle is also special for King Charles III

The new king also has special ties to the castle. Birkhall cottage – one of 150 on the estate – belongs to the new monarch and his wife, Queen Consort Camilla. The king inherited it in 2002 when his grandmother, the Queen Mother, died.