OUR Queen Elizabeth was born April 21, 1926 and was christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor. Uncle Edward’s abdication in 1936 at the request of the Chamberlain government, as later became known due to the king’s and his wife Wallis Simpson’s disturbingly close ties to the Nazi regime, marked the ascension of her brother George to the throne and the elevation of Elizabeth and her sister Margaret to the princesses and residents of Buckingham Palace .

In 1947, Elizabeth married Corfu-born Prince Philip Mountbatten, son of Prince Andrew of Greece and great-grandson of Empress Victoria. Their first child, oh Prince Charleswas born in 1948. The couple had four children and Philippe died in April 2021 at the age of 99.

Elizabeth was crowned in June 1953, a year after her father’s death, which occurred while she was on safari in Kenya. Her coronation at Westminster Abbey was the first to be televised at the request of Elizabeth, who immediately recognized the value of new media in modernizing and perpetuating the institution of the monarchy. The births of her two youngest sons, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward in 1960 and 1964 respectively, marked the first birth of a sitting queen since Victorian times.

When Elizabeth ascended the throne, Stalin was the leader of the USSR, Mao was the leader of China, Harry Truman was the leader of the United States, and Winston Churchill had just been re-elected prime minister.

The Queen survived the divorce of three of her four children, as well as the great fire at Windsor Castle in 1992, which Elizabeth named annus horribilis. However, the biggest problem in her long tenure was “the Diana affair”.

Crown Prince Charles’ break with Diana Spencer and her death in Paris during a paparazzi car chase in 1997 threatened the very survival of the feudal institution and irreparably damaged the image of the royal family. Spontaneous adoration by the British public of Diana, despite her exclusion from all palace events after her divorce, turned a significant part of the public against Elizabeth, whom some tabloids began to criticize for inhumanity.

Reaffirming her sharp political judgment, Elizabeth quickly changed course, showing rare sympathy and unprecedented palace initiative, descending to Buckingham Palace and interacting with the townspeople who laid flowers in Diana’s memory.

On September 9, 2015, Elizabeth broke the record of her great-great-grandmother Victoria to become the country’s longest-serving monarch, continuing a conditional line of succession that began with Norman King William the Conqueror in 1066.