Elizabeth was the oldest child of Prince Albert, Duke of York, and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who was also his wife. As the daughter of King George V’s younger son, Elizabeth had little chance of becoming queen until her uncle, Edward VIII (later the duke of Windsor), gave up the throne in favour of her father on December 11, 1936. Her father became King George VI, and Elizabeth became the heir apparent. The princess’s mother was in charge of her education. She put her daughters in the care of Marion Crawford, a governess. C.H.K. Marten, who later became provost of Eton College, taught the princess about history, and music and languages were led by visiting teachers. During World War II, she and her sister, Princess Margaret Rose, had to spend a lot of time away from their parents and away from the bombing of London. They mostly lived at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, the Royal Lodge in Windsor, and Windsor Castle.
Early in 1947, Princess Elizabeth went to South Africa with the king and queen. After she returned, she was engaged to her distant cousin Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten of the Royal Navy, who used to be Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark. On November 20, 1947, the wedding took place at Westminster Abbey. On the day before the wedding, the bridegroom’s father, the king, gave him the titles of duke of Edinburgh, earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich. They lived in London in a place called Clarence House. Prince Charles (Charles Philip Arthur George), their first child, was born at Buckingham Palace on November 14, 1948.
Here are some quotes from her time as queen of England, which lasted more than 70 years.
– “It is through this lens of history that we should view the conflicts of today, and so give us hope for tomorrow.”
– “Work is the rent you pay for the room you occupy on earth.”
– “While we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.”
-“It has always been easy to hate and destroy. To build and to cherish is much more difficult.”
– “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.”
– “The wartime generation — my generation — is resilient.”
– “Over the years, those who have seemed to me to be the happiest, contented, and fulfilled have always been the people who have lived the most outgoing and unselfish lives.”
Relationship between QUEEN ELIZABETH II and PRINCESS DIANA
Even though The Crown made it seem like Diana was a bit of an outsider, she was actually raised in close royal circles. Her father was an equerry to the Queen, and both of her grandmothers were ladies-in-waiting to the Queen Mother. Diana lived at Park House on the Sandringham estate when she was a child, where she played with Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, who were younger than Charles. She knew how to act around royals and knew the rules of royal etiquette. This wasn’t a whole new world for her, as some people think.
This meant that Diana had met the Queen a long time before she started dating Prince Charles. As royal biographer Ingrid Seward wrote in 2001, the queen “never directly addressed the question of his marriage, but by nod and tone, she made it clear she approved of Diana.”
Andrew Morton, who wrote the biography Diana: Her True Story: In Her Own Words in 1992, said that the two women had a polite but formal relationship, which was based on the fact that Diana was married to her older son, who was going to be king. In the beginning, Diana was so afraid of her mother-in-law that she couldn’t even go near her. She did formal things like drop a deep curtsy every time they saw each other, but she kept her distance in other ways.
