QUEEN ELIZABETH IIauthor: Matthew Groblewski (II TI)

ELIZABETH IIElizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926) is the queen of 16 of the 53 member states in the Coomonwealth of Nations, she is Head of the Commonwealth and Supreme Governor of the Church of England too. Upon her accession on 6 February 1952, Elizabeth became Head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries. She is the world's oldest reigning monarch as well as Britain's longest-lived. In 2015, she surpassed the reign of her great-great-grandmother, Victoria, and became the longest-reigning British head of state and the longest-reigning queen regnant in history.

ELIZABETH'S BIRTHDAY

Elizabeth was born at 02:40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather, King George V. Her father - Prince Albert, Duke of York (later known as King George VI) was the second son of the King and her mother - Elizabeth, Duchess of York (later known as Queen Elizabeth) was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon. She was delivered by Caesarean section.

GENESIS OF QUEEN'S NAMEShe was named Elizabeth after her mother, Alexandra after George V's mother, who had died 6 months earlier and Mary after her paternal grandmother. After few years she called herself "Lilibet", which accepted among the close family.

HEIR PRESUMPTIVEElizabeth’s grandfather – George V – died in 1936. Then, her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, after her father. But later at the same year, Edward abdicated, so Elizabeth’s father became king known as George VI, while she became heir presumptive. However, she would have lost her position as first-in-line if her parents had had a later son. In 1939, Elizabeth’s parents toured Canada and the USA. As in 1927, when her parents had toured Australia and New Zealand, Elizabeth remained in Britain, since her father thought her too young to undertake public tours.

SECOND WORLD WAR In September 1939, Britain entered

the Second World War, which lasted until 1945. During the War, many of London’s children were evacuated to avoid the freuqent aerial bombing. The suggestion by senior politician Lord Hailsham that the two princesses should be evacuated to Canada was rejectd by Elizabeth’s mother. At the beginning of 1945, she joined the Women’s Auxillary Territorial Service with Second Subaltern rank. She was the only woman from British Royal Family who held military service.

MARRIAGE Elizabeth met her future husband – Price Philip of Greece and Denmark – in

1934 and 1937. Elizabeth’s parents – especially Queen Elizabeth – they were opposed to relationship of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip. – Philip had no financial standing, was foreign-born and had sisters who had married German noblemen with Nazi links. However, that did not prevent plans of wedding. Elizabeth and Philip were married on 20 November 1947 at Westminster Abbey. They received 2500 wedding gifts from around the world. In psot-war Britain, it was not acceptable for the Duke of Edinburgh’s German relations, including his three surviving sisters, to be invited to the wedding. The Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, was not invited either. Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Prince Charles, on 14 November 1948. A second child, Princess Anne, was born in 1950.

CORONATIONFather’s illness meant that

Elizabeth took over more and more of his duties. When she was in Kenya she got message about father’s death. George VI died 6th February 1952. A day later Elizabeth was announced as queen – when she was asked what the name she had chosen, she said „Elizabeth, of course”. Coronation held in June 1953.

RESIDENCES After the coronation, Elizabeth and Philip moved

to Buckingham Palace in Central London – official residence of British kings and queens since 1837. However, the Queen did not like the palace and preferred to stay in Windsor Castle, 15 km west of London. The queen spends a lot of time at Holyrood House in Edinburgh, which is the official residence of the Queen of Scotland, and where she must stay at least a week per year. Queen’s rural residences are also the castle of Balmoral in Aberdeenshire and Sandringham House in Norfolk. State residences are still Palace of St. Jacob (up to 1837 it was the official residence of the kings), Hampton Court on the outskirts of London, Kensington Palace and Mariborogh Hose. Residences are dependent on the state, with the exception of Sandringham and Balmoral, which are private residences.

TRAVEL

Queen Elizabeth took a lot of trips abroad. In the years 1953-1954 she went with her husband in the 6-month trip around the world, being the first monarch to have done. She was also the first queen of Australia, New Zealand and the islands of Fiji, who visited those countries. In October 1957 she went on a state visit to the United States. Also he came to Canada, where he opened a parliamentary session. She also spoke at the General Assembly of the United Nations. In 1959, she went with another visit to Canada and visited the US. In February 1961, she visited Ankara, being the guest of Turkish President – Cemal Gursel. Later, she visited first time India and Pakistan. She visited most European and many non-European countries too. She visited US many times later – for example in 1991, at the invitation of George Bush. In March 1996, she arrived to Poland too at the invitation of Polish President – Aleksander Kwasniewski.

COMMONWEALTH

The British empire was in a state of decay since 1926, when „The Balfour Declaration”, confirmed by Statute of Westminster in 1931, recognized the sovereignty of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Southern Union and Newfoundland. In 1931 these countries became part of the Commonwealth, headed by the British monarch. Before joining Elizabeth on the throne India, Pakistan, Ceylon and Ireland achieved independence. The Reign of Elizabeth II is a period of further disintegration of the British Empire. During 26 years, 25 countries achieved independence. But – in many cases, as in South Africa, the Queen’s actions contributed to improving the state of relations with Britain. Currently, Queen Elizabeth II is recognized as „Head of State” in 21 countries of the World.

ATTITUDE OF ELIZABETH II The Queen has always shown a firm attitude towards risks. In 1961 during

a trip to Ghana she refused to keeping a distance from the president – Kwame Nkrumah, despite the fact that the president was the target of attacks. Prime Minister Harold MacMillan wrote: „The Queen is absolutely determined in everything she does. She is indeed the „heart and stomach of human”. She loves her duties and being the queen.” A similar situation occured when the Queen travelled to Quebec. According to Robert Speaighta, who described it in his book „Vanier, Soldier, Diplomat and Governor General: A Biography”, there were fears for the safety of the queen during to visit. – there were even voices to end the trip. Queen’s private secretary said that the monarch can’t accept to frighten extremists. Similarly, during „Trooping the Colour” in 1981, six shots were fired at the Queen from close range – despite that, Queen was continued to look into the army.

CHARACTER AND RELIGION Since Elizabeth rarely gives interviews, little is known of her personal

feelings. As a Constitutional monarch, she has not expressed her own political opinions in a public forum. She does have a deep sense of religious and civic duty and takes her coronation oath seriously. Aside from her official religious role ace Supreme Governor of the established Church of England, she personally worships with that church and with the National Church of Scotland. She has demonstrated support for inter-faith relations and has met with leaders of other churches and religions, including five popes: Pius XII, John XXIII, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. A personal note about her faith often features in her annual Royal Christmas Message broadcast to the Commonwealth, dry as in 2000, when she spoke about the theological significance of the millennium marking the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ.

FINANCESElizabeth’s personal fortune has been the subject of speculation for many years. Jock Colville, who was her former private secretary and a director of her bank, estimated her wealth in 1971 at £2,000,000 (the equivalent of about £25,000,000). Official Buckingham Palace statements in 1993 called estimates of £100 million „grossly overstated”. Forbes magazine estatimed her net worth at around US $450 milion (about £275 million) in 2010.

HEALTH At the end of April 2004 the Reign of Queen was already 52 years – it has

become longer than the reign of her four predecessors combined.

In June 2005, the Queen had to cancel many appearances. Queen’s illness was named by the Palace as „bad fever”. The Queen, however, is a person of strong health and quickly recovered.

In 2006 and 2007, there were many comments about Queen’s health. Queen suffered from raptured blood vessel in her right eye, backache. Many people debate about the health of the monarch, when they saw a plaster on her right hand too. Later it turned out that the Queen was bitten by one of her corgi, when she tried to seperate two fighting dogs.

LATER YEARS In November 2006, the Queen announced that she and her husband will

visit the United States in May 2007, the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.

In December 21, 2007 Queen became the oldest British monarch.

Just before the 80th birthday of Queen there were announced the public opinion polls in which the majority of Britons expressed the wish that the queen reigned until her death.

On Thursday, April 21, 2011, Queen Elizabeth II completed 85 years. Despite rumors about her, the queen decided not to abdicate.

BRITAIN’S LONGEST-REIGNING MONARCH

On Wednesday, 9th September 2015 Queen Elizabeth II has sealed a special place in Britain’s history by becoming its longest-reigning monarch. She is officially surpassed the 63 years, 7 months, 2 days, 16 hours and 23 minutes that her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria spent on the throne.

THANKS FOR WATCHING!Sources: Polish and English version of Wikipedia, British BBC website and ABC.net.au